DEVOTED JURIES.
THE Inquest of the week on the charge of murder against certain Policemen, like that upon the Calthorpe Street affair some time ago, is worth studying as a sign of the times. Look at the zeal with which a party of tradespeople enter into a case of public jus- tice! see with what unfired energy they watch the testimony of the witnesses, and battle against the predispositions of the Coro- ner! These are the bakers and shoemakers and tailors of the present day : at any other period of the history of our civilization, would the same disinterested anxiety have been shown—the same devotion of profitable time to a public labour? At the inquest now sitting during this intensely hot weather, the Jury and others have been compelled to strip them of their coats and waistcoats; fainting under the stifling temperature of the close atmosphere of a crowded room, the witnesses are obliged to be supplied from time to time with draughts of water to keep them up; and yet the Jury manfully persevere. Four times has the inquest been ad journed; and during each long and laborious investigation, up to a late hour of the morning, has the public-spirited zeal of these individuals kept them alive to their duties of citizens. This is a manifest sign of improvement: if the people can be but per- suaded to believe that that which concerns every body concerns each, and that it is the duty of all to be prepared to devote time and knowledge to a fair share of public business, things will not ga as they too often have done—at the bidding of the greatest toOl of authority in the neighbourhood.
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