own citizens, I fail to see how there can be any cause for complaint. It should not be difficult to see which sys tem of criminal jurisprudence is, on the whole, best calculated to do justice by ascertaining the real facts of the case, whether by a judge of long experience and proficiency in his pro fession, with no personal interest in the cases tried before him, or by a jury composed of men who have no experience in criminal jurisprudence. If the judge may sometimes be derelict in his duties, so also may the jury occasionally be controlled by their emotions. If the judge fails to do his duty, his failure will be corrected by an appellate court, as all cases must be reviewed upon appeal. For the improper verdict of a jury there is often no adequate remedy. The Anglo-Saxon criminal jurisprudence is founded upon the principle that it is better to let one hundred criminals go unpunished rather than to inflict punishment upon a single innocent person. While the Latin system accepts that humani tarian principle, it is nevertheless better calcu lated to prevent the escape of a criminal un punished. SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION.
There is a provision in our Constitution which is often misunderstood, and which has given rise to the idea that wc sometimes ad minister justice in too speedy a manner and with a complete disregard of the forms of law established for the protection of human life. Our Constitution commences with a declara tion of the rights of man, taken in a great measure from the declaration of the French National Assembly during the Revolution, which in its turn was in a great measure taken from the Declaration of Independence of the United States. These rights secure the most ample liberty and immunity both to the per son and property of the inhabitants of the country. While our Constitution was being formed,
however, it was contended that, on extraor dinary occasions, as in case of war or other serious danger to society, the rights guaran teed by the Constitution might stand very much in the way of inflicting needed and speedy punishment. To obviate this, the Constitution provides, in Article XXIX, that the rights of man, as guaranteed by that instrument, excepting such as secure his life, may be suspended for a short time in certain emergencies, provided that suspension be upon the President's initiative, and with the consent of Congress; and provided, further, that the suspension shall be applicable to a class; that it shall not apply to an individual; and that it shall be for a brief period. If it should be found, for instance, that the crime of de railing railway cars, either for the purpose of robbing them or for any other unlawful end, should become frequent, and if it should be found that the emergency called for extraor dinary measures, the President would ask Congress for the suspension of the personal guarantees of this class of criminals for a lim ited period, say six months; and if Congress should sanction this suspension, a summary criminal proceeding would be established, for the purpose of inflicting punishment with out delay, thereby deterring others who might be disposed to commit the same crime. At the end of the period fixed public confidence would have been restored, and there being no further need for the unusual measures adopted, the suspension of constitutional guarantees would come to an end. It will be seen that our Constitution provides a speedy way for punishing criminals in extra ordinary cases, without the unfortunate need which the condition of things has sometimes made necessary in this country — especially in California in former years — of establishing a committee of public safety to preserve order, a proceeding which meant that the people took the law into their own hands, acting without regard to the usual legal forms, and oftentimes in a manner closely resembling lynch law.
