the best way, is ready to try him. Then, why try him twice, first in a bad and insufficient way, and only after that in a good and final way.

It is well said by the Reviewer that a Grand Jury must do one of two things: it must send a man to trial or discharge him; it must find a true bill, or the contrary. In all cases in which it sends the man to his trial, it does neither good nor evil; for the man is tried and sustains the consequences of his trial exactly as if no such thing as a grand jury had been in existence. In the cases where the grand jury discharge, the man must be either innocent or guilty: if innocent, the grand jury is useless again; for in a very short space the man would have received the same discharge from the court that would have tried him. The only case therefore in which a grand jury can do anything which would not be done without it, is the case in which it discharges a man really guilty, whose guilt would have been ascertained by the court. There is only one case then in which it can be anything but useless, and that is when it is purely mischievous.

ears.

The open trial by equals indifferently chosen, where the law is publicly laid down on both sides by a responsible judge, and the fact decided by a full hearing of the evidence on both sides, is beyond all doubt one of the best and noblest securities for all the rights of social man. No wonder then that the word jury is so musical to English But the generous institution here characterized corresponds in no single feature with that anomalous excrescence attached to courts of Criminal Law in England under the name of Grand Jury, -that is, not an open, but a secret tribunal. The accused has no voice in its formation, no challenge against his worst enemy, who may possibly direct its unwitnessed deliberations. The legal points that may arise are clandestinely debated and decided, without the assistance of any known minister of the law. In their private chamber, the grand jury hear the testimony on behalf of the accusation only, subject to no cross-examination or contradiction. In a spirit directly hostile to the most fondly cherished principles of English law, everything takes place with closed doors, and in the absence of the party most interested in the issue. Finally, as if to complete the contrast, the verdict need not be unanimous, or even the opinion of two-thirds, for a bare majority, twelve to eleven, is sufficient either to put the party on his trial, or to stifle the most important investigation.

The books leave the duties of grand juries extremely indefinite. The judge often exhorts them not to try the cases that come up stairs to them, but merely to inquire whether there is ground for ulterior inquiry. Yet they present upon their oaths positively that A stole the goods of B. &c.; and Lord Somers wrote a tract to prove that they were bound to sift minutely the whole evidence before they could be justified in returning a true bill. The effect and use of

their functions it is still more difficult to collect. When they find the bill, they only express the opinion already adopted and acted on by the committing magistrate, after a much more satisfactory proceeding. Is not this superfluous? They can hardly clear the suspected character, but may do irreparable injury to public justice.

It would often serve an important purpose were grand juries dispensed with, were it merely for lightening the burden of attendance of witnesses as well as jurors. But a more serious point for consideration, is the facility of escape afforded by this stage. The many. accidents that may conspire in favour of the criminal,—in themselves a great inconvenience,-furnish an excuse for the corrupt compromises that are daily defeating justice. Witnesses are not at hand when called; the stolen goods have been mistakenly conveyed to the wrong place; the persons upon whose evidence the jury are to find a verdict are plied with liquor, and forget all the material circumstances which they disclosed to the magistrate. The effect must be an encouragement to crime; for "no bills found," and "not prosecuted" may at all times be the return, amounting to a considerable percentage out of a number of committals.

Before dismissing the Juryman's Hand-Book, we have to state, that it is in appropriate terms dedicated "by especial permission,” to Lord Denman, who has felt himself called on to acknowledge the honour in language complimentary to the author, and becoming the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench. His Lordship has said not merely that he has detected no error in the work, but declares that it appears to him "very likely to diffuse, not only valuable knowledge among the middle classes, but to inspire them with sentiments of justice and humanity highly conducive to the general advantage and happiness.” In these words, feelings and principles are evinced worthy of the person who has uttered them, of his exalted station as a judge, and of him who in an Inaugural Discourse pronounced on the occasion of opening the theatre of the City of London Literary and Scientific Institution, in Aldersgate Street, April 24th, 1828, while Common-Sergeant of London, used towards the close of the address, the language which we are about to quote. He stated that he spoke to men of the order from which both Lawyers and Jurors are taken :—

"To this class," said he, "to whose advantage your exertions have been devoted, belongs the profession of the law-a profession so much interwoven in all the affairs of men, and on whose integrity such absolute reliance must be placed, that in them the elevation of character produced by literary habits is a positive gain to the public. From the same class also those juries are drawn, who form the only real safeguard of all our rights. The truth can never be too often repeated. But if juries are deficient either in intelligence or independence, if their minds are unenlightened, or their spirit servile, farewell to the blessings of that boasted ordinance! it will then be,

as it has often already been, but an engine for effecting crooked designs, and a cloak for disguising them! Farewell to the hopes of legal and judicial reformation; of short, and cheap, and simple methods of procedure, which, it is now apparent can only be expected from the practical good sense of a vigilant, a well-informed, and a considerate public."

ART. XIII.—Turning and Mechanical Manipulation. By CHARLES HOLTZAPFFEL, Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, &c. Published for the Author by Holtzapffel and Co.

WE return to this curious and elaborate work, in order to place before our readers some few passages of its contents, and to support the opinion when we pronounce the subject of the book to be one of far greater compass, and to be filled up with a far greater variety of interesting particulars, than the uninitiated into its realm and its mysteries can have ever imagined. Not only the art but the literature of Turning, presents a rich abundance. And yet we are led to believe that Mr. Holtzapffel's publication will supply a want, as a general treatise, at least for the guidance of the amateur, and even for the instruction of the professional manipulator; the preceding works of highest authority being necessarily deficient in reference to the present state of the art, and the science that bears upon its advancement.

