The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-14 00:00:00

chased by the crowding of our gaols with
innocent men, wouhl have been looked on

much in the light that an old Spaniard looks-on
a -Jew. - A Frenchman who hears for the
first time that his countrymen are :lot the bravest,
wittiest,. wisest, and most ingenious of all God's
creatures, could not be more thunderstruck than
an Englishman, when told that his boasted cheap
• administration of justice was a remnant of feudal
barbarism, unworthy of a civilised people, and
that the indiscriminate prosecutions and corn-
mittals, holding to bail, Grand Juries, &c., were
the most admirable of all contrivances for the
punishment of the innocent and the 'acquittal of
the guilty, But reasoning is now boldly applied
to the subject, which is dispassionately weighed
in its scales.—" It may well merit considera-
tion," say the Committee, " whether certain
parts of the judicial procedure, which has been
for ages established in this country, in the com-
mittal of persons for trial, be not open to objec-
tion, and calculated to increase rather than di-
minish the commission of crime. The nature
and amount of punishment is wisely decided by
the law alone. If it be right to take from the
aggrieved the power of apportioning the penalty,
it is not less so to prevent him from determining
whether punishment of any kind shall be inflicted.
This power the law of England gives to the
injured party, by imposing on him the burthen
of enforcing his penalties. This proceeding, it
is well known, involves both trouble and
expellee. Depositions are taken before a Justice
of the Peace, and on his decision gone it de-
pends, whether the accused be at once dis-
charged, held to bail, or committed to prison till
the day of trial. But although the law vests
this discretionary power in the Magistrate, he is
not required to belong to the legal profession, to
be competent to the analysis of evidence, or to
possess that description of knowledge w hich is
often indispensable to the discovery of innocence, li
and the detection of guilt. Should the imputed
offence not be bailable, or should the party not
be able to obtain bail, he is detained in the gaol
until the next Assizes or Quarter Sessions ;
wheil after an imprisonment, perhaps, for several
months—the propriety of putting him on trial is
at length determined by a Grand Jury. No
evidence, however; is then received on his behalf,
and he is consequently often sent to the Bar of
Justice, when the hearing of his defence would
have procured his immediate discharge ; a fact
placed beyond question, by the 'numbers even-
tually acquitted by the Petit Jury. If the wit-
nesses be not in readiness, the prisoner is liable,
under certain circumstances, to be confined until
the
following gaol delivery.

