Not that there was any avoidable brutality, or even indecorum, in the conduct of the trials that I saw. A spade was necessarily called a spade; but it seemed to me that with all the lapse of time and foreign alloy the old Puritan seriousness was making itself felt even here, and subduing the tone of the procedure to a grave decency consonant with the inquiries of justice. For it was really justice that was administered, so far as I could see; and justice that was by no means blind, but very open-eyed and keen-sighted. The causes were decided by one man, from evidence usually extracted out of writhing reluctance or abysmal stupidity, and the judgment must be formed and the sentence given where the magistrate sat, amid the confusion of the crowded room. Yet, except in the case of my poor thief, I did not see him hesitate; and I did not doubt his wisdom even in that case. His decisions seemed to me the result of most patient and wonderfully rapid cogitation, and in dealing with the witnesses he never lost his temper amid densities of dullness which it is quite impossible to do more than indicate. If it were necessary, for example, to establish the fact that a handkerchief was white, it was not to be done without some such colloquy as this:-- “Was it a white handkerchief?” “Sor?” “Was the handkerchief white?” “Was it white, sor?” “Yes, was it white?” “Was what white, sor?” “The handkerchief,--was the handkerchief white?” “What handkerchief, sor?” “The handkerchief you just mentioned,--the handkerchief that the defendant dropped.” “I didn’t see it, sor.” “Didn’t see the handkerchief?” “Didn’t see him drop it, sor.” “Well, did you see the handkerchief?” “The handkerchief, sor? Oh, yes, sor! _I_ saw it,--I saw the _handkerchief_.” “Well, was it _white_?” “It was, sor.” A boy who complained of another for assaulting him said that he knocked him down. “How did he knock you down?” asked the judge. “Did he knock you down with his fist or his open hand?” “Yes, sor.” “Which did he do it with?” “Put his arms round me and knocked me down.” “Then he didn’t _knock_ you down. He _threw_ you down.” “Yes, sor. He didn’t t’row me down. Put his arms round me and knocked me down.” It would be impossible to caricature these things, or to exaggerate the charitable long-suffering that dealt with such cases. Sometimes, as if in mere despair, the judge called the parties to him, and questioned them privately; after which the case seemed to be settled, without further trial. X.