THE MAN WHO GAVE NEW THE JUDGES AND THE JUDGED
FREEDOM TO BRITAIN Today: Mr Justice Stable
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as there are horses for courses, so there are judges JUST
for cases. The occupants of the Bench justly command rospect and admiration, but being, human, no one of them is axhaustive. of law or life omniscient, nor is his experience Cases in court, civil and criminal aliko, thus usually embrace onc olomont of chance: and unescapable gamble on the men assigned to try them.
Sometimes the luck of the draw works out badly; as when a clois- tered commercial lawyer, sitting for the first time as a Red judge on assize, gravely called the jury's special attention to the fact that an illiterate navvy, charged with a sanguinary murder, had next day been heard in- quiring: "Where's my bloody shirt?"
Sometimes. luck of the draw
Though,
works
Balley summer
The Philanderer
There work of
is ordinarily, a mini- the work-at least,
of oral evidence Out feilon-that was likely to exert mal amount very well. And never more an unwholesome influence upon upon a trial for obscene publi- cation. The work in itself con- Do than when, in 1954, Mr any child old enough to read.
took the Okl
had stitutes the Justice Stable
Such D conception
of fact Gession, and become uilerly
Its paalsted by such guidance aut-moded. was thereby automatically ap- practical effect was Inhibit they may receive, it is on the pointed to provide over the aerious writing, frighten honest work alone that the jury must
Gut
Viduce proceedings arising
of publishers, and
adult decide. great readers who wanted
any
evidence
ทร
A
to
by EDGAR LUSTGARTEN
the
mean a publisher is gulity of a criminal offence for making these works available to the public.
The publishers of The Philan- derer
were acquitted. But matters of deeper significance "Somewhere between these further back, and are we to be had been settled than the legal two poles," the judge suggested, reduced to the sort of booke strius of one particular book.
the average,
well- vne deczal,
reads es à child in
A wind of change had started meaning man or woman takes nursery?" hor. Her stand."
The crucial question had been blowing through the courts; 1 There followed his cezond asked.
ziele smoke-perzens, Cultural emanelpation dispersed in wolted on the answer.
revived half-styled victims, and
conformity with modern trends,
major point; an clucidation, "Of course not." At his lord- did much to clear a passage for of the canonical words, "Those ship's robust and forthright dis- the reforming Bill which whose minds are open to
Д
Mr
Euch avowal à score of master Roy Jenkins, with notable skill immoral influences and into writers, from Geoffrey Chaucer and patience, has lately piloted whos honda a publication of to David Herbert Lawrence, must through the House of Commons. this sort may fall"
have joined their countless "What
that admirers in dove exnetly
ghostly cheer. not. A mass mean?" Mr Justice Stable said. "Of course
literature--is "Are wo to say our literature literature-great should be measured by what is from many angles, wholly un- suitable for a school-giri, aged suitable for reading
wo go even adolescent, but that does not fourteen? Or do
ہوا
NEXT WEEK:
ut
Lord Goddard
the
-(London Express Susules),
Mr Justico Stable was appointed to prosido over
the proceedings arising from
The Philanderer.
The Philanderer Was the book like Joyce's Ulysses title of a novel that had gahed smuggle coples in their baggage some critical acclaim. Its theme from the Continent
-the career and character of u
man wholly obsessed by his
desire for women-might
be
considered 'msavotiry by sane, but then so might the theme
Cousin of Balzac's
Bette Zola's Germinal.
The trouble
ΟΙ
No surprise
Historians icoking back fabrio
of the
future,
upon the social
of our age, will
Accordingly Mr Justice Stable, after all the necessary prelimin- ncica were completed, adjourned The Philanderer caso for couple of days so that the jury might peruse the challenged book at leisure.
A fame
Â
M that sloge, ho only accert high credit to Mr advised them to consider it as a Justice Stable for his share in whole rather than to bounce on the removal of this ancenaly, single passages out of context. md in bringing about a closer I was after they had returned accord between law and opinion, to court, their homework done, That will not cause surprise that he discussed the requisite ever criteria more fully, in the course who anyone
summing-up which has Stable of o
acquired and will retain—a beyond extending far fame purely legal confines.
to
The appropriate authorities, however, doubtful after careful
decided that scrutiny,
The Pillanderer furnished rounde for prosecution, and its highly encountered Mr Justice
at close quarters. reputable publishers were in-
I well dicled for issuing an obscene
remember him going publication.
the Northern Circuit as a newly elevated judge just before the
The judge early impressed on
war. He was chiefly known to the jury-three women and nine vs youngsters by his reputation men-that their verdici
Q
would
Now everybody knows there is a trade in dirty books, just as there is a trade in Athy pic tures. But one does not equate an the Bar as specialist in be of the utmost consequence, the female nudes of Rubens bankruptcy. It sounded rather "It will have a great bearing," with the female nudes depicted technical and dull, and we were he said, "upon where the line: Romeone rather is drawn between liberty, that on the postcards of olive-nkin- prepared for
freedom to read and think 25 ned touts outside the Madeleine. dull and technical
Instead of a dusty, desiccated the spirit moves ug, and licence, It is treatment, and not subjest,
warm which is an affront to a conspicuously
the creates that
pornography-in pedant
and vital character appeared society of which we the Nerary arts as well os
all are
pictorial.
had almost said, exploded-in members." That had been generally our provincial courts. Quick to recognised by those with com simic, quick to frown, quick non sense even in the for off indicate dissent; quick. days of 1054.' But the low quicker to indicate agreement: which ought to consist of temperamentally dynamic, intel- organised common sense, and of lectually alert-one did not seek contemporary common sense at then to assess his stature as a that had failed to keep abreast jurist, being gratefully content with the majorily.
the
with his stature as a man.
