The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1897. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 578, 3 December 1897, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1897. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tiib uselessness of the jury system has been well exemplified in tho libel actions brought by Mr Mills, M.H.R., against the Otago Daily 'rimes and tho Christchurch Press. In the first case tho jury returned a throe-fourths’ verdict for Mr Mills and awarded him I*lso and costs, in the second case tho grounds of action were precisely similar to those in the previous one and the plaintiff’s case was strengthened by the evidence of Colonel Hume, who swore that be bad not told Constable Jefforios that he was being removed for having interfered in politics and tiiat he had not shown him the regulation bearing on tho matter. The issues placed before the jury were identical with thoso decided by tho jury in the first case; hut the answers given were diametrically opposito and the second jury docidod against Mr Mills and awarded tho defendant newspaper 1 costs. There is surely somethin' wrong hero. One case was a repetition of the other ; tlioroforc one or other of tho decisions must he wrong. Jt is one of those forensic puzzles which “ no fellow can understand.”

It appears that tho innocence of an honorable and upright man, Captain Dreyfus, is about to be established after a good deal of suffering and misery lias been endured. Ho was charged with selling to (jerniany secrots connected witli the French War Department and condemned to punishment and imprisonment. To-

wards the end of September, 1894, when it was found that information was leaking out from the Staff Department of the War Office and that a photograph of a letter from the German military attaches to their colleagues in Italy had been procured they set about trying to prove the guilt of Dreyfus. Stratagem and cunning was resorted to, and by a series of lying, because trumped up and totally unsupported details, the man was arrested, secretly tried and condemned on documentary evidence which neither he nor liis counsel was permitted to see! M. Bernard Lazare lias long since proved that the documents on the strength of which Dreyfus was condemned were forged, and that the reports which were published in the papers were fabricated! Dreyfus was stated to have confessed and then to have withdrawn his confession. The whole story was false from end to end. So far from any admission, even, of guilt, it has been established that Dreyfus even refused to admit that “ he had been imprudent enough to endeavor to entrap a foreign agent who was attempting to obtain the secrets of the French War Office.” Among the archives of the Government there is a letter addressed to the Minister of War which was written after the reported confession. It runs :—“ M. le Ministre, —By your order I have had a yisit from Commandant du Paty du Clam, to whom I again averred my innocence, and declared that I had not even been guilty of imprudence. I am condemned. I do not ask for pardon, but, for the sake of my honour, which I am confident will one day be restroed, I must ask you to be so good as to continue your researches, even after my departure. This is the only favour 1 ask of you.— Alfred Dreyfus.”

To his wife and to a Frenchman with an unswerving faith in the innocence of the Captain the prisoner of the Island of the Devil owes it that at last there is a chance of investigation of the true facts of his case. Early in the days of his degradation and expatriation, the Czar of Russia expressed the hope that false pride should not stand in the way of a fresh trial and further investigation, and now there comes word that the Kaiser Wilhelm has declared that no secrets were ever sold by Captain Dreyfus to the German authorities. If that testimony had been forthcoming years ago, the martyrdom that has been suffered, the wreck of a man’s hopes and a woman’s life would have been prevented. But while the trial—a secret one —went on, the German authorities, either from a mistaken senso of pride or hatred to the French military authorities, maintained a stubborn silence, and even permitted the consummation of the cruellest injustice known in modern history.

With reference to the cable message stating that Mr Labouchere, proprietor of “ Truth ” had been granted an injunction restraining Mr Henry Hess, editor of the South African Critic, from publishing certain letters that had passed between Mr Labouchere and Mr G. A. Sala, a contemporary supplies the following particulars ;—The trouble between the two editors arose over Mr Labouchere’s action on the Jameson raid commission where Mr Lauchere showed the greatest antipathy to Cecil Rhodes and his policy, whom he charged with instigating the unfortunate “ raid ” for the purpose of “ booming the shares of the Chartered Company.” The idea of Mr Labouchere talking about “ booming ” shares rather amused Mr Hess, and he immediately published some correspondence from the pen of “ Labby ” on this very subject, and plainly charged him witli having used his paper for the purpose of favorably affecting the selling grice of certain shares held by himself, charges which he supported by Labouchere’s own letters, and then wound up by calmly inviting him to prosecute the “ Critic ” for libel, if he dared. This invitation was declined by Mr Labouchere, who intimated that he did not intend to submit himself to examination by his opponents, and as he was well aware no jury in England would givo a vordict for the plaintiff in a libel case, unless he went into the witnoss box for cross examination, he preferred not to enter the courts of law. This only strengthened the hands of the African editor, who then began to publish day by day the letters to Mr G. A. Sala, which Mr Labouchcro has now so far successfully stopped. How long ho will be able to suppress the knowledge that Mr Hess desired to make public remains to bo seen. Even now their substance lias leaked out and it is quite possible that Mr Hess will have other means of transmitting the information besides publishing it in his paper, so that belore long tho world at large may know what the redoubtablo Labby wrote to liis friend Sala about booming shares and scrip.