We forget that the community is composed of individuals, and we tend to disregard its interests for those of any particular individual who happens to be a prisoner at the bar.

We revolted from England and incidentally from her system of administering the criminal law, by which the defendant could have no voice at his own trial, where practically every crime was punishable with death, and where only the Crown could produce and examine witnesses.

Every one will have to agree that the English system was very harsh and very unfair indeed.

To-day it is better than ours, simply because its errors have been systematically and wisely corrected, without diminution in the national respect for law.

When we devised our own system we adopted those humane expedients for evading the law which were only justified by the existing penalties attached to convictions for crime,--and then discarded the penalties.