October 28, 1907.]
LC
The accused's need is so great that the witnesses are expected to grin and bear" these discomforts. Still, it does not seem quite fair, or conducive to pure justice.
PARTY.
(Daily Press, October 26th.)
269
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REFORT. facie suspicious. One or two unjust exe- that face before, I am sure, but where? cutions, based on suspicious circumstances To make the position clearer, ask any one apparent, we see principles coming into better, for with the numerous splits now afterwards explained away, are enough of those clever and observant lawyers, in his to make men chary of accepting anything office, to draw or describe the conformation promises.
their own again, and fewer sordid com- short of the most conclusive evidence; and of the Peak, as it appears from the harbour, attacking the party system than we would We would no more dream of it is certain that many an unfortunate has and to tell you the approximate number of of defying a typhoon, for such things we been hanged by the English law on very prominent buildings. Though seen by them know slender circumstantial evidence indeed. hundreds of times, they would all fail as parties were the Strong and the Weak, and must be. The two original great There was, in fact, a time when circum-ignominiously as the witness who could not stances
we have watched the strife of their modified were strained and twisted by remember the colour of the prisoner's eyes. posterity, the Rich and the Poor, the the prosecution somewhat after the But now take them away, for a week, a year, Educated and the Ignorant, Capital and manner described by DICKENS io the even for twenty years. Bring them then Labour, the Practical and the Impractical, famous trial of BARDELL V. PICKWICK. On into the barbour, without telling them and so on, without doubting for an instant the other hand, it is obvious that if no where they are: is it likely they would that such divisions are natural and inevit. murderers were to be punished save those hesitate to identify the scene, with certainty, able and possibly advantageous in the end, caught red-handed, or testified against by | beyond reasonable doubt? eye-witnesses of the crime, a great many however, the law excuses such methods of and darkness, good and evil, positive and Apparently, just as in the cosmos we must have light undesirable characters would be turned fighting the case for the accused. loose upon Society, and the number of such | cross-examining counsel for the defence, parties
The negative. But it would certainly make the crimes about two hundred a year in the
more vital and useful if their in the exercise of his ingenuity", as it was United Kingdom-would inevitably increase. gravely put the other day, may ignore formula, instead of growing like TOPSY, or, constituents were produced on Mr. TAFT's It is not "circumstantial evidence that recognised facts, and by baffling and con- needs to be shyed at, but the paucity of it. fusing the witnesses put even honest and born little Liberals and little Conservatives. as Mr. W. S. GILBERT bas put it, being One or two suspicious circumstances are not well-meating persons in an enough for a verdict of guilty, and jurors and unenviable light.
extremely It is to be hoped the education which is being forced upon the Filipinos may have the public do right to hesitate. When there
better results than it has had on the masseS is a whole chain of such suspicious or incri-
of England and- dare minating circumstances, however, all dove
we say it?—of America. In both countries the mass of tailing neatly, it is merc weakness to shirk the stern necessities of the case by a dislike
voters still prefer vicarious thinking. Lest for the somewhat misunderstood term "cir-
we seem to assert too much, let us call cumstantial evidence." In the great majority
attention to the remarks printed elsewhere of cases, no other evidence is possible.
in this issue, made by an observer whom Murderers do not usually go to work in the
the Americans themselves have been pleased The American Secretary for War, Mr. presence of witnesses. Suppose a man were TAFT, since he has left Hongkong's hospit- says that the increase of knowledge, of to a ccept as trustworthy. Mr. JAMES BRYCE known to have spent the day with another, able shore for the more familiar environ-
which American educationalists boast, has and that other were found a bleed corpse, unent of Manila, has done a great deal of not meant an increase of intellectual vigour, with the man washing his hands and een talking, as was to be expected. The British and President SCHURMAN, of Cornell Uni cealing a knife a few yards away, and that parliamentary tradition lingers with Ameri-versity, U.S.A., says that though Americans he made an attempt to run away when cans, who have a prodigious partiality for are probably the most intelligent human interrogated. There would be nothing but oratory, for what they think is eloquence. beings who ever trod this planet, their “circumstantial evidence" against him, and Sometimes this "infirmity of noble minds' yet, in such circumstances, what man would leads to something suspiciously like the out-order, their
intelligence is too much of the newspaper believe in his innocence, what jury fail to pourings at a young man's debating club, accurate, chaotic, and ill-digested. He would knowledge superficial, in- convict? It is for the judge and jury to and sometimes the necessity of saying some- decide if the evidence, circumstantial or thing produces what we are obliged to call and not merely to read and perceive. Un have the rising generation trained to think, otherwise, is sufficiently strong in that humbug. One remark that Mr. TAFT has fortunately, his colleagues do not all think particular case. There can be no generalis- just made to his friends the Filipinos was
with him. ing of the sort we have mentioned, no
Another American professor, to our mind quite unexpected and surpris. principle" "such as the one that has beening. He dwelt on the necessity of the
whose name, unfortunately, we have failed passing current among the gossips of Hong. Filipinos learning English, and expressed a
to remember, was quite recently advising his kong lately. We do not think that any hope that they would acquire such an educa- the procession," to
freshers" or sophomores to "keep up with "follow the band-wag, mistake was made by the last Grand Jury tion as would save them from the weakness gon", and so on, meaning that they were to to sit at Hongkong. Their decision was of following this or that man, and enable attach themselves to a party and work based on as much certainty as is humauly them to think for themselves. It was a possible.
