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Machine Learning for Biometrics
Concepts, Algorithms, and Applications
Cognitive Data Science in Sustainable Computing

Machine Learning for

Biometrics
Concepts, Algorithms, and Applications

Edited by

Partha Pratim Sarangi

Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Seemanta Engineering College,
Jharpokharia, Baripada, Odisha, India

Madhumita Panda
Assistant Professor, Master in Computer Applications, Seemanta Engineering College,
Jharpokharia, Baripada, Odisha, India

Subhashree Mishra
Assistant Professor, School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India

Bhabani Shankar Prasad Mishra

Associate Professor, School of Computer Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India
Dean, School of Computer Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Banshidhar Majhi
Director, IIITDM, Kancheepuram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Series Editor
Arun Kumar Sangaiah
School of Computing Science and Engineering,Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT),
Vellore, India
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Contributors

Numbers in paraentheses indicate the pages on which the authors’ contributions begin.
Sumitav Acharya (143), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National
Institute of Science and Technology, Berhampur, India
A. Anandh (105), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kamaraj College
of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, India
Saurabh Bilgaiyan (155), School of Computer Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
P.V.S.S.R. Chandra Mouli (65), Department of Computer Science, Central University
of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India
Manisha P. Dale (1), MES College of Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune University,
Pune, India
Rupam Das (155), School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT, Deemed to be University,
Bhubaneswar, India
K. Devendran (87), Computer Science and Engineering, Kongu Engineering College,
Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Sachit Dhamija (155), School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT, Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, India
R. Jai Ganesh (129), K. Ramakrishnan College of Technology, Trichy, India
G.K. Kamalam (177), Department of Information Technology, Kongu Engineering
College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Vaishali H. Kamble (1), AISSMS IOIT, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India
M. Kavitha (129), K. Ramakrishnan College of Technology, Trichy, India
P. Keerthika (87,177), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kongu
Engineering College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Chirag Kyal (29), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute
of Science and Technology, Berhampur, India
K. Logeswaran (177), Department of Information Technology, Kongu Engineering
College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
V.M. Manikandan (201), Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP,
Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India
R. Manjula Devi (87,177), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kongu
Engineering College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India

xiii
xiv Contributors

Bhabani Shankar Prasad Mishra (47,155), School of Computer Engineering, KIIT

Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, India
Subhashree Mishra (47), School of Computer Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Samrat Mondal (217), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta, India
H. Muthukrishnan (177), Department of Information Technology, Kongu Engineering
College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
K. Muthulakshmi (105), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kamaraj
College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, India
Madhumita Panda (47), Master of Computer Applications, Seemanta Engineering
College, Jharpokharia, India
Suryakanta Panda (217), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta, India
Harsh Poddar (29), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National
Institute of Science and Technology, Berhampur, India
R. Ramya (105), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kamaraj College
of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, India
Motahar Reza (29,143), Department of Mathematics, GITAM Deemed to be
University, Hyderabad, India
C. Sagana (87), Computer Science and Engineering, Kongu Engineering College,
Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
M. Sangeetha (87), Computer Science and Engineering, Kongu Engineering College,
Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Partha Pratim Sarangi (47,87), School of Computer Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, India
Priyanshu Sarmah (155), School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT, Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, India
K. Sentamilselvan (177), Department of Information Technology, Kongu Engineering
College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
P. Suresh (87,177), Department of Information Technology, Kongu Engineering
College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
S. Venkatesh (105), Microland, Bengaluru, India
Dilip Kumar Yadav (65), Department of Computer Applications, National Institute of
Technology, Jamshedpur, India
Gaurav Yadav (65), Department of Computer Applications, National Institute of
Technology, Jamshedpur, India
Preface

The biometric systems automatically recognize the identity of a person by using

his/her physiological and behavioral characteristics. The improvement in sensor
technology attracts many researchers’ attention to introduce a number of new
biometric traits for providing privacy and security in various applications rang-
ing from industrial to healthcare systems. In the last decades, with the aim of
improving the recognition performance, a large number of machine learning
algorithms have been presented in numerous biometric applications. The signif-
icance of machine learning algorithm is to determine the identity of individuals
by associating biometric patterns with their respective enrolled users. However,
in high-security applications, security and recognition accuracy are major con-
cerns that can be addressed by designing multimodal biometric systems. As the
name depicts, multimodal biometrics incorporates two or more different bio-
metric characteristics (for example, fingerprint, iris, face, plamprint, etc.),
which works in the similar way like unimodal biometrics except an extra mod-
ule of information fusion. Due to the increasing number of biometric systems
and their applications, a profound amount of research and developments are still
required in this field of biometrics.
So far, a numerous biometric systems are exhibiting limited identification
rate or accuracy in unconstrained scenarios due to the poor quality of image
acquisition that includes poor contrast, varying illumination, and
noncooperation by users. These challenges encourage many researchers to work
in its diverse segments such as extracting discriminative features, employing
efficient classifiers, and fusion of information at different stages of the multi-
modal biometric systems. Furthermore, another direction of research is to pro-
vide security to the biometric information system in case of online mode of
identity recognition of individuals in many applications. This book covers
the most recent research progresses in the field of biometrics to enhance recog-
nition performance and security problems in several applications, such as online
transaction, e-commence, access control, law enforcement, boarder security,
healthcare, and so on.
In this book, we specifically address the current research progress in the
field of biometrics and biometric-based applications with the objective of
improving personal identity recognition performance. This book comprises
12 chapters, in which each chapter delivers the concepts and fundamentals of
a recent topic on biometrics, presents reviews on up-to-date methodologies,

xv
xvi Preface

reveals results, and compares with state-of-the-art, highlighting its effectiveness

in the recognition and future directions. Furthermore, the contents of this book
are organized according to the well-accepted biometric traits and a few novel
ones along with biometric security and recent applications, so that each chapter
can be read autonomously from the others. A concise and chapter-wise intro-
duction of this book is described below.
Chapter “Machine Learning Approach for longitudinal face recognition of
children” presents a novel application of identity recognition of children using
the face biometric trait. Face recognition of children below 6 years of age helps
to identify children for their healthcare services and investigation of missing
children. In this chapter, the authors developed a new face database in which
they collected face images of the individual over a period of time, especially
at a gap of few months, and named it as longitudinal face database. Extensive
experiments are performed using different machine learning classifiers such as
support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), logistic regression
(LR), decision tree, Gaussian Naive Bayes, and convolutional neural networks
(CNN). Comparison of experimental results demonstrates the effectiveness and
superiority of the proposed method using CNN with improved accuracy.
Finally, the authors suggest to increase the database size and improvement in
the model as some possible research directions in future.
Chapter “TBFR: Thermal Biometric Face Recognition—A Noncontact Face
Biometry” proposes a novel thermal face recognition method to diminish the
effect of varying light intensity, poses, accessories, aging, etc. of the existing
face biometric systems. In this chapter, the authors fused face geometry features
with pretrained ResNet-50 features to improve recognition performance, and
experimental results revealed the proposed method to be more robust in com-
parison with the existing methods.
Chapter “Multimodal Biometric Recognition using Human Ear and Profile
Face: An Improved Approach” discusses an improved approach for ear biomet-
rics based on fusion of ear and profile face-handcrafted features at the feature-
level fusion and score-level fusion schemes. Recently, some convolutional neu-
ral network models have been proposed for ear biometrics, and their experiment
results show competent performance compared to state-of-the-art methods.
However, deep-learning-based biometrics applications need a large number
of training images, huge memory for data processing, and enormous computa-
tional complexity at the cost of improving the identification rate. In this chapter,
the authors focus on a multimodal approach based on ear and profile face, to
enhance the recognition performance with less processing complexity. Several
experiments with comparisons are performed to test the effectiveness and supe-
riority of the proposed approach.
Chapter “Statistical Measures for Palmprint Image Enhancement” provides
the overview of image enhancement methods and their quality measurements in
palmprint images. In the palmprint image enhancement techniques, the most
widely used databases are discussed with further details. However, the image
 Preface xvii

