'LAW-ABIDINGNESS' IN THE SOUTH-WEST 225 



patriotic citizens. The editorial alluded to 

 proceeds to point out the necessity the judge 

 is under of ruling all doubtful points in 

 favour of the prisoner, the studied accumula- 

 tion of confusing evidence, in the sorting of 

 which the jury can expect little aid from a 

 judge, himself beset and harassed by counsel. 

 ' The tolerance of such abuses as now per- 

 vert a murder trial with us into an elaborate 

 piece of machinery to secure an acquittal or 

 a mis-trial turns justice into a mockery, and 

 puts a premium on crime.' This is a hard 

 saying, and no doubt has aroused indignant 

 disclaimers, yet it is an open secret that, if 

 justice were done, more than one of the self- 

 appointed rulers of an Eastern city now 

 temporarily snowed under by the righteous if 

 long-delaying wrath of its best citizens ought 

 to be looking through prison-bars ; and any- 

 one who has lived a few years on this side 

 knows to what divers uses the plea of * Self- 

 defence,' cleverly and unscrupulously handled, 

 can be put. That the condition of affairs 

 described above is not confined to the State 

 of New York, no one in the full possession 

 of his faculties can deny. Even should the 



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