enthusiastically for that party through thick We were struck by one feature of the ideal, and we could, had we sufficient faith dency in both countries to join a faction as virtuous wish, a noble and praiseworthy and thin. Already there is too great a ten- ADSETTS trial that seems worth mentioning in its probability, pray for its realization in
a bride is expected to join her husband, for incidentally. It arose in the cross-examina- the case of people other than the Filipinos. better or worse, and we fear that too often, tion of the witnesses to identification. They But what a surprising ideal to emanate from in both cases, the attachment is formed with were asked to describe particular features, an American from America, where the system as little thought. An immature Radical offhand, and not unnaturally were unable of party government is carried to its great-reads only the Radical papers, and would to do so.
It seems almost supererogatory est extreme, where to explain the phenomena of "remembering leaders conduct the mobs by their sonorous Opposition propaganda as it is for a theo- and other probably think it as wicked to study the faces," but for the sake of worried wit noses, and where, if anywhere, the national logical student to study materialistic or nesses, we may perhaps point out a fallacy interests are habitually sacrificed to those of agnostic literature. Mr. Taft asked the of the cross-examination. Cases of "mis-faction. Was it not an eminent Bostonian Filipinos to learn to think for themselves, taken identity" are sufficiently numerous who left on record his serious conviction that but somewhat discounted his own advice by to make cocksureness unbecoming, but on behalf of that not inconsiderable class of pose than to keep a party in power?
war was made on Spain for no worthier pur- warning them not to seek to divide Filipinos people who "never forget a face," we are
We and Auiericans. Why not, if independent do not mention these things in any pharisaic thinking brings a man to believe in the obliged to point out that such test questions spirit. Eugland is also party ridden, and independence of the Philippines? as were put to some of the witnesses prove we are still far from realizing the poet's nothing, even when they bring about the dream of a time when none will be for Party, desired discomfiture. This kuack of re- but all will be for State. It was party membering faces does not depend upon a considerations pure and simple-or impure conscious and deliberate inventory of the and duping the simple--which brought the component features. It might be impossible Chinese coulies back from South Africa; it on Monday to describe any one feature of is nothing but party necessities that allows the face remembered, but confronted with politicians to continue reviving the foolish it on the Tuesday, there would be no doubt, hopes of the Irish nationalists; and it is no hesitation, in saying, "that is the man.' }}
probably sheer funk, and want of confidence It seems to be a visual memory, a pictorial in the existing majority, that threatens to record in that section of the brain which thrust the people further beneath the in- waits
upon the
eye, and it needs the tolerant heel of the teetotal fanatics. stimalus of the next seeing to revive it. Paradoxically, however, it promises to be How often do we not say, "I have seen in England a case of the more parties the
64
bosses
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•
complaining of the constant unrest in the On October 17th was published a decree various provinces of the Empire, and laying the blame upon the high provincial authorities whose indifference or worse, with regard to the conduct of their subordinates has brought about The
such an undesirable state of affairs. punishment of a couple or so of civil or military officials in the distarbed districts is no remedy at all and it has, therefore, been decided by the Throne that from henceforth Viceroys and Governors coming to office in any province sre to be held responsible if six months after their arrival any disturbance or insurrection should arise within their several, jurisdictions,
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