290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



verdicts to which the judgments of Sancho Panza were, in comijarison, 

 as the judgments of Solomon ; and when we learn that for all this the 

 country pays their traveling expenses, their hotel bills, and so much 

 per diem for their services — we can not but believe that the day is not 

 far distant when the jury system, with all its glories and eccentricities, 

 will be a thing of the past. It is rude, clumsy, and out of harmony 

 with the progress of the world. It smacks of a former age and a 

 cruder civilization. It reminds one of the clod of earth, and the lictor's 

 rod ; the trial by ordeal, and benefit of clergy. It belongs to these, 

 and not to the age in which we live. With these it arose, and to these 

 it will in time be gathered. The question is. Has not that time arrived 

 now ? Is not the world capable of a more perfect system to-day ; and 

 if so, what ? 



No system that can be suggested as superior to the jury can be 

 positively shown in advance to be so. There are so many factors 

 of uncertain quantity which enter into the calculation, that nothing 

 like a perfect estimate of the respective merits of any two systems is 

 possible. By what rule of mathematics can we arrive at the respect- 

 ive wisdom and sagacity of a jury of twelve men as compared with a 

 bench of one, two, or three judges, or their respective honesty, impar- 

 tiality, and so on ? But more, perhaps, in the way of exact calculation 

 is possible than has yet been accomplished. Something is possible, at 

 least, by way of an exact estimate of the relative expense of any two 

 systems. That is one item. Then, something may be done, though 

 perhaps not much, by way of a comparison of the results of a certain 

 term or terms of court in a certain district, where the jury system pre- 

 vails, with those of a corresponding term or terms in a district where a 

 judge alone decides the questions at issue. In the item of exjDense 

 must be reckoned the loss to the country by reason of so many per- 

 sons being taken from their natural employments, the temptations into 

 which they are thrown, and the demoralizing influences to which they 

 are subject. But these calculations pertain more to a commission of 

 inquiry, and I do not propose to enter into them. Neither do I pro- 

 pose to enter, even theoretically, into the great question whether so- 

 ciety would not be the gainer in point of morality by an administration 

 of the criminal laws in which a jury would have no part, but merely, 

 by way of introduction to these questions, take a brief glance at what 

 the jury system really is. 



It will be admitted, I think, that the jury of real life does not cor- 

 respond to its ideal. There seems to be a vague, indefinable something 

 about it, which is ever whispering in the ear of Civilization, " Hold 

 fast by me, or you are lost ! " But examine the phantom, and it dis- 

 appears. Whatever of reality it may once have had, has passed away. 

 The language of the old encomiasts would now seem foolish and ex- 

 travagant. " The jury system," says one writer, " considered as a 

 means of deciding contestations between individuals and of ascertain- 



