Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/512

 398 PUBLIC TRIALS. 1789 The impression made upon Bigge's mind by this method of conducting a trial, may be seen in the suggestions for its improvement which he felt called upon to make : — Biggtfg I suggested to the Judge- Advocate the expediency of summing suggea on. ^^ ^^^ evidence from his notes in the form of a charge, and of stating all questions of law and fact, as well as his own view of them, to the members of the Court before they retired, in the presence of the prisoner and the public. The object of that suggestion was to give the proceed- ings the appearance of a public trial. The Judge- Advocate was good enough to take the hint, and from that time — FiwtpubUc 1820 — ^he ceased to retire with the other members until he trials. had said all that he had to say in public. It was the first time for thirty-two years that the Criminal Court had been ventilated ; and some credit is due to Bigge for having let in the fresh air of public criticism on its proceedings. In criticising the constitution of this Court, "Wentworth asked, " What motive existed for excluding the civil officers ? csvfl Were they either less competent to be members of a Court officers. , whose decisions ought to be founded solely on the laws of England, or were they less respectable than the military and naval ?"* They were not excluded for either reason; but simply because, the Court being virtually a Court- martial, civil officers could not properly have a seat in it. Nor would it have mended matters in the least if they Servants of had not been excluded. The Court would still have been the Crown., , open to the same objections, seeing that civil officers were just as much under the influence of the Crown as military and naval men ; they were appointed by it and removable by it. Moreover, their presence in such a Court would have objection- been objectionable for two reasons ; first, because they mixt'jre. would havo felt out of their element in it ; and secondly, because while the military members would necessarily have had some knowledge of the law and practice of their own tribunals, the civil officers would have had none ; and it ♦ Description of New South Wales (1819), p. 364. Digitized by VjOOQIC