Judge

“ The judge was a young man, seemingly of great intellectual reserve, possessing a steel gray eye that shot its glances through the subject as if it were but marking a point through which his judgment of a man would enter. There were courage, self poise, wisdom, integrity apparent in the man who had arrived to administer the law. For the first time this judicial officer saw before him an indistinguishable mass of the freedmen of the south. ”

“ A judge whose court has flooded this fair land with scenes of blood and murder. A judge whose jury is the brute passions of mankind. The abettor of spite, vengeance, ignorance and bigotry. A judge who knows no law save the law of might. ”

“ DEFENDANT. I wonder whether They'll live together, In marriage tether In manner true? USHER. It seems to me, sir, Of such as she, sir, A Judge is he, sir, And a good Judge, too! JUDGE. Yes, I am a Judge! ALL. And a good Judge, too! JUDGE. Yes, I am a Judge! ALL. And a good Judge, too! JUDGE. Though homeward as you trudge, You declare my law is fudge. Yet of beauty I'm a judge. ALL. And a good Judge too! JUDGE. Though defendant is a snob, ALL. And a great snob, too! JUDGE. Though defendant is a snob, ALL. And a great snob, too! JUDGE. Though defendant is a snob, I'll reward him from his fob. ”

“ Truly, Master Judge, he is a man much spoken of; marry, every man's cries are against him, and especially we; and therefore I think we have brought our Lawyer to touch him with as much law as will fetch his lands and my cow with a pestilence.
Thras. Sir, I am the other plaintiff, and this is my counsellor: I beseech your honour be favourable to me in equity. ”

“ How the quick eyes of the spectators rove from the stolid jury to the keen lawyers, the impassive judge, the anxious prisoner. Nothing is lost of the sharp wrangle of the counsel on points of law, the measured decisions of the bench, the duels between the attorneys and the witnesses. ”

“ I will fall at the feet of the judge, fill the town with my lamentations, and the daughters of the city will aid me in imploring the judge to be merciful, to have compassion, and spare the life of the innocent youth. ”

“ A judge is prohibited from treating a case lightly or talking about useless matters in court. A judge should view it as if a sword has been placed on his shoulder and as if hell is open underneath him. ”

“ You are the highest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeal. It is a Judge's just duty never to pronounce a sentence, in the most trifling case, without hearing. ”

“ The mind associates the pronouncing of a verdict and a sentence of death with a court of justice, a solemn judge in his robes, the ministers of the law, the dock, a pallid and almost breathless audience. ”

“ To us there seems a wide difference between the judge, with the robes of office on his back, mind in his eye, and dignity in his mien, and that poor, pale, haggard wretch at the bar, who throws stealthy glances around, and hangs his head with shame. ”

“ A judge who thinks he has performed it when he has cast before the jury the largest possible mass of testimony, more or less reviewed, and who sees how people, who perhaps for the first time in their lives, are involved in a court of law, who perhaps see a criminal for the first time, and are under these circumstances the arbiters of a man’s fate,—a judge who sees all this and is satisfied, is not effective in his work. ”

“ The court-room, his position of authority, the respect of the community, the human drama, the abstract and intangible demand of something above the actual awakens in the judge that passion for justice which is a quality almost divine. The man himself becomes patient, understanding, and humane. Nearly every man, no matter how small he may be at the beginning, rises to the responsibilities of his position. ”

“ Why should twelve able-bodied jurymen, with their oaths to guide them and the law to back, submit to the dictation of one small judge armed with nothing better than an insolent assumption of authority? ”

“ In a court a just judge is one who listens patiently to all the arguments for and against the prisoner, and then, comparing one with the other, gives the sentence exactly in accordance with the guilt. ”

“ "I am the law, and I am the judge! ”

“ By their former conclusions, every soul must judge what the magistrate commandeth, and is not bound, even in indifferent things, to the magistrates’ law, further than his own soul, conscience, and judgment ascends to the reason of it. ”

“ Whether the sound of a woman usurping his rights of judgment, or whether the laughter of the crowd in the court room aroused him, cannot be determined, but the judge suddenly let go his balance in the chair in order to get up and demand order. ”

“ The most austere magistrate may be brought, by his integrity itself, to decrees as revolting, and perhaps even more inhuman, than those of one who fails in his duty, and I do not know myself, which of the two I should dread the most, the judge who has made a soul for himself out of the text of the law, or he who makes use of a remnant of sentiment to twist the text. ”

“ A study of the jury, and of the judge, is perhaps as productive of mental questions that reach far and mean much, as are those which I have briefly mentioned; for I am assured by those who are old in criminal court practice, that my day in court might be duplicated by a thousand days in a thousand courts and that in this day there were, alas, no unusual features. ”

“ When the responsibilities of lawmaker, prosecutor, judge, jury and disciplinarian are thrust upon a judge he is obviously incapable of holding the scales of justice perfectly fair and true and reflecting impartially on the guilt or innocence of the accused. ”

