558 Notes of the Month on [Nov. 



a-year was spent in justifying bail. If the report of the commission of 

 law inquiry was attended to, the sum of between 700,(»00 and 800,000/.. 

 a-year would be swept away from such an useless direction, and added 

 to the fund for the payment of creditors." 



Every man's experience must corroborate all that can be said of the 

 frauds of debtors, flying away daily to live in luxury in foreign counti'ies 

 on the property which belongs to others. If this abominable abuse can 

 be checked, every honest man will wish well to the law commission, 

 and the law maker. 



One suggestion,^however, of this commission, strikes us as altogether 

 inadmissible. — " The following important recommendation appears in 

 the Third Report of the English Law Commissioners, which has just 

 been printed. It refers to civil causes : — ' Jury not to be kept in deli- 

 beration longer than twelve hours, unless at the end of that period they 

 unanimously apply for further time — at the end of that time, the con- 

 currence of nine to be a verdict. At the end of that time, and nine not 

 concurring, the cause to be a reinanet.' " 



Trial by jury is so essentially combined in the public feeling with all 

 public rights, that nothing could justify an innovation in it, but the most 

 extreme necessity. It is true, the proposal here relates only to civil 

 cases. But how soon may it not be applied to cases of life and death. 

 The chief dependence of an Englishman, hitherto, against arbitrary 

 power or false accusation, was, that twelve of his countrymen must be 

 unanimous in finding him guilty. Now he is to have the protection only 

 of nine. But if this refers merely to civil cases, how often is a man's 

 utter ruin dependent on the decision of a civil case. The opinion of a 

 jury of nine may turn him out of doors, and make himself and his family 

 paupers for life ; it may banish him from his country ; it may plunge 

 him into a gaol ; it may place him in a situation of misery, for which 

 death would be a most happy alternative. 



But where are the practical evils of the old number ? There may 

 be an obstinate blockhead on a jury, and he may defeat the course of 

 justice in a single instance, but still it is but one instance out of a thou- 

 sand. The law, too, provides a remedy, even for this delay of justice, 

 for it is no more. As for the suijtrestion of shortening the sitting of 

 the jury to twelve hours, it seems i-ational enough. The old system of 

 starving the jury into agreement, was tlie result of ruder times. But let 

 us retain the original number. The day may not be far off, when 

 Englishmen will require every protection that the old constitutional laws 

 can give. 



The miserable man who desecrates the name of Reverend, Taylor, the 

 late haranguer at the Rotunda, and now the denizen of Horsemonger 

 jail, has lately had his complaints brought once more before parliament. 

 The petition came from " certain frequenters of the Rotunda," and was 

 transmitted through the hands of Sir Francis Burdett. That this new 

 body of legislators should have found an advocate within the walls of 

 any legislature, is a curious instance of what is called the Uherality of 

 the times. But that Taylor's personal complaints were altogether 

 groundless, was distinctly stated by every man who had an opportunity 

 of witnessing the facts : — " IMr. Denison was glad of that opportunity of 

 explaining to the house the unfoundedness of the complaints respecting 

 the treatment of the Rev. R. Taylor. He stated liim to have been treated 



