The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

many of them, and enjoying all the facilities for tracking
them down which they possess, have detected and appre-
hended the party accused and lodged him in a place of de-
tention, should not the doors be opened and the prisoner be
permitted to depart, remaining at large until some such body
as our old constables, who were changed year by year,
should be able to retake him ? And why, when he has had
his trial, and when his guilt has been proved to the satisfac-

tion of every auditor, is he not transferred to another judge
and another jury, that the ceremony may be repeated ?
Gentlemen, I cannot place the question in any light which
would relieve the appeal to a grand jury, in all ordinary
cases, of an absurdity bordering on the ludicrous. Yet
bearing in mind the repugnance which will be felt by large
numbers of our fellow countrymen to any sweeping change
in the venerable 'institution under review I could for my
part be well content to adopt, by way of experiment, a
suggestion lately published by Mr. Sergeant Pulling, a
gentleman of long experience in our courts, and who has
in his writings ably treated on various projects for the
amendment of our laws, although on the present occasion
Ido not, at all points, concur in his views. " The grand
jury," says the learned sergeant, " has always formed an
important part of the whole system of trial by jury. To
abolish grand juries would be to introduce a very serious,
if not a very dangerous innovation. It may be that in nine
cases out of ten, the exercise of the functions of the grand
jury in criminal trials may be productive of nothing but
delay, that in some cases the ends of justice may be de-
feated by the grand jury neutralising in secret conclave,
and for reasons altogether suppressed, proceedings legally
taken in open court ; and it has been urged that in all cases
where a full preliminary investigation has already taken
place before a competent magistrate, the re-opening the
case in the grand jury room should be prohibited. But
even to this proposition there are objections. In England
we shall ever be reluctant to deprive a person accused of
crime of any just protection which the law can afford him,
and to drive him to stand at the bar of a criminal court on

the commitment of a single magistrate, when, by a more
careful investigation by the grand jury, the judgment of
the committing magistrate may be found altogether erro-,
neous. Can no middle course be adopted ? If the option
were given to every person committed for trial by
a magistrate to have the accusation against him re-
opened by the grand jury, or be tried on the case
as presented by the committing magistrate, the result
would probably be that very few would demand such an
intermediate investigation. I would propose that when
the accused did not, on being committed for trial, expressly
demand that his case should be presented to the grand jury,
the case should proceed as if a trae bill had been found,
but otherwise the proceedings to be as at present. Where,
however, in consequence of the demand of the accused, the
intervention of the grand jury should be required, the pro-
secutor and prisoner should be entitled to the assistance of,
counsel and attorney in that as in every other stage of the
case." The learned serjeant, I presume, contemplates that
the investigation shall be public, and that the accused shall
be allowed to call witnesses in his defence, and herein I

should heartily agree with him. We know by experienee
that the very large majority of prisoners committed for trial
are guilty. The course of proceeding before magistrates
would be open to reproach instead of commendation, were
it otherwise. I agree, too, in believing that few of the ac-
cused would avail themselves of the privilege which the
serjeant would reserve to them. Because, as guilty persons
well know, repetitions of an open inquiry into the charges
against them produce fresh evidence. Slips are oftentimes
made in the conduct of the prosecution which, while they
might not be sufficient to induce a grand jury to throw
out the bill, and thereby put an end to investigation,
would, if the examinations were in public, remind the
prosecutor or his legal adviser that some loophole which
had by inadvertence been left open must be closed prior
to the conclusive trial before the petit jury. Probably,
therefore, the demand for the intervention of the grand
jury would, in the course of time, be preferred only by
the innocent, and again only by such of that class as felt
the necessity of reiterated scrutiny into the evidence
against them. For as repeated investigation is dangerous
to the guilty, so by its tendency to elicit the truth is it a
safeguard to the innocent. Should, however, experience
teach us that a large proportion of guilty prisoners will still
claim the intervention of the grand jury, it will be necessary
to resort to ulterior measures, for which, when the chamber
of the grand jury is thrown open to auditors, the public
mind will gradually become prepared by observing what a
useless expenditure of time and labour these investigations
prove to be, except in a few extraordinary cases. But, as I
have said, the usual operations of the grand jury, as now
conducted, are not merely useless, but too often mischiev-
ous. To obtain more particular information on this topic,

