The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-17 00:00:00

Interest at stake is small, cheapness, perhaps, may be
more important than any other consideration ; but, as
a general rule, the most indispensable want of society
is, that justice should be done between man and man.
Our present common-law system makes it imprudent,
in the majority of cases, either to attempt to enforce
a right, or to resist an unjust claim.
The occasions have not been few, on which we have
endeavoured to suggest partial improvements in the
system of which we complain. The experiment of
dispensing with juries in public trials of issues of
fact would, if successful, increase the efficiency of the
courts to an extent which is difficult to calculate. It
is right to take an opportunity of repeating, that the
subtlety of the bench is produced in a great degree
by the converse defect on the part of juries.
Rough justice, or injustice, such as may be looked for
from twelve promiscuous laymen, is counterbalanced
by excessive astuteness in the court which receives
their verdict. First, the litigant has to rely on the
throw of the dice in the jury-box, and then, perhaps,
on the skill of his advocate in making the next move.
Judges hearing evidence will give it due weight, and
will not find- their judgments questioned after-
wards on the ground that they were probably
influenced by some matter which was im-
properly brought before them. The introduction
of jury trials for civil issues in Scotland some years
ago, has been almost universally considered a failure,
though the system which it superseded, of taking
evidence before special commissioners in private, was
in every way less satisfactory than the trials in open
court, which we propose. We have no doubt that the
converse cheer in England would confirm the expe-
rience of the sister country.
Another improvement in the law, which we have
often urged in simplification of pleading, would be
greatly facilitated by the abolition of juries in those
cases where there is most room for technicality. The
cases of tort in which we propose to retain the pre-
sent system involve few niceties of pleading. The
object or this wonderful engine of artificial logic is
to eliminate a definite issue ; and it is evident
that a judge will know what he has to decide
without the exceedingly elaborate assistance which
is thought necessary for a jury. A court of equity
makes a decree on the facts according to their actual
and legal bearing ; and there seems no reason which
should preclude a judge at Nisi Prime from a similar
effort of the understanding. We by no means think
that all the absurdities of pleading ought to be kept
up, even if juries are to continue to be indispensable;
but we believe it would be easier to make both
changes simultaneously, than either to adapt pleading
to the capacities of juries, or to leave judges to be
troubled with it as it stands.
We believe that a large portion of the legal pro-
fession is disposed to agree with the opinions which
we have expressed as to trials at common law.
Perhaps they will be not the less active in carrying
out the changes which they approve, if they fertile r
agree with us, that by simplifying the law, litigation,
though not the grounds of litigation, would increase,
and with it the necessity for their services. There
must be twenty issues in fact or in law disturbirg the
community for one that comes into court. If five of
the twenty were legally settled the profession would
be legitimately benefited, an argument which we
only use od ordinein, and the public would enjoy a
right of which they are at present in a great degree
deprived.

