All this gives
aid and comfort to the powers of darkness.
The widespread impression as to the uncertainty of the law is
not entirely a misapprehension. "We have long since passed
the period when it is possible to punish an innocent man. We
are now struggling with the problem whether it is any longer
possible to punish the guilty." It is a melancholy fact that
at the present time "penal statutes and procedure tend more to
defeat and retard the ends of justice than to protect the
rights of the accused."
The subject of criminal-law reform is too extensive to be
discussed here even superficially, but historically the
explanation of existing conditions is simple enough. The
present overgrown state of the criminal law is the direct
result of our exaggerated regard for personal liberty, coupled
with a wholesale adoption of the technicalities of English law
invented when only such technicalities could stand between the
minor offender and the barbarous punishments of a bygone age.
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