The life and letters of Sir John Hall ... / by S.M. Mitra ; with an introduction by Rear-Admiral Sir R. Massie Blomfield .. ; with portraits and illustrations.

  • Mitra, Siddha Mohana, 1856-1925.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life and letters of Sir John Hall ... / by S.M. Mitra ; with an introduction by Rear-Admiral Sir R. Massie Blomfield .. ; with portraits and illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    122/612 (page 86)
    to introduce such topics into their verdicts, and that such a course was scarcely compatible with the sober per- formance of their functions. It also appeared by the affidavits that Mr. Wakley himself had taken the chair at a meeting which was convened for the purpose of endeavouring to procure the abolition of flogging in the Army and Navy, and that he had upon that occasion made some caustic remarks upon the case which had been recently before him, and that he then vindicated himself from the censures contained in the very libels of which he now complained. He had also pursued the same course in the House of Commons ; and, though the Court could not with propriety take notice of what had there occurred, yet nobody could be ignorant of the fact that the proceedings of that House found their way to the public at large. The prosecutor had, therefore, taken into his own hands the redress of the injury of which he now complained to the Court. He had still further allowed the insertion in the Lancet of advertisements to present him with a piece of plate for his services upon the inquest. The Court felt bound to say that all this conduct gave countenance to the imputation that his zeal had affected his conduct in the inquiry, and that he was anxious to find proofs for the exposure of a system which he condemned. The Court gave Mr. Wakley full credit for the sincerity of his opinions upon military hogging—the justice of which opinions was afterwards proved by the fact that they had been adopted by the State since the period in question. But, if those opinions had inhuenced his proceedings as Coroner, and induced him to exclude evidence, to utter censures, and act other- wise in the manner in which he was shown to have acted in this case, he was not in a condition to call upon the Court to give, by this extraordinary proceeding, its sanction to conduct which was erroneous in itself. In the exercise of its duty and discretion the Court was, therefore, bound to decide that this rule must be dis- charged.”