TE WHITI.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 86, 6 May 1882, Page 115

TE WHITI.

It seems that in spite of all that lias been said about the evils of the Stuarts, and the determined attempts made by Charles I. and Charles 11. to mould the Parliaments and the machinery of the State to the will of the Crown, there was mor« respect for the liberty of the subject than there has been under the native administration of Mr Bryce. Green, in his " History of the English People," vol. Hi., says: — "After a long struggle the Act which is known as the Habeas Corpus Act passed finally in the Parliament of 1617. By this great statute the old practice of the law was freed from all difficulties and exceptions. Every prisoner conunittesl for any crime save treason or felony was declared entitled to his writ even in the Vacations of the courts, and heavy penalties were enforced on judges or jailers who refused him this right. Every person committed for felony or treason was entitled to be released on bail unless indicted at the next session of gaol delivery after his commitment, and to be discharged if not indicted at the sessions w r hich followed. It was forbidden under the heaviest penalties to evade this operation of the writ as it had been evaded under Clarendon, by sending a prisoner to any places or fortresses beyond the seas." Te Whiti and other persons, not charged with treason, but offences against property and attempts to provoke a breach of" the peace, have been kept in gaol for many months, refused trial before the Supreme Court, refused bail and the priviliges of the Habeas Corpus Act, and finally removed to another part of the Colony with the object of farther delaying justice. '