t, and as she was at liberty to choose these
herself from her native village of Winchelsea, it is probable that she
escaped.*

* Cf. Thayer, as cited, supra.

Fortunately the sight of a woman, save of the very lowest class, at
the bar of justice is rare. The number of cases where women of good
environment appear as defendants in the criminal courts in the course of
a year may be numbered upon the fingers of a single hand, and, although
the number of female defendants may equal ten per cent of the total
number of males, not one-tenth of the women brought to the bar
of justice have had the benefit of an honest bringing up and good
surroundings.

CHAPTER VIII. Tricks of the Trade

"Tricks and treachery," said Benjamin Franklin, "are the practice of
fools that have not wit enough to be honest." Had the kindly philosopher
been familiar with all the exigencies of the criminal law he might have
added a qualification to this somewhat general, if indisputably moral,
maxim. Though it doubtless remains true as a guiding principle of
life that "Honesty is the best policy," it would be an unwarrantable
aspersion upon the intellectual qualities of the members of the criminal
bar to say that the tricks by virtue of which they often get their
clients off are "the practice of fools." On the contrary, observation
would seem to indicate that in many instances the wiser, or at least
the more successful, the practitioner of criminal law becomes, the more
numerous and ingenious become the "tricks" which are his stock in
trade. This must not be taken to mean that there are not high-minded and
conscientious practitioners of criminal law, many of them financially
successful, some filled with a noble humanitarian purpose, and some
drawn to their calling by a sincere enthusiasm for the vocation of the
advocate which, in these days of "business" law and commercial methods,
reaches perhaps its highest form in the criminal courts.

There are no more "tricks" practised in these tribunals than in the
civil, but they are more ingenious in conception, more lawless in
character, bolder in execution and less shamefaced in detection.

Let us not be too hard upon our brethren of the criminal branch. Truly,
their business is to "get their clients off." It is unquestionably a
generally accepted principle that it is better that ninety-nine guilty
men should escape than that one innocent man should be convicted.
However much persons of