1^29.] My Inabilities. 271 



of the catalogue of the British Museum are finished, it would furnish a 

 curious standard, by which to estimate the labours of a scholar in the 

 sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, if the pen were run through every 

 book, in every language, which has been written since the reign of 

 Elizabeth, and which are considered as standard works in their several 

 departments of literature or science. And yet I doubt, exceedingly, 

 whether we ai'e one jot wiser, or more erudite, in the strict sense of those 

 terms, than were those ancestors of our, who had not the advantage of 

 reading all that their posterity has given to the world. 



I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO UNDERSTAND why a man should be not 

 merely peniiitted or expected, but absolutely persuaded and almost com- 

 pelled, by a judge, sitting on the judgment seat, and representing there 

 the dignity and purity of justice, to tell a bold, deliberate, and notorious 

 LIE. Yet, this is what every culprit does, or is expected to do, and if 

 he refuse, is persuaded to do, when he is arraigned at the bar of a crimi- 

 nal court, and pleads to the arraignment, " not guilty." And why is 

 this judicial form insisted upon .'' Not that guilt may more certainly be 

 punished, but that it may have all the benefit of legal fictions and quib- 

 bles, for its possible escape. A case actually occurred at the Old Bailey, 

 about eighteen months ago, where a young man of respectable con- 

 nexions, was indicted for forgerj^. He pleaded " guilty ;" that is, he 

 confessed his guilt ; but he was induced, after much persuasion from 

 the bench, to retract his plea, and substitute for it the usual one of not 

 guilty. The trial proceeded — there was some flaw in the indictment, or 

 some defect in the evidence, and the judge directed the jury to return a 

 verdit of not guilty ! Now this was all very well for the culprit; and 

 he must have felt himself most agreeably bewildered with surprise and 

 joy at finding his neck so unexpectedly slipped out of the halter : but 

 what an indescribable satire it was upon the grave and impartial 

 administration of justice ! A criminal placed at the bar is asked whether 

 he is guilty or not guilty of the offence with which he is charged ; he 

 says, " I am guilty, I acknowledge my crime, and I am prepared to 

 atone for it ;" when in steps the judge himself, exhorts him to tell a lie, 

 entreats him not to be hanged, though he deserves it, and finally suc- 

 ceeds in placing liim in a situation where he can escape from the conse- 

 quences of his own frank confession, only by a gross mockery of all law. 

 The very ground upon which he is urged to forswear himself, is one that 

 proclaims the inadequacy of the law to protect the subject, and to punish 

 the guilty. Why call upon a man at all to say whether he is guilty or 

 not, when the fact of his guilt must be established, not by what he admits 

 or denies, but by sufficient evidence .'' Why obtrude such a practical 

 illustration of the lottery of justice, as to compel a man to take his chance 

 of drawing a prize or a blank ? But above all, why make the judge 

 himself play the pander for a lie ? M. 



Our ink was hardly dry, when we read in a newspaper the following 

 extraordinarygillustration of the practice referred to : — 



" Northern Circuit. 



" York, Auf/nst 5th. 

 " Mr. Justice Littledale took his scat upon the bench at iiiiiL' o'clock. 

 " James I'illinj,'-, against whom there were five iTidictmcnts for passing- 