enhancement plays an important role in the preprocessing step of biometric sys-

tems to provide a better recognition performance in terms of accuracy and
identification rate.
In chapter “Retina Biometrics for Personal Authentication,” an attempt is
made to explore the retina biometrics using the ANFIS model. In this chapter,
ANFIS-based Retina Biometric Authentication System (ARBAS) for person’s
authentication and its significance are discussed. Besides, this chapter provides
readers with the required amount of knowledge to select suitable features’ set
and adequate techniques to develop robust research in this field.
Chapter “Gender Recognition from facial Images using Multi-Channel
Deep Learning Framework” demonstrates Multi-Channel Deep Learning
Framework based on an automated gender recognition approach. In this work,
the authors try to extract discriminative features from raw facial images from
GoogleNet. They fuse feature vectors obtained from two sources: first, feature
vectors are obtained from featured images generated from LDP filters and sec-
ond, feature vectors are directly obtained from raw facial images, and then both
are separately applied as inputs to GoogleNet. Finally, the feature sets are com-
bined together using CCA/DCA to provide input to SVM classifier for gender
recognition of the given input image. A series of experiments are conducted,
and a comprehensive explanation of experimental results is illustrated.
Chapter “Implementation of Cardiac Signal for Biometric Recognition from
Facial Video” discusses the Heartbeat Signal from Facial Video (HSFV) as a
biometric evidence for recognizing the identity of individuals. This chapter
impacts researchers to get motivation and knowledge toward working in a novel
direction in the field of biometrics.
Chapter “Real-Time Emotion Engagement Tracking of Students using
Human Biometric Emotion Intensities” describes an automatic method to detect
an absent-minded face present in a class using FAU (Facial Action Unit). Fur-
thermore, this chapter covers multiple aspects of tracking, ranging from the stu-
dent entering the classroom. Experimental results presented by the authors can
achieve excellent results for emotion detection and recognition of students’ face
images.
Chapter “Facial Identification Expression Based Attendance Monitoring
and Emotion Detection—A Deep CNN Approach” discusses the challenges
of taking attendance and gauging emotions of the students in a new online class-
room environment. In this chapter, with the help of advance machine learning
approach, the authors introduce an automatic biometric-based attendance and
facial expression recognition system.
Chapter “Contemporary Survey on Effectiveness of Machine and Deep
Learning Techniques for Cyber Security” reviews the practicality of biometrics
in cyber security based on efficient machine learning and deep learning tech-
niques. The objective of this survey is to provide an impact on readers to acquire
the fundamental concepts of biometric authentication and identification using
different machine learning techniques for cyber security systems.
xviii Preface

Chapter “A Secure Biometric Authentication System for Smart Environ-

ment using reversible Data Hiding through Encryption Scheme” introduces
the notion of reversible data hiding (RDH) scheme to achieve a secure online
biometric data communication. In a RDH-based encryption scheme, the bio-
metric images are encrypted by hiding the important information in an image.
In this chapter, the author presents a new model wherein the compressed finger-
print data is used as a secret message, and it will be embedded into the face
image through a reversible data hiding-based encryption scheme. In order to
maintain secure communication, encrypted image obtained after RDH scheme
is transmitted to the cloud service provider in a secure manner.
Chapter “An Efficient and Untraceable Authentication Protocol for Cloud
Based Healthcare System” provides Telecare Medical Information System
(TMIS), which is very important in pandemic situations, for example, Covid-
19. In this technique, the patient’s mobile device has a major role for commu-
nicating with doctors. Furthermore, mutual authentication and key agreement
scheme is required to protect vital information from any kind of mischief activ-
ities from adversaries in the insecure communication channel. In this chapter,
the authors propose a biometric hashing technique to provide secure authenti-
cation and key agreement for communication between the patient and
the doctor.
Finally, we hope that our readers including the graduate students, research
scholars, young researchers, academicians, and industrial professionals find the
contributed chapters in this book thought-provoking, and this piece of work will
motivate future research breakthrough to progress further advances in the
machine learning-based biometrics applications.

Partha Pratim Sarangi

Madhumita Panda
Subhashree Mishra
Bhabani Shankar Prasad Mishra
Banshidhar Majhi
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Acknowledgments

The editors would like to gratefully acknowledge all of the contributors for con-
tinuous effort and timely submission of their chapters. This book would not
have been feasible without the cooperation of the chapter authors. All the chap-
ters have been reviewed for several rounds to facilitate the selection of final
chapters in our book. Valuable suggestions and guidance from the reviewers
helped the authors in refining individual chapters. Thanks also go to the
reviewers in enhancing the quality of the chapters of this book.
The editors would like to extend gratitude to Sonnini Ruiz Yura from
Elsevier for inspiration over the year. We would like to gratefully acknowledge
Andrae Akeh and Judith Clarisse Punzalan (Elsevier) for their patience during
the preparation of this book. In addition, we shall thank Swapna Srinivasan at
Elsevier for her sincere help and patience during the final preparation of this
book. Finally, we shall extend gratefulness to our family members and friends
for all their support.

xix
Chapter 1

Machine learning approach

for longitudinal face recognition
of children
Vaishali H. Kamblea and Manisha P. Daleb
a
AISSMS IOIT, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India, bMES College of Engineering,
Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India

1 Introduction
Face of an individual is a popular and well-accepted biometric trait that can be
used to perform identity recognition of adults as well as children. Children are
the most valuable and jeopardy group in society; hence they should be under
supervision continuously. Security and healthcare of children is an important
aspect of all countries [1]. Automatic recognition of children using their face
is a useful investigative tool to help identify missing children. Though the
development of the face of a child starts in the mother’s womb from 3 months,
it is not proportional to the development of other parts of the body. Therefore,
recognition of children below 6 years is still an open research problem. Children
recognition using different modalities needs to be studied to solve the problems
related to security and healthcare. As per the literature survey, still there is not
even one commercial biometric system in use for recognition of toddlers. Var-
ious researchers have discussed about biometric recognition of adults; however,
very few papers on toddlers are available. A meager amount of work has been
traced in biometric identification of toddlers or children. It is most challenging
to recognize a toddler from his own single photograph after a few months. But,
in some instances, such as missing children, we have only the face image. So,
the recognition of children from their face image is very important. Facial
images can be acquired without users’ active involvement using ordinary cam-
eras from a distance. Also in survey, we noted that that most of the toddler’s
biometric recognition is in verification mode.
Sahar Siddique studied longitudinal face recognition using the Extended
Newborn Database and Children Multimodal Biometric Database. Identifica-
tion accuracy achieved using CNN is 62.7% and 85.1% on both the databases,

Machine Learning for Biometrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85209-8.00011-0

Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 Machine learning for biometrics

respectively [2]. Rowden et al. studied the longitudinal face recognition of chil-
dren between 0 and 4 years of age. The same-session accuracy they achieved is
93% and cross-session accuracy 43% after 6 months [3]. Local Binary Pattern
(LBP) is widely used texture-based method for recognition of face biometrics
[4]. This method is also used for children face recognition [5,6].
This chapter is presenting a machine learning and deep learning approach
for face recognition of children. As per the literature review, the study of chil-
dren recognition with the help of their face modality started in 2010 in India
[5,6]. Most of the papers studied same-session face recognition. The meager
amount of work is carried out longitudinally, that is, images of the same subject
taken over a period of time. There are very few readily available databases for
newborns like FG-NET [7]. There are very few images of children below
5 years in these datasets. CMBD database of IIIT Delhi (India) [8] is one of
the children longitudinal face recognition databases, but due to security reasons
the face database is not publicly available [9]. Therefore, database collection is
the major task in infants and toddler’s recognition. For this study, the database
of 81 subjects for the same session and 48 subjects for the cross session is col-
lected. The span between the data acquisition sessions is 3–6 months. The major
stages of the proposed work are preprocessing of face images, which include
manually cropping of face images of size 120
120 and converting it into gray
scale. Feature extraction is based on principal component analysis and linear
discriminant analysis, and CNN is proposed. The classification of subjects is
done using machine learning classifiers on the children database of the same
session and cross session. Further, the work is extended using convolutional
neural network (CNN) in which we have proposed our own optimized model
with data augmentation used to compare the machine learning and deep learn-
ing classifiers on our database.
The major contributions of the proposed work are as follows.
1. Due to the nonavailability of reference databases for children below 6 years,
the collection of longitudinal databases of children faces itself is a great
challenge. In the proposed work, we have captured the face images of tod-
dlers with the mobile camera of resolution 20 MP, with consent from their
parents in two sessions. Time period between two sessions is 2 months to
1 year. In the same session, 730 images of 81 toddlers are taken. In the sec-
ond session, 485 images of 48 toddlers are captured.
2. In this chapter, we are proposing feature extraction using PCA, LDA, and
CNN approaches on the facial images and their comparative study. In PCA
and LDA approaches, we have applied different machine learning tech-
niques for classification of subjects, such as Support Vector Machine
(SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), Gaussian Naive Bayes, K-Nearest
Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree, and Random Forest. In CNN, feature
extraction is done by convolution layers and classification is done by dense
layers.
 Machine learning approach Chapter 1 3

3. In this work, we implemented CNN from basic level to optimized level.

First, CNN is of three convolution layers for the same session and cross ses-
sion. Further, the CNN is modified in terms of data augmentation, and six-
layer convolution model is used with L2 kernel regularization and batch
normalization for enhancing the accuracy.
4. We compare the effectiveness of different feature extraction and classifica-
tion techniques in identification mode. Further, we optimize the CNN for
our children database to increase the accuracy. We compare the recognition
performance of the proposed CNN with the conventional PCA- and LDA-
based method using classification technique.