10
even
I understand from those who
I
Stranglehold
Lord Chlef definition-
Then he quoted Justice Cockburn's and violently wrestled against its stranglehold,
"Because that is the lest laid down in 1988, that does not mean!
The trouble lay parily in the test of obscenity laid down by are supposed to Imow these Lord Chief Justice Cockburn things that Mr Justice Siable that what you have to consider
Blackburn
Lord ог
Lord Porter were.
cm-
is: Supposing this book had been
it
the best part of a hundred years isn't really a Great Lawyer: dblished in 1888 and the pub before, and partly in subsequent as Lord
11.
shers had been prosecuted in Interpretations
Alkin Cockburn defined obscenity as Whether or no he certainly 1008, would the court or the jury, D century ago. have matter tanding "to deprave and possesres other qualities equally nearly
more reached the conclusion that Qorrupt those whare minds are exceptional and perhaps
was obscene? Your task"-Mr open to such immoral influences valuable in the everyday
Justice Stable spoke with and Into whose hands a publi- ployments of a pulme judge. cation of this sort may tall"-A He is a natural humanist, with unphasis to decide whether definition begotten in epoch a quenchless zest for life, a keen you think that the tendency of to deprave those when piano legs were draped interest in the way that other the book is
whose minds today are open to for decency and authors were people live i, and a manifest constrained by public squeamish belief that law no for from such immoral influences, and regg to refer lo men's trousers being inflexible, ultimately into whose hands the book may
depends un the conumunity's full this year,' support.
ea "unmentionables."
could be construed, and was so construed, even by nome of These qualities determined his Cockburn's more remote sue approach to the problem posed cessors, to brand as obscene any by The Philanderer.
A British Crossword Puzzle
15,
9 110
11
3
4
113 114
16
17
18
19
123
3 Be cocky,
ACROSS
7 Not Just dark?
Lad's girls,
9 Gain de reward,
11 Plenty,
17 Palty?
18 No email beer.
10 Measure,.
17 Absolute,
JB Cream,
19 Little bloomers!
21 Liver,
28 Bebe witness.
23 Perlis.
22
1 Nu doubt,
2 Insult,
3 Marner?
4 Pack up,
DOWN
O Made algos,
0 Corroded,
10 Competing,
11 Tom?
13 File,
14 Became,
15 Sounded happy,
10 Graven Images?
19 Stand the beast
20 Puts something on.
16
..YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD': 'Across: 1 Strangers, B Blect, 10 Thorn, 12 Tay, 13 Has, 14. Trap. 15 Nestle, 10 Snert, 18 Crater, 20 Idle, 22 Rat; 23'er, 24 Spent, 25 Trail, 20 Iace- horso. Down 2 Thota. 9 Arty, 4. Gather, & Reost 6 Pentecost, 7 Interests, 9 Capstan, 11 Hasties, 18 Nor, 17 Noitle, 18 Arena, 21 Drugs, 28 Ol
His first major point was thus Iminously stated that the Cockburn definition had not been forsilled, that a book mus! bc judged by the standards opera- ting noto,
Next came an instructive and acute appraisal of the different attitudes adopted towards sex.
"At the one extreme you go! the line of thought that sex is sin; that the whole thing is dirty; that It "Was G mistake from the beginning to end; that the less sald on that distasteful tople the better,"
And the other extremne?
The In of thought that nothing but mischief results from a policy of covering up; that the whole thing is just as much part of God's universe as anything else; that the proper policy is one of frankness und plain speaking, and the avaldance j of any sort of pretence.
CHESS
By LEONARD BARDEN
* Once a king is driven into the middle of the board all. kinds of sacrifices are possible to force checkmate. Hore la a apectacular example from the Belgian championship (Osbert Y. Thibaut). 1 P-44, P-04: 2 P-Q84, PxP: 3 Kt-KB3, K-K13; 4 Q-R4 cb, QKt Q2: 0 X-13, P-K3; 6 P-K4. P—34; 1 P-Q5, FxP; § P- KS. P-QK14; QXILLP. R QIKE; 10 Q-R4, P—05; 11 IxI TxK; 2 ĐẠI PH Q: 13 BXP chi (the king hunt begins), KxB; 14 Kt—Kt} ch, K-K3 ( 14... KXP; 15 Q-34 cti, K-K2 ; 10 G-KI ch, K-93; 17 B-B1 ch); 10 Q-B4 ch. K-R4; 16 P-KU ch. _K-R0; 17 Kt-03 ch. IC-Ro ; 10 ict-Rtl ch. K-125; 10 15 ch 1, KXD; 20 - 10 ch. K-RB ; 21 Q~ko mato. Solution No. 6020; 1 Q—KHEI #waiting), KK; 2. Kt-94. or Kt--BR; 2 R-Bé, or_K£--NZ; 2 KI-KI, or KixP-2 Kt(BG) -KT, or At(Ba) clan; 2 KU(QS) -K7, or B-K(3! I'Q-12, or B else; 2 B-R7, or K-XIS, 2
either KE-7
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