Why, it may be asked, rake over dying embers and fan again into flame a fire that is dying down? Is it not better that the Ross case should sink, with Ross, into oblivion? Even if he were now proved innocent, it may be said, he cannot be recalled to life, and no good purpose can be served by reviving the case. But in the first place, there are hundreds of people in whom the memory of the case is still quite fresh. With them it is not a question of reviving, but of discussing. And even though Ross be dead, death is not the end of all things. In Ross’s case it is a small matter compared to the dishonor associated with it. Ross has left behind him a mother and brothers who bear his name, and for a generation to come the name of a Ross will never be mentioned without recalling that particular bearer of it who died an ignominious death for a revolting murder. If all the truth has not come out, the community owes it to those of his blood left behind him that it shall be brought out. It is largely at the solicitation of those bearers of the name that this review is being written. But the interests of abstract justice also require something. Ross was condemned on evidence of a kind which puts the case in a class by itself. It has no parallel in the annals of British criminal jurisprudence. A perusal of this review, whether or not it satisfies the reader of the innocence of Ross, will, at least, satisfy him of the need for a close scrutiny of evidence of this kind; and future juries will be reminded of the necessity of never being stampeded by newspaper or popular clamor into preconceived ideas of the guilt of any man, and of ever being on their guard against perjury and conspiracy, even though they are not satisfied that either were present in this case. THE APPELLATE COURTS. At the outset it is desirable to correct a wrong impression which, very widely felt, has tended to allay the feeling of uneasiness in the public mind. Ross, as is well known, appealed to the Full Court of Victoria, which dismissed the appeal. Thence he carried his case to the High Court of Australia, which refused, one learned Judge dissenting, to interfere with the decision of the Supreme Court. From this fact it has been assumed that two Appellate Courts, consisting of three Judges and five Judges respectively, have endorsed the verdict of the jury. Nothing could be further from the facts. Substantially what the Appellate Courts were asked to say was (1) that there was no evidence on which a jury could rightly convict Ross; (2) that the Judge had failed to direct the jury properly on various points enumerated. To take the second point first, the Courts both declined to say that there was any non-direction, though Mr. Justice Isaacs, in the High Court, held that on one point the Judge had failed to direct the jury properly.