2 Face modality for children face recognition

Human beings can be recognized using its inherent biological feature’s analysis
and measurement. Science of recognizing human beings with the help of its bio-
logical features is called biometrics.
Biometric recognition is based on two prominent characteristics of human
beings:
(1) Physiological characteristics: face, fingerprint, iris, palmprint, footprint,
palm vein, ear, DNA, etc.
(2) Behavioral characteristics: voice, gait, signature, etc.
Indian biometrics market survey graph about the usage of different biometric
modalities for the year 2019 is shown in Fig. 1.
As per biometric market fingerprint is widely used for recognition of human
beings. Children’s fingerprints are tiny, and are not easy to capture. The second-
largest used biometric modality is face. Face images are easy to capture and

Indian Biometrics Market In US $ Million, 2019

54.8
27.8 80.5
307.4
Fingerprint Recognition
Facial Authentication
IRIS Recognition
Voice Recognition
Palm Recognition
Others
448.2
1679.4

FIG. 1 Indian biometric market share in US million [10].

4 Machine learning for biometrics

useful in the case of missing children. Therefore, we are using face biometrics
for recognition of children. An example of different biometrics of children from
our database is shown in Fig. 2.
Human face is a 3D model, we can recognize it by its features such as eyes,
shape of face, and color. Automatic face recognition is based on 2D photo-
graphs of a person. In 1964 and 1965, Woody Bledsoe, along with Helen Chan
and Charles Bisson, recognized human faces using computers for the first time.
Nowadays adult face recognition achieves very high accuracy in the range of
99.63% [11]. Face recognition of children is still an open challenge. All face
recognition algorithms evaluate on false negative identification rate (FNIR)
which is dependent on age. The FNIR of children is higher as compared to
adults or seniors. The comparison of FNIR and false positive identification rate
(FPIR) is given in Table 1 for various stages of child age.
Child face development: Studies from the paper by Farkas discuss that in
the first 2 years of a child face development, mouth width of child increases
whereas mouth height decreases. Mouth shape alters from “rosebud-like” to
a more adult type. Growth of facial features is very fast in the first year, less
rapid in the second year. Subsequent changes were slow and irregular from
the age of 3 to 9 years [12].

Face Footprint Fingerprint

FIG. 2 Different biometrics for recognition of children.

TABLE 1 Comparison of FNIR and FPIR of children for

different age.

