The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

Venerable from their very position, for their
learning, for their character, the Judges of ELT-
land are amongst the most hardworked of our
public functionaries. Receiving each a salary of
less than £4,000 per annum, they toil more labo-
riously than the unprofessional community have any
notion of—any notion even faintly approximating
to the reality. The popular ignorance as to this
excess of labour systematically shouldered on to
the venerable judges of the land, is in some mea-
sure attributable, of course, to the fact that a
very considerable part of it is got through in pri-
vate, in chambers, over desks and across tables,
in writing, or dictation, and in viva voce examina-
tions. Bat, even then—the enormous pressure of
hard work done in public, in open court, in session,
at assize, and that, too, hard work of the most com-
plicated character, work terribly continuous and
long sustained, work weighted with the most fear-
ful responsibility—all this, at least, is glaringly
manifest to the public at large ; there is surely
none amongst uq, not even the least observant, but
is, in some degree, conscious of it ! Insomuch has
this excessive overtasking of her MAJESTY'S judges
become apparent, even to the extent of unprofes-
sional notoriety, that there has been a talk for some
few years past, as to th e necessity of increasing the
number of these revered and honoured administra-
tors of justice. Increased in number they must be
eventually. The only questions remaining now to
bo decided, before that increase is accomplished,
being, first of all, as to its extent, and next as to the
time advisable in which that increase shall be
definitively decided upon. Another conside-
ration, however, as to the excessive hard work
done by the judges has not yet been alluded
to—meaning by this, the exquisitely painful
and, but toe often, absolutely loathsome
and appalling character of the toil they have
carefully, minutely, and in all its filthiest details to
get through. Crimes of hideous atrocity, vices of
despicable meanness, abominations at the mere
thought of which even the most hardened felon
might be expected to shudder in his conscience,
have, when brought into court before the judges, as
matter for investigation, there, upon trial, to be
investigated, and that not by any means in a
superficial manner, but with a painful scrupulosity
as to the minutire of the evidence in

every particular, in every circumstance.
As distressing an illustration as any that could
by possibility be adduced, in testimony of the heart-
sickening character of the hard work requiring thus
to be got through within a single day, before one of
her MAJESTY'S judges—we would direct attention to
the extent and nature of the grim hard
work done only yesterday in the Central
Criminal Court before Mr. Justice KEAT-
ING. Conspicuous among even the venerable
brotherhood of the Bench, by his personal charac-
teristics as a virtuous and accomplished Christian
gentleman, Sir HENRY 14:EATING had yesterday,
in the discharge of his solemn duties, to pass through
' distressing an ordeal as we could imagine it
venld have been possible to contrive, by way of tor-
hire, thus, to a pure and gentle heart, to a re-
fl Elea
and chivalrous nature, and all the
m°" 50 , to a man more than usually en-
"'wed Rith tem-
perament, an exquisite sensibility of
It will be sufficient here simply to
cri erete
brought ry briefly
beforethe nature of the crimes
11:a trial
fove
fur yesterday in the Old Court,
KEATING. First of all, there
was a charge...ora Y
too clearly brought home to
the accused boor
e the trial was done—a charge of
rape of singular and al
aful atrocity, because per-
petrated in the midst t the poor victim's children.
The victim herself being
manifestly as innocent,
b
in regard to this
oeee'tence, as any one of
the little children Y her side.. After
this miserable case had been
dis__se _
its
immediately followed one far naore7 d
famous in of, there
atrocity—one of those dreadful crimes, 1°
famous
frequent in their perpetration
Of late so
where little prattling innocents are icrimes
dishonoured,
unherpiiy yesterday, in the lamentable ; -rist
before HENRY •KEATING, the fact of the tender
age of the little victim rendered the child's own
evidence inadmissible—necessitating a verdict at
not guilty" from the jury, though the judge
followed up the delivery of that verdict
by reminding the prisoner that he had
merely escaped conviction in consequence of the
circumstance that the child, in point of law, was
not capable of being examined. But, added the
learned judge, it was impossible fcr any one who
had heard the evidence not to entertain the

strongest suspicion that the prisoner was guilty of
the offence with which he had bcen charged!
Afterwards cane, successively, two cases of man-
slaughter, one by
.a young woman of twenty-four,
the other by a young man of twenty-two, both
crimes being clearly proved against the accused re-
spectively, the former being condemned to eight
and the latter to twolve months' imprisonment,
each with hard labour. Stich bring the tkin,gh of j

vice and criminality yesterday required to be tra-
versed by the judr, in the discharge of his judicial
duties at the Central Criminal Court—a day's
labour at that court which we have here adduced
simply by way of illustration.

It is impossible to imagine anything more dread-
ful in its way than the detai given of vivisection
as at present pursued at Paris. The constant prac-
tice of such operations renders the indifferent
callous, and makes the unwilling accustomed to
sights and sounds of horror that seem scarcely
credible. The French Academy of Medicine have
now taken up the subject, apropos to a report sent
to the Government, which is a step in the right
direction; Such atrocities must be put a stop to.
No enlightened statesmen and no humane nation
can tolerate their perpetuation. The French papers
have, to their honour, taken up the subject, and
they will doubtless succeed eventually in their
praiseworthy undertaking. In the meantime it is
necessary that the sad details should be made as
public as possible, in order that every available in-
terest and influence be enlisted to aid the good work
of putting a summary stop to such proceedings.
All dogs are sacrificed that these experimentalists
can lay their hands upon, and one informant states
that a short time since some very valuable sporting
dogs fell a prey to these barbarities. To add to the
horrors of the affair the School of Medicine is
situated in the same square as the Hospital des
Cliniques, and it may be imagined what a martyr.
dom the poor patients undergo. When a dog is not
killed by one operation he is put back in the kennel
in his agony to await further torture. " There the
unhappy creatures, already torn by the scalpel,
howl until the next day in tones rendered hoarse
and faint by another previous operation intended to
deprive them of voice." It is not surprising to
hear that one woman, who was very ill, hurried
away in the night, unable to endure the horror of
the mournful sounds any longer, and that veteran
nurses relinquish their employment. In
proof of
the veracity of this astounding statement, a letter is
quoted, addressed to M. HUSON, Director-General
of Hospitals, written by an eminent medical prac-
titioner, in which the sufferings of the sick from
their proximity to the tortured animals is com-
mented on. In this epistle the writer invokes the
assistance of M. HUSON to aid in putting a stop to
these proceedings, so inimical to the interests of the
patients, and which militate so strongly against their

recovery. " These dogs," he says, " cry and howl
night and day, notwithstanding the preliminary
operation performed on them with the view of ren-
dering theta mute. Will you, whose solicitude
for the sick is so great, join your complaints to ours,