JUDGE RICHMOND ON GRAND JURIES.

Evening Star, Issue 3278, 22 August 1873, Page 3

JUDGE RICHMOND ON GRAND JURIES.

We are indebted to the courtesy of the editor of the Nelson Eoening Mail for the following report of Judge Richmond’s recent charge to the Grand Jury of Nelson:—

Mr Foreman, and Gentleman of the Grand Inquest,—For the first time since this judicial district was consigned to me in 1807, we have the pleasing experience of a blank calendar. The only business of the Court of which I am at present aware, is to pass sentence on a prisoner whose case I reserved at the last Circuit Court for the opinion of the Court of Appeal. Unless, therefore, any private person should come forward, as anyone may, to prefer an indictment, or you should yourselves desire to make any presentment, there will be no business for you to transact. I take the opportunity to observe that your attendance here to-day is no unmeaning ceremony, though I shall probably have to tell you, almost immediately, that you are discharged. You actually represent here an institution of very considerable importance, I do not hereby mean to assert that some efficient substitute might not bo found for the Grand Jury, as now constituted, which would be, on the whole, better suited to the social circumstances of a colony. It is a question of some difficulty ; and though I believe I have been supposed to be an advocate for the abolition of the Grand Jury, I certainly never meant to go that length. All I wish now to point out is, that the function in the State conveyed to you is of more importance than some people imagine. It is hy no means your sole ollico to check the action of magistrates in committing for trial. Equally important in a constitutional point of view, are that power, just adverted to by me, of allowing private individuals to initiate prosecutions which a magistrate may have refused to authorise, and the power of disallowing private prosecutions. Tlie latter power, you will remember, was exercised in England not long since, in the case of the attempted proceedings against Governor Eyre. The Grand Jurors possess, moreover, the right of presenting crimes and misdemeanors of their own knowledge. The magistracy, more especially stipendiary magistrates, are more or less under the control of the Executive Governments. A corrupt or tyrannical administration might, through this influence, endeavor either to screen offenders or to harass and oppress the innocent. The powprs of the Grand Jury stand greatly in the way of any such attempt. Now in quiet times, such

as we happen to bo living in, whilst all the •joints of state are working smoothly, these powers may appear of little or no practical importance. But a well-ordered State, like a wellfound ship, is fitted to meet all sorts of weather; and is provided, so to speak, -with sails and gear that never come into use until it blows hard. These powers of the Brand Jury over the initiation of criminal prosecutions may, in not impossible circumstances, become of great moment. What is called by engineers “ the lock up safety-valve ’’ on a locomotive, may never rise in its bed from year’s end to year’s end under steam pressure ; yet at a critical moment it may open suddenly to avert a catastrophe. But silly people, and there are a great many in the world, arc apt to think that reserved force is ineffective. Silent influences they are ever ready to treat as non-exis-tent. In the British constitution there are many powers seldom or never exercised ; yet their existence is all important. Take, for example, the royal power of over-ruling a majority in the House of Lords by the creation of iiew Peers —a power, the mere existence of which without its exercise, is said to have been so influential at the time of the Reform Bill. So with this institution of the Grand Jury, it is oue of the reserved powers of the constitution ; and effective even more to prevent wrong than to redress it. In the absence of such a safeguard, the bitterness, or more probably the corruption of political party might be found ready to attempt things which are not now tried because there is no hope of their success. Such, gentlemen, briefly are my reasons for saying that your presence here to-day must not be treated by yourselves or others as a vain ceremony, and a profitless consumption of your time. And if ever it should be determined to abolish Grand Juries, it will have to he carefully considered what institution shall bo substituted. It will never do, on the one hand, to abandon to the Executive Government, or their nominees, the entire control over criminal pro seditions ; nor, on the other hand, would it be tolerable that private prosecutors should be. free, without check of any kind, to put any man upon Ms trial for whatever offence they might choose to accuse him of.