WEST ROXBURY PARK. 81 



me to guard myself at every point by good, intelligent, 

 competent witnesses, in ordei* to protect my sacred 

 rights. This unrighteous verdict, just rendered in our 

 Superior Court, has pi'operly awakened our best citizens 

 to the importance of solving the cause of this mysteri- 

 ous decision, that the sacredness and dignity of our 

 tribunals of justice shall not be allowed to sink into ob- 

 locpiy and ridicule, for "law and evidence" no longer 

 rule the jury, but some evil genius is permitted to block 

 the wheels of justice. I shall therefore protest emphat- 

 ically against having my claims against the City of 

 Boston presented and tried by this same jury, preferring 

 to submit to one clean out-and-out robbery ! 



I ask no testimony from you, uov anybody else, that 

 cannot be conscientiously and cheerfully offered as a 

 witness, nor would I call upon you to do this unpleas- 

 ant service if I could possibly do without your valued 

 evidence, knowing as you do the absolute sales, and the 

 value of my lands, as well as that of the surrounding 

 property. The question arises. Why, if such an act of 

 barefaced injustice can by any possibility be repeated 

 in our courts, prompt and decided action should not 

 be taken to change our system of jury trials to some- 

 thing better? 



Are our average jurymen capable of determining the 

 true values of large estates? or any other claims involv- 

 ing more than the sums of five or ten thousand dollars? 

 Why not have large claims, in justice to both i)arties in 

 interest, always settled by three competent, intelligent 

 referees, or even one good judge? 



In the case of Peters vs. city of Boston, the weight 

 of evidence was given in favor of 16 to 23 cents per foot, 



