| Show I THE VALUE ALUE V VA L ATE OF EVIDENCE about tho the value of ot D DISCUSSIONS evidence are aro almost always amusing Quito recently some professor of 0 psychology has been saying that tho the witnesses In tho the courts vary so 80 much In n their power of perceiving and remembering that tho they ought to be examined by an nn export ox ox- pert port as ns to how far they can bo be trusted to tell tho the truth oven even supposing that the they want to Suppose for tho the salve sake of ot argument that a grocer s has lane seen scon an nn auctioneer murdering a a. chartered accountant t. Hitherto tho the use of or tho the scientific man In th tho court of Justice has been confined to tho the first nn and called physical facts Tho The doctor was I called In Sn to sa say first that the tho accountant accountant account account- ant was certa certainly certainly nl dead and second with more moro gravity and antI hesitation that the tho fracture of or the skull was t such as might ht havo have been caused by an auctioneers auctioneer's auctioneers auctioneer's auction auction- eer's hammer But all this only amounted to a necessary corroboration 0 of tho really Important evidence the evidence the evidence of tho to grocer who had a actually looked on with mingled horror and ed social respect at nt the tho sty struggle between these two more Intellectual pr professions proCessions No one ono evor ever suggested that any doctor doc doc- tor should examine the tho grocer but that Is Ss exactly what Is proposed noA now no now A doctor Is to overhaul the unhappy to Judge judo by tho tiro expression of his eyes b by his his recollections of or his infancy by lIy tho readiness with which hick ho he Jumps when whon a n gun sun goes off oft by his hair hereditary diseases cerebral formation for for- mation and so on whether ho he Is Ukel likely to know when an accountant Is 18 being murdered In front of or hit him writes G G. K Chesterton In the tho Illustrated London London News Xe Wo We are to examine tho witness that witness that Js is Is tho ordinary citizen No ono one suggests sug sug- s-ests s that wo we should examine the tho Judge as to his private life lite his Is Politics and above aU all all his enormous Inome No ono demo demands R that wo we should allow for tor tho the bin bla and habit of or tho the lawyer no one asks whether the tho men do not get tret et dusty from living In gowns or oro wooly woolly from living o In ns as 03 ns much us ns eels got get slimy from living In ponds or fish get gel wet from living In the tho sea sen w H. H G. G Wells has most sensibly protested pro pro- tested against criminals being overhauled overhauled over over- hauled with thermometers and microscopes micro micro- scopes and the tho silly sill But calipers of witless ss anthropology But now It Is not o oven the ine criminal who Is Js to bo be thus thim Insulted i It Is tho the witness that say Is Js to say the only man In tho the whole t court who t Is doing a n plain public service Ice t for r nothing noth- noth Ing Ue The Tho witness Is normally speaking speak speak- ing the only reliable man In court The Tho barristers are unreliable avowedly and honestly unreliable It Is their duty to be unreliable The prisoner pris- pris onor oner 13 Is s unreliable with oven more moro ox- ox CUSt cuse Tho The prosecutor Is unreliable with t the same excuse The Judge Is unreliable laible as all Ilu human nan history proves which Is 19 a n mere macro tissue of ot the tho partial partialities ties pious frauds government persecutions perse- perse and hack bacle butcheries ot of the hired judge tf of the tho bench The jur jury though vastly more reliable than the tho Judge is Js s somewhat weakened and infatuated tn- tn by tho the official atmosphere may take tako Itself too seriously and become boi bo- bo como come The Tho i a ono one clique or club for the tho o occasion caslon person who Is conceivably trying to toll tell the truth Is tho the ordinary man In Sn the tho street stroet who saw tho the murder In the street Therefore science has that Pounced ced upon upon him All AU tho the diseases that devour states It easily passes by bythe by- by Jhc the rapacity nn and ambition of or magistrates magis magis- tho the leathern rn cruelty of or l lawyers the corruption of at exports experts and nd the tho runt runt of ot routine It Is 19 only the healthy man mau whom science can cnn not comprehend |