I have examined the depositions in every case occurring at
the three last sessions in which the bills were ignored by
the grand inquest. The aggregate number of prisoners
committed for trial was 298, and the number in favour of
whom the grand jury threw out the bills of indictment was
23. This latter number, gentlemen, may appear to you to
be a large proportion, considering that every case followed
by a commitment had been subjected to rigid scrutiny; but
I must confess my surprise to be that the proportion was
not much larger, impressed as I am with the many difficul-
ties under which grand juries labour. Of these 23 the de-
positions of the witnesses for the prosecution make out a
case of guilt as respects all but two, and of these two, one,
perhaps both, so strengthened the case for the crown that
if the evidence against these two prisoners had been laid be-
fore the grand jury exactly as it came out before the com-
mitting magistrate, and if the grand jury had been apprised
of what the prisoners had chosen to urge in their defence,
which could not be done according to law, true bills might

lustifiably have been sent in against the whole 23. But the

probabilities are that the cases were seriously mutilated
when the witnesses spoke under the protection of
secrecy. In the interval between the commitment and the
assembling of the grand jury, there is time for tampering
with witnesses ; sometimes by very base expedients, even
to open bribery ; oftener, I am inclined to believe, by
working on their sympathies. Then again many witnesses
cannot present the jury with a complete and connected
narrative of their evidence, while the foreman, not being
instructed in the facts of the case, is unable to examine
them so effectually as the counsel does who has the aid of
his brief. Another source of error lies in the number of

legal points arising in the course of their labours. These
would, for the most part, present little difficulty to persons
conversant with the criminal law, but they may readily
mislead the most intelligent, if their pursuits have not been
such as to furnish them with a legal training. lam sure
you will not for one moment suppose that I am reflecting
on grand jurymen, but I do not wonder that they them-
selves feel very keenly their false position ; and that, with
no reluctance to fulfil their share of public duty, they much
desire to be relieved from the unenviable task now thrust
upon them. In certain of the 23 cases which came under
my review, I found that hardened offenders had been let
loose upon society. One prisoner, a woman, not appearing
in court for the first time, had, with malice prepense,
stabbed another woman in the forehead, severing an im-
portant artery.. Another prisoner, when before the magi-
strates, had volunteered an admission of his guilt. Gen-
tlemen, although I would not place the two considerations
which I am about to lay before you in the first rank of im-
portance, yet you will not deem it unworthy of notice that
the pecuniary cost to the public, attendant upon these mis-
carriages, is no trifle ; nor again, that while we are con-
stantly stimulating the zeal and watchfulness of our police,
and reproaching the force, perhaps a little too often, on the
frequent impunity with which offences are committed, it
must tend very much to relax their exertions when they
find that all their toil is thrown away. Let me detain you
a few moments longer, while I advert to the relief
which, in addition to their exemption from at-
tendance on grand juries, would be afforded to
prosecutors and witnesses should the legislature
grant the emancipation which I have contem-
plated. In that event there would be no difficulty in so
arranging the business of the sessions that no witness
would need to be detained very long prior to his being
called upon for his testimony. The clerk of the peace
would draw out lists of prisoners for each court, and for
each day ; and the order in which the accused would be
taken would be rarely dfsturbed. The prisoners, too, would
partake of the general benefit. They would be brought
here from the prison in smaller numbers than according to
present arrangements. Consequently there would be less
danger of interfering with the wholesome discipline of the
prison by crowding them together in the places of deten-
tion behind the court, which must undo to some extent
any good which may be accomplished by the separation
observed in the gaol. But what prisoners would deem a
much greater advantage remains to be mentioned. Our
English criminal procedure is still under the disgrace, in
which it lies almost alone, of making no pecuniary provi-
sion for enabling the accused to bring his witnesses into
court, and for paying their necessary expenses while there.
Consequently, it but too often happens that, unable to re-
main in unproductive idleness for any lengthened period,
enterse
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they depart, and are found absent when called upon to
tamed by this class of witnesses, and their absence, I trust,
would seldom occur. Much more might be urged in favour
of the change which it has been the object of this charge
to advocate ; but I will intrude no longer on your valuable
time."