Subjects FNIR FPIR

Babies 0.7 0.2
Kids 0.4 In between 0.2 and 0.05
Pre-teen 0.29 0.05
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devise. I shall hope to speak with the utmost distinction of which I
am capable; and I shall hope not to employ a word whose meaning
is obscure to you, or a phrase which is equivocal or open to
misconstruction. That you are prepared to surrender your whole
attention to me you tell me with your looks. That I shall hold that
attention I dare to believe, unless the hand of Providence deprives
me of the power to give utterance to those things with which my
mind is charged to the bursting-point.
“You will not refute me when I assert that the fact in our common
experience which at the present time has the greatest power to
oppress us is the imperfection of human nature. And upon entering
a court of justice this fact is apt to demoralize a feeling mind. The
science of appraising criminal evidence has been carried among us
to a curious pitch, as witness the unexampled skill of my learned
friend; the paraphernalia of incrimination, if the expression may be
allowed to me, is consummate; but in spite of the rare ingenuity of
great legal minds, human nature is fallible. It is liable to err. It does
err. To the deep grief of science it errs with great frequency. Indeed,
its errors are so numerous that they even impinge upon the sacred
domain of justice. Miscarriages of justice occur every day.
“In a cause of this nature it is most necessary that steps should be
taken to exclude the element of injustice by all means that are
known to us. We are bound, gentlemen, to keep that contingency
constantly before our eyes. Such a contingency fills me with
trembling; and I believe it fills you, for in this instance a miscarriage
of justice would not only be irreparable, it would be a crime against
our human nature.
“The question arises, how can we safeguard ourselves against this
element of injustice? What means can we adopt to keep it out?
Gentlemen, it devolves upon me, the advocate of the accused, to
furnish that means. By taking thought I shall endeavor to provide it.
To that end I propose to divide what I have to say to you into three
parts. The first will deal with your legal duty. The second will deal
with the duty to which every Christian Englishman must subscribe or
forfeit his name, and with his name the title-deeds of his humanity.
The third will show the consequences which must and do wait upon
the evasion of this second duty, which is the highest and noblest
known to mankind, which in itself completely transcends this legal
one, this technical one you are sworn to obey.”
“I can see he means to be all night,” said Mr. Weekes to his junior,
with marked irritation. “Lover of the sound of his own voice.”
“He is going wrong already,” said Mr. Topott complacently. “Saying
too much; overdoing it generally.”
“Every inch a performer,” said Jumbo at the back to a companion.
“There’s a fortune in that voice and manner. Hope the lad won’t say
too much.”
“Has done already,” said his companion. “That cant of a duty higher
than the legal one is merely ridiculous.”
The ex-president of the Oxford Union and his friend, whose youth
rendered them sternly critical, were following Northcote’s every word
with the closest attention.
“He’s got a brogue you could cut with a knife,” said the ex-president,
with an air of resenting a personal injury.
“You are wrong,” said his friend, with an absence of compromise.
“He was at school with me.”
By this time the advocate had cut into the heart of his subject. In a
few swift yet unemphasized sentences he had proved the existence
of a doubt in the case. He pressed home the significance of that fact
with a power that was so perfectly disciplined that it did not appear
to exert itself, yet it carried a qualm into the camp of the enemy. He
was content to indicate that the doubt was there, and with apparent
magnanimity differentiated it from that which in his view must ever
accompany circumstantial evidence. Every gesture that he used in
the demonstration of its presence, each vibration of a voice which
had become marvellously flexible, was a living witness of the
dynamic quality he had in his possession.
“He will be wise to let it go at that,” was the opinion of Mr. Weekes.
“He has done quite as well as was to have been expected. We shall
just get home, and for a beginner he will have done very nicely.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he is only just starting,” said Mr. Topott
mournfully.
“I have done now, gentlemen,” Northcote continued, “with the legal
aspect of this case. That aspect, as I have shown, makes an
acquittal necessary. But whenever we are content to base our
judgment upon technicalities, we tie our hands. We furnish room for
one of those sophistries which trained intellects, the intellects of
those who are far more learned in the law than we are, find it so
easy to introduce. There is always the danger that a body of laymen,
however unimpeachable their integrity, may be led from the plain
and obvious path of their duty by a cunning stratagem. Again, in all
those matters that seek ascertained fact for their basis, we must not
forget that its supply is partial. Science is doing stupendous things
for the world, but even it cannot yet supply mankind with anything
beyond half-truths. There is no field of man’s activities—philosophy,
religion, politics, law—which does not depend upon these. Science
can furnish us with sufficient evidence to hang a fellow creature, but
the time is at hand when it will also have furnished us with such
abundant knowledge of our eternal fallibility, that we shall cease to
exact these reprisals. For are not all reprisals, which we include
under the comprehensive term ‘justice,’ the fruit of an imperfect
apprehension of the nature of man? It has been said truly that a
little knowledge is dangerous, for in looking at the history of human
opinion in all the phases through which it has passed, we see how
the habit of basing our actions upon half-truths has been the cause
of the manifold wounds of the world.
“I think, gentlemen, I have said enough to indicate the dangers
which lurk in the temptation to apply in its arid literalness the letter
of the law. I am aware that such a precaution tells against the cause
I am pleading, because, as I think I have made clear to you, the
letter of the law demands the acquittal of the prisoner at the bar. But
those who seek for direction in great issues must strive to forget
their personal cause. According to the law you are pledged to obey
your duty is clear; but as every day its tendency to err becomes
more visible, I feel I must not, I feel I dare not, place too implicit a
trust in its clemency. Therefore, gentlemen, I am about to
supplement this law, I am about to reinforce it, and to reinforce you,
by a reference to that moral code which each and every one of God’s
citizens carries in his own heart, that is the only tribunal known to
mankind that is not liable to error. And I think you will agree with me
that the nature of this case allows me to partake of the inestimable
boon of appealing to it.
“When I watched you defile into this dismal room this morning, one
after another, faltering and uncertain in your steps, and bearing
about you many evidences of having been overcome by the cruel
task which had been imposed upon you by no will of your own, my
heart went out to you, and I could not help reflecting that I would
rather be in my own case, awful as it was to me, than I would be in
yours. I at least could walk upon the higher ground without
misgiving. I had not been pressed into the service of this court of
justice to make obeisance to a ruthless and obsolete formula. I was
not called upon to subscribe to a compact that was repugnant to my
moral nature; I was not called upon to enact the brutal travesty of
sealing it with my lips. But, my friends, as I marked you this
morning, with a great fire burning in my veins, I wondered by what
miracle it was, I wondered by what signal act of grace, I too did not
stand among you in my capacity of a private citizen, to bear my part
in this saturnalia of justice. Who was I, that I should not be plucked
from among my family and my friends, from my peaceful vocations
and my modest toil, to do to death a woman? Who was I, that I
should be exempt from this bitter degradation which my peers are
called upon to suffer? And in thinking these thoughts, my friends, it
came upon me suddenly—call it a prophetic foresight if you will—
that one of these days I should be called to sit among you. And I
said to myself, ‘When that comes to pass, what will you do?’ I said to
myself, ‘What will you do?’
“At first I could make no answer. I was stupefied by the thought my
too active imagination had conjured up. And then at last I said to
myself, ‘I shall ask for guidance in this matter; I shall ask for
guidance from that tribunal which lies within my own nature.’ And,
my friends, there and then I turned to it, as though this thing had
come of a verity to pass, for the sight of you all seated there in your
despair had borne upon me so heavily that your situation had
become my own.
“Now the answer that tribunal vouchsafed to me was this: ‘Consider
what your pastors and masters would do were they placed in your
case. Consider what would be the attitude of those great minds that
still burn like candles in the night of the time, whose radiance has
warmed your veins, whose immortality has enriched your own
personal nature. Consider what would be the conduct of those
representative spirits of whom you proud Englishmen of the
twentieth century are the heirs.’
“And then a strange thing happened. No sooner had this answer
been written on the tablets of my brain, than this gaslit room grew
dimmer than it already was, and there seemed to arise a kind of
