One has always been taught to believe that when an
accused man in England finds himself in such a position, the legal authorities do all they can to give him a fair chance of extri- cating himself. Instead, every avenue was closed to him by the stony non possurnus of the prosecution. It does not seem to have occurred to any one, either in the Police, at the Treasury, or at the Home Office, to say : " What we are doing will take away from this man his one chance of proving him- self innocent. That being so, we must reconsider our action. However sure we are of his guilt, we must not allow any technicalities to deprive him of that chance." Unless we are entirely misled by the tone of the remarks that have fallen from the Master of the Rolls, the result of the Beck inquiry will be materially to alter our system of prosecution, and possibly our judicial administration, in criminal cases.
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