is apt to be a portentous document. The prisoner remains sitting during the reading, but at its close he is ordered to stand, and the president proceeds to interrogate him. This examination is fearful and wonderful. The judge speaks as if guilt had already been proved, and is exasperating and bully ing. It is a common thing for him to use such expressions as, "You wretched liar! Infernal scoundrel! No equivocation! What a falsehood that was! No more such devil try! " When the prisoner has been ques tioned and harried to the president's con tent, he is allowed to sit down, and the wit nesses are called. They are not sworn on a Bible, but lift their right hands, and swear to " tell the truth." There is no examina tion or cross-examination by counsel. It is the president who does all of the interroga ting, and he examines the witnesses for the prosecution first. Then those for the de fense come forward without any interposi tion in shape of a speech for the prisoner by his counsel. The speeches follow the taking of evidence, the prosecutor speaking first, and the defendant's counsel follow ing, each urging points and advancing theo ries and arguments. The president does not sum up, and his associates are silent. After the counsel for the defense concludes his speech, the prosecutor is privileged to reply. These speeches are nothing less than harangues, gushing, sentimental, and full of clap-trap. They are addressed to both bench and jury-box, and may occupy hours. During the trial the jury is not detained, and the jurymen go where they please with out any restrictions : but once they have re tired to consider the verdict, they are locked up until they arrive at a decision. The only person with whom they may com municate is the president, and he is summoned to their room if they desire to see him. On returning with the verdict, the president states a number of questions for the jury to answer, and these may number as many as a hundred, the answers being simply "Yes"
or " No." Unanimity is not required in the finding of the verdict, but in order to carry conviction there must be a majority of eight to four. Six to six acquit. If five pro nounce for acquittal and seven for convic tion, the prisoner gets the benefit of the minorite de faveur; and yet the Bench may add its three votes to the five and reverse the verdict. There is a proverbial uncer tainty about verdicts. The jury is prone to find out circonstances attenuantes, in a grave case, and these the judges must respect. Having answered all of the questions, the foreman lays his hand upon his heart and says, " Before God, and before men, and on my honor and conscience, the verdict is for acquittal" (or conviction, as the case may be). The prisoner is not in court either when the verdict is given or sentence pronounced. When he is brought in, the clerk reads him the decree, and if guilty he has three days to appeal to the court of cassation. Every prisoner appeals as a matter of course, and the higher court merely determines whether the trial was conducted with the due legal formalities. It does not enter into any question of right or wrong, but considers the merest trifles. A clerical error, or the least misstatement, is sufficient to secure a new trial. The upper court may not call up a case for months, and meantime the condemned prisoner is kept anxious. For that matter, there is nothing but anx iety for the unhappy man's lot. When he has been led from the clerk's desk, that is the end of it. The Bench and Bar have a dinner. The local authorities dine the judges. The jury has a feast. The pris oner languishes in jail. In his sentence there was not the slightest intimation as to when its provisions were to be carried out. He hears absolutely nothing of w'hat is being done for or against him outside the jail walls. His counsel gives him no infor mation as to his chances. It may be a month, or six, or a year, when the first