" It is obvious, then, that the law chiefly depends for its
execution on the will of the aggrieved. This ground of
reliance is neither fa,ourable to morals, nor honourable to
legislation. It is frequently the occasion of injustice to the
accused, while it fails to afford adequate protection to the
public. If the prosecutor act upon the strength of his feel-
ings, they are apt to magnify his injuries and inflame his
passions. In a moment of anger, a man is charged with
an offence, committed to prison, arid after a long confine-
ment discharged, because the prosecutor has over-rated the
importance of his evidence ; or, because his resentment
having subsided, he declines to prosecute. Thus, should
he relent, and be willing to'forfeit his recognizances, a cri-
minal may escape, and the justice of the country be set at
nought. This disposition is considerably strengthened by
the delay aud expense to which a prosecutor is subject, which
present to him strong temptations to compromise the interests
of justice for the restitution of his property. But these are
not the only evils. Experience has abundantly shown
that the investigation of a case before a committing
magistrate, and the partial examination of the evi-
dence before a Grand Jury, are but imperfect modes of
arrivCl zst the truth. As no evidence on the part of the
awned is to ran before the Grand Jury, it may reasonably
be presumed, tbat where a bill is thrown out he ought
never to have been sent befpre that tribunal ; but the Ma-
gistrate not being compelled to receive this evidence in
favour of the prisoner, his eventful acquittal is no reflec-
tion on the justice of the original commitment. Thus the
law attaches no respoasibility to either institution; and it
can therefore r.frnrd no surprise that committals frequently
take place on insnfAcient grounds. Although the Lord
Advocate, as public proseptor, is not subject to any re-
sponsibility beyond that of the Judges in England, yet the
procurators-fiscal, who decide the majority of minor of-
fences, are liable both in damages and expenses in case of
improper cr groundless prosecution ; and examples are nu-
menus of their prise subjected to both by higher tribunals.
This is an evil (commigals insufficient grounds) of the
extent of which few persons are aware. Of the total num-
ber of poisoners committed for trial to the several gaols in
England and Wales, about one in seven are discharged by
the Grand Jury, and about one-third' are 'eventually
acquitted, after haying endured—frequently for several
months 7-01 the suffering, slisgrace, and injury of penal
imprisonment. The Grand .fury iss Es) case saves, nor from-
' the nature of the institution is it &signed to save—the
prisoner from raore than a few days' imprisonment before
trial, since it is not to he supposed the Grand Jury will
acquit any whom the Petit Jery would condemn. . .
. . . . If the great end of criminal
,;nclicature be the
prevention of crime, at the least cost of pei•kooal suf-
fering, this superiority of the Scottish over the English
system of proees!,are, in the trial of ordinary offences,
will be at once manifess. This superiority consists in
the immediate relief which isa affofsted to the prisoner,
who has in England to await the decision 4f is Grand
Jury. In the years 1821, 1822, and 1 tiO, the average
numi4er of persons annually tried in England amounted
to 10,843; ea the average number discharged by the
Grand Jury was 1,8,96. In the same years there were
transmitted to Edinburgh ;o; the opinion of the Crown
Counsel 1,768 cases, of whom were immediately
liberated. Thus in England, two nut of fo.vteen were
saved the sliagrace .of a public trial by the Grand Jury,
after an average of three months' imprisonment; while in
Scotland, two out a! eleven were immediately liberated.
But in Scotland, an additiowsl purnber of 413 cases were
referred back for immediate trial, ;44 these individuals
also ,escaped the further punishment of impsiaanment be-
fore trial. The benefit of the legal judgment of a public
prosecutor may be further estimated by the fact, that in
England the acquittals sre to the convictions as two to
seven, while in Scotland they are as one to seven ; a dif-
ference that can only arise from the Grain' ~Tory sending
to trial double the number, or twice as many cases of
defective evidence as would have been sent by the public
prosecutor."
.We cannot at present enter further on the va-
Ailc totes so.abJy discussed by the Committee.
. ,
na with regard 1041 are parti-
Their oo.7erv4tw
, ,
cularly entitledto :ware i 4114 we. ag.r,e,t3lPPsl,
cordially with them, !hat the (hstribution of
justice to the rich and poor, witii regard to:bgil,
is manifestly unequal ; and it is highly desirable
that some measure should be adopted by which
the labourer, when charged with petty offences,
and when, from the nature of his circumstances,
he cannot be supposed to find bail, may be saved
from the injury and .degradation of a prison."_
The rich have difficulty in conceiving that what
is no hardship to themselves can be a hardship to
others ; and hence the laws of England, framed
by rich Legislators, have, in all their provisions,
the convenience of the rich wily in view. We
are sorry to learn that the funds of the Society
are more than exhausted by the expellee of print-
ing their valuable Reports, and of their philan-
thropical experiments.—Morning Chronicle.
There are not many men in modern times who
will not suffer when compared to the late Pre-
mier. He was excelled in copiousness by Burke,
in dignity by Pitt, and i:. ratiocination by Fox ;
but none of these three masters of eloquence, un-
less, perhaps, the second, spoke so well and. so
convincingly on all subjects on which he ad-
dressed himself. His mind, like all original minds,
was capable of grasping equally the great and the
'l' Of this number a. large proportion are, doubtless,
guilty of the crimes with which they are charged; and
owe their acquittal to defective evidence, the imperfection
of the laws, or technicalities in their administration.