DECLINE OF CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 469 



of little consequence to the student, and of no interest to the 

 teacher. 



From the very beginning of his legal career the future lawyer 

 is made to feel that the field of criminal law is not the one in 

 which to exercise his best talents. Both the school curriculum 

 and popular sentiment strengthen this prejudice. To the com- 

 munity at large our criminal courts have come to mean places 

 where criminals are sentenced or rogues saved on technicalities; 

 they have ceased to be centers of justice, where innocent men are 

 saved and guilty men tried according to the law of the land. 

 Hence has arisen the popular belief (despite the rule that the ac- 

 cused shall be considered innocent until his guilt is proved), shared 

 in a measure by the bench and bar, that every man accused of 

 crime is criminal and depraved, and that, therefore, contact with 

 him should be avoided. Thus the criminal lawyer, who necessarily 

 must come in touch with such alleged crime and depravity, is prac- 

 tically ostracized not only from the community but also from the 

 civil forum. 



The existence of such prejudice against the criminal bar is most 

 deplorable. j\Ien of ability and position will shun criminal prac- 

 tice, leaving the field clear to unscrupulous shysters. Let it be 

 remembered that to a man charged with the commission of a crime 

 and deprived of his liberty the lawyer appears a savior; that the 

 accused is practically at his lawyer's mercy, being under most try- 

 ing duress and very easily influenced. The temptation for unpro- 

 fessional dealing is here at its highest, because of the manifest ad- 

 vantage of the lawyer who is able, or whom the client believes 

 to be able, to unlock the prison doors. It takes men of more than 

 ordinary fiber to persistently resist such temptation in all its forms. 

 Hence the necessity of upright and learned men at the criminal 

 bar. But how few are our great criminal practitioners! How 

 often have I heard lawyers, too young and clientless to allow them- 

 selves preferences, declare most decidedly that they were willing 

 to do anything "except criminal law " ! They had been trained to 

 look upon it not merely as inferior but as degrading practice. 

 Yet it is common knowledge that in European countries, where 

 less boast is made of inalienable rights, it is the ambition of all 

 lawyers to get a reputation at the criminal bar. It is there, in 

 fact, that reputations are made. 



It is likewise in those countries where many would make us 

 believe that life, liberty, and property are not as sacredly guarded 

 as in our own country, that the criminal laws are a constant object 

 of scholarly study and investigation. The great progress made 

 in the study of crime, the building up of a criminal science and 



