The Westport Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 696, 11 August 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1870.

In another column we re-print an article, from the " Nelson Colonist," in which Mr Warden Broad is severely and, as it appears to us, unfairly criticised with regard to the action taken by him in respect to the committal of the men charged with resisting the police at Charleston. It does not necessarily follow that when men charged with an ofl'ence are acquitted by a jury that there has been either a miscarriage of justice or that blame attaches to the committing Magistrate in having sent the case before the Supreme Court. It is certainly unfair to draw any comparison between an organised resistance to the police —which was only stayed and very serious consequences averted by the prudential counsels of those having influence with the men—and the resistance ot drunken men who were fighting among themselves and who, under such circumstances, were pretty certain to oiler opposition of a more or less violent character. When the threats that were clearly c< nt lined in the ad. dress of one of the men at the auction sale are considered, as also the anonymous notice warning any person against purchasing tb*e property, the resistance in connection with the Southern Cross men wears a much more serious aspect, and although the jury' brought in a verdict of acquittal —a verdict doubtless induced by the fact of no violence having been committed—it must be generally felt by those acquainted with all the circumstances that the Magistrate exercised a judicious power in sending the men to trial. With respect to the strong litigious spirit alleged to exist in Charleston, we certainly do not think that it is in excess of what may be anticipated from a rich and thickly populated mining centre, and so far from the decision, given by the Resident Magistrate and Warden of the Charleston aud Brighton districts being such as to encourage litigation, the reverse has been experienced. It falls to the lot of few who have had to adjudicate upon during a-series of years, to succeed "so signally in giving general satisfaction.