Show nir SIR CANNON ON ACCOUNT OF HIS nis WF Wi commend to the consideration of our readers the findings of the TL U S commissioner mckay in the case against mr angus 31 cannon they will wilt be found elsewhere in this issue it is unusual for a committing magistrate to clab elaborate crate in that fashion and giap givia to a won wondering derin world the results of his learning 0 in the simple act of either holding or disc p arbing a person after atter hearing the evidence brought before him upon a complaint of his having infringed the I 1 law of the land we have havy always understood that the action of a magistrate while sitting q in that capacity based almost exclusively upon the tile ev evidence presented the consultation of authorities more or less voluminous for the purpose bf fishing out an excuse to nold noid tile the accused ac aused which sticks out as large aa as the side of a house in this instance P s forel torel forein foreign n to the char chat character acter of a commissioners sign sio sto ners errs office it will be observed that mr mckay makes no mention of the all yet the before him illin tas isas ivas in regard to whether the testimony adduced was waa sufficient towar rant the opinion that a grand jury would ninda finda nind find a true bill of indictment the legal definition of cohabitation is as a matter of course what O auga gut t to govern hi hi all proceedings tindera under a charge 0 of having committed that of fence mr mckay says in his findings lin dinos dings ilin in all criminal statutes the perm term erm cohabitation is used in reference to persons of opposite sex and implying i the practice or the opportunity to practice unlawful ul sexual intercourse Taking this learned magistrate position ds as a guide he held mr cannon to answer because he had committed the horrible offense of having within his reach the opportunity to practice unlawful cohabitation there was not a particle of esla evia evidence ence to show that he had committed the alleged of fence according to phe the he commissioners logic that he teas was committed because the opportunity was within his reach is inevitable it does not appear sensible fair nor legal if good sense is good law and good law lat good sense to place unlawful cohabitation 0 on n different ground froin from any other of fence proof of its commissi commission cn is concerned this unjust dis 1 crimination with a vengeance this being the case according to commissioner mckays luminous findings every human soul who has come to an of responsibility should be pre admed guilty of nearly if not altogether every crime in th the catalogue the ehe opportunity to commit 0 of afen dences fences ces is everywhere present except in cases where p eople are Vre prevented vented by circumstances circumstances over which they have no control any clerk in any store on main street against whom complaint might b if would according to the E learned n M commissioners position be a able abie I 1 I 1 to bell beil held heid to answer to the grand i j dry because he possessed the opportunity of practicing the pilferers pilfer ers art by purloining his employers goods but evell even if if it were the proper thing to confine this opportunity theory to the matt matter er of unlawful cohabitation 0 n whala commotion would be created i in n society by its application it wo would uld cause a veritable upheaval really this idea of commissioner mckays is alarming but as its his findings are not lik ilk likely ty govern general judicial procedure to any appreciable extent the anti antl I 1 mormon I 1 crusaders can allay any uy fears that may have been awakened in their virtuous breasts any way he Is ig fiot not likely to hold any ot of them over to the grand I 1 lury jury ury on account of certain opportunities I 1 within their reach no not eve even n when they take advantage of them as many meuy of them thein notoriously do the tee ponderous wisdom of these findings s crops out in every line itne ithe 41 the orence ig iso made out according to dee ded signs of courts etc says mr mckay if there be shown a living or id welling toc together rether when this is plain the law iw at once presumes other concomitants follow and excludes proof of particular acts surely the commissioner should be J known aown down hereafter as the legal heavy weight of this western interior ile he is is a regular iconoclast A of legal idols heretofore it has been generally understood that a man should be presumed 1 r resumed innocent until proved guilty pa he 1 e not only reverses the rule but bui holas holds that the tile law presumes the commission of acts not proved one of the chief points which the commissioner appeared in his findings to demonstrate was that the ac aused in the case under consideration had an opportunity of practicing unlawful f ua cohabitation and therefore theredo re there was reasonable cause for supposing that be he was guilty as charged this ridiculous ridicule ridi culo us theory t ri was resorted to as a thin subterfuge u b ter fuge because of the total absence of any evidence sustaining the accusation the commissioner had in this case an opportunity to be consistent but he kasnot was guilty of taking advantage of it he might have stated in his findings that the accused was held in the absence of sufficient evidence on the sole grounds that he Is a mormon 11 and that there is a probability that on that account an indictment would be found by a grand jury packed by open venire ventre process forthe for the same reason he was helito held heid to answer to it |