LORD DALHOUSIE'S speech at the dinner given to
him by his Edinburgh friends, is very pleasant read-
ing, and to listen to it, especially if the wine were
good, must have been still more agreeable. It is full
of that real cordiality, tempered by gentlemanly
taste, with which the speaker's character is so
thoroughly imbued. But, like the book in the Apo-
ealypee, which was as honey in the mouth and bitter
in the belly, the after-taste of the speech is not quite
so pleasant.
There was a manly good humour about Lord DAL-
- HOLISM'S allusions to the disappointment of his first
aspirations after parliamentary honours, well adapted
to smooth any asperities that might have been left
by a mere party contest. But the whole tenor of the
speech was too much after the fashion of a public man
with whom the electioneering success of persons is all
in all, and the principles they profess too much mere
counters for playing with. There were important
principles at issue in the contest Lord DALHOUSIE
refers to. The ministers under whom he accepts
office were regarded as the especial champions
of the principles diametrically opposed to those
of his supporters. Yet Lord D ILHOUSIE de-
clares that the opinions maintained as sound
and true by Lord RAMSAY, the opponent of a whig
administration, are in every respect the principles
maintained as sound by Lord DALHOUSIE, the official
colleague or ally of the same whig ministers.
The declaratien is obviously too sweeping and com-
prehensive. For example, Lord RAMSAY maintained
as sound the principle of the corn-law, which Lord
DALHOUSIE has helped to destroy. Were it not
for this recollection we might have feared that
ministers had entrusted the destinies of India
to a statesman who entertained very different views
of the respective rights and duties of governors
and the governed from those which themselves pro-
fess and act upon in England. Bat though in express
stipulation they annexed no condition to his accept-
ance of the Indian viceroyalty, we cannot bat think
that before offering it to him they had taken care to
ascertain that his constitutional was quite as much
modified as his commercial toryism.
This may appear, to some, hyper-criticism on an
after-dinner speech. But whenever delivered, the ora-
tion on which we are commenting, is too much tined
with the old conventionality of the mere electioneering
politician, not to jar with the earnest and practical
temper of the time. It would have been a very good
speech in that locality where his political friends first
made the experiment of his powers of public speaking
—the worshipful Canongate Kilwinning lodge—for
there the orator is only expected to warm and elevate
the audience by rhetorically embellishing a vague
sentiment of universal brotherhood amid all discre-
pancies of opinion. Bat for a real governor, about to
set out on an earnest practical mission, it has rather
too much of the tone of a nobleman who expects to
have his policy tolerated because he is a good fellow,
and not of a statesman, who proposes by his policy to
command the respect and approbation even of those
to whom he is personally distastetsL

We have received our Paris letters and the journals
of Wednesday.
The government has put forth another of its trim-
ming manifestoes in the Rerue des Deux Moncks, in
which it abuses Lord Palmerston, eulogises the Pope,
whom the other day it called a firebrand in another
of its organs, and endeavours to sail in a middle
course between Austria and Italy in the Ferrara
question, taking especial care, however, not to say a
word which can affect the most delicate susceptibili-
ties of the cabinet of Vienna.
Advice' from Algiers to the 10th have brought
some further intelligence respecting Abd-el-Kader.
The Meniteur Algerien says :
The courier from the went has not brought any news of •
more unfavourable character as to the situation of Morocco.
It is true that the communications between Tau and
Onehda appear interrupted, which proves that there still
exists a state of disorder and of crisis in that waketwasee
country ; but whatever may be the agitatiVe stew Ili
a decisive battle between the Emperor and liaises:NU
not have been long in reaching our frontier, had any such
event taken place. It may, therefore, be supposed that the
pogo
absence of news is the indication of a anger . Algeria
continues to enjoy the most profound ty. In the
east, the Cheikh Boa Anima has die with his own
simple resources an assemblage excited y the Cherif Muley.
Nothing better indicates the progress of our authority, than
these repressions exercised by Muuulmans os members of
their own religion.
A subscription has been opened in the department
of the Gard to pay the fine of M. Teste. " This (says
the Nallonaf) is the most insolent outrage on public
feeling that we have ever had to notice. Everything
is done with the utmost solemnity, in the open face of
day, and even a triumphal arch has been erected at
Bagnols with this inscription :—A Teste, k dims dos
Peupk .'" We find in the Echo du Midi further re-
counts of this matter : " Lists prepared in Paris (loyal
that journal), and divided into cantons and communes,
arc hawked about by M. Teste's friends, by mayors,
and other functionaries. But that is not all : M. Teste
himself, from his prison, writes letters to thank the
zealous, to animate the lukewarm, and to scold those
who hang back. It is truly a pity that the prevari-
cating ex. Minister has not placed as motto, at the
head of each letter, the phrase by which he thought
• • to jastify his attempt at suicide:—' Honour wcs al-
, ways dearer to me than life: "
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The Madrid mails of the 10th have arrived, bat
Domain little matter of general interest. The vacant