Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Lord Denman
[Thomas Denman, an English judge; born in London, 1779; educated at Cambridge; entered Parliament, 1818; associated with Brougham in the defence of Queen Caroline, 1820; attorney-general, 1830; chief-justice of the king’s bench, 1832; raised to the peerage, 1834; resigned, 1850; died 1854.]
A delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
In his judgment in O’Connell vs. the Queen (11 C. and F., 351) the chief justice used an expression concerning trial by jury, which he afterwards told his son he regretted, because it was not judicial, but the last words of which, however, are often quoted by those who never heard of the learned judge: “If it is possible that such a practice as that which has taken place in the present instance should be allowed to pass without a remedy, trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, will be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.”
