I do not for a moment say that the learned counsel was inaccurate in his statement of a legal proposition. It may be that such is the law; but if it is what does it mean? The police have honest statements of citizens in their hands suggesting that a man has committed murder, they have equally honest statements from other witnesses that the murder has been committed by a woman. However mistaken they may believe the latter statements to be, surely fair play demands that the prisoner should have access to these statements for what they are worth. After all he is at present to be deemed an innocent man, he is not even committed for trial, and he is a citizen with as much right to the protection of the police as any other. If they have statements going to prove his innocence he ought to have access to them and be told who has made them so that he and his solicitor can see how far they help to prove his case. But no, that is not the official view. Counsel for the Crown no doubt states it correctly. The proper thing is for the solicitor for the defence to go about at the expense of the poor man he is defending and find these people out and take statements afresh. It is a denial of justice, the man has not the money to do it, his solicitor is not a charitable institution, and even if he were he probably has not money and staff for such work. In this particular case the whole of the police had scoured London for evidence to clear up the mystery. Surely when a citizen was charged with the offence public interest demands that the matter that has been discovered that goes to prove innocence should be as readily available as matter that goes to prove guilt. The present practice is to my mind a tradition, handed down from the bad old days, that needs to be swept away. We ought to free our criminal law from any shred of suggestion that the State is out to obtain a conviction rather than an acquittal. The State is only interested in the truth and justice of the verdict, and a true verdict obtained by methods of injustice is a crime against the community. Much might be said on the inequality of punishments. The question of the advisability of corporal punishment is one upon which people hold strong and conflicting opinions. I am not a sentimentalist on this subject. I am told by some quite sane and scientific thinkers that for men, women and children of the hooligan class who have a mania for violence and destruction it is probably the most appropriate form of punishment. Its good qualities are that it is cheap; it is soon over, but irksome whilst it lasts; and it is said to appeal to the homeopathic instincts of the hooligan class who recognise the justice of meeting violence by violence.