278
JURORS AND PUBLIC DUTY.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[October 29, 1906.
up
of
selfishness; but need there be any question could not be brought in in their antique of selfish 'gs at all? If a busy man were ascendency, as the actual rulers of the with any form of allowed to send a respectable substitute, sky, consistently nobody would suffer, and the harasse-l busi- | Christianity. Still the people had au Dess man would undoubtedly gain. It is affection for the old shrines, and could not certain that there are many men quite be tempted to desert them; gradually capable of doing jury work, who could spare stories of old saints, often in duplicate, with many of the old the time for it, and who would very fre- surrounded
enjop the experience; but attributes of the twins, grew quently
around these old shrines, and gradually too, with the growing_toleration the age the priests of the new religion found it safe to transfer the less objection. able of the old rites to the service of the Church. No district in the empire had been more faithful to the old beliefs than the plains of Lombardy, and nowhere had the church numbered more martyrs; with the general conversion it was not difficult. for the popular imagination to accommodate the old Twins with moderu martyrdoms. One of these tales centred in Saints Gervasins and Protasius, two brothers who
(Daily Press, 20th October) Sir FRANCIS PIGGOTT, Chief Justice, made two pronouncements at the Hongkong Supreme Court on Thursday which deserve special notice. One was more particularly directed to our Chinese fellow subjects, for it may be fairly presumed that most other British subjects are aware of the nature of the legal amendment which permits apparently the law provides for no discretion prisoner to give sworn evidence on his own
whatever in selecting jurors. No doubt if behalf. It is not easy to tell just what tried there would still be protests; and attitude is best to take in the interest of it is probably too utopian to expect that the public policy, regarding this incorporation official responsible would be permitted or into Hongkong practice of a practice now
consent to receive a list of volunteer jurors, fairly well established in Great Britain. always prepared to be called upon. That would be a commonsense way out of a To make the obvious remark that most
really awkward difficulty, and we feel sure a sufficiently large list could be obtained; "olo_custom" would be threatened, and the Law shares the China- There is, we man's reverence for that. believe, still another way out, but it is a
Chinese prisoners would do well to avoid the witness box, in view of the consequent cross-examination, seems scarcely proper; but we take it that their counsel will in all cases advise them, so we have little responsibility in the matter. For either whites or coloured prisoners, the privilege is a doubtful one.
In some cases, like the recent shooting case at Shanghai, it must be an undoubted advantage for the only man who really knows what happened to tell the circumstances. Juries, however, will always be suspicious of such evidence, realizing how much it is to the interest of the prisoner to colour it in his own favour while if a prisoner does not avail himself of the opportunity, they will be tempted to draw conclusions as to what might have come out in cross-examination. However, as we have said, it is the lawyers who can best apply discretion to such cases, and the task of explaining the position for or against devolves upon them.
Of considerably greater interest to the European community, although of less
moment, were the Chief Justice's remarks to and about jurors. It is the old story of Lusy men trying in various ways to evade what is officially regarded as a patriotic duty, and what is publicly described as a nuisance and a bore, entailing very often serious incon- venience and loss. Though His Lordship declared that personal pleas for exemption on such grounds as "insufficiency of staff” were inadmissible, we all know that in a busy commercial community like this the plea is at least an honest one, and perfectly understandable. The consequences of some business men sitting throughout a day in the jury box can easily be imagined. Less honest, perhaps, but more legal, are what the Chief Justice called friendly medical certificates", by which
"
we take it he referred to cases where a medical friend of a busy man might stretch a point and certify (as in one case we knew of) that the juror, being prone to hyperæs- thesia, was unfit to act as a juryman in a casc where physical injuries were to be mentioned and described. If such things are ever done or attempted in Hongkong, the Chief Justice has inade it plaiu that the medical certicate must be absolute and specific, certifying that the patient is unable and unfit to sit on the particular day concerned. Thus there seems little prospect of relief for busy meu; if they are too ill to sit on a jury, it is not likely that they will be well enough to attend to business. We cannot help sympathising with them, even though it be immoral politically. As practical men, they know that while all-importaut iu theory, most of the jury work could be as well done by less busy people, while their own services alsewhere are practically speaking indispens- able. His Lordship's reminder that absentee jurors simply transferred their duties to others reads like a high-minded rebuke of
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somewhat heroic measure, and we lack the courage to suggest it.