commotion among you gentlemen of the jury. And when at last I
found the courage to lift my eyes outwards from my thoughts, and
they looked towards you, I saw with a thrill of surprise, as if by the
agency of magic, that each one of your faces had been blotted out.
Each was shrouded in an intense darkness. But while I continued to
gaze upon the place that had contained you, almost with a feeling of
horror, a shadowy haze seemed to play over it, and a number of
strange faces peopled the gloom. They were more than twelve in
number; they were more than twenty; they were more than a
hundred. For the most part they were those of men old and austere.
Each face seemed to be that of a person of infinite power and
dominion, of one accustomed to walk alone. Each was marked by a
kind of superhuman composure, as though having spent its youth in
every phase of stress, it had emerged at last upon the summits of
the mountains, where the air is rarefied, and where it is possible to
hold a personal intercourse with Truth. Some of the faces were
grave, some a little sinister, but the eyes of each had a forward,
upward look which conferred an expression upon them of entrancing
beauty.
“Stealthily, rapidly, but with a superhuman composure these noble
shadows ranged themselves in the jury-box, in the room of you
gentlemen who had vacated it. And when I had overcome my
stupefaction sufficiently to look upon these new jurors more closely,
I was struck with amazement at the curious familiarity of those faces
of theirs. They were those of persons that I had seemed to have
known all my life.
“There and then a shiver of recognition crept through my veins. I
knew them; I revered them, I had spent many hours in their
company. The first face I had recognized was that of an old man,
urbane and ironical, a citizen of the world; it was the face of Plato.
Beside him was a man, older, less urbane, more ironical; it was the
face of Socrates. Thinkers, warriors, saints, and innovators began to
teem before my gaze. There was St. Augustine and St. Francis of
Assisi, Shakespeare and Goethe, Leonardo and Dante, Washington
and Cromwell, Kant and Spinoza, Isaac Newton, Giordano Bruno,
Voltaire. I thought I discerned the faces of at least two women
among this assembly; one was that of Joan of Arc, the other that of
Mary the Magdalene. There appeared to be hosts of others of all
times and countries which sprang into being as I gazed, but though
I recognized them then, I cannot pause to enumerate them now. For
this gathering was strangely representative, and the living were not
excluded—I saw a great Russian, a great Englishman, and a great
Frenchman of our own day—but I must resist the temptation to give
the names of all I beheld.
“No sooner had the scope and representativeness of this gathering
declared itself and it had ranged itself miraculously within a little
room, than a kind of commotion overspread it. They seemed to be
discussing some difficult point among themselves. However, this
action of theirs had no time to engage my anxiety, for I understood
immediately that they were seeking a foreman to their jury. Now you
would suppose that among a concourse of all who had attained an
immortal preëminence in mental and moral activity, to choose a
leader from amongst them would be impossible. But this was not so.
Their discussion was over almost before it began. They had no
difficulty whatever in nominating one among their number to speak
for them all.
“It was with an indescribable curiosity that I observed a slight,
strangely garbed figure emerge from their midst. And when he came
to assume his place at the head of his immortal companions, which
you, sir, are occupying now, I was devoured by an overpowering
eagerness to look upon his face. And by this time so immensely
powerful had been the impact of this jury upon my imagination, that
it had obtained an actual existence and proceeded in sober verity to
conduct the business of the court. And I was sensible that the
painful curiosity with which I awaited the foreman’s revelation of his
identity was shared by all who were present. All were craning with
parted lips to look upon his face. And when at last he lifted his head,
and his pale and luminous features shone out of the gloom and
overspread this assembly, a kind of half-stifled sob of surprise, a sort
of shudder of recognition, passed over the crowded court. The face
was that of the man called Jesus of Nazareth.
“To myself, however, the recognition brought an immediate and
profound sense of joy. All my doubts, my terrors, my perplexities,
were no more. They passed as completely as though they had never
been. The business of the court proceeded, but I was inaccessible to
its bearing upon my task. My every thought was merged in the
personality of the foreman of the jury. The precise, calm, and
harmonious legal diction of my learned friends lost all its meaning
and coherence, and even the demeanor of the good and upright
judge, who is making trial of this cause, became one with the
glamour which environed the figure in the jury-box.
“That august jury seemed to sit and listen to all that passed. By an
extreme courtesy which they were able to impose on their finely
disciplined natures, they gave heed to the ceremonial that was
enacted for their benefit. It is true that there were moments when
they were unable to conceal the smile of soft irony which veiled their
lips; but from the beginning to the end their patience and urbanity
remained inviolate. The foreman, however, muttering continually
inaudible words to himself, with fingers twitching, and the hectic
pulse beating in his thin and fevered cheek, never took his eyes from
the rail in front of him. And when at last the time came for the jury
to consider their verdict, they were able to return it instantly, without
leaving the box, as you would expect such a tribunal to do.
“I can scarcely hope to picture to your minds the scene that was
presented when the foreman, so frail and thin and yet so full of
compassion, rose humbly in his place. ‘Are you agreed upon your
verdict, gentlemen?’ said the Clerk of Arraigns. ‘We are,’ said the
voice of the divine mystic of the Galilean hills; yet I can convey to
you the sound of it no better than could those poor fishermen who
heard it nineteen centuries ago. ‘What is your verdict, gentlemen?’
said the Clerk of Arraigns, whose own voice sounded so ludicrously
trite in comparison with that of the foreman, that it seemed to have
no place in human nature. ‘I understand,’ said the foreman of the
jury, ‘according to your laws the penalty is death.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ said the
Clerk of Arraigns, with a quiet dignity, ‘the penalty according to the
law is death.’ ‘The jury return a verdict of Not Guilty,’ replied the
foreman instantly, stooping to write with his finger on the rail in
front of him, as though he had heard him not.”
At this point Mr. Weekes rose excitedly.
“My lord,” he cried, “this blasphemous travesty has gone too far. It
must be carried no farther. It must cease.”
“Mr. Weekes,” said Northcote, turning to confront him, while a wave
of emotion swept over the court which seemed to make the air
vibrate, “I must ask you resume your seat.” He pointed with a finger
with sorrowful sternness. “I cannot submit to interruption at such a
moment as this. You hold your brief for the Crown; I hold mine for
God and human nature.”
The hush which followed was broken by a poor actor among the
jury. He had been out of an engagement for two years, and he had
left his home that morning with his wife sitting with a child at her
breast before a grate without a fire in it.
“That’s true,” he muttered heavily.
“My lord, I appeal to you,” cried Mr. Weekes more excitedly than
ever. “I did not come here to be browbeaten and insulted. I did not
come here to witness religion made into mockery and dragged
through the mire.”
“Mr. Weekes,” said Northcote with a depth of compassion in his tone
which made many veins run cold, “a subterfuge of this kind will not
serve you. The jury have no desire that you should make a parade of
your feelings at such a moment as this. They desire that you will
resume your seat, and relinquish any further attempt to make their
task more hideous than it already is.”
“That is perfectly true,” exclaimed the foreman in a hoarse whisper.
It was observed by those who were behind Northcote that in the
stress of the mental anguish through which he had already passed,
by constantly plucking with his fingers at the back of his hands, the
skin had been pulled away and the bleeding flesh was exposed.
“I appeal to your lordship,” cried Mr. Weekes.
“My lord, I also appeal to you,” said Northcote; and the poise of his
head and the lift of his chin, as it was directed upwards to the
bench, reminded those who had seen it of the figure of Balzac as
modelled by Rodin in clay.
The dæmonic quality was dominant here, as is the case always
when the gospel of force has its dealings with human nature. Few
had suspected that this old judge, with his brusque manners and his
great barking irascible voice was no longer fit to fill his position. His
lionlike exterior was no more than the livery of his dignity. He was
not the man to face a crisis, when above all things an iron nerve and
an implacable will were needed to impose restraint upon a jury and
an advocate who were in danger of trampling underfoot the
accepted rules of decorum and procedure. And the week before the
judge had buried his youngest daughter. When Northcote’s gaunt
eyes were turned upon this old man, who was trembling violently
under his ermine, the tears began to course down his face.
“My God, he’s settled Bow-wow,” said the fat barrister on the back
bench.
“Always was a senile old fool at bottom,” said his companion. “That
young bounder ought to lose his wig and gown.”
“Shut up! He’s speaking again.”
 XXVII
THE PERORATION

