THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Issue 10, 24 November 1857, Page 2

THE COLONIST.

NELSON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1857

" As truth is truth, And, told by halves, may, from a simple thing By misconstruction to a monster grow, I'll tell the whole truth."

Sheridan Knowles,

Amongst the higher class of legal men, nothing is allowed to be more faulty than the cumbersome accumulations of our law, —unless it be its eternal intricacies, contradictions, and mutations. The Romans had a grand authority in the Pandects or Digests of Justinian, the French have one in the code of Napoleon, and the Chinese, in their consolidated code, as published by the late Sir Geokge Staunton. Greece is adopting, it seems, the Code de Napoleon, and even one of the last of the American.Territories, as we are just iuformed, is preparing, from the general laws of the States, a manual for its territorial government. But Englishmen, in their glorious freedom, keep perseveringly at work, as if determined to fill the two great Houses of Parliament with legislative curiosities. One reform, we think, might be achieved after all. A measure must be withia the range of even English reform by means of which fitly prepared men might perform the momentous duties of the magistrate and the juror. If Lord Bkougham, in the plentitude of that ability which contemplates adding nearly one hundred members to the Lower House, from clerical and scientific ranks, as their representatives, would turn his transcenclant genius, as State tinker, to this much-needed feat he would yet probably do a little to redeem the stupendous promise of his early days from its humiliating failure. Coroner's inquests, and popular juries, when constituted in a useful manner, or ia accordance with just measures and principles, are amongs, the safe-guards of our national prosperity. We cannot prize such too highly. It is doubtful, however, whether the English as a people sufficiently consider the desideratum of suitably qualified Coroners, as to general information, law, chemistry, and medical skill, —and of that acquaintance with the art and method of investigating serious and complex cases which the several members of every jury, common, special, or for post. mortem service, should undoubtedly possess. Our thoughts have been drawn into this channel by the careful perusal of the evidence adduced at the inquest on the body of the late Mrs. Peatt. We presume not to determine whether the reports of the press be correct in all particulars. Neither would we intimate the least suspicion of the integrity of any part of the Court where the case was sifted. But one thing seems clear,. —that at least one of the medical witnesses should, in fairness and propriety, have occupied a position different' from that allowed him, not simply in both the private medical examinations of the body, but also before the jury, where he took the liberty of cross questioning Nalder and others. It would alsohave been more satisfactory, in our humble opinion, if the affair of the medicine administered by the medical attendant, and of some previously sent, with the reported mysterious removal of one bottle, had been more expressly inquired into and explained, Such removals are quite common, but it will be seen how liable they are to misconstructions, and even fearful implications.

Another fact deeply impresses us: it is that, after so long an inquiry, the Coroner should not have attempted a summary of the principal items in evidence, for the guidance of the jury. We are struck too by the circumstance that, after the conclusion was some how gained, the officer aforesaid should not) have formally noticed the numerous nurses and visitors as possible means amongst them of impartingharm. ; that he should lose sight of beer, wine, brandy, not to name other hurtful fluids, as of themselves pernicious; — but that he should briefly inquire " whether the medicine, dispensed by Dr. Williams, or the arsenic, given by Mr. Pratt, orby any one else, caused death?" Now we ask, what legitimate reason had he there to' speak of arsenic ? Did Pratt as surely give it as the other did dispense what is assumed as medicine? Is arsenic ever stated in either of the reports of the medical examinations as the poison ? No, it happens to be the'fatal drug about which as yet all is silent as'the grave in which the-poor woman rests, unless we take as authority the loose remaks about tests by some of the faculty. Besides where the evidence is so utterly presumptive — unworthy of being called circumstantial—we marvel that the name of any person should have been uttered to the jury, excepting under especial protection. Plow would the shade of the great Chief Justice Pratt have frowned to see his name repeated, after such evidence for the guidance of a verdict! Happily there is a higher'1 Court.

The jury we esteem as being, to all appearance, as respectable as Coroner's juries usually are. Nor is it improbable, that they made the best they could make of an intangible concern; and' tha-fc they felt relief in thinking, the whole affair would again pass under judicial review. So far we have no complaint to record agains* that worthy body.

But we do feel sure, from long years of acquaintance with the subject, that the British people, ere another generation melt away, will demand reform in the preliminary legal processes, such as Inquests, in which, from incompetency, permanent hurt is so'often perpetrated on innocent and valuable lives'.

