326 Modality. [CHAP. XIIL 



Stephen, in his work on English Criminal Law 1 , after 

 noticing and rejecting such standards as that last indi 

 cated, comes to the conclusion that the only standard recog 

 nized by our law is that which induces juries to convict : 

 &quot;What is judicial proof? That which being permitted by 

 law to be given in evidence, induces twelve men, chosen 

 according to the Jury Act, to say that, having heard it, their 

 minds are satisfied of the truth of the proposition which it 

 affirms. They may be prejudiced, they may be timid, they 

 may be rash, they may be ignorant; but the oath, the 

 number, and the property qualification, are intended, as far 

 as possible, to neutralize these disadvantages, and answer 

 precisely to the conditions imposed upon standards of value 

 or length.&quot; (p. 263.) 



To admit this is much about the same thing as to abandon 

 such a standard as unattainable. Evidence which induces- 

 a jury to convict may doubtless be a standard to me and 

 others of what we ought to consider reasonably certain/ 

 provided of course that the various juries are tolerably uni 

 form in their conclusions. But it clearly cannot be proposed 

 as a standard to the juries themselves ; if their decisions are 

 to be consistent and uniform, they want some external indi 

 cation to guide them. When a man is asking, How certain 

 ought I to feel? to give such an answer as the above is, 

 surely, merely telling him that he is to be as certain as 



1 The portions of this work which what should satisfy them. He corn- 

 treat of the nature of proof in gene- pares the legislative standard of cer- 

 ral, and of judicial proof in particu- tainty with that of value ; this latter 

 lar, are well worth reading by every is declared to be a certain weight of 

 logical student. It appears to me, gold, irrespective of the rarity or 

 however, that the author goes much commonness of that metal. So with 

 too far in the direction of regarding certainty ; if people grow more credu- 

 proof as subjective, that is as what lous the intrinsic value of the stand- 

 does satisfy people, rather than as ard will vary. 