“It is too much the custom, my friends,” Northcote continued to the

jury when Mr. Weekes had sat down as spasmodically as he had got
up, “to regard this divine mystic of whom I have spoken as a
supernatural being whose name can only be mentioned with
propriety in the presence of an elaborate ritual. That fetish dies
hard, my friends, but dying it is, for if ever a human being walked
this earth, whose life and opinions are a great poem that deserves to
be recited in our bosoms and our businesses during every hour that
we dwell, it is the life and opinions of him who has already given his
verdict in this case. There are very few things that are of any
importance to us upon which we have not his pronouncement in one
form or another; and though that pronouncement may not always
be coincident with the technical lawyer’s law of the time, which is
understanded of no man, least of all of themselves, these obiter
dicta of his, delivered upon the spur of the occasion, have already
outlasted kings, dynasties, and nations; and they are likely to endure
when court-houses, jury-boxes, and scaffolds have long ceased to
be.
“A few centuries ago such words as I am now addressing to you
would have sent me to the lions, and you also would have been torn
in pieces for having deigned to listen to them. It is not a hundred
years since small children were hanged in this country for stealing
five shillings. A hundred years before that a woman was burned at
the stake for the practice of witchcraft. It was the custom to
disembowel those who were guilty of a felony; to break on the
wheel those who did not hold orthodox political opinions; and to
burn, maim, cut off the heads, and inflict indescribable physical
torments upon any person because of his religious views.
“I am going to ask you, my friends, how these monstrous
enactments were overcome. By the lawyers who drew their fees
from the Crown to put them in practice? Not so. By those educated
minds that conducted the business of the state? Not so. These
unspeakable crimes committed in the name of justice were
overcome by a handful of prophets, seers, and reformers, who arose
in Israel. They were common and unrefined, of small education, and
less culture; poor and obscure herdsmen and fishermen, a pedlar by
the wayside; the keeper of a public-house; a small tradesman in
Lambeth; a miserable grocer of Spitalfields; a wretched old tinker
who passed the choicest part of his days in Bedford jail. This very
Jesus himself, the foreman of this jury which is sitting with you in
the box, which at this moment urges these words to my lips, was a
common rustic by trade, a carpenter. And you will remember that he
paid for the extreme unorthodoxy of his religious and political views
by crucifixion upon the tree.
“The tree has gone, my friends, but he remains. I say the tree has
gone. That tree has gone, but as mankind in the present imperfect
stage of its development, does not dare as yet to trust itself without
a tree of some kind to lean upon, a substitute has been provided for
that cross of wood upon which it nailed the redeemer of his kind.
And it seems to me that if the divine mystic of whom I am speaking
were again to roam the hills of Galilee, his fate would be the same
to-day as it was yesterday. In the present phase which has been
attained by our sympathies with those who share the burden of our
so dark and so inscrutable inheritance, it would be extremely easy
for some learned Treasury counsel in the performance of his duty to
the Crown, to reënact the supreme tragedy of a world which is filled
with tragedies.
“At the present time there is still a tree standing in England upon
which we nail women. They may be guilty of dark offences, as were
the associates of that Nazarene Jew of whom I have spoken; their
fate, according to the written statutes, may be sound in equity;
some wretched Magdalene in falling by the way may have stained
the pavements of the street with blood. But if we, her peers and
coadjutors, are to continue at this time of day to visit her with
reprisals, I am forced to believe, my friends, that all we most cherish
in our national life will perish. And I think I discern by that which is
written in your faces that you are of this opinion also.
“I have alluded to the two unhappy outcasts who were nailed upon
the tree with Jesus. Technically they were malefactors; it was right
that they should be immolated upon the altar of the law. Doubtless
the instant the counsel for the Crown had compassed this desirable
end, he repaired to his home with a substantial emolument and a
perfect security of soul, ate a good dinner, and afterwards lay on a
mat and harkened to the sounds of the lyre. But I do not think from
that day to this the associate of these malefactors was ever shown
to be guilty of any crime at all, at least of any crime known to the
judicial calendar. His only offence, if offence there was, was in living
before his day and generation, which, in the eyes of those who are
contemporary, is a misdemeanor of a heinous character. Posterity
only is able to condone a greatness which transcends its own era.
Yet do not misunderstand me. Technically he was blameless,
technically he had committed no crime.
“This consideration brings me to the final word I shall venture to
speak—the supreme danger of the tree. It is very dangerous to keep
a tree at all. Whatever is once nailed upon it can never be removed.
The stains sink into the wood, and, strive as they may, the labors of
those who undertake to cleanse it and purify it cannot avail. Like
corrosive acids these stains percolate through the fibres and change
them to wormwood and fungus. And do not forget, my friends, that
the fibres of the tree are the fibres also of the national life. A nation
pledges its honor when it seeks reprisal.
“We do well to shudder at the many bitter degradations which have
sprung from this habit of keeping a tree. Jesus was not the first
innocent person whose blood was spilt upon that oft-humiliated
wood. And he was not the last. Our human faculties play us such
strange tricks that they can render us certain of nothing. Even a
poor outcast who has fainted by the bleak wayside of life, who has
occasionally drunk a glass of spirits to keep her from the river, may
by some obscure possibility which the counsel for the prosecution
has not been able to reveal to us have refrained from destroying the
man who has been the first cause of her fall, although it devolves
upon all who love justice—in whatever justice may consist—to
explain away the coincidence of a packet of poison having been
found in her possession. But, as I say, it is within the bounds of
possibility that the theory of the prosecution is wrong.
“It would not be the first occasion that an uncommon zeal has led it
into error. A year ago to-morrow, at these sessions, one John Davis,
a butler, who for thirty years had been a faithful servant in the
household of his mistress, was found guilty of the crime of
compassing the death of that aged lady, in order that he might
spend his own latter days in the enjoyment of a small legacy she
had left him in her will. In the mind of the counsel for the Crown,
and in the mind of the judge, the evidence against this man was
overwhelming. At first you gentlemen of the jury were disposed to
see a doubt in the case, but the learned counsel for the prosecution
was so consummate in his arguments, the learned judge was so
emphatic, the array of witnesses for the Crown was so formidable,
from zealous police-constables, with their way to make in the world,
to experts and past-masters in criminology who had made theirs
long ago; and the youthful advocate, whom the butler’s legal adviser
had selected to defend him, was so unused to a trial of this
magnitude, for his experience had been limited, that he failed in
cross-examination to elucidate from a hostile witness an extremely
important fact; and in his address to you, gentlemen of the jury, he
was unable to soften the impression that the Crown had been able
to build up in your minds.
“I have hardly a need, gentlemen, to reveal to you the sequel of this
painful story. As all the world remembers, you had in the end to
submit to the inevitable. You, gentlemen of the jury, consented to a
verdict of guilty; a month later the unhappy man was hanged; and
he had not been five days in his grave when a nephew of the
murdered woman gave himself up to a justice that had already
wreaked itself on an innocent man, and confessed that he himself
had murdered his aunt because he was in need of her money.
“These facts are green in the minds of you all. But there is a
coincidence connected with this atrocious story and this grievous
case which is engaging your attention. The counsel for the
prosecution in both cases is identical. He stands before you framing
yet another of those objections with which he has endeavored to
impede the cause of humanity. I point my finger at him, and
challenge him to deny the truth of the statement I am making. And
by a perfectly logical and natural extension of this coincidence, the
judge who sent the butler to his doom is seated above you now in
all the panoply of his office. I leave him now if he is able to deal in a
like manner with this poor Magdalene, who may or may not have
fallen by the way.”
Northcote sat down after having spoken for nearly three hours. The
December darkness had long fallen upon the court. The feeble gas-
jets seemed to enhance the shadows that they cast. The intense
faces of the overcrowded building, bar, jury, populace all electrified,
seemed to belong to so many ghosts, so pale, shining, and
transfigured did they gleam. For nearly three hours had the advocate
cast his spell; yet moment by moment, in the dominion of his voice
and the cumulation of his effects, he had increased the hold upon
his hearers. At times the tension had been so great that it had
seemed that somebody must break it with a laugh; but no one had
done so. One and all were swept forward by the contained
impetuosity of the orator; by the restrained and gentle modulations
of a power that played through every word he used; by a ferocious
irony which looked like tenderness, so little did they understand its
nature; and above all by the irresistible magnetism of a personal
genius which rendered the most perilous obstacles of no account.
None had foreseen the cruel, terrible, yet melodramatic climax to
which the advocate was leading; and when it came over the minds
of those present, all of whom in the course of the speech, even the
most hardened officers of the court, the ushers, the chaplain, the
javelin men, and the newspaper reporters, had passed in one form
or another through all the anguish of the spirit of which they were
capable, pity and horror were mingled with their overwrought
surprise. As the advocate stood with his huge and livid face turned
upwards towards the judge, with an ineffable emotion suffusing it,
and the old man, with tears dripping quickly on to his ermine, put
his two fat, white hands before his eyes, a feeling of silence and
terror seemed to pervade the court.
The advocate sat down with parched lips. The hush that ensued was
so long that it seemed it would never come to an end.
It was broken by a commotion among the public benches. A woman
who had fainted was being carried out at the back of the court. The
incident served to unloose the electricity which was pent up in the
atmosphere. A voice from the solicitor’s well was heard to pronounce
the word “Shame!” In an instant it was answered by the multitude
with a volley of the wildest cheers that was ever heard in a court of
justice. All the ragged, tattered, despised, broken and rejected units
of the population, those humble, hungry, and inarticulate creatures
upon whom Jesus himself had wrought his magic, upon whom he
had depended for countenance, took up the challenge, and with
their wild and hoarse cries flung it back upon him who had uttered
it.
For a time the scene was one of consternation. The judge was but a
poor, senile, old man, from whom the tears were leaping. Every
official looked towards him for his prop and stay, but all there was to
see was feeble and inept old age. The Clerk of Arraigns, as pale as a
ghost and trembling violently, was spreading his hands before an
alderman. Policemen stood dismayed, and officers of the court, who
had grown old and despotic in its service, looked towards one
another helplessly, seeking for that authority which none had the
power to exercise.
“I never thought,” said the companion of the fat barrister, “we
should come to this in England. It is a disgrace to English justice.
That fellow must be brought before the general council. They must
take away his wig and gown.”
“A little less prejudice and a little more appreciation, dear boy,” said
the fat barrister, wiping his eyes stealthily. “That lad will be a peer of
the realm long before they make you a stipendiary.”
“He is either the greatest madman or the greatest genius who was
ever called to the bar.”
“Probably both, dear boy.”
 XXVIII
THE SUMMING UP

