CORRESPONDENCE was no wrangling among counsel and no waste of time over the discussion of techni calities. Everyone engaged in the proceed ings, was as is usual in this country, impressed with the gravity of the issues at stake and a sense of duty and fairness. The newspapers, as is also customary, took no part in the trial, refraining even from comment and innuendo in the modest headlines which prefaced their reports. The case was, nevertheless, a subject of absorbing interest, as it held art issue the fate of a number of public men prominent in local politics, and of a system of party govern ment which had recently been on trial in a heated municipal election. The trial, or more properly the trials, as there were separate trials of each of the accused, lasted two weeks, during which a large number of witnesses were ex amined and searchingly cross-examined, and an
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unusual number of addresses were made to the jury. Nine men in all were convicted, and one was acquitted. The political boss received a sentence of two years hard labor, and dis qualification forever from holding public office, and deprivation of the parliamentary and municipal franchise for seven years. Both the other guardians received 15 month's hard labor and similar deprivation of political rights. The officials of the Union were sentenced to from two year's to six month's hard labor and a partial disqualification to hold office or exercise the franchise. There were no appeals or motions for new trials, and within a few hours of their sen tences the convicted officials were in prison garb and entering upon their hard labor. R. Newton Crane, Esq. London, Eng., June, 1907.