THE SYMBOL OF THE TWINS.
exist amongst us.
of their evidence.
(Daily Press, October 22ud.) Not the least interesting feature of our present civilisation is the large extent to the ordinary stress of our daily lives, still which prehistorie traditions, forgotten in
expressing some surprise at his companion's When the school-boy
prowess at marbles asseverates it by the little thinks that thousands of generations confirmatory exclamation, "by jeminy", he of school-boys before him, and not school. boys only but grave and reverend signors twin horsemen as a testimony to the truth as well, have made the same appeal to the
Twiss in particular have anything to saY But why should the
to public faith 7 - A small book of some 160 pages recently published by the Cambridge University Press The Cult of the Heavenly Twins", by J. RENDEL HARPIS M.A., D. Lrrr. throws some light on the subject. "How", asks Dr. RENDEL, HARRIS, modern man who swears by Gemini and "is one to make the connection between the those early forms of the cult which we have brought to light? It belongs, is the answer, to the time when the Twins have heen recognised as children of the sky, and have become associated with the sky-god. or thunder god, or ann-god as his assessors, And it is because of this connection that
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now
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bad perished, so said the story, in one of the persecutions. With the powerful aid of the two great dignitaries, Ambrose of Milan and Gregory of Tours, afterwards to become the great saints of the age, the cult of the new Twins, Gervais and Protase, rapidly spread,-to France on the one side, and où the other as far as Poland, where we find them as two youths in shining the queen and assuring her of success. white garments appearing before a battle to
transferred to one or other of these saints Amongst the other attributes of the Twins
were chariot racing and pugilistic St. Protase should have inherited from encounters, so, as Dr. Rendel has it, "if
Pollux an interest in single combats, the the athletes would then have found their patron, or rather would not have lost him." What if St. Gervais discharged a similar function for the charioteers? Can we predict what he would develop into? "In like- wise the name of Gervais became a popular one for cab-drivers as well as their machines; all the race of Jarvises and Jarveys and (arvies in England, Scotland, and Ireland arc named after the saint, and so is the carriag; which they drive, which is known in the later English literature 08
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gists, they do not know anything as to the jarvey". When we consult the etymolo-
raison d'etre of a Jarvey, whether man or machine, except that it is said that the name is given in honour of a celebrated brother of the craft who met his death by hanging. They do not discern Gervais the martyr behind the condemued Jarvie ".
But the story is world-wide, and if we can meet with it in old Greece, in the Romulus and Remus of ancient Rome, in the Jacob and Esau of the children of Israel, in the story of Cain and Abel, in the twin pillars before the Temple of Jerusalem,
the similar erections before the great shrine of Melkarth in Tyre,
or
Babylonian Gilgamesh and Eabani, why: should
or in the still olier tale of the
they became the guardians of public truth. Men swore by God and S. Polioctus because they had sworn by Jupiter and the Twins, and they swore by Jupiter because being a sky-god he was able to see everything that went on, and the Twins, being assessors of the sky-god share his knowledge' When froin reasons political as well as religious, the whole Roman Empire became Christian, the easier to accommodate the last batch of couverts a sort of compromise
we despair of finding it in converted into clapels where the was made, and many of the old shrines were China, whose old myths and legends may well bear comparison with those of Greece converts were permitted to continue many itself. As a fact we do, and the story loses them to Christian saints. Gradually too, tyro in Chinese of the old rites, provided that they addressed none of its instructiveness. The veriest literature knows the of the old festivals were taken up for the use Cheo dynasty. Suddenly, all unannounced, the calendar was shifted about so that many legend of the foundation of the (so-called) of the Church. Christinas day, Easter, the the " Prince of the West", whose name, Lady days, and the feasts of the two Saints Chang John were made to mark the return of the displays his character, appears on the (the Resplendent) sufficiently great natural divisions of the year:--mid-horizon, and warns the wicked king that he winter and the opening of spring, as well as the two solstices and the equinoxes. As the which he has permittel to accumulate has come to dispell the mists of darkness
most popular divinities in the older cult the around him. It was not his fortune to Twins who had been the ancient champions perform the task, but he leaves two equally of Italy could hardly be left out, but they brilliant sons, Fat, the Issuer', and 'Tan,
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