ASSAULT BY A POLICE MAGISTRATE

Evening Post, Issue 19, 1 March 1865, Page 2

ASSAULT BY A POLICE MAGISTRATE

There appears to have been a serious quarrel at Betchworth, between Mr. Barnard, the police magistrate, and his Honor Judge Cope, in the course of which the former struck the latter, and which has resulted in the removal of Mr. Barnard to some other place. Referring to this matter, the Ovens Constitufon says :— " It is now, we believe, ' no longer a secret that Mr. Barnard, the police magistrate at Beechworth, is about to be removed to another place. His loss, both as a ' private gentlems.n and as a police magistrate will be deeply felt by all who have known him. Being thus respec'ed in public and private life, it is the more to be regretted , that imy ciuse for his removal should arise, and that in an evil hour he should so far have forgottei himself as to have committed at one and the same time two serious offences —the one a breach of the peace on the part of a police magistrate, the other an assault on a superior officer of the Government by one who had been nn officer in the army. We have no wish to dwell on this painful subject, and all the more beciuse it is known that Mr. Barnard imagined himself to have received the greatest provocation. Had, however, such provocation really been given, it could not have justified a breach of the law, especially as the afiront, if any, had not been given by the person on whom the assault was made, but by his wife. We demur altogether, aim, to the nonsensical doctriue that every man is answerable for the follies of his wife or sister, or grandmother, or second cousin. Most men have quite enough of their own to answer for, with, ut biig called l.p.ra to plead to the indictments of all their families and relations aa well. The real culprit in this ense, we regrpt to make the statement; is undoubtedly a female offender. The oauie for censure rests between the wives of the two gentlemen referred to, on winch, amidst thecont-adictory statementsund rumors lately spread, we will not undertake to say. This, unfortunately, has not been the first or second time that social mis liief has been set on foot in Beechworth by some of the female tnemrerj of the so-called Beechworth aristocracy. The fact is, while the male portion of the Beechworth Upper Ten is composed very genera'ly of those who are gentleman by birth, education, intelligence, good feeling, and good manners, it has not been so with the feminine portion. « I made the carles lords,' said James the First of sjine of the bumptious bishops' wives of his time, ' but wha the de'il made the carlines ladies ?' A similar remark might apply to Beechworth society at the present time Scarcely anything can be more ridiculous than the supercilious imper. tinence shown on every possible to those who are really their betters by quondam servant maids, barmaids, housekeepers, and shopwomen, wtio have risen in the world by advantageous marriages."