The greatest difficulty, says the author, that he has encountered in his task, has been that of selection and arrangement, where the field is so broad as to embrace an immense number of materials, and which are often vastly dissimilar. The difficulty, however, has been in a great measure obviated by the division of the work, not only into five volumes, each volume treating of parts of the subject that are broadly distinguished, but by carrying out the plan in the subdivision of the volumes into chapters, which may be considered severally to include all that was deemed necessary to be stated upon the respective subjects.

It will not be expected that persons in our situation, and who neither lay claim to the taste of the amateur, nor the knowledge of the professional artist, can enter critically into the merits of the volume before us, or do more than express a judgment with regard to the manner in which the author appears to have followed up the conception and plan of the work, in the process of execution. Still, without going beyond our depth among the technicalities of the subject, it is clear that these must be numerous where so many tools are employed, as well as such a variety of materials, derived from the several kingdoms of nature,-vegetable, mineral, and animal.

Well, then, the general reader will find no difficulty in going along with our author, so far as this first volume extends. But,

what is not less requisite than perspicuity, he will experience the satisfaction of a mind conscious of being improved, and the delight accompanying the imagination when it finds itself introduced to new regions of beauty and tasteful exercise.

In the Introductory Chapter, Mr. Holtzapffel very happily opens up to the general reader the scope of the turner's art, as well as the principles, mathematically speaking, upon which it is founded; the circle, the best defined, the most symmetrical of all figures, and the most easily described with accuracy, being the form in some one of its endless modifications which the lathe produces, and from solid materials of every sort.

Although Turning constitutes the basis of the present work, yet the various mechanical arts associated with it, or derived from it, naturally form collateral branches of comment and inquiry; while the importance of the lathe towards the promotion of the useful arts, of science, and of the elegancies of human life, are pleasantly and comprehensively indicated in the passage which we here quote:

The art of turning must be admitted to be an auxiliary of great importance in the economy of mankind, as to it we are more or less indebted for nearly all the component parts of the machines and instruments which are conducive in a thousand ways to the support and clothing of the person, and the advancement of the mind.

How, for instance, could the engines which are now habitually and almost universally employed, in converting the numerous raw products of the earth to our most urgent, as well as to our most refined necessities and pleasures, exist, in the absence of the tools indispensably required for the accurate production of the circular parts, that enter so largely and in so important a manner, into their respective structures.

How again could we, without the lathe, possess another machine in which the circle abounds, namely the steam engine? which like an obedient automaton endowed with power and endurance almost unlimited, is equally subservient, either in converting the raw materials into their manufactured products, or in transporting them, in either state, across the ocean or over the surface of the earth, along with the individuals, through whose energies they have been collected, transformed, and distributed.

Nor amongst our obligations to the mechanical arts, is that the least which is afforded by them in the cause of science, the delicate apparatus for pursuing which is due to the skill of the mechanist, whose instruments enable us to discover, and likewise to measure the planetary orbs, or to inspect in the cabinet the wonderful particles of the world we inhabit, and by means of which we find our earth to be teeming with creation, exquisite in symmetry, and beautifully adapted to the purposes of organic life; indeed, in whatever direction, and with whatever purpose the man of science may look, prospects of similar grandeur, and of equal wonder, still open in endless succession to repay the labour of research, an effort wherein the instruments (due in great mea sure to the turner's skill,) are only secondary in importance to man's own mental faculties,

How largely, also, do the circle and its many combinations enter into the elegancies and ornaments of life: more particularly on the useful and indispensable creations of taste and fancy obtained from the wheel of the manufacturer of pottery and porcelain; and more or less so in all the arts of design and embellishment, whether applied to the useful and agreeable purpose of ornamenting the costume of nations; assisting towards the prosecution of the art of engraving; or in that most important of engines the printing-machine, which disseminates in millions of channels, the thoughts and speculations of the human mind; throughout all of which, the turner's primary element, the circle, is equally pervading and indispensable.

These numerous and highly-important results, our author goes on to observe, are in most cases greatly, and in others exclusively, indebted for their formation "to an instrument based upon the law of rotatory motion (one of the most simple, though perfect, yet discovered), the turning-lathe.' Can it then be demanding too much, when there is claimed for the lathe the character of being the primary machine, or when it is called the "engine of civilization ?" Certainly Mr. H. has warrant for saying, that the extension of its employment in the higher and more important branches of manufactures and art, especially in Great Britain, coupled with the latent perseverance and industry of those who have developed its powers, have wonderfully aided in elevating our country to its eminence among nations.

The first volume (other four volumes are promised, each to be complete in itself) relates principally to the materials for turning and the mechanical arts therewith connected. It includes, also, their choice, treatment in the way of preparation for the lathe, and their employment in various distinct branches of art, which do not in general require the use of tools with cutting edges.

The materials upon which the turner manipulates are thus generally indicated:-"We obtain from the vegetable kingdom an extensive variety of woods of different characters, colours, and degrees of hardness, and also a few other substances. The most costly and beautiful products of the animal kingdom are the tusks of the elephant, the tortoise and the pearl shells; but the horns, hoofs, and some of the bones of the ox, buffalo, and other animals, are also extensively used for more common purposes. From the mineral kingdom are obtained many substances which are used in their natural states, and also the important products of the metallic ores.' Now, from this general glance, how large does the subject of the present work begin to appear, when merely the materials to be worked upon are considered! To treat that subject in the way that it is done in the pages before us, must have made heavy demands, not only upon the practical knowledge but the scientific studies of the author.

Let us look into one of the chapters relating to the first-men