As preventive of mischief, and in order to relieve Coroners' Courts of much labour, it seems to us highly desiiable that surgeons and surgeon physicians should discontinue the practice of dispensing their own drugs. We need not refer to Palmer and others who have abused the usage, without check or hinderance, to a vast extent, —with aview of reviving misgivings. Far rather would we encourage attention to the interests of medical men themselves, in setting aside eutuely a custom'so frequently hurtful to the comfort and honour of the profession. How many praiseworthy practitioners have unconciously subjected themselves to odium by being their owa druggists! The plan adopted by the most respectable physicians, of directing their prescriptions to an apothecary or chemist, accustomed to dispensatory secrets, cautions, and proprieties, is found in practice to be the safest and the best. For ourselves, with innumerable opportunities for forming a judgment, in no limited diversity of either localities or professional acquaintance, wo are convinced of the danger and absurdity involved in the easy and profitable method, so vu'garly prevalent, of inproving the doctor's bill in proportion to the strength and capacity of the patient's stomach, or more frequently his purse. The plea of convenience, or rather inconvenience, is raised when the medical mm resides in a rural district olcolonial outside; but, after the first ten or twelve years of such a residence, mostly fixed, with provident sagacity, where population is anything but stationary, the current wants of a neighbourhood, combined with iEsculapian requireinenis, would generally induce the chemist to try his fortune in such a desirable opening as would there occur. We know that the dispensing medium, as employed by the mere physician, is also liable to irregularities; but they are by no means equal to those where medical pupils, —left to themselves for many hours daily through the calls of their superior's practice,— have to grope their way in compounding as they best can, and,'not seldom, to dispose of their mixtures, by rapid transit from house to house, at too much hazard, notwithstanding the alphabetical and systematic precautions of their ".governor." To say nothing of the superiority in the drugs from the apothecary's counter, which medical practice, in particular that of gentlemen associated for ensuring good articles, would assuredly command, —as it ever does where such a medium is used extensively or regularly, —the committal of their prescriptions at once into careful hands, for the transmission of them to duly qualified experience, is a great easement after the fatigues of wasting and harassing rounds of business. Mistakes, on this plan, are not so probable, the directions having been given in the middle of the day, as when the frame is worn out by weary journeys and anxious watchings. Many of the jealousies, too common .between rival doctors, may be easily corrected, and useful assistance be informally obtained, in such a central and natural place of meeting as the dwelling of a common agent. Besides, by getting all their prescriptions dispensed in some approved place or places, gentlemen provide necessarily a laboratory and testroom, fit for examinations similar to that which our medical friends here seem to require. To all this, probably, a cart answer may be given : viz., every man knows his own business best. Possibly so; and we fancy, prompted by such a notion, the waywardness, not to use a harsher word, and olden usage,—a custom ancient nearly as the barber's pole,—of some gentlemen will continue to render the profession open, not merely to the charge, of compounding; their drugs selfishly, but of sometimes risking their reputation for the doubtful annual gains of a few extra pounds.

Sorry should we be to offend by remark?, intended, in all good faith, for the public advantage ; we "write in no unfriendly mood towards the faculty; on the contrary, we desire to uphold that noble body, one of the most valuable of the professions, and distinguished preeminently by numerous mighty names.. But we cannot refrain, at the present conjuncture of our.,, colonial affairs, from saying that we consi" der our surgeons' dispensing practice here, as elsewhere, in a false position, ami not the less so because chemicals, apothecaries, and dispensaries; in'a-state of great improvement, can now be had almost anywhere in ordinary British settlements.

Another impropriety seems to challenge-speedy amendment, perhaps eveu; a reformation in our medical jurisprudence. We allude to the rude, barbarous, and, to the common feelings1 of mankind, abominable manner of cutting open bodies regardless of domestic suffering,—often under the supposed prestige of authority,—^violating the sanctities of family bereavement,—for the gratification of surgical pride, caprice, or even spite! Alas! We have known the coldblooded horror—the savage atrocity consummated, again and again, in sheerest spite!—Of course the well-established-fame of tbe N gentlemen connected with the surgical post mortem scrutiny lately attempted in Nelson, places all of them very far above meanhess;of this kind ; bi.it each one of us can say— homo sum : and the out-rages-of which even men1 of the healing' art have been guilty, show us how needful for humanity it is, to bo wary of such abuses. To our thinking, feiy things require to be managed with more tact, quietness, method, form, aud legal ceremony than all examinations of a post mortem description, whether for tHfe information of: science, the vindication- of innocence, or the de-

tection of crime. When the last is the object in view, no care can be too great, no secrecy too sacred, no oath or affirmation too binding with all the agents employed, by fit authority alone ; and iio.parties in the least suspected, or in any way likely to be implicated, or mixed up with cases of the supposed maltreatment, should be allowed to share in, or influence, an examination officially.

