, 1874-09-30

charge that is being tried than the caprice or
the cunning of the editor who e~ontfives to con-
Eect it with the exciting topic of the day.
There is no arrangement, no balancing Of testi-
mOny public opinion is formed upon Isolated
statements of fact, or more often upon mere
statements of impressions, and day after day
each new assertion of this kind, dragged out of
its relation to the rest Of the story, gives a foot
ing for a new movement of the public mind.
The Newspaper surrender themselves without
scruple to the task of satisfying the craving of
the public appetite, and in their competitive
ardour they soon lose sight of the interests of
truth and justice. In a short time, too, almost
every person in the motley jury of millions,
which is the self-constituted tribunal that takes
cognisance of the cause, loses what little of the
judicial spirit be may have started with. Every
body forms a theory, and out CT the mass Of
relevant and irrelevant testimony is able to put
together q statcment of the case that will square
with his theory. A good deal of this was seen
among ourselves in the course Of the Tichborne
litigation, but this speculative method of doing
Justice was whoIesomely held in check by the
judicial direction of the proceedings, and the
authoritative determination Of the facts that
was to be expected from the jury. The alb.
sence in "trial by newspaper" eff any tests Of
the relevancy or the trustwOrthiness of the evil
dence adduced makes it next to impossible to
attain the trIth in tbs way or if one man
chances t0 reach certainty thus, his next neigh
bour, arguing frcm different evidence differ
emily presented, and following q different line
of reasoning, is pretty sure to reach q different
conclusion. So, in any case, the probabilities
of injustice are multiplied But a worse sort
Of injustice is still more likely to follow from
the enormous djSproprotiOn Of the penalty COM
pared with the offence. Trial by newspaper
exercises no discretion in its punishments. 1t
either acuuits by acclamatiOn-and thislt does
seldom-or it inficts upon the accused "a stain
like a wound" Such a stain, once flung upon
the character of q great leader OF men, or a
reyered public teacher, is almost ineradicable +;
if undeseryed, it is q calamity OF The most de-
pIorable kind, for it not only paralyses a force
that might be powerful for good, but it gener-
ates n cankering distrust Of goodness itself, and
a soothing Joy over the humiliation Of what
seemed TO be goodness.
This is one, and only one, Of the demorali-
sing effects that would flow from the universal
adoption Of Trial by Newspaper. The direct
contamination Of the offensive details with
which the American Newspaper fill their col
INNS is bad enough, but the exuItatiOn Of
base souls and narrow minds in the fall and
trampling under foot Of some character that
typi6ed a loftier ideal of morals, or a wider
sweep of intelligence, than the creeping ethics
or the purblind mental vision Of "the herd"
can tolerate, this is a disease which strikes
more dangerously and deeply into the c%onstitu-
ton Of a community than a mere appetite for
literary garbage. The same urgenerous III
stincts that delight in crying CHOW are the
mighty fallen " make themselves manifest also
in a cruelty ezulting over the exhibition of do
nestle torturcs, Of moral anguish, Of the bit
terest hatrcds, and the foulest ~trcasons. We
do not desire 70 diminish by a single jot the
severity Of that punishment, which is the nea-
West and most effective that can be applied to
offences against public morals, the penalty Of
publicity but the manner in which the penal
~ should be applied, and the limitations neoes-
sary to minimise the demoralisirg effect upon
the lower thought of tt community, seem, in
the United States, at any rate, to require not
Q little revision.