Sta,---Mr. Thomson should verify his facts before making categorical statements
about English law. A verdict of Not Guilty in English law is an acquittal in fact and in law, for a jury can, and sometimes does, decline to accept a judge's ruling on the law, and acquits an accused even when the facts are undisputed.
Mr. Thomson's statements with regard to corroboration are even more difficult to under- stand. There is no general rule requiring corroboration in English law, though there are exceptional cases in which it is required as a matter of law, and other exceptional cases in which the judge should warm the jury of the danger of convicting on uncorroborated evidence. But even in these cases corrobora- tion need not be by other' witnesses. A letter may thds corroborate a witness's statements even though the only evidence as to the authorship of the letter is given by that one witness.—Yours faithfully,1'S ATIYAH
Blackland, Bush Lane, Send, Surrey
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