BAIL.
WE have had occasion more than once to observe on the partial operation of bail. It is a practice whose almost invariable effect is imprisonment to the poor and freedom to the rich. It is not allowed in the case of offences which infer capital punishment. The evasion of the poor man, as of the rich, therefore effects the utmost that the law contemplated—the banishment of the incul- pated party. There can be no reason for making it other than personal, unless to expose the crime and the criminal. But for either 'purpose, bail offers no reliable guarantee. He who can in- sure a bailsman in the amount of his risk, will always procure bailsmen in plenty. When exposure is most efficacious to the re- pression,of vice, it is, by the present practice, rendered impossible. A soldier and..a clergyman were a few days age detected under circumstances which led to their instant apprehension. It was a bailable offence, and heavy bail was demanded. The clergyman easily procured it, the soldier could not. The one remained in prison, was tried, and found guilty on the clearest evidence. The other forfeited his recognizances : all that he left behind for the comfort of outraged law was his name, DOYLE, and a fine to the King of 5001.; which very possibly will be re- mitted, but whether remitted or exacted, leaves the object of his arrest where it found it. Our contemporary the Chronicle, as a remedy to the abuses of bail, would have the names of the bailsmen. published. We think a more desirable remedy might be found in abolishing altogether the practice of extorting collateral security.. If the offence be an infamous one, the parties are not much ag- grieved by a fortnight's imprisonment; if it be not infamous, let personal bail only be exacted—heavy from then ich, light from the poor. If the offender think fit to banish himsel rather than sub- mit to a trial, be it so. For offences not infamous, punishments may be required by way of caution, but exposure hardly. Whether the parties punish themselves, or the law punish them, the caution is equally valuable.
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