“The Victorian Full Court lately granted a new trial in the _Alert_ case, with costs against the unfortunate woman who won a verdict some few months ago. The _Alert_ foundered in a gale off Port Phillip Heads, and all hands, save one, were drowned. Mrs. Kilpatrick, widow of the second engineer, sued Huddart, Parker and Co., for damages, alleging that they had not taken every reasonable means to ensure the sea-worthiness of their vessel, her complaint being bracketed, so to speak, with a suggestion that the said _Alert_, having little margin of sea-worthiness to spare, stood always in need of special precautions against accident. The case was tried by Judge Williams and a jury of six, and Mrs. Kilpatrick was awarded £600 damages. Judge Williams explained his view of the law concerning shipowners’ responsibility, and analysed the evidence, and did his best, no doubt, to procure a fair, honest expression of intelligent opinion from the jurymen. Messrs. Huddart, Parker and Co. availed themselves of the Law of Appeal—which is the birthright of capital, and will remain its birthright until the people arise and kick. The Full Court set aside the verdict of Justice Williams’ jury. Widow Kilpatrick asked for justice, and thought she had got it in the form of £600 damages. Had _she_ lost the case, she didn’t possess the money-power to appeal—but this is, in legal eyes, an irrelevant detail. The Full Court finds that the outcome of a long trial was not justice, nor law, nor anything except costs. Justice Madden and his two colleagues ruled that “the jury had never considered the case in its true legal aspect.” Nobody knows the law, says the lawyers, nevertheless the true aspect of the thing they can’t swear to is easily recognised. This by the way. Perhaps the jurymen who gave damages to the engineer’s widow were all wrong, according to the Act. If so, Judge Williams, their adviser, should have told them that no vessel certificated by the Marine Board, and floating comfortably on the water, can be called unsea-worthy. The lack of proper fastenings to a pantry window may be of grave consequence when the vessel gets on her beam ends, “but this defect would not be obviously dangerous,” in the ordinary way, and sea-worthiness is estimated in quite an ordinary way, says the Full Court. Judge Williams, by this showing, should have directed the jury to find for the defendant, but the Full Court made no reference to him. Common-sense asks why Justice Williams allowed an obviously absurd verdict to pass. And if he couldn’t squelch it on the spot, why couldn’t he, seeing that one judge is, or ought to be, as good as the rest of them? And if it wasn’t absurd—but the list of questions that suggest themselves is appalling. The answer is costs. An appeal to a higher court is an accusation of injustice, or ignorance, or dense stupidity against the lower court. The setting aside of a jury’s verdict, on the ground that they “never