The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-02-13

That OUR COMMENTS of last week on a recent
jury trial and on the system Of trials by jury in
general were quite sound, is evidenced by the
spasmodic attempts by writer's in the editorial
columns Of the Ga=eus to reply thereto. No
less than four separate articles, ali short and
jerky, are devoted to the ADVERTISER in this con-
~nection, and the arguments are all ad ogptandl1n.
A harmless insinua,ion is thrown out in the re-
mark that the 81 well-adyised reader (which the
writer is clearly not) may be amused at the coin
cidence between the opinion of the presiding
judge and that expressed by us, in our previous
issue. We confess that we were agreeabIy sur
prised by the decision Of the court. But the
idea that n judge will permit a hint of the tenor
Of his decision to reach the press before it is de-
livered from the bench, is indeed amusing; per-
haps the amusement would be equally great were
we,-in view of the fact that our ''opinion "
was made public some hours before that of the
judge,-to make claim to having decided the
mind Of his Honor.
"a person Of unsound mind. (says the Gazette
or when drunk or influenced by fear or hope of
reward may do irresponsible acts Quite true;
and the enunciation Of this postulate is very well
for a law student, which we take the writer to
be; but let US add, that the plea of such a person
will never be taken by any judge or justice of
common sense. There is no pretense that any
such state of facts existed in the case under re-
view. The plea Of guilty was intelligently made.
by a Perfectly competent person, and therefore,
as the writer remarks. "No appeal should ever
be allowed after such a plea, if it was conclusive 8"
which it was.
"Take it upon any ground, the method of set
Ting the question applied by the presiding JUS
tice : was one OF those short cuts that fail of true
economy" This is a bare assertion, and a most
baseless one. No one can doubt but that it
would have proved, as a precedent, the falsest
sort Of economy had the proceedings in this case
been allowed to stand on the record. While it
may be easy, for those who slack capacity as
sound thinkers and builders to carp at what
has been done, it is evidently not 50 easy to indi-
cate what else should have been done. Will the
Gazette writer's point out the particular 'cut y
they would have adopted under the circumstances?
Perhaps our contemporary is correct IN beliey-
ing that the " time honored " system of trials by
jury is noe in immediate danger; that its wisdom,
in this age of enlightenment is seriously ques-
toned by some of the best thinkers and writers,
is an undoubted fact. And it is also a significant
fact that in controversies involving large and i'm
portant interests, the tendency is to submit their
decision to judges rather than to juries. We
shall not be compelled to search long or far for a
reason for this. A jury is temporary tribunal
which, after rendering its decision, dissolves and
is lost in he community from which it emerged,
with no tangible responsibility attaching to its
individual members. Judges, on the contrary,
are permanent marks for public observation and
criticism on their record. There can be no ques-
ton as to which Of the twO-Judges or Jurors
have the highest incentives to be careful and just;
leaving out Of the discussion the anomaly-time-
honored though il may be-of taking men by lot
from every walk Of life to weigh evidence and de-
eide questions Of an intricate nature, in preference
to men specially edEeated to that end.
# A ---- ,.C,- ururoprr.r Eaafa IN rayarI ~ fla