Thus, the Verdict of the Jury (not the direct and honest opinion of twelve men in a rational and ordinary use of their minds) is recorded in the Court--_Not guilty_. And a murderer is at once discharged; perhaps escorted with applause from the place by associates of his evil courses. Restored to the community which doubts not his guilt, and which has been horrified, agitated, and oppressed by its frightful details! It will be noticed how admirably everything, in this system, works to procure the escape of the guilty; but it must not be overlooked that it falls with crushing weight upon the _innocent_. Simple and direct inquiry would generally clear him at once. But no--the _theory_ in the minds of the officers is, that this _innocency_ is a fraud; and the whole machinery works just as irrationally as before; because, the clear evidences of innocency are disregarded--the prisoner's guilt is unreasonably assumed (contrary to the reverse legal maxim) _by the officers_; and the whole crushing blow of this assumed guilt falls upon the innocent. He is thrust into prison; torn from family, friends, human sympathy; his actual trial is put off week after week, aye, month after month, whilst the officers hunt for what does not exist outside of their imaginations; and, finally, from sheer shame, the poor victim is discharged before an _actual trial_--discharged, it may be ruined and for ever tainted with the foul and unjust suspicion. Or, perhaps, finally _tried_, escapes after a long, tedious and confused scene; where the officers, anxious to convict one whom _they_ have so long assumed to be guilty, contrive to throw just enough of suspicion upon the victim to render his life ever after insupportable! However, he finally goes at large--ruined by enormous expenses, health shattered by confinement in prison, and _tainted_ in character. The victim of an absurd system--for the verdict is, for him, irrational and cruel. If, in the other case, _not guilty_ did not mean what the words imply--so, in this, the Jury give a no more meaning _Verdict_. No expression of any actual opinion. No sympathy, no regret; nothing to reinstate the unfortunate victim of official stolidity and conceit. _Nothing_ whatever; not so much as any compensation for loss of time and money. Meantime, during this pursuit of the innocent, the real criminal has got safely away.