What grave problems have to be judicially decided on the green as to the use of "thumb" or "finger" bias before the "wood" is delivered! What anxiety is pictured on the face of the bowler! What contortions of his body are involuntarily indulged in as the bowl speeds on its way and does--or more often does not--carry out the intentions of the bowler! And therein, I think, lies the secret of the evil meaning we have given to the word "bias." We see our "wood" careering across the green and hear it fall with a dull thud on the path beyond, and instead of blaming ourselves we blame the bias. Thus, owing to the alarming prevalence of duffers on the green and in the greater world surrounding it, the word "bias" has come to be regarded as a tendency that leads astray rather than a tendency that keeps straight and is up to "the mark." And when I am asked whether there is bias on the English bench, I cheerfully reply that I hope and believe there is. I have met with unbiassed bowls, and very poor "woods" they were. I have met with men almost devoid of bias, and I never found that they were continuously up to the mark. Bias is as essential as character to both "woods" and men. As far as I remember I have never met a judge without "bias" and seldom seen one whose bias was not fairly under control. We want bias on the bench because we like to feel that the men who decide our disputes are not mere automatic legal slot machines, but human beings, with likes and dislikes similar to ours, trained to hear and determine our disputes and honestly endeavouring to decide the cases without fear or favour. When judicial bias carries the judgment beyond "the mark" we grieve not that the bias is there but that it has been injudiciously used. From the true bowler's point of view there is only one bias, a bias towards things, but in our vulgar misuse of language we speak of a bias against things. And if that is to be allowed no one would grudge a poor working judge his right to a bias against fraud and dishonesty, greed and oppression. Such a bias should indeed be instinct in him in the same way as a golfer has a bias against bunkers, a terrier against rats, and a mongoose against snakes. But even a good bias requires strict and cunning control. I remember a very excellent and sage judge--in most matters a cool fountain of deliberate justice--whose bias towards purity and a high ideal of man's conduct towards woman was so little under control that in cases, and especially criminal cases relating to these affairs, it was very difficult for him to conduct the case with justice to the accused. His bias against the sin over-rode his judgment of the crime.