§ LORD COLERIDGEsaid, he wished to call attention to a recent case in which a young woman named Catherine Morgan was arrested and charged with the murder of her infant child. Some comments had been made upon the statement of the Judge who tried the case that the conduct of the police towards the prisoner had been cruel and inhuman. He fully justified the criticisms of the learned Judge. The girl was arrested by the police late at night, and examined at once by a medical man in the presence of a female searcher. After a lengthy experience he could say that there was no class of evidence which required more careful watching than that given by the police.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)said, he did not quite follow his noble and learned Friend in his statement of what had occurred. The evidence given by the police was amply corroborated. The facts appeared to be that the girl was secretly delivered of a dead child, and, for the purpose of concealing her shame, she placed the body in a tub. If that was for the purpose of concealment, she was guilty of a misdemeanour and ought to have been found guilty of it. The police appeared to have been under the impression that there was some evidence which justified them in suspecting, at all events, that the child was murdered. Consequently they 58 were bound to act as they did. The girl, who denied altogether the birth of the child, assented to the examination by the doctor, and immediately afterwards she was placed in the infirmary. Neither the girl nor her friends made any complaint whatever of the conduct of the police. He only said this much upon the facts as stated before them. There might or there might not have been an error of judgment on the part of the police in not waiting till the next morning for the examination, but he thought the young woman, who had been so near to committing an offence against the law, had not very much reason to complain. Occasionally the police failed. Like other men they were at times guilty of error of judgment, but this was a failing to which all, from the highest to the lowest, engaged in the administration of justice, were equally liable. He certainly could not agree with the implied censure of the police, for after a very lengthy experience in the Courts of Justice he maintained that a finer or more respectable body of men it would be difficult to find anywhere.
§ LORD BRAMWELLsaid, he was very glad the Lord Chancellor had spoken out in the way he had, and he certainly did not in any way agree with the remarks of the Lord Chief Justice. The police, not merely in London, but in the provinces, gave their evidence as well as any set of men who came before the Courts. They had a most difficult duty to perform. They had no right whatever to question a prisoner, but very often the kindest act they could render him was to put a question to him. In the case mentioned, had the girl's statement been confirmed by a medical man, she would have been at once liberated.
§ LORD HERSCHELLsaid, he entirely concurred in what the noble and learned Lord had just said about the high character and the general good conduct of the police both in London and throughout the country. He thought they were subject to very great temptations, and it was not remarkable if at times they deviated from the course which calm judgment would dictate. Without in the slightest degree wishing to cast discredit on the evidence given by the police, it must be remembered that the evidence of any body of men ought to be carefully scrutinized. There was a natural temptation to men in the position 59 of the police which might load them sometimes to exaggerate. Considering, also, the rate of pay given to the police, it was not marvellous that occasionally they acted improperly. The wonder rather was that they could get a body of men to discharge their duties so well. It was owing to the temptations to which they were subject that proper caution—he did not mean unreasonable caution—should be attached to the evidence they gave.
§ LORD COLERIDGEwas understood to say that he did not desire to make any general charge against the police. A body of men engaged in the pursuit of crime were naturally sometimes over zealous, and their evidence required to be watched.