Carlisle Patriot January 6, 1844 Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

(To the Editor of the Carlisle Patriot.)       SIR, -- On my arrival home on the 2d inst., I found, to my surprise, that a long and circumstantial statement respecting my conduct as a Magistrate, in the course of the proceedings which led to the conviction of a person called BEATTY, for having in his possession smuggled whiskey, had found its way, not only into the Carlisle Journal, but into most of the leading Journals of the London Press, accompanied with very severe comments.       Feeling that such a statement is calculated to make an unfavourable impression on my character as a Magistrate, I think it due to myself, as well as to the public and my friends, to take the earliest opportunity of giving a correct account of the matter.       On the morning of Monday, the 18th ult., I received information from the Excise that one BEATTY had been found with smuggled whiskey upon him, and was required to hear the case.  I immediately appointed eleven o'clock, at the Court House, for the purpose, and went there punctually at the time; but when I got there I found that the Clerk to the Magistrates was absent.  The Officer of Excise then requested me to go to the Excise Office, at the Lion and Lamb, where the accused party was in custody, and proceed to a hearing of the case.  I went, and the information having been made out, I read it over to him, and he confessed the charge.  This made him liable to a penalty of £100, but nothing of an aggravated nature appearing in the circumstances, I thought it proper to mitigate it to the lowest sum, £25; and I accordingly convicted him in that sum, and signed his commitment, which was for three months, unless the penalty should be sooner paid, under which he was carried to goal.  During the whole of this proceeding the defendant never uttered a word about any defence he had to the charge, nor expressed any wish, whatever, to have an attorney present, or any witnesses examined.       About half-past four o'clock in the evening of the same day, Mr. James MOUNSEY, the attorney, called upon me in behalf of BEATTY at my house, and represented he had circumstances to show the hardship of the case, and how hard it was that so respectable a person should be kept all night in prison and begged in a very urgent manner that I would liberate him that night, and he would be answerable for his appearance the next day before the Magistrates at the Court House.  This I agreed to, on the ground that it was the most proper place for the party to make any statement of what he might wish to say in mitigation of his offence, for the consideration of the Board of Excise -- it being the practice of the Board in cases of convictions under the Excise Laws to refer to the Magistrates, under whose cognizance the circumstance came, for an explanation or statement which may weigh with them in dealing with the penalty.       The next day when the man was brought up I was completely taken by surprise, when I found that the only object Mr. MOUNSEY had in view was to get the case re-heard -- a step which every body knows it was impossible to take;  and, therefore, the only alternative which remained, was, to send back the party to prison, under his commitment, where I was informed he did not remain above three house before the penalty was paid.       These, sir, are the circumstances under which I acted in the course of the proceedings which have given rise to so much angry remark.  If I stepped aside from the strict line of magisterial practice it was dictated by a too anxious desire of facilitating any step which the party might wish to take for ensuring a favourable consideration of his case with those to whom applications of that nature are frequently made.                                                                                           I am, &c.,                                                                                                     W. WILDE.   Fisher Street, Carlisle, Jan. 3, 1843.

 

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