Note 202 — Chapter XIII

See Report of Transportation Committee, 1838, p. 31. “A large proportion of the persons who have appeared and served,” as jurors, “are publicans,” to whose houses prosecutors, parties on bail, or witnesses, resort, for the purpose of drinking, while in attendance upon the court. Once, when a jury was locked up all night, much foul and disgusting language was used; and to gain a release from this association, the disputed point was yielded; “no greater punishment can be inflicted upon a respectable person than to be shut up with such people for a few hours, or for the night.”

See Burton’s Letter, Appendix to Transportation Committee’s Report, 1837, p. 301-2. Dr. Lang’s book on New South Wales abounds in wretched puns, but one rather favourable specimen may be given, when, in allusion to the Englishman’s right of being tried by his peers, the Doctor styles the jurors above described “the Colonial Peerage!”