The barrister who had ventured to give a public expression to his

opinion was that nursling of wealth, the youthful ex-president of the
Oxford Union.
“You’ve done it now,” said the son of the Master of the Rolls. “They
will have in the roof. They were only waiting for a leader.”
“With all respect to your school,” said the ex-president heatedly, “this
fellow is a disgrace to it, also to his profession. It was the act of a
black-guard to throw that at the judge. He is not a gentleman.”
“Rough, of course, on the poor old judge, but he’s playing to win, as
he always did. Hullo, the poor old boy is coming up to the scratch.”
Order had been at last restored, or more correctly had restored
itself; and in thin and shaken tones the judge began his summing-
up. He had conquered his emotion, and in a perfectly simple, plain,
and audible manner he was able to give expression to that which he
desired to say. It afforded the keenest relief to the bar, which was so
profoundly jealous of professional prestige, that after all the
presiding judge should be able to reassert himself sufficiently to
invest with a certain dignity his own procedure in his own court. His
words were charged with deep feeling, but the most critical among
his listeners could discern nothing derogatory to his office in his
mode of utterance.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he began; and although the sound of his
voice was divested of that roughness and irascibility by which it was
known, it yet enchained the attention of his hearers, since intensity
of feeling had rendered it singularly harmonious, “Gentlemen of the
Jury, before I refer to the details of this terrible case I desire to
record my opinion of the manner in which it has been conducted.
The counsel for the defence is a young man, and in the nature of
things his experience in cases of this kind cannot be extensive. But I
would like to affirm that never within my own knowledge has a more
remarkable presentation of the art of advocacy come within the
purview of this court. Mr. Northcote is a young man, but the display
of his genius—I can use no smaller word—which recently he has
made, is an honor to human nature. As an old advocate, I tender my
sincere congratulations to him, and I hope that the career he has
chosen to follow will in every way be worthy of the nobility of his
talent.”
A murmur of applause greeted this eulogium. It had been rendered
with such obvious feeling and delicacy that every word rang true,
and touched the chord that was dominant in the hearts of all.
“Well done, Bow-wow,” said the fat barrister, sniffing and blowing his
nose, “I trust some old pal will stand you a bottle at the Forum this
evening.”
“That is the English gentleman,” said his companion. “I expect that
young cad is feeling rather cheap just at present.”
“Expect nothing, dear boy. Who the devil are you that you should
expect anything? You could no more have saved that woman from
the gallows than you could have jumped across the moon.”
“There is a vexed point which the counsel for the defence has
touched upon,” said the learned judge, “upon which I hope I shall be
excused if I say a few words before approaching the case which
occupies your painful attention. In Crown cases it happens
frequently that the prisoner is at a serious disadvantage in the
matter of representation. Counsel of great eminence may be briefed
for the prosecution, while the defence, for whose conduct, as a
general rule, very little money is forthcoming, has not the means to
secure the aid of counsel of tried worth and experience. In theory
the judge is assumed to hold a kind of watching brief for the
accused, inasmuch that it is his duty to be alive to any loophole of
escape that may present itself in the course of the evidence, and
represent that loophole to the jury. But my experience has shown to
me that that loophole is extremely unlikely to appear where the
opposing counsel are unequally matched. In theory it is expected of
the counsel for the Crown that he shall keep a perfectly open mind
and not allow his own position to sway his conduct of the case; but
a long experience has imposed the conclusion upon me that such an
impartiality as this is not practicable for an advocate who, in the
exercise of his art, is compelled by the fact that he holds a brief to
exert his talent, in spite of an unwritten law, and even in spite of
himself, to the fullest capacity on behalf of his client.
“These words, gentlemen, will not be misconstrued, I am sure.
Nothing is farther from my intention than to suggest that Crown
advocates wantonly overstep their duty or go outside their
jurisdiction. But I do suggest that they feel impelled to do their
utmost for their client, and that client is the Treasury. And having
that very proper and natural feeling in their minds it is humanly
impossible for them to approach their task of promoting a conviction
in the academic spirit which in theory is imposed upon them.
Therefore you will conceive how difficult becomes the function of a
judge who is called upon in the prisoner’s interest to hold the scales
and to adjust the balance, when there is, as occurs so frequently, a
grave disparity between the ability and the professional experience
of the contending counsel. The judge himself, gentlemen, is only
human, and although his familiarity with the procedure of a criminal
trial may render him less vulnerable to the art of a skilful advocate
than those who are not so familiar with those forms of procedure, at
the same time I feel entitled to assert that every judge must in a
measure be susceptible to the manner in which evidence is conveyed
to his notice, and the manner in which it is dissected before his eyes.
“You will forgive me, gentlemen, I hope, in making what may seem
to be a digression from this extremely painful case we are
considering, but it is a point that arises very naturally out of it. The
counsel for the defence saw fit to touch upon it in the course of his
address, and I would like to assure him and to assure you that
during the five and twenty years I have had the honor to occupy a
seat on the judicial bench, this question has seemed to me of such
paramount importance that it has been constantly before my mind.
This is the last opportunity I shall have of making a reference to it in
the presence of you gentlemen of the jury; this is the last occasion
on which I shall take my seat in this or any other court; therefore I
feel a desire to record, with whatever authority twenty-five years of
public service may confer on a mere expression of opinion, the
conclusion at which I have arrived.
“In the ears of many my conclusion will sound utopian, in many
minds it will seem to be a counsel of perfection, for it is this. In
important criminal cases it is the duty of the Crown to make the
same ample provision for the accused as it does for itself. It should
afford equal facilities to the accused person to establish his
innocence as it affords to itself to establish his guilt. After many
profound searchings of heart, more particularly upon circuit, where
cases affecting the life and liberty of the subject are so often left
entirely to the discretion of a rural practitioner, this is the conclusion
I have reached. Such a conclusion will, I fear, be taken as a
confession of weakness on the part of an individual judge. It is a
confession of weakness, gentlemen, but I do not think I shall be
contradicted when I urge that it is a confession which the strongest
and most able of my learned brethren have been called upon over
and over again in their heart of hearts to make.
“The terrible miscarriage of justice which occurred a year ago in this
court, for which I alone can accept responsibility, for which to this
present hour I have not ceased to mourn, would not have taken
place had the defence been in a position to present its testimony,
and to marshal its facts with a skill equal to that enjoyed by the
prosecution. The most material issue in the case was never
presented at all. Its existence was not even revealed. Neither the
prosecuting counsel nor the presiding judge was aware that the
defence had this implement in its possession until long after this
miscarriage had been consummated. Do not misunderstand me,
gentlemen; I hold no brief for myself; I accept the whole of the
responsibility for what took place. It was my duty to unveil that
which was hidden, and to present it adequately to the jury. I failed in
that duty, because from the beginning of the case the defence was
overshadowed. The actual murderer himself was called in evidence
by the Crown; it was upon his unshaken testimony that the verdict
was rendered; but as was only learned when too late, had one
obscure question been pressed home in cross-examination to this
murderer who had perjured himself to conceal his guilt, his
testimony could not have lived five minutes in any impartial mind,
and a lamentable, a grievous miscarriage of justice would not have
stained the annals of this English justice of which very rightly and
properly we are so proud.”
Again a profound silence had descended upon the court. The painful
and close-breathing intensity with which all in that crowded
assembly had followed the prisoner’s advocate through the devious
courses of his address was now extended to the judge. There was
nothing in the words he used to call forth this hush of excited
expectation, but the emotion with which they were invested seemed
to furnish them with life and magnetism.
“All his life,” whispered the fat barrister to his friend, in a tone of
curious tenderness, “he has been a blusterer and a blunderer,
overanxious, pedantic, weak-willed, easily led, but—but his end is
glorious. This is a note he has never touched before.”
“This state defence of prisoners is so much mischievous nonsense,”
said the other almost angrily. “Where does he suppose it will land
the country? A judge has no right to advance such an opinion from
the bench.”
“Bill,” said the fat barrister, with a solemnity for which none of his
friends would have been prepared, “when you have been one of His
Majesty’s judges for twenty-five years you may not hold quite such
definite opinions. Dear old Bow-wow; all the world knows that
underneath his armor he has kept the kindest heart that ever beat,
but this is the first time he has made me feel that I wanted to blub.”
“’Pon my word, Jumbo,” said his friend, impatiently, “don’t you begin.
We have had enough mawkishness this afternoon to last us for the
rest of our lives. I expect Weekes will be falling on the neck of
Topott soon, and the clerk will be kissing the sheriff.”
“Dear old Bow-wow, dear old boy, how old he is getting. They say
this John Davis affair has cut him up dreadfully. There is not a judge
on the bench who would feel it more.”
“Probably the weakest judge who ever took his seat on the bench.
What is he maundering about now? Ah, at last he’s got to the
summing-up.”
The hour was advancing, and happily the judge’s speech was not of
the length which at one time it had threatened to be. The summing-
up was short but indecisive. It was plain that the prisoner’s advocate
had done his work with the judge as well as with the jury. There was
nothing in the judge’s presentment of the evidence, which at one
time had looked so damning, to compare with the resolution and
conviction of Northcote. The magnetic splendor and brilliancy which
had overcome, one by one, the twelve good men and true in the
box, had fastened also upon this old man. His confidence was
shaken, and the definite line the counsel for the Crown had so
confidently expected him to take was far to seek.
“This is doing us no good,” grunted Mr. Weekes to his junior. By now
the leader for the Crown was in a very bad temper. His afternoon
had been wasted, he was going to be late for his dinner, and he was
about to lose a verdict upon which he had counted with certainty.
“My dear Bow-wow, you are positively maudlin. Why the deuce don’t
you leave the doubt alone and confine yourself to the evidence?
There is no doubt. There is not a leg for them to stand on.”
“There was not half a leg for them to stand on at the beginning,”
said Mr. Topott, with scrupulous modesty, “but now as the end
approaches, they appear to be standing upon two thoroughly sound
ones. I think I said at lunch I was frightened to death of that fellow.”
“Much good that did the case,” snapped Mr. Weekes.
“You were so sanguine, my dear fellow,” said Mr. Topott, with his
modesty taking an almost angelic note. He was a young man, able
and ambitious; and his private opinion of his leader was of a nature
that wild horses would not have caused him to expose. “You pooh-
poohed everybody and everything at lunch. The case was as dead as
mutton; their man was a beginner; you and Bow-wow were going to
take care that he did no harm.”
“Well, Topott, I must say you never lose an opportunity of rubbing
things in.”
“Perhaps that is so,” said Mr. Topott, dreamily. “Perhaps I am rather
good at rubbing things in. Perhaps that is my métier.”
“Then perhaps you will provide yourself with another. To my mind
this one is not at all amusing.”
“I suspect that is so. But now this case has gone to pot, I hope you
will not be angry, Weekes, if I inform you that the fault is not yours.
You have simply been knocked out in a fair and square battle. But I
hope you will not repine; because there is not a man in England to-
day who could have stood up against that fellow. He chose
extraordinary weapons, but they were those he knew how to use.
No disgrace attaches to you; you have taken the knock quite
honestly; and if the attorney had been here he would have had to
take it too.”
“Thank you, Topott,” said Mr. Weekes, tartly; “I wish I could have
your testimonial in writing.”
“By all means,” said Mr. Topott.
“Just listen to that old fool,” said Mr. Weekes, petulantly. “Whoever
heard such rubbish as he is talking? It is time he resigned. Nobody
actually saw her put the poison in. Absence of motive. Prisoner
entitled to every doubt that may arise. Every link must be forged in
the chain of all evidence that is purely circumstantial. No credence
can be given to the testimony of half the witnesses for the Crown.
My dear Bow-wow, I really never heard such nonsense in my life.”
“An hour ago you never heard such blasphemy.”
“I would to God the attorney had held this brief!” said Mr. Weekes,
desperately.
“You may count on one thing,” said Mr. Topott; “he will never let you
hear the last of this. Won’t he chuckle? He will pull your leg about it
for the next ten years.”
“I hope you will tell him, Topott,” said Mr. Weekes anxiously, “that he
would have done no better.”
“Oh, I don’t say he would have done no better,” said the impartial
Mr. Topott. “He would have done better. He would never have let
that chap get as far as he did, even if he had had to ascend the
bench and take poor old Bow-wow by the tippet. But I do say he
also would have had to take his gruel, and he would have lost his
verdict.”
“Oh, we have not lost it yet.”
“We shall have lost it in another quarter of an hour.”
 XXIX
THE VERDICT

