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law, the judgment should, before it was pronounced, have been sent to the Superior Criminal Court fo approval. The poor sinner did not appeal. He could not even have made himself understood by his superior Judge; and he had no friend to take
his case.
And so he departed the next day, and, after passing some days at sea, jumped overboard, in order to escape from his misery and grief. His adversary is said to have become, at a latter period, the housekeeper of a married man.
up
"It only remains to be observed that banishment was abolished by a Royal Ordinance of 1760.
"Other acts of oppression may be cited. In the summer of 1854 a helpless foreign girl, who com- plained of having been discharged from service, received for answer, that the Council had no time to hold a Court; and yet everybody knows that there was no judicial business of importance in the way. The poor young woman was told to wait till the autumn. She complained to the Governor, but he knew not how to help her; and so, after waiting eight days, she went away, without having been heard.
"Enough has been said to show the necessity of a better administration of the law. But as to the Civil Administration being armed with additional powers (Amt's Gewalt'), and introducing a person possessing judicial capacity and knowledge of law (Richterliche Fähigkeit und Rechtskunde'), may Heaven protect the island from such measures! At present at least one evil balances the other, &o.
"But a good Superior Court is only the more necessary."
Having heard, on my way to Heligoland, of who was said to be well acquainted
with the affairs of the island, I sought an intro- duction to him, through an intimate friend, in deference to whose request he very fully communi- cated to me all his views and opinions.
Touching the administration of justice, however, he knew little or nothing; there was no access to be had to the laws; and the Court held its
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sittings with closed doors. It was supposed to be guided by a sort of droit coûtumier," which could not, however, provide for all cases, and, occasionally, left the judges in a state of sore perplexity.
He could not help expressing his amazement at the apparent indifference of the British Government to the lamentable state of the island. He could only presume that the Government was wholly unin- formed of what was going on; and this he mainly attributed to the several preceding Governors having been wholly ignorant of the German lan- guage.
He said that the affairs of the island were in the hands of a small clique, which ruled everything as it pleased, and was composed of arrogant and ignorant men, who had brought matters to a condition with which he knew nothing to compare it, but the foul corruption of Genoa and Venice in their decline.
He thought it indispensably necessary that Go- vernment should, without loss of time, appoint a Rechtsverständiger" (a person of legal education),
"
for the purpose of placing matters on a sound basis. But he said it should always be borne in mind that the people of Heligoland are very sensitively jealous of their rights, and that the utmost caution must be
observed in dealing with them.
He said it was absurd to suppose that there was}
so much poverty in the island as has been alleged; that, to his knowledge, there was, on the contrary, much wealth there, although it might be unequally. distributed.
He thought that the transformation of Heligoland into a bathing-place was gradually, but surely, alter- ing the character and morals of the people for the
worse.
The affairs of Heligoland are a frequent topic of conversation at Hamburgh and in the north of Ger- many. But from the numerous persons with whom
I converred I did not hear much beyond complaints of the rapacity of the Heligolanders and minor grievances of no importance.
On my arrival there, I found that the Lieutenant- Governor had received no instructions respecting
me.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
885
4 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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