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criminal procedure, some of it is, no doubt, due to the uncertainty 
which surrounds the conduct of the Home Secretary in dealing 
with the private appeals made to him for his intervention in the 
cases of convicted prisoners. Take the liberation of Mrs. Osborne 
this year. Would a poor woman have been thus leniently treated ? 
I have mentioned the case of Polizzione, and it is worth another word added. 
In February, 1865, this man was tried for the murder of Harrington, found 
guilty, and sentenced to death by Baron Martin, who said he ‘‘never heard 
more direct and conclusive evidence.” Mr. Negretti, after the trial, obtained 
much new evidence, and Polizzione was respited ; Mogni, a cousin of Polizzione, 
who was tried for the manslaughter of Mr. Harrington, and being found guilty, 
was sentenced to five years penal servitude. Mogni confessed that he, and not 
Polizzione, stabbed Harrington. Polizzione was afterwards liberated on a free 
pardon. (See Annual Register, 1865.) 
It has been put forward as an objection to the establishment of a 
Court of Criminal Appeal, that such a Court would weaken the 
position of the assize trials and diminish the responsibility of 
juries. To my way of thinking, nothing weakens our present 
system so much as the knowledge we have that occasionally 
undoubted criminals go scot free, and occasionally innocent 
persons are nearly hanged or sent to penal servitude. Eliminate 
the fallacies associated with our present system by providing a 
Court where mistakes can be publicly corrected, and the majesty 
of the law will be upheld. I am not aware that the appeals now 
provided for from the Courts of Summary Jurisdiction, the County 
Courts, and all Courts where civil business is transacted, have had 
any injurious influence upon justice in general; if it is so in the 
least degree. I have never-heard of any proposal to abolish such 
appeals; on the other hand, many efforts have been made to 
harmonize criminal procedure to civil procedure by establishing 
a Court to which appeals might be made. 
Let it be clearly understood, that upon a question of a sale of a 
horse, or a dog, or a cow, appeal is allowed, but not upon a case 
which concerns the life of a man. It is merely by accident that 
there may be some informal re-investigation of the case by the 
Home Secretary. It depends upon whether local or public 
interest happens to be excited by it. If not, the man or woman is 
oe 