It was a quarter-past seven by the time Mr. Justice Brudenell had

concluded his summing-up. Long before he had reached the end, a
prediction of the result had formed in every mind. This case which in
the beginning had been as clear and strong as the sun at noon had
become so vitiated by contact with these legal wits, that by now
even its most salient points had become obscure. No jury in the
frame of mind of this present one, each component of which had
been played upon like the strings of a harp by the hand of a master
performer, was in the least likely to convict. There were those who
even inclined to the belief that they would not leave the box.
This, however, proved to be an extreme view. They did leave the
box, but in exactly nine minutes had returned into court. As slowly
they defiled back again into the court with their verdict, the
excitement depicted in their looks was painful to observe. Their
drawn faces were livid and perspiring; they kept down their heads
without glancing to the right or to the left. The foreman, a coal
dealer in a small way of business in the Commercial Road, was
seized with a violent twitching of the body.
“Are you agreed upon your verdict, gentlemen?” whispered the Clerk
of the Arraigns.
“We are,” said the foreman of the jury, in a voice that could hardly
be heard.
“What is your verdict, gentlemen?”
“We return a verdict of—of—”
The conclusion of the sentence seemed to die in the foreman’s
throat.
“Will you please speak in such a manner that his lordship may hear
you?” said the clerk.
“We return a verdict of not guilty,” said the foreman, with his eyes
fixed on the rail before him. To the horror of many who observed
him, he appeared to trace some words upon it with his finger.
The demonstration which followed the verdict had been anticipated,
and accordingly on this occasion the officers of the court were able
in some measure to control it.
No sooner had the judge uttered a few words, which in the clamor
were inaudible, than he rose hastily from his seat. In the same
instant Northcote rose also, and that voice and presence which for
so many hours had exercised such an unquestioned sway at once
detained those who were thronging eagerly through the doors into
the raw December darkness.
“Before the court rises,” said Northcote, “I crave your lordship’s
indulgence for a brief moment.”
The judge bowed courteously and resumed his seat, a little
unsteadily as was thought by those who were near to him.
“I desire to offer to your lordship,” said the young advocate, with a
humility that was affecting, “in a public manner, an ample and an
unreserved apology for an allusion which had the misfortune to fall
from my lips. I gave utterance to it in a moment of great mental
excitement, and at that moment I did not realize, so completely was
I under the domination of the end I had in view, that in a sense such
an allusion was an indictment of your lordship and of that high office
upon which, during a quarter of a century past, your lordship has
conferred honor. I beg to be allowed to crave your lordship’s
forgiveness. Had these words not been spoken at a time when I was
overcome by the heat of advocacy, they would never have been
spoken at all.”
“Thank you, Mr. Northcote,” said the judge in a low but distinct
voice. “I understand perfectly well the circumstances in which these
words were spoken. They gave me pain, but I do not hold you
blameworthy. I viewed with keen sympathy the position in which you
were placed; and I accept without reservation the apology which
with an equal absence of reservation you have conceived it your
duty to tender to me. I don’t know whether I can be permitted to
offer a suggestion in a matter of this kind, but if, Mr. Northcote, you
could see your way towards the inclusion of your friend Mr. Weekes
in this extremely honorable amende—”
“I will, my lord—I do!” cried the impetuous young man, turning
towards the place of the senior counsel for the Treasury.
“I regret to say, my lord,” said Mr. Topott, rising and bowing to the
judge and to Northcote, “that my learned friend has already left the
precincts of the court; but I feel sure I am entitled to state, that
were he now present he would accept these words of Mr. Northcote
in the spirit in which they are offered.”
The judge left the bench and the court emptied rapidly. Mr.
Whitcomb, who had remained most of the day in Northcote’s vicinity,
plucked him by the sleeve as he rose and gathered his papers.
“I know now what you mean by the genie,” said he. “I shall send a
wire to Tobin at the hospital. I should like to see his face when he
gets it.”
Northcote was too highly wrought to appreciate a word that was
uttered by the solicitor. He could only smile and nod and wish him
good night, all of which was done with incoherence and abruptness.
As the young man passed out of the court, an elderly unfortunate,
without any teeth, one-half of whose face had been destroyed by
disease, crept from her hiding-place in a dark corner of the corridor.
She grabbed the hem of Northcote’s gown and carried it to her lips.
“Gawd bless yer, guv’ner,” she mumbled, in a thick, wheezy whisper.
In the barristers’ robing-room the entrance of Northcote created a
stir. Jumbo, a bencher of Northcote’s inn, and like all who are not
afraid to present themselves without reserve, just as nature devised
them, a man of immense popularity, hit the young advocate a blow
on the shoulder.
“When can I stand you a bottle, dear boy? Fine work!”
The son of the Master of the Rolls came up.
“I say, Northcote,” he said, “you don’t remember me? I’m Hutton. I
was in Foxey’s house with you at school.”
“Of course, of course,” said Northcote, hardly knowing a word that
he spoke; “I remember you perfectly well. You have not altered at
all.”
“You’ve not altered much, although you look awfully old and very
much thinner than you used to look. I want you to mention an
evening that you can come round and dine with my governor—you
remember the governor I used to get ragged so tremendously for
boasting about? He will be delighted to meet you. I shall tell him all
about this; he is the kindest old soul.”
“Thanks, but I can’t dine with you until I’ve got my evening clothes
out of pawn.”
Northcote’s schoolfellow laughed heartily.
“No, you’ve not altered,” he said. “Just the same amusing cynical old
cuss you were at school—just the same cynical old cuss of whom we
were so much afraid and who was so frightfully unpopular.”
“Poverty and pride were never a popular combination,” said
Northcote, aroused from his preoccupation by the sympathy of one
of the few who had supported him in his youth. “If I hadn’t been a
bit of a football-player I don’t know what would have happened to
me in those days. I used to derive pleasure, I remember, from
insulting everybody.”
“Foxey used to call you Diogenes.”
“He used to say that Diogenes was considerably the pleasanter
fellow of the two.”
“Poor old Foxey always feared you, I believe, just as did everybody
else. You were a gloomy, dreamy sort of chap when you were not
merely formidable. I remember once you were nearly
superannuated. And do you remember Foxey saying there was
nothing you might not do, if only you would apply your mind to it;
but as it was, he was sure you would never do anything?”
“I lived in a mental fog in those days,” said Northcote, with a dreary
laugh. “There was a thick vapor wrapped all round my brain. I could
see and understand nothing. One fact only was borne in upon me
with any sort of clearness. It was that I was vastly superior to
everybody else. There never was such a colossal self-esteem.”
“Well, you certainly despised everybody in those days. And you must
have gone on despising everybody to be capable of doing what you
have.”
“I remember I was generally chosen to lead the scrum because I
had a big voice,” said Northcote, with the light of reminiscence
softening his grim mouth.
“But your voice is so much greater now than it was then, although it
was always an immense booming sort of thing that seemed to come
out of your boots. But your hands used to impress me more than
anything else. I used to think that if I had hands like that I should
break ribs for my private amusement. Do you remember standing
the three-quarters on their heads? You were a hefty brute in those
days.”
“I was always more or less a man of my hands, yet at the same time
was always intensely interested in myself. I used to consider that
‘Cad’ Northcote—that was my name at school, although you are too
polite to remind me of it—was quite the most wonderful person who
had ever been born into this world or into any other. I used to lie
awake all night taking myself to pieces as though I had been a
watch. Sometimes I dreamed that I was Napoleon, and that it had
come to pass that he had been chosen to lead the English pack
while he was still at school.”
“Well, that dream came true at any rate,” said his schoolfellow, with
an outburst of enthusiasm. “You were still with us when you pushed
those Welshmen all over the place.”