BRITISH JUDGES.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 932, 27 February 1872, Page 3

BRITISH JUDGES.

M. Taine, a Frenchman, in his notes upon England, remarks : —" One must read the account of the criminal cases in order to understand the elevated and dignified role filled by the judge. One never perceives the slightest symptom of persecution—the sentiments of the policeman, the instinct of the sportsman interested in the chase and desirous of bringing down the game. When the judge pronounces judgment it is with the authority and impartiality of a conscience perfectly convinced. There is neither declamation nor invective; he measures his expressions and delivers his well-con-sidered opinion with scrupulous precision ; and when to the legal sentence he adds a moral condemnation, the gravity and nobility of his accents are admirable. Many a time it has appeared to me that if Jusitce itself had a voice, it would thus speak. The man is entirely effaced as become the simple organ of truth and right. Under such an ascendant tbe convicted person should humiliate himself and accept his sentence. I know of no spectacle which can thus impress veneration for the law so solemnly on the heart of man." M. Taine finds that the individual is protected more than society, that legal proof is too difficult, and that many guilty people escape ; but in spite of these drawbacks he prefers the English to the French judge, who does the examination in chief and cross-examination himself, and often gets interested, if not excited in the game."