Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1877 — Trial by Jury [ARTICLE]

Trial by Jury

1 swroox most of ns Ire familiar wfth traditional stories oi the inimitable eang froid ot barristers. lam glad to be able to say that this admirable quality is not a lost feature of the bar. I have just heard an instance of it whicb will compare with even the beat examples on record. On a popular eitteult, the other day, a bombers dier ot Um royal artillery waa'put -on tried for petjury. The evidence was clear and conclusive, and the dejected countenance of the prisoner showed that he' felt “ the gams was up," and that a long course of “toke and skilly" was in store for him. [The learned counsel for the prosecution sat down on the conclusion or his case, confident that the doom of that; perjured bombardier was sealed. Up rose the counsel for the defease, a junior of some three months' standing, and thus addressed the jury: “May ft plewe your Lordship—gentiemep of the jury,; J appear before you on behalf of the gallant soldier In' the dock. It Is not my intention to call witnesses and' to trespass further upon your valuable time. I shell content myself with inviting your special attention to. what I consider the main point at issue. Gentlemen, you have heard full particulars of the charge against the prisoner , from my learned friend and his witnesses; you will hear a second and able and lucid statement,of the case from my Lord, Whose turn to address you will come next. In the meantime, it is my duty to lay before you the real issue, ana it is this: .On the eve of a great European war, the extent and duration of which no one can predict, are you, as already overburdened tax-payers, or are you not, prepared to Consign the prisoner at the bar to a long period of imprisonment, and pay for a probably less efficient substitute to take his place and perform his military duties?” The learned Judge here interposed, and said that he really could not sit upon the bench and allow such a preposterously false and irrelevant issue to be put to the jury. The unabashed young counsel, however, hinted to his Lordship that they could not both address the jury at once, and,'in the words of Solomon, suggested that there was a time for everything, and that his Lordship’s had not yet come. The Judge gave way, and the counsel for the prisoner proceeded: “Gentlemen, I appeal to you as rate-payers whether the real issue is not what I have stated. Will you lose the services of a trained, able-bodied soldier and pay for a possibly inferior substitute, or will you not? That is the question I ask yon to answer, and I leave- it confidently in your hands." I need not say that in his subsequent charge to the jury, “m\lud" ridiculed this extraordinary appeal to the jury, and told them that what Jfaey had to consider was whether', or not the prisoner was guilty of the perjury with which he was charged, enlarging upon the serious extent to crime of f perjury affected the interests of society. His Lordship ceased, and the jury turned round in the box to consult. After less than five minutes’ consultation, the foreman pronounced the verfell from his hand, and his wig almost rose from his- head with koifcor as he stared at the counsel for the. prosecution, White the counsel fofr the prosecution stared in his turn at the Judge. The witnesses stared at one another,rand the perjured bombardier stared at the Court in general with an amazement which no words can adequately describe. No One seemed to believe his own senses as he heard this astoundin g verdict. But there ■teas the foreman smiling blandly, and his fellow-jurors blinking complacently at the prisoner, so it gradually dawned upon the gallant bombardier that he was free; that a jury of his enlightened countrymen had acquitted him. Thereupon he briskly stepped from ‘he dock and left the Court gayly with his friends to drink to the health of that noble institution, that palladium of British liberty—trial by jury.— Sporting Gaeette.