It applies to the period, from September 1794, till September 1795, which is chosen as a sort of medium between Peace and War. It is impossible to contemplate this collected aggregate of the prisoners annually discharged upon the Public, without feeling a strong anxiety to remedy an evil rendered extremely alarming, from the number which composes the dismal catalogue of Human Depravity. Every inquiry in the progress of this Work proves a radical defect somewhere. While the public tribunals are filled with Judges, the purity of whose conduct adds lustre to their own and the national character, why should not every subordinate part of the Criminal Jurisprudence of the Country be so organized, as to co-operate, in the greatest possible degree, with the efforts of those higher orders of the Magistracy in accomplishing the purposes of substantial justice?" Nothing could tend more to promote this object, than the appointment already proposed of a Public Prosecutor for the Crown. An institution of this kind would terrify the hordes of miscreants now at open war with the peaceable and useful part of the Community, in a greater degree than any one measure that could possibly be adopted. It would be the means of destroying those hopes and chances which encourage criminal people to persevere in their depredations upon the Public. N. B. Although the Author has been at infinite pains to render this Summary as exact as possible yet, from the different modes adopted in keeping the accounts of Prisons, he is not thoroughly satisfied in his own mind that the View he has here given is accurate, to a point.-He is, however, convinced that it will be found sufficiently so for the purpose. It would not only remove that aversion which Prosecutors manifest on many occasions, to come forward, for the purpose of promoting the ends of public justice; but it would prevent, in a great measure, the possibility of compounding felonies, or of suborning witnesses.* It would also be the means of counteracting the various tricks and devices of old thieves; and occasion an equal measure of Justice to be dealt out to them, as to the novices in crimes:-It would do more,-It would protect real innocence,-for in such cases the Public Prosecutor would never fail to act as the friend of the prisoner. The prevailing practice in criminal trials, in the * Notwithstanding the severity of the Law, the composition of felonies and misdemeanors is carried to a much greater height than it is almost possible to believe; and various artifices are resorted to, to elude the penalties.-An instance occurred in August 1792; where a Jew was ordered to take his trial for a rape, committed on a married woman.-The offence appeared, on examination, to be extremely aggravated.-The Grand Jury, however, did not find a bill; which was thought a very singular circumstance, as the proof had been so clear before the Magistrate. The reasons were afterwards sufficiently explained; which shew, what corrupt practices, artifices, and frauds will be used to defeat the ends of justice :--In consequence of a previous undertaking between the Jew and the husband of the woman who had been so grossly abused, a sum of £.20 was left in the hands of a publican, which the prosecutor was to receive if the bill was not found. In this confidence the woman gave a different evidence from that which she had given before the Magistrate. The Jew, however, cheated both the husband and the wife; for he no sooner discovered that he was safe, than he dé manded the money of the publican, and laughed at the prosecutor. true spirit of mildness and humanity, induces the Judge to act in some degree as counsel for the prisoner. Without a Prosecutor for the Crown, therefore, every trifling inaccuracy in the indictment is allowed to become a fatal obstacle to conviction;* circumstances which would frequently throw great light upon the charges, are not brought under the review of the jury, and thus public justice is defeated. Upon an average, the Magistrates of the Metropolis commit annually, (out of many times that number who are equally objects of punishment,) from about 2500 to 3000 persons, male and female, for trial, at the seven different Courts of Justice in and near the Metropolis; charged with a variety of felonies, misdemeanors, and other petty offences. But after fully convincing their own minds, from a careful, and in many instances, a most laborious investigation, that the partics are guilty, they are obliged, In criminal cases, a defective indictment is not aided by the verdict of a Jury, as defective pleadings are in civil cases. Indeed wherever life is concerned, great strictness has been at all times observed. That able and humane Judge, SIR MATTHEW HALE, complained above a century ago,† "That this strictness "has grown to be a blemish and inconvenience in the law and the "administration thereof; for that more offenders escape by the "over-easy car given to exceptions in indictments, than by their own innocence: and many times gross murders, burglaries, "robberies, and other heinous and crying offences remain unpunished, by those unseemly niceties; to the reproach of the Law, to the shame of the Government, to the encouragement of villainy, "and to the dishonour of God." 66 66 ↑ He died 1676. Hale, P. C. 193. from |