It may be thought that in this criticism I have been a little too partial: it may be so, and I confess that ever since Sir Robert GIFFORD first came forward he has been a growing favourite with me. MR. TOPPING. A partial praise shall never elevate Shall ne'er provoke me worse myself to deem ; John Marston's Scourge of Villany. THERE are few abuses at the Bar more crying at the present moment than the mode in which the examination ef witnesses is sometimes conducted; of course no reference is here intended to the technical rules of evidence so long established, and to which perhaps few objections can be reasonably made, but to the manner in which Counsel are permitted to overstep all the bounds of decorum and propriety in their interrogatories. Instances could be pointed out where female delicacy has been outraged with unfeeling L wontonness, and the most innocent witness is often so confounded by the novelty of his situation, and so bewildered by rapid and purposely complicated questions, that he is absolutely entrapped into falsehood and perjury under such circumstances the caution of the Satirist can be of no avail : : -ambiguæ si quando citabere testis Incertæque rei, Phalaris licet imperet ut sis A witness might be proof against all bodily torture, though not against the unfair and even despicable artifices employed to cheat him into a declaration of what is untrue: he may enter the box with a resolution to tell a plain straight-forward story, and to adhere closely to facts within his own knowledge; but if he be not a man of more than ordinary firmness and acuteness, his purpose will be defeated by those who have attained such skill in confusing what is clear, and involving what is simple. The offence offered to the diffidence and delicacy of women, so frequently and so needlessly, though interfering with the due administration of justice, is com paratively a minor evil, and most commonly but a part of the same system. I have more than once had occasion to speak of the powers and penetrating sagacity of Sir W. Garrow, in managing the examination of an adverse witness, and though true it is that he was seldom very scrupulous as to the mode in which he extracted or confounded truth, and though he had as much coarseness and as little feeling as any man who ever practised, yet he seldom without some cause or other broke through the ordinary rules of decorum and politeness; if he did so, it usually turned out that the individual he was perforating by his dogged interrogatories deserved the treatment he received. While he continued at the Bar he was justly considered unrivalled in this respect, and few men, not even those of the highest rank, ventured to put themselves in competition; but since his elevation to the Bench there is scarcely a single Counsel, however young and inexperienced, who does not think himself warranted in going all lengths, and this frequently without any instructions to warrant an attack upon the character and demeanour of the witness: all flatter themselves that they are peculiarly gifted, and take every opportunity of shewing how much they are deceived in their self-conceited estimate. To such an extent has this abuse been carried, that of late it has sometimes called for the controuling power of the Bench, which finds that the discretion generally allowed to Sir W. Garrow ought not to be entrusted to his overweening imitators. It has often excited astonishment that a shrewd and practised Advocate should be disconcerted, if not dumb-foundered, by an answer in the spirit of his question, or by a retort remarkable only for its impertinence or effrontery; but the wonder ends the moment we reflect, that those who may be most accustomed to attack, on that account may be least competent to defend, and that Counsel, covered by their imposing paraphernalia, only prepare themselves to assail: they fight as it were with a long sword, by which they keep their antagonist (who they take care shall be unarmed and as helpless as possible) |