The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-06 00:00:00

E4t Ot serer.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1866.

THE JURY SYSTEM.

It is generally understood that trial by jury is
the palladimn of British liberties, The institu-
tion in itself is admirable, but it is better in
theory than in practice. With a free press,
which gives
and which is ever ready to denounce oppression
and
to events as they occur,
and with open courts of justice, trial by jury
cannot now be so valuable as it was in what we
are in the habit of calling the good old times;
hut still, "twelve men in a box" is a valuable
safeguard against conspiracy on the part of wit-
nesses and a want of care and discrimination on
the part of judges. But valuable as may be trial
by jury, we have somehow or other arrived at
overdoing the matter. We cannot see that there
is any necessity for (mincing two juries to bear
upon one case. As the matter now stands, any
one who has been accused of a breach of the
criminal law has a fair preliminary trial. It is
at least right to presume that the ti ial of "first
instance," as the French call it, Wiliell the ac-
cused has before the magistrate, is conducted on
fair and equitable principles. When the crime
is One beyond the jurisdiction of the preliminary
magistrate, he is committed for trial; but here
what is called a grand jury steps in and solemnly
debates the question whether the accused shall
be tried or not. Some facts have recently tran-
spired which show that grand juries sometimes
make sonic awkward mistakes. Now we consider
that this proves nothing. We knew it before.
To err is human, and grand juries form no ex-
ception to the general rule. But these facts
have drawn an unwonted attention to the sub-
ject, and have tended to confirm the conviction
already pretty generally entertained that the
grand jury is a naeloss. If not a pernicious isisti-
tution. It steps in where it is not wanted; it
calls into question the decision of the commit-
ting magistrate; and it never, under the most
favourable circumstances, does anything better
than ignore a bill or decide that a prisoner shaU
be tried by an ordinary jury. In the first case
the grand jury merely does, in a secret, hasty,
ill-considered way, what the petty jury would do
in open court, with judges, counsel, and witnes-
ses present; and in the latter case, their deci-
sion is simply absurd and unnecessary.
Mr. Bodkin, the assistant-judge of the Mid-
dlesex Sessions, has just called attention to this
matter at an appropriate time. He says, "the
result of my experience has satisfied ma that,
apart from the question of abolishing grand
juries as a part of our system, their interference
in the great majority of cases within their juris-
diction can and ought to be dispensed with."
We believe that the experience of most persons
who have sat on grand juries must tally with
this. They must have often felt that they have
been called on, with a groat deal of fuse and
formality, to perform a solemn fareo—a farce
which has occupied a great deal of valuable time
for no good practical end.
If the grand jury system is ever abolished, as
we hope it may speedily be, we trust that some
better mode of convoking the ordinary juries
may be adopted. We think that only men of
education, of good positi.n in society, and of
experience of the world, should he chosen. A
knowledge of law is not necessary, for with law
juries have nothing to do. But they ought to
be men who are able to form a sound judgment
as to facts, and to weigh the value of evidence ;
and the more they understand of human nature
and perhups the less they know or care of the
subtleties of law, the better they will he able to
perform their duties. We are of Opinion that
such senices are worth pay lug for—at a mode-
rate rate, not such a scale as would make the
poet of juryman one that would be sought for
its emolument. If we were to abolish grand
Juries some niodernte scale of payment for coin-
potent petty juries (the ridiculous word " petty "
being then dropped) alight ho agreed upon.