To the Editor of the "NonrH-CHiNA Dany News"
Sin-—In a leaderette on the 30th ult, re the Casserley case, you said, inter alia, that one of these days an alteration, will undoubtedly be made in the system pf trial by jury, and you, went on to, describe how the judges do their utmost to direct the jury towards a course of a proper thinking iñ order to arrive at a fair and just verdict though they, the judges, cannot do everything possible io ensure a dispassionate judgment, in which they are so well qualified, ete,, etc.
That an improvement is wanting in this respect is quite obvious, and its advent warrants no further delay, or remain in the offing. Under present procedure the findings of juries very much depend upon the summing up of the presiding judge which, humanly, could be prejudiced, a possibility which should be guarded against in the interest of justice and equity.
Trial by jury is not the creation of modern thought, It has its, background in remote biblical records. In the Pentateuch we are told how murder and other criminal cases, in-elusive of important civil ones, were tried and decided by the elders of the community, Elders, in this sense, does, not, signify, aged and hoary people. They were men of importance and sagacity; men well versed in the law and common sense, men of integrity who could be relied upon for sound judgments and fairplay. Such men required no telling by a presiding judge how to receive a case and.how to decide it. They did so on the strength of their own intellect and ability. of understanding.
It is such men of a jury that we need, now, as ever, and these, could only be obtained from amongst the students of the law, viz, judges, magistrates and lawyers, who should be made to. attend, to cases in. courts, as juryman, In towns and counti where superabundance òf the law-faculty, is not available, members. of the community could be called to fill in the gap, but these should always be: in the minority, and, in' all respects, the foreman should be chosen from the law circle. Such an order could be established and become law by an act of parliament.
Business men, however fair minded and aboveboard they may be, are not conversant with the intricacies of the law, and are not, therefor expected to be able to decide, cases from points of law without the prompting of the judges, a procedure not, to my thinking, in consonance with the ideals of justice.
It requires the British Press to take the matter up and make a start, and we may, perhaps, in the course of a few years, see this an. accomplished fact. Would not the "N.C.D.N." make that start, and do it right now?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.