Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/582

 568 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY himself; its only claim is that it facilitates the acquisition of knowledge by the lawyer by placing his material for study in a more orderly and logical form. The cherished ideals of the reformers of a hundred years ago have been abandoned, and an ideal has been substituted which is quite in accordance with the spirit of our own times. The most striking characteristic of the progress of juris- prudence in the first half of the century was its increasing recognition of individual rights and protection of individ- uals. Humanity was the watchword of legislation ; liberty was its fetich. Slavery was abolished, married women were emancipated from the control of their husbands, the head of the family was deprived of many of his arbitrary powers, and the rights of dependent individuals were carefully guarded. In the administration of criminal law this is seen notably. At the beginning of the century torture prevailed in every country, outside of the jurisdiction of the common law and the French Codes, but torture was abolished in every civilized state during this period. Many crimes at the begin- ning of the century were punishable with death. Few re- mained so punishable at the end of fifty years. The accused acquired in reality the rights of an innocent person until he was found guilty. He could testify, he could employ counsel and could be informed of the charge against him in language that he was able to understand; and, even after conviction, his punishment was inflicted in accordance with the dictates of humanity. Imprisonment for debt was abolished. Bank- ruptcy was treated as a misfortune, not a crime. As with the emancipation of individuals, so it was with the emancipation of states. The spirit of the times favored the freedom of the oppressed nations as well as of individual slaves. The whole civilized world helped the Greeks gain their independence. The American people hailed with touch- ing unanimity the struggles of Poland and of Hungary for freedom, and even the black republics of the West Indies were loved for their name, though they had no other ad- mirable qualities. While there has been little actual reaction in the last half- century against this earlier development of the law in the