506 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
tion to the excellencies of the law, and in most cases to ignore, 
if not to defend, its defects ; I have taken an opposite view of my 
duty, and hope, by a candid statement of what is amiss, to draw 
attention to the necessity of providing a remedy." 
The lecturer then commented on the law of evidence, and con- 
tended that accused persons should be competent to give evidence, 
though they should not be obliged to answer any question unless 
they chose ; but if they answered untruly, they should be liable, 
like other witnesses, to the penalties of perjury. In his opinion 
the claims of mercy were abundantly satisfied if a prisoner was 
allowed to hold his tongue, and if a person had put himself into 
such an unfortunate situation that his guilt might reasonably be 
presumed from his sileoce, he could not think but that he richly 
deserved to be convicted. What the law in effect said to a 
prisoner was this : " It is probable, if you were allowed to speak, 
that you would be obliged either to confess yourself guilty, to tell 
a barefaced lie, or to be silent ; in any case you would be convicted 
to a certainty ; therefore, in case your silence should be construed 
into a confession of gulit, we will kindly shut your mouth. You 
may, it is true, if you are innocent, consider this a mistaken kind- 
ness ; but, on the other hand, if you are guilty, you will not fail 
to appreciate the considerate manner in which you have been 
treated." The lecturer then adverted to the inconsistencies in the 
law relating to the admission of confessions in evidence. He then 
discussed the admissibility of hearsay evidence, and proposed that 
with some exceptions every judge should be empowered to admit 
any evidence which he considered sufficiently material. He con- 
cluded with some general observations on law reform, which was, 
he said, the most potent engine of professional education, one 
reform, by educating the professions, paving the way for the next, 
so that he did not despair of seeing the time when justice, united 
to law, should reign supreme, and every legal quibble which 
threatened to divorce them should be hunted down and extirpated 
remorselessly by the united efforts of the bar and the bench. 