THE
MIDLAND COUNT.IES STRIKE.--The Observer
eves the following as the present position of the strike in
the, Midland Counties against the discharge note which the
master builders have introduced :—ln Birmingham about
800 carpenters are on strike, in Coventry about 400 men
comprising all branches, in Walsall about 40 ditto, in Not-
tingham about 700 ditto, in Malvern about 100 ditto, and
about 1,000 in the other towns.
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THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE 81-CENTENARY
OF REVIEWING.—Just two hundred years ago, ac-
cording to Mr. Hallam, appeared the first number
of the first review ever published. Monday, the sth
of January, .1665, was the birthday of the Journal
des Scavans, destined through two centuries to wit-
ness the rise and fall of innumerable rivals. The
books reviewed in the firstnumber, as we learn from
the same authority, were a new edition of the "Works
of Victor Vitensis and Victor Tapsensis, two African
bishops of the fifth century," and Spelman's Glos-
sary. Besides criticisms of new authors, the journal
contained necrologies of distinguished men, and ac-
counts of scientific discoveries ; it reported the
births of double-headed children, the trial of new
models of ships, and disputations as to the nature of
comets. Before long it encountered the ills to
which criticism is heir. Various authors—amongst
others, Menage—were so much irritated by this
new-fangled instrument of torture that the privilege
of publication was withdrawn from its original pro-
jector, and it passed into other hands. The first
attempt at an English imitation was some seventeen
years later, when a publication called Weekly Me-
morials for the Ingenious led a short existence, and
then perished from off the earth. Such was the
first appearance on the surface of one of the most
characteristic modern forms of literature. Its in-
ventor, Dennis de Salo, showed a high degree of the
talent which enables men to find appropriate satis-
faction for a want existing, but not yet con-
sciously felt. Like the first introducer of tea into
Europe, or the legendary hero who, according to
Charles Lamb, blessed the Chinese by the discovery
of the sucking-pig, he " inaugurated" a new era. It
now requires a painful effort of the imagination to
picture the condition of a reviewless people. We can
conceive a man of powerful digestion substituting
beer for tea at breakfast. Most people can consent
to live in ignorance of the charms of sucking-
pig. But the wretch condemned to read no re-
views loses one of the chief means of communica-
tion with his kind. He falls by perceptible grada-
tion of the scale, towards the savage. He is in
contact with no conductors to convey to him the in-
tellectual currents of his time. If the deprivation is
not painful, it is only because of the absence of a
healthy appetite. In fact, the existence of a vigor-
ous periodical criticism is as necessary a sanitary
condition of modern literature as the existence of
good ventilation is of a house. The incidental in-
conveniences that result may be compared to the
draughts which sometimes kill off invalids in over-
ventilated houses. But in literature invalids ought
to be killed off. They are, indeed, in the habit of
complaining during the process, and weak-minded
persons sometimes take up their complaints, and rail
somewhat vaguely against the evil spirit of periodi-
cal criticism generally. To answer such complaints
is not very easy, except indeed, if that be easy, by
stating them clearly. They are like the grumblings
against steam-engines because their smoke some-
times blackens gentlemen's houses, or against free
trade because it has introduced the foot-rot in sheep.
The existence of the evil shows a power to be ac-
tively at work whose generally beneficial tendency
may be proved by a mere statement of its purposes.
When once those purposes are appreciated, the re-
lation of the incidental evils to the substantial bene-
fits becomes obvious. The enormous development
which the system of reviewing has received since
the foundation of the Journal des Scavans is sufficient
proof of its utility. It is, in fact, an essential part
of the machinery of modern society. It may be re-
garded as an illustration of the advantages of divi-
sion of labour in its application to literature. Every-
one has been bored by the everlasting story of the
pins—of the number of different workmen who com-
bine to make pins' heads, and to sharpen pins' points,
and to put the, pieces together. If every workman
made the whole pin by his unaided exertions, the
world would have to do without pins, and Adam
Smith without his happiest illustration. But the con-
sequences of each author depending upon his own
powers to provide all his raw material would
be more disastrous. In the multitude of books,
which it seems as if the world itself would not be
able long to contain, the miserable historian
or philosopher would be overwhelmed. We have
often thought that, as it is, a commission for the
destruction of useless documents will soon be as

