134
all Prisoners being assumed innocent until proved guilty-
20 Prisoners out
it
would be justifiable to confine them in order to ensure their appearance.
This
My Lord,
finding that they
I need scarcely say would only prove a remedy wears an unseemly appearance,
of 5
56
having been acquitted,
come of two
for
may, both for the sake of them after a confinement of months - But be this as it
for the convenience of Prosecutors and witnesses, and in common justice to the Prisoner, there certainly ought not to intervene a longer space between two Sessions than that at present allowed, viz. from the end of April to the 15th July, a period of two months and a half.
The issue of the last Session induced me personally, and in a friendly manner to consult the Chief Justice as to what measures could be adopted to prevent the evil. He admitted that the witnesses are generally liable to personal restraint, during perhaps a couple of months for the purpose of making good their charges, would prefer abandoning them altogether, or would, more probably, take the Law into their own hands and never return to the Colony.
Your Lordship will have the goodness to observe that the Session above alluded to, having opened on the 15th July, the previous one opened and closed on the 15th April, so that the 56 Prisoners in Jail in the absence of witnesses appeared to hint that, whenever there was good reason to believe that Witnesses intended to quit the Colony, it
(three months...
This, my Lord, is a true and honest account of the present state of our Principal Judicial establishment, which it appears to me is but ill adapted to the requirements of the Colony. Such as it is,