but neither would he see any man whom a similarity of circumstances might engage to take a concern in his fate: and their rank, especially when joined with their numbers, would appear to him to lift them above that which over-awes injustice, where the law has been unable to secure any other check, -I mean the reproaches of the public.

And these his fears would be considerably heightened, if, by the admission of the jurisprudence received among certain nations, he beheld those tribunals, already so formidable, wrap themselves up in mystery, and be made, as it were, inaccessible*.

* An allusion is made here to the secrecy with which the proceedings, in the administration of criminal justice, are to be carried on, according to the rules of the civil law, which in that respect are adopted over all Europe. As soon as the prisoner is committed, he is debarred of the sight of every body, till he has gone through his several examinations. One or two judges are appointed to examine him, with a clerk to take his answers in writing: and he stands alone before them in some private room in the prison. The witnesses are to be examined apart, and he is not admitted to see them till their evidence is closed: they are then confronted together before all the judges, to the end that the witnesses may see if the prisoner is really the man they meant in giving their respective evidences, and that the prisoner may object to such of them as he shall think proper. This done, the depositions of those witnesses

He could not think, without dismay, of those vast prisons within which he is one day perhaps to be immured-of those proceedings, unknown to him, through which he is to pass-of that total seclusion from the society of other menor of those long and secret examinations, in which, abandoned wholly to himself, he will have nothing but a passive defence to oppose

who are adjudged upon trial to be exceptionable, are set aside the depositions of the others are to be laid before the judges, as well as the answers of the prisoner, who has been previously called upon to confirm or deny them in their presence; and a copy of the whole is delivered to him, that he may, with the assistance of a counsel, which is now granted him, prepare for his justification. The judges are, as has been said before, to decide both upon the matter of law and the matter of fact, as well as upon all incidents that may arise during the course of the proceedings, such as admitting witnesses to be heard in behalf of the prisoner, &c.

This mode of criminal judicature may be useful as to the bare discovery of truth,-a point which I do not propose to discuss here; but, at the same time, a prisoner is so completely delivered up into the hands of the judges, who even can detain him almost at pleasure by multiplying or delaying his examinations, that, whenever it is adopted, men are almost as much afraid of being accused, as of being guilty, and especially grow very cautious how they interfere in public matters. We shall see presently how the trial by jury, peculiar to the English nation, is admirably adapted to the nature of a free state.

to the artfully varied questions of men, whose intentions he shall at least mistrust; and in which his spirits, broken down by solitude, shall receive no support, either from the counsels of his friends, or the looks of those who may offer up vows for his deliverance.

The security of the individual, and the consciousness of that security, being then equally essential to the enjoyment of liberty, and necessary for the preservation of it, these two points must never be left out of sight, in the establishment of a judicial power; and I conceive that they necessarily lead to the following

maxims.

In the first place I shall remind the reader of what has been laid down above, that the judicial authority ought never to reside in an independent body; still less in him who is already the trustee of the executive power.

Secondly, the party accused ought to be provided with all possible means of defence. Above all things the whole proceedings ought to be public. The courts, and their different forms, must be such as to inspire respect, but never terror: and the cases ought to be so accurately ascertained, the limits so clearly marked, that neither the executive power, nor the judges,

may ever hope to transgress them with impunity.

In fine, since we must absolutely pay a price for the advantage of living in society, not only by relinquishing some share of our natural liberty (a surrender which, in a wisely-framed government, a wise man will make without reluctance), but even also by resigning part of our personal security,—in a word, since all judicial power is an evil, though a necessary one, no care should be omitted to reduce as far as possible the dangers of it.

As there is, however, a period at which the prudence of nian must stop, at which the safety of the individual must be given up, and the law is to resign him to the judgement of a few persons, that is (to speak plainly), to a decision in some sense arbitrary, it is necessary that the law should narrow as far as possible this sphere of peril, and so order matters, that when the subject shall happen to be summoned to the decision of his fate by the fallible conscience of a few of his fellow-creatures, he may always find in them advocates, and never adversaries.

CHAPTER III.

The Subject continued.

AFTER having offered to the reader, in the preceding chapter, such general considerations. as I thought necessary, in order to convey a more just idea of the spirit of the criminal judicature in England, and of the advantages peculiar to it, I now proceed to exhibit the particulars.

When a person is charged with a crime, the magistrate, who is called in England a justice of the peace, issues a warrant to apprehend him ; but this warrant can be no more than an order for bringing the party before him: he must then hear him, and take down in writing his answers, together with the different informations. If it appears, on this examination, either that the crime laid to the charge of the person who is brought before the justice was not committed, or that there is no just ground to suspect him. of it, he must be set absolutely at liberty; if the contrary results from the examination, the party accused must give bail for his appearance to answer to the charge, unless in capital cases; for