What It Would Be Like In France By A Prewe Jenist, If I met Sir Henry Dickens, K.0., in the tube I should not recognize him again, but T know if T go on riding in the tube for ever I shall never meet him, Yet have I stood on the toe of a French judge (with mutual apologies) in a train, the "Landru Special," to be precise and T know I am likely to meet him at sny time.
These thoughts crossed my mind the other day when I sat in th Common Serjeant's Court at the Old Bailey, and tried to camps the different methods of meting out justice as practised in France If the Old Bailey were a French Court there would be a picture of the King, because in every court and police station in France there is a bust of the Republic. On the walls would be a motto, the equivalent "Liberty. Equality and Fraternity, There would be much more noises there would be much more fuss; Oh! much more of everything.
In France the judge is like the Public Prosecutor. He says to "Tell me now, why your wife?" To prisoner answer assumption of anger, comes back with: "Now, now; did you shoot her or did you strangle her?" France a prisoner is held to be guilty until he proves himself, innocent, "Landen Special."
On the Landru Special, as used to call the train which took the judge, the Public Prosecutor the witnesses, and the journalist to and fro from Versailles Paris, the judge was hail fellow with "everybody. One evening I saw him rise politely and give up his seat to a large blonde; then he stood and chatted with the Public Prosecutor, and from his pocket took a paper bag, and from the bag a sausage roll, which ho munched meditatively. T do not think the Common Serjeant would that.
cannot visualize the counsel for the defence in the coe at the Old Bailey going out into th lobby while the hearing is susponded, and talking to reporters and the public concerning the merits the case, I cannot imagine a man on trial for his life at the Old Bailey being treated as Jan animal at bay Press photographers standing on the ledge of the dock and fixing a hundred candle-power lamp to obtain a ood "close-up" as the judge pro-ounces sentence. Yet all these things have T™ seen across the Channel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.