London Legal Letter.
315
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. London, June 1, 1898. Gloucester or the still more interesting town of Bath, which I N my Easter vacation rambles I came upon the oldest is rich in Roman antiquities and historical associations. The localities I have mentioned are not on the beaten path law court in Great Britain. It still meets and has, I am of travel and are infrequently visited by Americans. Those assured, kept up a continuous unbroken succession for of your Bar who take this expedition will find types of nearly nine hundred years. I found this court about as country and people and of old-fashioned inns which are far away from modern populous and commercial centers as rarely met with nowadays, and they will have the satisfac it is possible to get in England in these days; and if the tion of seeing the oldest court of Anglo Saxon times, a court war is finished in time to enable your readers to come which is known to comparatively few Englishmen; I-ocal abroad for their summer holidays I cannot imagine any historians contend that though it was instituted by Canute more interesting trip on this side of the Atlantic than that it is probable that it existed earlier, and is older than the which will take them to this old law court of which I Stannaries Court of Cornwall which was recently abolished. speak. It is known as the Verderers Court of the Forest The question of prison reform has been agitated recently of Dean. It was established by a decree of Canute the Dane under the provisions of the Forest Laws passed in in and out of Parliament in consequence of the introduc tion of a Prison Bill, which had for its object, mainly, a 1016. The Court was at first inaugurated in order to pre serve the deer in the forest, and the verderers had the technical change in administration. Since 1877 when the government took over all the county prisons, they have power of fining a freeman ten shillings for hunting the deer, been managed by a board of commissioners who are in and of confiscating the skin and nailing it to the door of name at least, if not in identity, separate from those who the Court House. At the present time the Court has a govern the convict establishments. It is now proposed to much wider jurisdiction within the forest than in ancient make the entire penal institutions subject to one authority, times. It consists of four verderers, a surveyor and a stew and to make that authority directly responsible to Parlia ard, and vacancies are filled by elections which excite a ment. It has also been discovered that during the past year ' keen interest, as the office of verderer is highly honored. no less than 81,439 persons, or more than one-half of the The Forest of Dean is one of the most important mining total number of those sent to prison have been committed centers in the world and the coal which underlies it is of in default of payment of fine. The law did not contemexceptional value. It also abounds in iron mines and ptate imprisonment as a punishment or correction for cer stone quarries and has several iron and tin works. The tain offences, but rather that a fine should be inflicted with disputes between the miners are settled by this court, but the alternative of imprisonment in default of the fine. It the chief business is connected with adjudications as to encroachments on the royal forest. A singular feature of comes therefore with something of a shock to learn that over eighty thousand persons have been sent to prisons in the court is that no barrister or counsel is allowed to ap this country, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, pear in it and reporters are not admitted. It holds its ses for debt. Of this army of 81,439 persons the small number sions once a month in the center of the Forest in the who were able to obtain release by the payment of the fine Speech House, in a room ornamented, according to ancient in full amounted to 6,170. All the rest were lodged and precedent, with the antlers of deers. This Speech House fed at the expense of the State and kept in idleness, for the is also an hotel and enjoys the singular distinction of being alternative time of imprisonment, to the great detriment the only licensed house held by the Crown. It certainly is of themselves and their families. The bill proposes that one of the most attractive and comfortable hotels in the where the convicted person can pay a part of the fine im world, and being in the midst of a forest gives a sense of posed he shall be relieved of a part of his imprisonment, repose and successful retreat from care and business. or, in other words, to diminish the term of imprisonment in An expedition to this old court, which is in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, might be made with proportion to the amount of the payment made. the greatest ease by an American traveler, as an addition to The discussion on the bill both in Parliament and in the the Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon trip. If taken by rail newspapers has been the means of drawing the attention it could be done in a day and a half or if wholly by bicycle of the public to certain features of English prison disci a week could be pleasantly and leisurely devoted to it. pline which hardly seem consistent with modern ideas of The roads are as smooth and firm as asphalted streets and humane correction and which certainly are widely variant even in wet weather no inconvenience is experienced from from those which prevail in the United States. Here for mud. I would suggest that the course be taken from Strat instance a convict before going to the routine of the daily ford to Worcester and then on to Malvern Wells thus life in a convict establishment is placed in solitary confine traversing a country of rare beauty and affording a sight ment for six months during which time he has no work of Worcester Cathedral and the ancient porcelain works of and hears no voice save that of his keeper and perhaps the Worcester, and then, at the end of the day, the quaint and chaplain or doctor. He has no communication with the picturesquely situated health resort of Malvern. From outside world and, just at a time when he most wants to Malvern the route would be to Ross and down the valley | know what provision has been made for his family and of the Wye, from any point of which the Forest of Dean how they are adapting themselves to his absence, he is de may be reached. The return may be made by way of nied all intercourse with or word from them. After this
