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.
We were through with tyrants once and for all. The Crown had
always been opposed to the defendant and the Crown was a
tyrant.
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