THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3077, 27 December 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1878.

We deem it necessary, in justice to Mr A. J. Allnru, to revert to the case "Brassey v. Allom "which was called in the Eesident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday last. The particulars of the case were not elicited simply because the complainant did not appear, and if it had been an ordinary case of two men baring a difference and subsequently settling that difference, possibly no more would have been heard of the matter. It would have been a simple matter of endorsement by the Clerk of the Court to the effect that there was "No appearance of com plainant; case struck out." But considering the status of the parties to the cause, the non-appearance of complainant, and the rather imperfect reports of proceedings which have appeared, and the fact of Eesident Magistrate declining to hear a statement from defendant's solicitor unless in support of an application for costs, the public may have formed an opinion as to the conduct of defendant which wcftild not probably have been borne out by the evidence had the case been heard, and which certainly is not warranted by the facts disclosed. Mr Allom was in attendance to answer a charge of using language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, and the complaint prayed that he might be called upon to provide sureties. With his solicitor Mr Aliom attended to answer the charge, which, to him, (a Government official and a magistrate) was a serious one. There was no appearance of complainant, either personally or by counsel. There was not, it wag stated in Court, any withdrawal of the charge by complainant, but a letter from a third party had been received stating (so it was alleged, but the letter was not read) that complainant had withdrawn from the case. Mr Allom's solicitor intimated that he wished to make a statement to the effect that bis client was not a party to any outside settlement of the case, but courted the fullest enquiry. (Our own report of the case was imper-

feet in this respect, and therefore we the j more readily make the admission.) The } Resident Magistrate refused to hear any statement of the case, said he presumed it had been settled through the intervention of mutual friends, and "Mr Allom was discharged." The phrase was rather inapropos considering Mr Allom was never in custody. We cannot see, in the first place, why Mr Allom's solicitor should not have been allowed to make a statement. Mr Allom, a Justice of the Peace of the Colony, had been subjected to a great indignity in being called in connection with such a charge. The absence of the complaisant was a tacit admission that the charge was frivolous, and the simple statement of Mr Allom's counsel, if allowed, would have put matters right with the public and shown that the appeal to the law court was unjustifiable. We are quite convinced Mr Allom will not suffer much in reputation by this affair. Public opinion is entirely in his favor; and however good the intentions of the Resident Magistrate in refusing to hear counsel except in support of an application for costs (and the R.M.s decision may be good in law) the explanation which defendant's solicitor wished to make would have been the best refutation of the charge open to him. Mr Allom's position on Tuesday last may be another's to-morrow, and if a complainant, after laying hia complaint can absent himself and allow the case to drop without any explanation being allowed to a defendant, though the public conversant with the circumstances of the case may know that the case is frivolous or vexatious, some in the community who are not so well informed may be inclined to say "there was something in it." On these considerations we say that some latitude should be allowed in cases where the defendant appears, and where the complainant declines—from any reason save and except a mutual agreement to settle the case out of Court—to appear and go into the merits of the case.