A BRAVE COLONY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 834, 5 January 1883, Page 3

A BRAVE COLONY.

Jersey, although within a stone’s throw of the mother country, is to all intents and purposes a colony. It is a brave one too, for it has presumed to defy Sir William Harcourt and the whole of the British Government. It, or at least that ancient tribunal the Royal Court of the island, is not the least afraid of the Home Office, and refuses to make submission to it. The reason for this contumacy appears to be that Jersey has not been treated with proper respect. Some little time ago it appears that a certain Patrick Quinn was arrested in the island on a charge of complicity with the Fenians. He had at the time in his possession certain real or forged passes, by virtue of which he was entitled to enter certain barracks and forts in the island, ostensibly as a hawker, but actually with treasonable designs. These documents at the time of the arrest, passed into the custody of the Mayor of St. Heliers. Then the Home Office applied to the Mayor to give them up. The Mayor refused without an order from the Royal Court, on which the # Home Office applied to the Royal Court, but the latter asked what Sir William Hareburt wanted with the papers. As the Home Secretary declined to say, the Royal Court declined to make any order for the delivery of the documents, and, furthermore, refused to give leave for an appeal. There the matter stands, and it looks as if Jersey had so far the best of it.