requisite as one for the preservation of records. The
Macaulay of a future generation may spend volumes
upon the history of a single month, if the pile of ma-
terials accumulated does not drive him mad before
he gets through it. It might be best to commit
boldly to the flames all novels, newspapers, Parlia-
mentary blue-books and statistical documents
which could not establish a special claim to pro-
longed life. Meanwhile, it is necessary to de-
tach a certain corps of literary pioneers to econo-
mize the time and trouble of their brethren by
making the investigation once for all. An unfor-
tunate author of 1663 had no means of discovering
the value of any book but by reading it himself, or
finding one who had. To go through such a pro-
cess now would be as hopeless a task as for a com-
manding officer to examine personally every soldier
in his army. A little organization makes the work
easy. It introduces a certain amount of concert-
into the labours of all writers on given subjects,
without which progress would be next to impossible.
These palpable and undeniable advantages were ap-
parently all that were aimed at, in the first instance,
by the Journal des Swans. Its innumerable
progeny of weekly, monthly, and quarterly
reviews have come to discharge more important
functions. The mere diffusion of new intelligence
is their least prominent characteristic ; from being
reporters they soon grew up by a natural process into
judges, and from judges they become legislators.
They succeeded in laying down canons of criticism
which affected the development of the public taste ;
and it is in this capacity that they have been accused
by the sentimental school of every variety of harsh-
ness and meanness. The ignorance of the Edinburgh
reviewers who said that :Wordsworth was dull and
childish, and the brutality of the assault upon Keats
in the Quarterly, are the• staple examples of late
years. They are neither of them good for much.
Keats was not really snuffed out by the article ; and
Wordsworth would have been none the worse for
attending to some of Jeffrey's criticism. If he had
known how to take advice, he would not have mixed
with some noble poetry so much that no human
being ever reads except from a sense of duty. In
fact, Wordsworth, whilst hidden in a region shel-
tered from critics, produced stuff which, as coming
from a true poet, is the best proof of the necessity
of the critical spur to keep poets up to the mark. If
he had lived in London instead of on the shores of
Rydal, the " Solitary" and the " Wanderer" could
never have been so pitilessly prosy. But, without
examining particular cases, the general accusation
seems to us to be childish. To say that periodical
criticism is, as a rule, unduly harsh, is, if anything,
the reverse of the fact. Boys at a public school ge-
nerally think their head master too much given to
flogging. They attribute this peculiarity to a cer-
tain bloodthirsty ferocity of disposition inherent in
schoolmasters. This is doubtless a natural inference
though we never thought it philosophical one. If we
saw that the boys treated their master's orders with
habitual disrespect, we should doubt, in spite of the
assertions, whether he flogged them enough. On the
same principle, when eccentric authors complain of
the bitter tone of criticism prevalent, we doubt,
from our observation of results, whether it has
been bitter enough. Some sensitive spirits may
have suffered ; we will trust their words if they
tell us so, and hope that their suffering has done
them good. But, meanwhile, we can point to a
flourishing crop of fools who do not appear to have
suffered at all. If the critical acid had been so
powerful as is represented, it surely should have
checked some of the exuberant harvest of nonsense.
So long as there is an unfailing supply of absurdity,
its very existence seems a tolerable proof that it has
not been laughed at sufficiently. Though you bray
a fool in a mortar, we are told, yet will not his folly
depart from him ; and we may add, what is still
more annoying, the braying will not seem to hurt
him. He will be just as happy after the operation
as he was before. The person against whom the
attack is directed is therefore the last to be pitied.
He will continue to write things in lines with capital
letters at the beginning, and to call them poetry, or
to spin out elaborate prophetical twaddle by tortur-
ing the language of the Apocalypse, and will only
smile with benevolent contempt at our feeble
assaults.
THE LONDON REVIEW ON THE ROYAL MARRIAGE
ACT.—Gossip, which in this case is at least not
scandal, has of late made often mention of the names
of an " illustrious lady of the Royal House," and of
a " gallant nobleman." As the names of both have
been for months in everybody's mouth, and have,
indeed, already appeared in print, we shall take the
liberty of discarding the penny-a-liner paraphrasis,
and speak of the Princess Mary and Viscount Hood.
We do not, indeed, profess to give to our readers
any fresh information on this interesting topic.
Taking the Times' denial of a marriage as authentic,
there still remains a thousand possible situations in
sßumateitto is saptecleulasatteee a
certain
ta to which
that
which the affair may stand, and we shall not pre-
thoef
mthaerrimisagreeahllasy
btrueeen
.
desired and intended by the parties principally con-
cerned, and though, as a general rule, it would be
impertinent to discuss the nature of the impediments
which prevent the course of true love from running
smooth, there is in this instance not merely a reason
but an obligation imposed on the public to enter into
the delicate question. For the impediment is one
made by the public, and maintained, it is said, for the
public benefit. It is neither the prohibition of a cruel
parent nor of a tyrannical brother. It is the opera-
tion of an Act of Parliament which Parliament might
repeal, but which; while it remains in force; is only