The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-12 00:00:00

TAAL BY JURY.

Gradually, at intervals, during the past ten years, have
misgivings disturbed the public mind with regard to the
perfect fitness of our jury system for the advanced intel-
ligence of the age, and the circumstances and relations of
society existent around us. The traditional veneration
which Englishmen have, time out of mind, entertained
for trial by jury has been shaken, and partly dissipated,
by that sternest of monitors, and most sweeping of re-
formers—common sense. " There is nothing," says
Shaftesbury, "so strong as habit." Custom is to a
people what habit is to a unit of the people. Respect
for an institution which has existed for centuries, and was
once the cherished guarantee for personal privileges and
security, may, without wonder, well remain after the
value of that institution has been greatly diminished.
The eulogies of those great constitutional lawyers Coke
and Ilale (supported since by Blackstone, and by some
later judges of the last century who have taken occasion
to enunciate an opinion upon the subject) are, we con-
fess, not to be lightly regarded ; but living in times widely
differing from theirs, it will surely be pardoned us if we
apply our own judgment to test the real value of the
praises bestowed upon the system when it was called
" The Glory of the English Law" and " The Palladium
of British Liberty." The nearer a writer lives to the
period when a great boon has been wrested from arbitrary
and irresponsible power by the people whence he has
sprung, and of which he forms a member, the higher will
be the consideration wherewith he regards the triumph
achieved. Hence the unqualified admiration expressed of
trial by jury by our early legal writers and historians, and
which, partly from conviction and more from custom, has
been repeated down to the present day. Here we must
guard against being supposed to hold the system cheaply
ourselves. We do no such thing: we are profoundly
convinced of its value as a guarantee against oppression
and injustice in criminal cases ; nor are we disposed to
wish for its total abolition in our civil tribunals. But
we protest against that unphilosophical mode of settling
a question which many of the upholders of trial by
jury adopt, who would have us render blind obedience to
tradition, and sacrifice conviction to precedent.
The printing-press and the steam-engine are after all
the best guardians of the liberties and privileges of Eng-
lishmen. The general diffusion of education, through the
instrumentality of the first, and the rapid dispersion of
intelligence by the latter, afford the safest guarantees
against arbitrary or despotic power on the part of a Go-
vernment, and against danger from the overthrow of the
laws of property by corrupt or tyrannical magistrates, that
can possibly exist. It is not to abolish this ancient insti-
tution, but to strengthen it, that we add our voice to the
call of those who demand a remodelling of trial by jury.
The frequent occurrence of notoriously erroneous verdicts
should alone insure this. There are many counties in
England and Wales where the incompetency of jurymen,
and absurd verdicts, have become proverbial, and often
are made occasion for merriment. A failure of justice is,
nevertheless, but a sorrowful jest. But the alarming mis-
carriage of the jury system where, as at present in Ireland,
a country is in danger (when, above all times, the vindi-
cation of the law is of vital consequence) has again at-
tracted the attention of the public, and, added to former
convictions, has turned the scale of opinion, and caused it
to fall heavily upon the arguments of those who would
prohibit change. It is repugnant to common sense to up-
hold a system in its entirety where the obstinacy of a par-
tisan or the sympathy of a rogue can effectually counter-
vail the honest opinion of eleven men, and defeat the ends
of justice. If laws are to be of any worth, they must have
means provided for their application. The social compact
is a submission to the authority of the laws devised by the
wisdom of the people, through their representatives, for
their mutual protection and advantage ; but these benefits
aie not secured, and the compact is imperilled, if laws be
constructed which there is not a sure method of rendering
effectual, because a pre-existing law, for want of adaption
to altered times and circumstances, renders their provi-
sions a nullity.—Law Times.

How TO KEEP HORSES FROM STRAYING.—The Ice-
landers have a curious custom, and a most effectual one,

