1823 Feb. 28

Greece. J.B's Observations etc

Judiciary resumed

To exclude partiality and all suspicion of it, it should be a declared object of endeavour to keep the Judge clear of all local connection in the way of interest or sympathy, hence it should be a general rule that no Judge should continue such in any one district for any long time, say for more 3 years, nor be appointed Judge in any district in which he already has connexions of a certain description, to be specified, and his being known or suspected to have subsequently formed any such connexions, may be stated as warrantable grounds for a proposition for his displacement as above but no such connexion should be stated as a necessary efficient cause for his displacement and provision might be made by means of which in pursuance of a desire not much short of universal expressed by his justiciables, his continuance in that district might be prolonged.

As to the composition of the Jury, the exclusion of two evils, viz. partiality to the prejudice of the party in the right, vexation by attendance to the injury of the Jurors themselves, will be the leading ends in view. To secure a majority, the number should in every case be odd: less therefore than three it can not be. The greater the number more than three, the more extended the vexation. For securing impartiality, and thus far appropriate moral aptitude, not indeed to a certainty, that being impossible but the best possible chance in favour of it, appointment by lot (provided the numbers of those included in the Lottery be sufficiently ample and indiscriminately taken) will suffice: for augmenting the chance of appropriate intellectual aptitude, viz. knowledge and judgment, the following course may be taken. The whole number of individuals in the district liable to serve as Jurors, divide into two classes - viz. the more erudite and the less erudite: for a Jury of three, take one from the more erudite class: to the influence of understanding on understanding, where moral inaptitude is not suspected, trust for his opinions being taken as a guide by his less erudite colleagues.

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