Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/550

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The success of Forbes seemed at first complete, but he did not hasten the permanent establishment of the civil juries he longed for. The colonists were alarmed, A trick of interpretation ought not (they said) to revolutionize the constitution, and pervert the administration of justice by subjecting it to the voices of ex-felons. Another interpretation foiled the Chief Justice, The 19th section of the Constitution Act, which created the Quarter Session Courts, seemed to qualify their powers by reference to "the circumstances and condition of the colony." If the newly-arrived Chief Justice would not heed that condition, the magistrates, who knew it better than he, determined to do so. They obtained the opinion of Saxe-Bannister, the Attorney-General, and in framing the lists of jurymen confined them to persons who had never been convicted, The attempt of Forbes to confound the free with the emancipist was thus thwarted; and the juries confined to the former class seem to have given general satisfaction. W. Went worth himself, at a public meeting in 1827, is reported to have said: "We have already had in the Court of Quarter Sessions two years' experience of trial by jury, and notwithstanding a great proportion of the population is held not eligible to sit as jurors, it has gone on well and successfully," The English Parliament did not agree with Chief Justice Forbes as to the intention of the Statute which he had warped. In July 1827 a short continuing Act was passed; but in July 1828 the Act of 9 Geo. IV. cap, 88 set all doubts at rest. It continued the powers of the Supreme Courts in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land; gave them jurisdiction over Occurrences in the Indian and Pacific Seas; and by the 18th section declared that the Circuit Courts should "proceed in the like form and manner as the Supreme Courts" By the 17th section it imposed "such and the same manner" with regard to criminal cases tried before "Courts of General and Quarter Sessions respectively." Until further provision might be made, it (sec. 5) continued the military juries, and the system of Prosecution in the name of the Attorney-General, or "other officer duly appointed" Thus it abrogated the ruling of Forbes, which had for a time foiled the remonstrances of the magistrates. It enlarged (sec. 20) the Legislative body by enabling the King to appoint a Council