Prominent in Canadian history are two Fathers of Confederation with exactly the same name: John Hamilton Gray. Go figure....
I'm focusing on the one born in Bermuda in 1814, and who died in Victoria in 1889.
Gray's career might be described almost as picaresque in regard to the many and geographically widespread offices he held.
He was a lawyer, a lieutenant-colonel in the militia; he ended up being premier of New Brunswick and, as mentioned, won his greatest fame for being one of the Fathers of Confederation.
Gray was described by some of his contemporaries as a "conservative of the old school... gentlemanly... forgiving." By others he was considered shallow, even "empty-headed", someone whose opinions might be easily swayed.
In 1873 he gave up his ties with eastern Canada to become a judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. It was in this role that he heard the case of Regina vs. Sproule, some twelve years later.
I'm focusing on the one born in Bermuda in 1814, and who died in Victoria in 1889.
Gray's career might be described almost as picaresque in regard to the many and geographically widespread offices he held.
He was a lawyer, a lieutenant-colonel in the militia; he ended up being premier of New Brunswick and, as mentioned, won his greatest fame for being one of the Fathers of Confederation.
Gray was described by some of his contemporaries as a "conservative of the old school... gentlemanly... forgiving." By others he was considered shallow, even "empty-headed", someone whose opinions might be easily swayed.
In 1873 he gave up his ties with eastern Canada to become a judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. It was in this role that he heard the case of Regina vs. Sproule, some twelve years later.
Here's some of what Judge Gray had to say in his final instructions to the jury at the Sproule trial:
"I have now read the evidence from beginning to end; and it is certainly of the most unusual and extraordinary character. I have never met in my life a case like the present, requiring such careful review of the evidence, the closest attention, and a moral determination to do right irrespective of the crown or the prisoner at the bar. I cannot define any other theory by which this crime could have happened than that adduced by the crown."
Judicial impartiality?
Judge Gray goes on to attach great importance to the manner in which Sproule was apprehended. As though its unlikely nature is irrefutable proof of the man's guilt. He strongly suggests that the hand of God was at work...
"It is most extraordinary how the winds should have operated that day, how the prisoner was delayed--almost, I may say, by circumstances that were so ordered, that they seem to have been so by the interposition of providence. The storm arises on the lake, the wind retards the progress of the prisoner, the rifle shot is heard, the prisoner lands where no human eye can detect the trail, yet the same inscrutable Being is beside this man, and we find almost at the very moment when escape seemed to have been certain, that he absolutely walked by some extraordinary means right into the captors' hands... It seems everything had been brought by some higher power than an earthly one. I am satisfied, gentlemen, that the matter may be safely left in your hands... and I do hope that you will be able to come to a conclusion which will be consistent with what is right between God and man."
With all these high-powered instructions taken into account, it is a wonder Sproule's jury deliberated as long that it did, and that they dared return to the court and announce they couldn't agree on a verdict.
"I have now read the evidence from beginning to end; and it is certainly of the most unusual and extraordinary character. I have never met in my life a case like the present, requiring such careful review of the evidence, the closest attention, and a moral determination to do right irrespective of the crown or the prisoner at the bar. I cannot define any other theory by which this crime could have happened than that adduced by the crown."
Judicial impartiality?
Judge Gray goes on to attach great importance to the manner in which Sproule was apprehended. As though its unlikely nature is irrefutable proof of the man's guilt. He strongly suggests that the hand of God was at work...
"It is most extraordinary how the winds should have operated that day, how the prisoner was delayed--almost, I may say, by circumstances that were so ordered, that they seem to have been so by the interposition of providence. The storm arises on the lake, the wind retards the progress of the prisoner, the rifle shot is heard, the prisoner lands where no human eye can detect the trail, yet the same inscrutable Being is beside this man, and we find almost at the very moment when escape seemed to have been certain, that he absolutely walked by some extraordinary means right into the captors' hands... It seems everything had been brought by some higher power than an earthly one. I am satisfied, gentlemen, that the matter may be safely left in your hands... and I do hope that you will be able to come to a conclusion which will be consistent with what is right between God and man."
With all these high-powered instructions taken into account, it is a wonder Sproule's jury deliberated as long that it did, and that they dared return to the court and announce they couldn't agree on a verdict.
