The San Francisco call., 1896-06-08
SPECTACULAR JUSTICE.
A Frenchman's Comparison Between
English and French Courts.

A Frenchman's Comparison Between
English and French Courts.
M. Cruppi, the Procurator's subst1t ute,
in paper on French assize court trials,
used the Old Bailey as foil to set off the
assize court of the Seine. A sensational
criminal draws to the Palais de Justice a
brilliant crowd, who come to be stirred
and amused, as at playhouse. They ex-
peet alterations of weeping, laughing and
blood-curdling horrors. At the Old Bailey
there is nothing spectacular.
The court is dark, dingy hole. to which
narrow stairs and passages lead. Justice
is public, but the public were not thought
of by the architect. But the press is there,
and its presence constitutes publicity.
This hall of justice is not as spacious as
the least large of the correctional courts
of Paris. 1t is meant for business merely.
The one place where there is elbow-room
is in the dock. The prisoner can move
about there, stand up, sit down, come and
go. Soldiers do not guard him. A warder
sits in little corner pew and looks more
like scribe than iailer.
One soon sees that the prisoner is
sacred and intangible being. He discusses
from his notes in the tone of a creditor
claiming debt, and he may well do so,
for the proof of his alleged crime is due to
him. a table is in the lowest part of the
dark, dingy hole. Jammed around it are
counsel for and against. They are close to
the jury. Theatrical effects would be out
of place here. The air is thick with the
all-pervading London fog. No one gesticu-
lates. No face lights up or shows any sort
OF animation. There is no rustic of eIe-
CANT toilets.
NJ. Cruppi points out that the English
Judge is witness of what witnesses say,
and arbitrator, but never accuses. He re-
spects every right of the accused, and, if
need be, makes others do so, too. Should
he be nervous and cross the counsel for
the Crown will be made to feel unpleas-
antly his temper. English barristers
argue rather than plead. They are 80
close to the jury that if barrister in
vehement gesture thrusts forth his arm he
might knock over Juror. The thing is to
show proof or establish point of law,
and not to produce all effect.
The Old Bailey Jurors seem better suited
for their work than those of the Palais de
Justice. Their questions to the accused
and to witnesses are clear and to the point.
One often wonders at their quickness, after
the Judge sums up, at agreeing on a YER
dict. Every juror seems absolutely conf
dent in the wisdom and fairness of the
Judge. He is the sheet anchor.
Witnesses may have contradicted them
selves and each other, counsel may have
puzzled them, the prisoners counsel may
have proved black white. and the Attor-
ney-Geperal strained many points, but the
Judge is to declare what is true and fair.
He NEEDLES with nobody, but keeps on
taking notes until he has to sum up.
A juror feels his conscience may be at
rest if he follows the Judge in doubling a
witness or doubling the whole case of the
accused. NJ. Cruppi further says that it is
we'll to understand England, but danger
Gus to initiate her, because all her insti-
tutions are of secular growth and racy of
the soil. None OF her institutions is more
worthy of study than trial by jury, which
France has had for 100 years. but without
the English e.-Correspondenee of the
London Daily News.