But to return to the subject' of Juries, from which medical considerations Have partially diverted us, although forming naturally a category of our main theme. No branch of civil administration has been so little pronioted by ostensible reforms as the truly important one of popular juries; and yet there is none, not even that of electoral duty, that bears more direct!y on national order and freedom. Our jurors have been caught up rough and ready, on the ground of having some sage qualification vested in pounds, shillings and pence. An estate, even a small cottage, makes a juror, although nature may have scarcely made him\a man. Usage has assumed that the circumstance of putting such a prodigy in the jury box would expand bis bosom with Promethean ardour, and kindle his soul with knowledge, penetration, and acuteness equal to any legal subtleties, or perplexing contrarities. But the native good sense of the present generation of the industrious has taught them, the indispensableness of a preparation for so high a task; and hence their desire either to avoid it, or to attend to its responsibilities under the guidance of more informed friends of their own class. Indeed they laugh at those who have been so stupid as to give verdicts unsupported by evideuce; because they feel that to be guided to the mastery of that is the grand point. Their anxiety for a legitimate conclusion induces a search after instruction. And, indisputably, information here is of the highest value.

What wo now speak of, the people find to be a pressing want; and that is the education of our sons, with a careful reference to the solemn duty which as future jurors will devolve upon them. All lament the present defects of general instruction as to this particular ; and none more than the men whom the State calls from the plough and the axe, when their early literary discipline has been neglected. Our jurors in various Courts, undergo no special training for their work, a solemn labour, often requiring the nicest skill in the analysis of testimony. They have never been required to bring their abilities to formal inspection. Rarely have they been taught to study with regard to logical rules, those prime aids of thought. The whole art of reasoning truly and methodically they have seldom been required to try; and as such, the vaunted British jury, that glory of Alfred, disguise it as we may, —is anything but the admiration of Europe, and the envy of mankind ! Upright judges, and learned ones too, as any on earth, we may boast; and so there is some remedy to what, otherwise, would be a sore and melancholy evil. But the weakness and mistakes of human nature, even on the Bench, need the salutary assistance of an enlightened Jury Box.

Decidedly friendly to every popular institution we assuredly feel. Advocates of the men who toil for bread we avow ourselves to be, however feebly we may plead; but we should be traitors to them, and to all other classes, if we did not raise our voice for the elevation of jurors into higher estimation by educational means. Now that there is a movement in favour of Reading Rooms, &c, —and we trust they are to be no illusive mockery of hope,— we flatter ourselves, that they will soon be erected, —and that one of their.earliest uses will be to raise the tone of adult taste, and to stimulate inquiry in relation to the Juror's obligations, by interesting lectures, apposite conversations, and such exemplifications as will photograph right ideas in the minds of all to whom learning will be a pleasure, and. progress part of their daily . pilgrimage. As for our schools, associated as they should be with all permanent amendment, we rely on the indubitable persuasion, that whatever else remains unbettered, the commanding obligations of jurors will there receive every attention, and be there vigilantly taught and studied^ Indeed the observations which we have made with respect to the important members of the Panel, might be adapted to all Public: officers and Trustees : to Representatives in Councils, irresponsible or responsible Magistrates, Directors, Guardians, Inspector^ of education,. Teachers, and all others, recognised as such by the State. Our conviction is that the best liberties of Britons, the vitality of our Constitution, would be immensely enhanced by the importance of a thorough tuiton, as to these interesting items, in every school of the State. But to effect-this we must have no childish educational leadership, no;persoDated egomet, no petit a petit improvements, at the dearest rate, but a thorough revise of scholastic measures and agencies.

ErbSa.—>ln our leading article of last Friday,— for vis medicatrix natur, read; \vis medicatrix natures. Same column, fourteen lines from bottom, for genius, read genus.

Increase of Popuiation.—The number' of gold seekers weekly arriving, causes anxiety in the minds of many resident in Nelson, lest a redundant population'and want of employment should be the result, with the further probability of disturbances from the unsuccessful and unemployed diggers. We trust the public improvements, much needed, will prevent sueh Ja misfortune.

Pomok Court, Monday.—Field John Goodie* was; charged with* being drtihk and disorderly. Fined £1 and costs. Goodier vs pockets being;" to let," he was sentenced to 48 hours in: limbo: A wandering-vagrant, going; under', the cognomoh of Elizabeth Dougherty, was brought before his worship, whojafter talking very seriously to Elizabeth, discharged her with a caution;

Glorious indeed is the world' of God around us, but more glorious is the world of God within us. There lies the land of song, here lies the poet's native land. ■*-Longfcl!<nb,