imperilling the rights of the citizen, and to the great finan- 

 cial benefit of the community. Preserve if you will, all the 

 technical requirements of the law in the drawing of indict- 

 ments ; describe the offence fully, plainly, substantially, and 

 formally. But after the grand jury has once passed upon 

 the question of guilt or innocence, permit the proper officer 

 of the court under such restriction as the judge may deem 

 necessary to protect the rights of the accused, to amend 

 the indictment, as the pleadings in a civil action may be 

 amended, in order that the true crime which the grand jury 

 intended to present for trial may be accurately and legally 

 expressed. Thus the spirit of the constitution would be 

 observed, and the grotesque results which are a reproach to 

 our civilization would be avoided. 



Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of the law which 

 governs all English speaking people is that which forbids 

 the government to call the accused person as a witness 

 against himself. The contrast between this rule and the 

 practice which prevails in other countries was, not long ago, 

 curiously emphasized in the minds of those who followed 

 in the public press the accounts of two important trials 

 pi'oceeding at' the same time ; one the trial of a man and 

 woman in France for the strangling of their victim, and the 

 other the trial of Isaac Sawtelle in the neighboring state of 

 New Hampshire for the murder of his brother. In the 

 former case the prisoners were not only examined by the 

 government's counsel, but were subjected to rigid examina- 

 tion by the presiding judge, who mingled with his questions 

 a running fire of comment upon the prisoners' answers ; 

 and finally the trial appeared to degenerate into a debate in 

 which judge, counsel, witnesses and prisoners took part 

 This examination was not by consent of the prisoners. 



