64 
said that a new trial would hardly ever be granted on the ground 
of fresh evidence. 
In non-capital cases, it is most improbable that any application 
would be made on this ground till a considerable length of time 
after judgment had elapsed, and then the difficulty of getting 
together: the original witnesses would usually be found insuperable, 
and the Court of Appeal would have to act on very imperfect 
information as to the circumstances accompanying the alleged 
crime. It is of importance not only to recognise the difficulties 
occasioned by the establishment of a Court of Criminal Appeal, 
but to discuss them fully in order to advance another step towards 
reform in our criminal procedure. I turn for a moment to an 
aspect of the question I have not seen touched upon anywhere, _ 
although, no doubt, it has crossed the minds of those interested in 
criminal appeal. 
It seems to me that for those whose business it may be to get up 
a case or prepare an accusation, be he policeman, lawyer, or doctor, 
and for those who are concerned in the trial, be he magistrate, 
counsel, juryman, or judge, that the knowledge that behind all 
said, done, or sworn, a Court of Appeal is prepared ready, perhaps, 
to overhaul false statements, perjuries, fallacies of observation, 
mistakes due to haste, and many other sources of error, it seems 
to me that such a Court would not have anything but a controlling 
effect, and that we should have more care exhibited to avoid 
blunders. 
The policeman would, perhaps, be more careful in his arrests if 
he felt sure that his promotion depended not only on the issue of 
the assize trial, but also upon the issue before a possible Court of 
Appeal. The lawyer who prepared the brief for the prosecution 
would hardly feel a sense of lessened responsibility, whilst medical 
and scientific witnesses would have to be far more careful in their 
investigations and analyses than they sometimes are at present. 
As for the judge, his notes would, if anything, be still more care- 
fully taken, and the witnesses more searchingly examined upon all 
doubtful points arising in the course of a grave charge. 
It stands to common sense, no less than to reason, that no one 
