Memories of Famous Trials. By Evelyn Burnaby, M.A. (Sisley's. 7s.
ed. net.)—Mr. Burnaby, we are told in an address " to theReader," " has been a constant attendant at celebrated trials for nearly half a century," and he explains in his preface how the habit grew up. His mother took him to hear three trials when he was a boy, and he had a friend in Mr. Justice Wightman. We owe to these circumstances an interesting book, but we are not by any means sure that it was a sound education. Theoreti- cally it is a good thing that the citizen should see how justice is administered. So, too, it might plausibly be argued that, if the State has public executions, the loyal citizen, anxious to avail himself of the deterrents from crime provided for him, should go to see them. Practically the loyal citizen did not go. Mr. Burnaby has a number of curious things to tell us about great Judges, great counsel, and great criminals. We cannot pretend that we have found them agreeable reading. Chacun a. son gat. Here the stories are well told, and with the best authority for the details. Some of these are gruesome in the extreme. Among them is the fact that when three burglars were executed at Carlisle Gaol—they had killed a constable in attempting to escape after the burglary—Sir Claude de Crespigny assisted the hang- man. " While Berry pinioned Rudgo and Martin, Sir Claude, who assumed the name of Malden, did the same for James Baker, and adjusted the noose on the scaffold, so that he might be able to say he had carried out the hangman's office in its entirety." Here we have the "loyal citizen" again, but it is not pleasant to read.
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