to the jury: in determining the sentence he is guided by the
regulations enacted by the committee, which affix punishments varying
with the magnitude of the offence and the age of the defendant, but
invest the judge with the power of increasing or diminishing the penalty
to the extent of one-fourth.' A copy of the sentence is laid before the
master, who has of course 'the power of mitigation or pardon.' From the
decision of the court there lies an appeal to the committee, which is
thus not only the legislative body, but also the supreme court of
judicature. Two such appeals however are all that have yet occurred:
both were brought by the attorney-general--of course therefore against
verdicts of acquittal; and both verdicts were reversed. Fresh evidence
however was in both cases laid before the committee in addition to that
which had been heard in the court below; and on this as well on other
grounds there was good reason to acquit the jury of all partiality.
Whilst appeals have thus been so rare from the verdicts of juries,
appeals from the decisions of the magistrate, and even from those of the
teachers, have been frequent: generally indeed the decisions have been
affirmed by the committee; and, when they have been reversed, in all but
two cases the reversal has met with the sanction of the teachers as a
body. Even in these two (where, by the way, the original decision was
only modified and not annulled); the Experimentalist is himself of
opinion (p. 12) that the non-concurrence of the teachers may possibly
have been owing to a partiality on their side. So far indeed as his
experience had then extended, the Experimentalist tells us (p. 79) that
'one solitary instance only' had occurred in which the verdict of the
jury did not coincide with his own opinion. This judgment, deliberately
pronounced by so competent a judge, combined with the entire
acquiescence in the verdict of the jury which is argued by the
non-existence of any appeals except on the side of the crown (and then
only in two instances), is a very striking attestation to the spirit of
conscientious justice developed in the students by this confidence in
their incorruptible integrity. 'Great,' says the Experimentalist,
'great, but of course unexpressed, anxiety has more than once been felt
by us--lest the influence of a leading boy, which in every school must
be considerable, should overcome the virtue of the jury: but our fears
have been uniformly relieved, a