The Calcutta Law Journal Short Notes of Cases Articles and other Matters December 1921

I really believe that to this circumstance may be attrbuted the vulgar but very general notion of your being as a body suspicious distrustful and overcautious.” Whatever the failings of the lawyer in this respect the fact remains that there has been a general want of confidence in the prfession ; and aside from the adverse influ ence of a small proportion of the legal profession the w [...] The decision of the wise and just magistrate awarded the cheese to the litigants in equal proportions but having difficulty in making an exact division the judge proceeded alternately to bite off a portion of the larger morsel until both pieces were to the alarm and dismay of both litigants wholly consumed. [...] There is perhaps no more remarkable scene in literature than that potrayed by Scott in " The Heart of Midlothian." The solemnity and dig-nity of the trial the inexorable adherence to the law of the land the painstalting effort to discover the exact truth beginning with the administration of the oath by the presiding judge (not by an inferior court officer) and repeated by the witness : " The [...] XXXI V with the famous actor John T. Raymond who said that he hated all court-room scenes except those of the Merchant of Venice and the Heart of Midlothian." A brief excerpt from the Judge's charge to the jury reflects the spirit of dignity mercy and justice which pevaded the trial : " It is for the jury to consider whether the prosecutor has made out his plea. [...] The present laws as it n w stands has been instituted by the wisdom of our fathers to check the alarming prgress of a dreadful crime ; when it is found too severe for its purpose it will doubtless he altered by the wisdom of the legislature ; at present it is the law of the land the rule of the court and according to the oath which you have taken it must be that of the jury.