I shall best convey to the reader an idea of the entire perversion of
thought which exists among this extraordinary people, by describing the
public trial of a man who was accused of pulmonary consumption--an
offence which was punished with death until quite recently. The trial
did not take place till I had been some months in the country, and I am
deviating from chronological order in giving an account of it here; but I
had perhaps better do so in order to exhaust this subject before
proceeding with others.
The prisoner was placed in the dock, and the jury were sworn much as in
Europe; almost all our own modes of procedure were reproduced, even to
the requiring the prisoner to plead guilty or not guilty. He pleaded not
guilty and the case proceeded. The evidence for the prosecution was very
strong, but I must do the court the justice to observe that the trial was
absolutely impartial. Counsel for the prisoner was allowed to urge
everything that could be said in his defence.
The line taken was that the prisoner was simulating consumption in order
to defraud an insurance company, from which he was about to buy an
annuity, and that he hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms.
If this could have been shown to be the case he would have escaped
criminal prosecution, and been sent to a hospital as for moral ailment.
The view however was one which could not be reasonably sustained, in
spite of all the ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated
advocates of the country. The case was only too clear, for the prisoner
was almost at the point of death, and it was astonishing that he had not
been tried and convicted long previously. His coughing was incessant
during the whole trial, and it was all that the two jailers in charge of
him could do to keep him on his legs until it was over.
The summing up of the judge was admirable. He dwelt upon every point
that could be construed in favour of the prisoner, but as he proceeded it
became clear that the evidence was too convincing to admit of doubt, and
there was but one opinion in the court as to the impending verdict when
the jury retired from the box. They were absent for about ten minutes,
and on their return the foreman pronounced the prisoner guilty. There
was a faint murmur of applause but it was instantly repressed. The judge
then proceeded to pronounce sentence in words which I can never forget,
and which I copied out into a note-book next day from the report that was
published in the leading newspaper. I must condense it somewhat, and
nothing which I could say would give more than a faint idea of the
solemn, not to say majestic, severity with which it was delivered. The
sentence was as follows:--
"Prisoner at the bar, you have been accused of the great crime of
labouring under pulmonary consumption, and after an impartial trial
before a jury of your countrymen, you have been found guilty. Against
the justice of the verdict I can say nothing: the evidence against you
was conclusive, and it only remains for me to pass such a sentence upon
you, as shall satisfy the ends of the law. That sentence must be a very
severe one. It pains me much to see one who is yet so young, and whose
prospects in life were otherwise so excellent, brought to this
distressing condition by a constitution which I can only regard as
radically vicious; but yours is no case for compassion: this is not your
first offence: you have led a career of crime, and have only profited by
the leniency shown you upon past occasions, to offend yet more seriously
against the laws and institutions of your country. You were convicted of
aggravated bronchitis last year: and I find that though you are now only
twenty-three years old, you have been imprisoned on no less than fourteen
occasions for illnesses of a more or less hateful character; in fact, it
is not too much to say that you have spent the greater part of your life
in a jail.
"It is all very well for you to say that you came of unhealthy parents,
and had a severe accident in your childhood which permanently undermined
your constitution; excuses such as these are the ordinary refuge of the
criminal; but they cannot for one moment be listened to by the ear of
justice. I am not here to enter upon curious metaphysical questions as
to the origin of this or that--questions to which there would be no end
were their introduction once tolerated, and which would result in
throwing the only guilt on the primordial cell, or perhaps even on the
elementary gases. There is no question of how you came to be wicked, but
only this--namely, are you wicked or not? This has been decided in the
affirmative, neither can I hesitate for a single moment to say that it
has been decided justly. You are a bad and dangerous person, and stand
branded in the eyes of your fellow-countrymen with one of the most
heinous known offences.
"It is not my business to justify the law: the law may in some cases have
its inevitable hardships, and I may feel regret at times that I have not
the option of passing a less severe sentence than I am compelled to do.
But yours is no such case; on the contrary, had not the capital
punishment for consumption been abolished, I should certainly inflict it
now.
"It is intolerable that an example of such terrible enormity should be
allowed to go at large unpunished. Your presence in the society of
respectable people would lead the less able-bodied to think more lightly
of all forms of illness; neither can it be permitted that you should have
the chance of corrupting unborn beings who might hereafter pester you.
The unborn must not be allowed to come near you: and this not so much for
their protection (for they are our natural enemies), as for our own; for
since they will not be utterly gainsaid, it must be seen to that they
shall be quartered upon those who are least likely to corrupt them.
"But independently of this consideration, and independently of the
physical guilt which attaches itself to a crime so great as yours, there
is yet another reason why we should be unable to show you mercy, even if
we are inclined to do so. I refer to the existence of a class of men who
lie hidden among us, and who are called physicians. Were the severity of
the law or the current feeling of the country to be relaxed never so
slightly, these abandoned persons, who are now compelled to practise
secretly, and who can be consulted only at the greatest risk, would
become frequent visitors in every household; their organisation and their
intimate acquaintance with all family secrets would give them a power,
both social and political, which nothing could resist. The head of the
household would become subordinate to the family doctor, who would
interfere between man and wife, between master and servant, until the
doctors should be the only depositaries of power in the nation, and have
all that we hold precious at their mercy. A time of universal
dephysicalisation would ensue; medicine-vendors of all kinds would abound
in our streets and advertise in all our newspapers. There is one remedy
for this, and one only. It is that which the laws of this country have
long received and acted upon, and consists in the sternest repression of
all diseases whatsoever, as soon as their existence is made manifest to
the eye of the law. Would that that eye were far more piercing than it
is.
"But I will enlarge no further upon things that are themselves so
obvious. You may say that it is not your fault. The answer is ready
enough at hand, and it amounts to this--that if you had been born of
healthy and well-to-do parents, and been well taken care of when you were
a child, you would never have offended against the laws of your country,
nor found yourself in your present disgraceful position. If you tell me
that you had no hand in your parentage and education, and that it is
therefore unjust to lay these things to your charge, I answer that
whether your being in a consumption is your fault or no, it is a fault in
you, and it is my duty to see that against such faults as this the
commonwealth shall be protected. You may say that it is your misfortune
to be criminal; I answer that it is your crime to be unfortunate.
"I do not hesitate therefore to sentence you to imprisonment, with hard
labour, for the rest of your miserable existence. During that period I
would earnestly entreat you to repent of these wrongs you have done
already, and to entirely reform the constitution of your whole body. I
entertain but little hope that you will pay attention to my advice; you
are already far too abandoned. Did it rest with myself, I should add
nothing in mitigation of the sentence which I have passed, but it is the
merciful provision of the law that even the most hardened criminal shall
be allowed some one of the three official remedies, which is to be
prescribed at the time of his conviction. I shall therefore order that
you receive two tablespoonfuls of castor-oil daily, until the pleasure of
the court be further known."
When the sentence was concluded, the prisoner acknowledged in a few
scarcely audible words that he was justly punished, and that he had had a
fair trial. He was then removed to the prison from which he was never to
return. There was a second attempt at applause when the judge had
finished speaking, but as before it was at once repressed; and though the
feeling of the court was strongly against the prisoner, there was no show
of any violence against him, if one may except a little hooting from the
bystanders when he was being removed in the prisoners' van. Indeed,
nothing struck me more during my whole sojourn in the country, than the
general respect for law and order.