lty," then, no matter how
overwhelming is the testimony against him on the trial, no matter if a
hundred witnesses prove his admission of all the facts, the whole is not
legally decisive like a plea of guilty; but the question still remains a
question of fact, and the jury alone can determine what the verdict
shall be. In other words, it is no less a question of fact for the
reason that the evidence is all one way and overwhelming, or that the
defendant has in his testimony admitted all the facts against himself.

The writer has intended this article for general rather than
professional readers, and has therefore not encumbered it with
authorities; but he has stated only rules and principles that are well
established and familiar to all persons practising in our courts of law.

This case illustrates an important defect in the law with regard to the
revision of verdicts and judgments in the United States Circuit Court.
In almost all other courts, an application for a new trial on the ground
of erroneous rulings by the judge, is made to a higher and independent
tribunal. In this court, however, an application for a new trial is
addressed to and decided by the same judge who tried the case, and whose
erroneous rulings are complained of. Such a motion was made and argued
by Miss Anthony's counsel before Judge Hunt, who refused to grant a new
trial. Thus it was Judge Hunt alone who was to decide whether Judge Hunt
was wrong. It is manifest that the opportunity for securing justice even
before the most honest of judges, would be somewhat less than before an
entirely distinct tribunal, as the judge would be prejudiced in favor of
his own opinion, and the best and most learned of judges are human and
fallible; while if a judge is disposed to be unfair, it is perfectly
easy for him to suppress all attempts of a party injured by his decision
to set it aside.

The only remedy for a party thus wronged is by an appeal to the public.
Such an appeal, as a friend of justice and of the law, without regard to
Miss Anthony's case in any other aspect, the writer makes in this
article. The public, thus the only appellate tribunal, should willingly
listen to such a case, and pass its own supreme and decisive judgment
upon it.

The writer cannot but regard Judge Hunt's course as not only irregular
as a matter of law, but a very dangerous encroachment on the right of
every person accused to be tried by a jury. It is by yielding to such
enc