The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2495, 4 January 1877, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1877.

We are told that where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise, but ignorance is not always bliss nor knowledge always folly ; and so as we live we learn, or if we do not learn the fault is traceable chiefly to ourselves. Something may be learnt by those ignorant of the,law from the charge —one well worth reading—of Mr Justice Gillies to the Grand Jury of the quarterly Supreme Court on the first session held in 1877. What he said, and the report appears to be taken down verbatim, is easily to be comprehended, and the fact that the Grand Jury threw out no less than seven bills of indictments says a good deal for the effect produced by (he charge upon their minds. There were twenty-one persons on the Grand Jury, and twenty-four prisoners charged with twenty-nine offences —among which were, unhappily, two of murder-^-had to be commented on. To three of these the judge drew particular attention, and in speaking of them evidently advised the jury to ignore the bills brought in. Speaking of the first of these, a charge of rape, he said unless there was further evidence brought in than that which appeared on the'depositions it was their (the Jury's) duty to ignore the bill. Oq this case the Judge spoke, as indeed he did on others, very much to the point. After describing the circumstances of the case, which need not be here repeated, he drew attention to the fact that the information was laid by a policeman, and not by the woman, and remarked that in his opinion such official interference is not desirable, neither could he see any grounds which warranted so serious a charge being brought forward against the prisoner. On the second case, a charge j of attempting to remove a house, Judge Gillies says they might have acted very j wrongly and illegally in what they did, but ' the remedy against them was by civil action and not by* recourse to criminal law; and speaking on this point, the point of criminal law we mean, further on the judge said .that magistrates should be careful of putting the criminal law in motion where the right of ownership is disputed. It appears from what was said on the third case, a. charge of cattle stealing, that either the magistrate or his clerk were, very ignorant of theirduty, and on this point words offftdvic^'were addressed to magistrates generally./ Speaking of two cases sent from the Thames, Mr Gillies says that "the most extraordinary course of conduct I have ever known appears to have been takeny both on behalf of the police and on the part of the committing magistrate;" and after commentingseverely on the action of the police in getting written confessions from prisoners proceeds to say that he is bound severely to condemn the practice of questioning prisoners when in custody, and advises juries generally, not the one alone which he was addressing, to pay.small heed to evidence thus elicited. On the other points of Judge Gillies' speech we need not dwell, save to reiterate that they are worth reading, as tending to an increase of knowledge. It appears quite plain that there were cases brought on for trial which should not have been brought on for trial, inasmuch as they caused both expense and vexation.