back into court, the Greffier reads to him the
conclusion of the jury, and the court pronounces his acquittal, or
sentences him to the penalty due the crime of which he has just been
convicted, even when this penalty is only a matter of police regulation.

The decision of the jury is supposed to be final, but when a prisoner is
found guilty and the court is convinced that the jury is entirely in
error, it may set the judgment aside and postpone the case to another
session. Against the sentence of the court, appeal may be made to the
Cour de Cassation. The Cour d'Assises exercises full jurisdiction in all
cases criminal, _correctionnelle_, or of the _Simple Police_, excepting
in the case of some special law. It takes cognizance, moreover, of
actions qualified as crimes, of actions qualified as misdemeanors which
a special law places under its jurisdiction,--misdemeanors committed
during its sessions, political misdemeanors and those of the press,
excepting offences against the public morality and slander, or insults
offered to individuals, which all come before the Tribunal
Correctionnel.

[Illustration: SCENE IN A MAIRIE DURING THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF
MILITARY CONSCRIPTS.

After a drawing by Pierre Vidal.]

One of the oldest and most characteristic features of the French
administration of justice, the _juge d'instruction_, has but recently
disappeared. The very extensive powers of this magistrate, but vaguely
defined by law and custom, lent themselves readily to the abuses which
undoubtedly constituted a grave defect in the criminal jurisprudence of
the nation. To him were confided all the details of the preliminary
investigation of a crime and the detection of the criminal, the seeking
for clues, the right of search, of arrest of any suspected characters,
of summoning witnesses and experts, of interrogating the accused,
and--but too generally--of wresting a confession from him by any means
that might present themselves. One of the methods employed was the
ostentatious consultation before him of a blank memorandum which, the
accused was given to understand, contained the complete avowal of a
confederate. In the famous _affaire Wilson_ of a few years ago,
concerning the alleged sale of decorations of the Legion of Honor, M.
Vigneau, the official charged with this investigation, telephoned to one
of these purchasers of red ribbons in the assumed character of M.
Wilson. These irregular practices, however, it is as