being a _blunder_, in which innocent people have been punished as _criminal_, and the _Criminal_ has _escaped_! A natural and simple examination of the accused, when first brought before the Judge, would have saved all this loss, suffering, and shame! Such an absurdity can only be to the advantage of the guilty! A man may be caught under circumstances of guilt so certain that there is no _rational_ hypothesis of innocence. Yet, with the very blood and property of the murdered perhaps upon him, surprised, red-handed in the very act, he will be treated as if he were merely _suspect_; _will be cautioned to say nothing_; will have every chance and opportunity to escape by reason of the unaccountable mode of procedure. For he is still innocent. Such is the hypothesis; and disregarding the obvious and simple way of asking for an explanation consistent with innocence (when guilt would be doubly manifest), the other ridiculous hypothesis is maintained, if possible, and the whole community and many innocent people are afflicted and tortured with the most minute and painful investigations (having perhaps no sort of relation to the matter), to see if some doubt may not arise _somehow_, not as to the guilt, but as to some parts of the case as _imagined_ to be! Thus, _theories_ of guilt are to be established when the fact is _patent_, if one will simply look at the proofs immediately at hand! In this case just supposed, too, there is no trial at all of the _man_ so clearly seen to be guilty. Twelve men are convened by a sort of inferior Judge, first to see how the dead man came to be dead--it is certain as anything can well be! Yet this kind of Court must go through the long, tedious, and painful inquiry, _how_ the man died. Witnesses are dragged from home, from their pursuits, ruined may be; the whole community horrified, and the twelve men kept from home and business, and shocked by the most disgusting examinations of the dead! This whole process seems rather designed to give fees and business to the petty Judge and officers who compose this singular tribunal. But when this _sham_ Court has got through, the accused meantime, and the witnesses, are still awaiting the real inquiry, which may be put off for many weeks.