ls; but, it is necessary to say it justifies hesitation in
receiving circumstantial evidence in capital crimes.

In short, save where a criminal is taken in the very act, or confesses
his guilt, it is not certain that the minister of justice can secure a
conviction. Sometimes the judge of inquiry is as anxious as the accused
himself. Nearly all crimes are in some particular point mysterious,
perhaps impenetrable to justice and the police; and the duty of the
advocate is, to discover this weak point, and thereon establish his
client's defence. By pointing out this doubt to the jury, he insinuates
in their minds a distrust of the entire evidence; and frequently the
detection of a distorted induction, cleverly exposed, can change the
face of a prosecution, and make a strong case appear to the jury a weak
one. This uncertainty explains the character of passion which is so
often perceptible in criminal trials.

And, in proportion to the march of civilisation, juries in important
trials will become more timid and hesitating. The weight of
responsibility oppresses the man of conscientious scruple. Already
numbers recoil from the idea of capital punishment; and, whenever a jury
can find a peg to hang a doubt on, they will wash their hands of the
responsibility of condemnation. We have seen numbers of persons signing
appeals for mercy to a condemned malefactor, condemned for what crime?
Parricide! Every juror, from the moment he is sworn, weighs infinitely
less the evidence he has come to listen to than the risk he runs of
incurring the pangs of remorse. Rather than risk the condemnation of one
innocent man, he will allow twenty scoundrels to go unpunished.

The accusation must then come before the jury, armed at all points, with
abundant proofs. A task often tedious to the investigating magistrate,
and bristling with difficulties, is the arrangement and condensation of
this evidence, particularly when the accused is a cool hand, certain of
having left no traces of his guilt. Then from the depths of his dungeon
he defies the assault of justice, and laughs at the judge of inquiry. It
is a terrible struggle, enough to make one tremble at the responsibility
of the magistrate, when he remembers, that after all, this man
imprisoned, without consolation or advice, may be innocent. How hard is
it, then for the judge to resist his moral convictions!

Even when presumptive evidence points clearly to the criminal,
and common sense reco