of preventing horses from straying. Two gentlemen,
for instance, are riding together without attendants ; and,
wishing to alight for the purpose of visiting some object
at a distance from the road, they tie the head of one horse
to the tail of the other, and the head of this on the tail of
the former. In this state, it is utterly impossible that
they can move on either backwards or forwards : one
pulled one way and the other another ; and, therefore, if
disposed to move at all, it will be only in a circle, and
even then there must be an agreement to turn their heads
the same way.
WASTE IN SOWING.—An astounding fact on the fore-
ground of all inquiries respecting the seeds sown by far-
mers, is that an enormous proportion of them is destroyed,
or never germinates. This proportion has been computed
to amount to two-thirds of the entire quantity sown ; and
therefore to involve the stupendous annual waste, through-
out Great Britain and Ireland, of 4,666,666 quarters of
wheat, barley, and oats—a quantity equal to the support of
one million of human beings. One portion of the loss of
sown corn-seeds is easily traceable to birds'; and whatever
amount of this is occasioned by the overharrowing of light
soils might be prevented. Another portion of the loss is
traceable to the bursting and rotting effect of too much
moisture ; and whatever amount of this is occasioned by
the stagnation of rain water in furrows and hollows ought
to be ascribed to bad tillage or insufficient drainage. A
third portion of the loss is traceable to the trampling of
the horses, pressing the seeds beyond the action of the air,
or making holes over them for stagnant water; but this,
in the present state of husbandry, cannot be avoided. A
fourth portion of the loss is traceable to the exclusion of
air by adhesive clays, or undue exposure to frost or heat
by sandy soils ; and this, as well as the greater evil of
comparative infertility, might be cured by a little georgical
improvement. A fifth portion of the loss is very proba.
bly caused by the depredations of the numerous insects
which inhabit the sand • yet as the seed is not eaten by
them, but damaged or destroyed in consequence of their
peculiar habits of existence, this source of loss is a proper
subject for investigation for entomologists. A sixth por-
tion of the loss is. in some instances, very probably caused
by noxious metallic salts existing in combination with the
soil ; and this evil, as well as other evils of greater magni-
tude, forms a decided reason for a careful chemical analy-
sis of soils. A seventh portion of loss is possibly, though
not certainly, traceable to high electric influence; and this
consideration, in spite of being merely theoretic, is strong
enough to concur with reasons of greater weight for urging
upon scientific agriculturists the study of electricity and of
electric agency on soils and vegetation. An eighth por-
tion of the loss is, in many instances, manifestly occasioned
by the over-ripeness, the bad preservation, or the other-
wise damaged vitality of the seeds ; and this—often a very
abundant portion of loss—may easily be prevented by
using only seed-corn, all the grains of which, when tested
in the sample of one or two handfuls, will sink readily in
water. A ninth portion of the loss—and this both a ge-
neral and large portion—is caused by damage to the seed,
or absolute destruction to its vitality, from the blows of
the scutchers or the flail in threshing ; and this ought to
be prevented by a slow, cautious, and quite partial thresh-
ing of the selected sheaves for seed corn, leaving the re-
mainder of them to be afterwards threshed in the usual
manner for edible grain. A tenth portion of the loss, and
the last we shall mention, is indiscriminate sowing, or the
want of adaptation in the quantity of the seed to the
powers of the soil.—Rural Cyclopeedia.
FIRST STEAM-VESSEL WORKED IN SCOTLAND.—Mr.
Miller lived at Dalswinston, in Dumfries-shire; and in
1787, tried several experiments on the best mode of pro-
pelling single, double, and triple vessels, by the power of
men and of horses applied to paddle-wheels. Mr. Taylor,
who was at the time living with Mr. Miller in the capa-
city of tutor to bis family, suggested applying steam
power to move the paddles ; but neither of them could
devise a method of connecting the steam power with the
paddles. In this dilemma they resolved to seek the as-
sistance of Mr. Symington, an engineer, who was at that
period actively engaged in endeavouring to adapt the
steam-engine to carriages. The result was, that Syming-
ton, assisted by Miller and Taylor, constructed a small
engine, the castings of which, oddly enough, were executed
by a founder of the name of Watt ; and in October, 1788,
the engine was placed in a small pleasure-boat belonging
to Vlr. Miller, and was tried on Dalswinston lake. The
engine was placed on one side the boiler on the other,
and the paddle-wheels in the middle. With all the disad-
vantages of a first trial, and with cylinders only four inches
in diameter, the boat moved with a velocity of -five miles
an hour : and the engine was removed from the boat, and
preserved for many years as a trophy in Mr. Miller's li-
brary. An anxiety was now felt to try the experiment on
a grander scale ; and Mr. Miller purchased a large boat,
which was used on the Forth and Clyde canal, and which,
under-the joint zuperintendettoe of the three above-natnid
gentlemen, was fitted with engines and paddle-wheels,
and propelled at the rate of seven miles an hour. It is
curious that, with this great success, Mr. Miller, who was
the capitalist in these experiments, should have carried his
attempts no further. The boat was dismantled, and re-
garded only as a curiosity ; and Mr. Miller directed his
attention to the objects, which, as he conceived, held out
a more immediate prospect of improving the condition of
his country than of enriching himself. But Symington,
with happily more perseverance and determination, com-
menced a series of experiments on steam navigation, un-
der the patronage of Lord Dundas, which, although they
did not lead to the immediate adoption of steam-vessels
for commercial purposes, tended in no unimportant de-
gree to their establishment ; for it was mainly to the in-
spection of Symington's experiments and steam-boats
that Fulton was indebted for his ideas respecting steam
navigation. Fulton had made some experiments of a si-
milar nature to those of Symington on the Seine at Paris,
under the auspices of the American chancellor, Mr. Liv-
ingstone, who had tried to establish steam-boats in Ame-
rica, but failed. Fulton's experiments met with no better
success, for his vessel moved so slowly that the experi-
ment was pronounced to be a failure. Fulton subse-
quently went to Scotland, where he introduced himself to
Symington, who has left on record an account of Fulton's
visit. He says, " I was waited on by Mr. Fulton, who,
after making himself known, candidly told me that he was
lately from North America, and intended to return thi-
ther ; but having heard of our steam-boat operations, he
could not think of leaving this country without first wait-
ing upon me, in expectation of seeing the boat, and pro-
curing such information regarding it as I might be pleased
to communicate." Symington then goes on to relate,
that at Fulton's earnest entreaties he shewed him his
steam-engines, and put his steam-boat in motion, carry-
ing him eight miles in an hour and twenty minutes, " to
his great astonishment." Fulton made copious notes of
everything that he saw, and having obtained all the infor-
mation he could, which Symington declares he most libe-
rally imparted to him, ordered, it is said, a steam-engine
under an assumed name, from Bolton and Watt, and
shortly afterwards returned to America, where, in con-
junction with Livingstone, a patent was obtained, securing
to them the prospective advantages of steam navigation in
America, by what they rather insincerely termed their in.
vention of steam.boats.—Fraser's Magazine.