JUDGE-MADE LAW—THE CONVICTS KENNEDY AND BROWN.
Ws mentioned in our latest edition last week, that the lads KEN- NEDY and BROWN had been respited till Wednesday ; on Monday they were further respited during the King's pleasure. KENNEDY and BROWN were convicted, under a rule of law so offensively ab- surd, that we trust the first session of a Reformed Parliament will not pass without its being repealed. It is this—if a man, in the commission of a legal offence, it matters not how venial, uninten- tionally and unwittingly cause the death of another man, he is guilty of murder. If, for instance, a man be shooting at his neighbour's fowls, and the shot hit his neighbour behind a hedge, and he die, then the shooter hath murdered his neighbour. It would be an insult at this time of day to enter upon a formal con- tradiction of a piece of "Judge-made law" which shocks com- mon sense too much to be carried into practice unless in very extraordinary circumstances. That a man should be responsible in his property for the damage caused by his want of care, and much more for the damage caused by his illegal conduct, is most reasonable; but that he should be held guilty of one act of whose existence he was not even cognizant, because he had committed another, with which it was accidentally connected, no one but a lawyer would ever have dreamt of asserting ; the animus, without which guilt cannot exist, being not only not proved, but not even charged. The Judge will however still repeat the old story of the fowls and the man; and the Jury, taking the law as he pleases to lay it down, must either condemn, or, as they imagine, violate their oaths.
In the case in question, we believe there were not many persons who did not concur with the Jury in thinking that it was purely one of robbery; that either Mr. WILKINSON himself, in his strange attempt to jump from the one wherry to the other, or his companion, in his hurry to assist, gave the blow which led to the unfortunate gentleman's death. But then came the legal com- ment—Mr. WILKINSON might have struck himself, or his friend Mr. SMALES might have struck him, or he might have been drowned without being struck at all; but if KENNEDY and BROWN had not stolen the coats, Mr. WILKINSON would not have jumped; and if he had not jumped, he would not have been drowned; ergo their stealing was the cause of his drowning : now, he that drowneth a man committeth murder; ergo BROWN and KENNEDY murdered Mr. WILKINSON: q. e. d. The Jury, though mystified and misled by this perversion of logic, deserve credit for their zealous endeavours to prevent its fatal effect; and Lord MELBOURNE also ought not to be deprived of his share of praise for listening so readily to their representa- tions. The lads will probably be sent to a place where, by good behaviour, they may yet obtain both coats and waistcoats without stealing them.
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