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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 98, 25 April 1874, Page 2

Modern Torture.— The system of badgering and browbeating witnesses in colonial courts of law has often been commented upon by Judges, as well as the Press. But Magistrates do not sufficiently protpct witnesses in the minor Court?, and more frequently than not a miscarriage of justice ensues through the unfair questioning of a witness by counsel than perhaps Through any other cause. It is with pleasure we reproduce and read the following remarks recently mnde by the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench on the subject. He says: — '* I deeply deplore that members of tbe Bar so frequently put, unnecessarily, questions affectiug the private life ot witnesses, which are only justifiable when they go to the credibility of a witness. 1 havo watched closely the administration of justice in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and a little in Spain, as well as in the United States, in Canada, and in Ireland, and in no place have I seen witnesses so badgered, browbeaten, and in every way so brutally maltreated as in England The way in which we treat our witnesses is a national disgrace, and seriously obstructs instead of aiding the ends of justice. In England the most honorable and conscientious men loathe tho witness-box. Men and women of all ranks shrink with terror from subjecting themselves to the wautoa insult aud bullying, misnamed cross-examination, in our English

Courts. Watch the tremor that passes the frames of many persons as they, enter the witness-box. I remember to have seen so distinguished a man aa the late Sir Benjamin Brodie shiver as he entered tbe witness-box. I daresay his apprehension amounted to exquisite torture. Witueeses are just ns.nectssary for tho administration of justice as judges or jurymen, and are entitled to be treated with* the same consideration, aud their affairs and private lives ought to be held as sacred Irom the gaze of the public as those of the judges and jurymen. I venture to think that it ia the duty of a judge to allow no questions to be put to a -witne.es unless such as are clearly pertinent to the issue before the Court, except where tbe credibility of the witneestß is deliberately challenged by counsel, and that the credibility of a witness should not be wantonly challenged on slight grounds "