The Plea of Insanity. 



301 



Another and a more serious embarrassment in the procedure arises 

 from the necessity of submitting the delicate, and often very difficult 

 question of insanity to an ordinary jury. 



The English jury system, which we inherit, has long been a theme 

 of unqualified panegyric ; and it must be conceded that, during some 

 periods of English history, it stood between the sovereign and his sub- 

 jects, a bulwark to the latter against the oppressive rule of the former. 

 But it may well be questioned whether the system has not outlived 

 its usefulness, especially under a popular government. 



In criminal cases, and notably where capital punishment follows 

 conviction, ignorance is the prime qualification of the jury. Each 

 juror drawn is challenged, and if he has formed such an opinion of 

 the guilt or innocence of the prisoner as would require evidence to 

 change, he is generally held disqualified. In this age and quarter of 

 the world, all intelligent persons read the newspapers: the newspapers 

 publish accounts of homicides, especially those occurring in the vicin- 

 age ; no person can read these accounts without forming such an opin- 

 ion as would require evidence to change ; and hence, intelligent per- 

 sons are, as a rule, excluded from the jury box. Under such a system, 

 wiiat does the average juror know of insanity in its occult phases? 

 Just about as much as he knows of Hebrew, or the nebular hypothesis 

 of La Place. Experts, called on both sides, give conflicting opinions 

 couched in language unintelligible to ordinary laymen ; a long cross- 

 examination follows, which sometimes only darkens counsel" ; then 

 follow the arguments and appeals of counsel, which serve to dazzle and 

 bewilder; and finally the judge delivers his carefully prepared charge, 

 formulated with reference to the diverse theories and judicial conflict 

 upon the vexed question, and better adapted to the understanding of 

 a lawyer or an expert than to an unlearned jury. By this time the 

 jury know less, if possible, about insanity and the prisoner's mental 

 condition than when the trial commenced. On retiring to their room, 

 if they enter upon discussion, like Milton's devils they "find no end 

 in wandering mazes lost." The result will be a disagreement, or a 

 profound united guess; and if the latter, the chances are that an in- 

 sane man will be executed for an irresponsible act, or that a responsi- 

 ble murderer will be let loose upon society. 



Curran once very cleverly satirized the jury system in a trial before 

 Lord Avonmore, who piqued himself, and not unjustly, on his pro- 

 found classical acquisitions. Phillips relates the anecdote as he heard 

 it from Curran's own lips. The latter was addressing a jury of Dublin 

 shop-keepers, so stupid and so illiterate that the finest flights of his 

 eloquence were lost on them; "I remember, gentlemen," said he, steal- 