“ You remember the decision of the circuit judge,—himself soon to be summoned by death before the Judge who is no respecter of persons,—not allowing the destined victim his last hope, "the great writ of right." ”

“ Ancient judicial theory and practice comprehended not merely trials before a regular tribunal, in which the merits of a case were duly ascertained by the joint efforts of judge, counsel, and assize, but also an alternative method of arriving at the same result—namely, a solemn appeal to the bar of Almighty God. ”

“ For howsoever he who playeth the judge is truly said to judge, yet every one who judgeth is not properly said to play the judge. He playeth the judge who, in an external court pronounceth a sentence, which by force of jurisdiction toucheth another; but he judgeth, who in the inferior court of his own private conscience, conceiveth such a sentence of the things to be believed or done, as pertaineth to himself alone. ”

“ The judge weighs the arguments, and puts a brave face on the matter, and, since there must be a decision, decides as he can, and hopes he has done justice, and given satisfaction to the community; ”

“ The judge was one of those clever and intelligent young men who every day spring into notice in official circles; aspiring, almost before they are out of the shell, to the highest political and administrative positions. ”

“ The judge who pronounces sentence upon the evil and unfortunate knows as little of the meaning of the terms he uses in meting out punishment as the mail clerk knows of the contents of the letters he handles at his daily task. ”

“ Can the opinion of the judge introduce any fact into the cause? Where a judgment is rendered on a special verdict, for example, can he, by an opinion filed ten days afterwards, control the facts found in that verdict? ”

“ On the other hand, a French judge, who is enjoined by law on his honour and his conscience to use his best efforts to bring out truth at the trial, undoubtedly does so within the limits of human possibility. ”

“ The Court were surprised, and Could not under stood what the man meant; but the Judge, a man of more penetration, took the hint, and checking some of the Court that offered to speak, and which would have perhaps brought the man back again to himself---"Hold" says the judge, the man sees sees something more than we do, I begin to understand him" and then speaking to the prisoner "why" says he "is he not a legal witness? I believe the Court will allow his evidence to be good, when he comes to speak." ”

“ Leaving the body under the earth, accompany the soul passing to a new and unknown region, where she expecteth the sentence of the eternal judge. Imagine with thyself that thou art present at this tribunal, and the whole court of heaven, waiting with deep silence, and great attention, the event and sentence of this judgment, here must be given a strict account of all receivings and disbursements. ”

“ Herein we have an opportunity of solving the old question of the authority of the judge, wherein we have gone from one excess to another, from the unbounded authority of the Middle Ages to the Baconian aphorism respecting the law and the judge, according to which the law is excellent when it leaves least to the judge, and the judge is excellent when he leaves himself the least independent judgment. ”

“ For the same man to charge the jury one day as judge and address them the next in argument as counsel must tend to confuse their notions as to the weight they should give to what he says, and to lend it often a weight which it may not deserve. ”

“ But though man has, in this manner, been rendered the immediate judge of mankind, he has been rendered so only in the first instance; and an appeal lies from his sentence to a much higher tribunal, to the tribunal of their own consciences, to that of the supposed impartial and well-informed spectator, to that of the man within the breast, the great judge and arbiter of their conduct. ”

“ We know nothing more striking than the dying speech recorded in the concluding chapter. At the end of a life so laborious and so useful, the Judge, himself withdrawing to be judged, murmurs,—"Gentlemen of the Jury, the facts of the case are in your hands. ”

“ For more than six hundred years—that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215—there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws. ”

“ DCCXCII.—NO JUDGE.
A certain Judge having somewhat hastily delivered judgment in a particular case, a King's Counsel observed, in a tone loud enough to reach the bench, "Good heavens! every judgment of this court is a mere toss-up." "But heads seldom win," observed a learned barrister, sitting behind him.
DCCXCIII.—RELATIONS OF MANKIND.
By what curious links, and fantastical relations, are mankind connected together! ”

“ The judge, therefore, can easily master the leading facts of a case as set forth in the decision of the lower court, before he begins to hear the arguments of the counsel who appear to impugn or to support that decision. A case may be more or less complicated, but for a man of ordinary capacity and common sense it is a pleasant intellectual entertainment to listen to the arguments of the contending pleaders. ”

“ But, when we know the grounds and authors of it, Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge Of thine own cause. ”

“ Most often a knowledge of right and wrongs without reference to the particular act, was plainly declared by the judge to be the simple and sufficient criterion of responsibility, and the jury was instructed accordingly ”

“ This latter way private men both may and ought to judge of the sentences and decrees of magistrates, neither by so doing do they constitute themselves judges of the magistrates, but judges of their own actions. ”

“ To the judge—the magistrate of every order—the members of the legislature—to all, indeed, who are concerned in making or in administering the laws, it is almost equally necessary for the proper discharge of their important duties. ”

“ It is expected of a Judge that he be strictly impartial; that he come to the trial of a cause without any previous bias on his mind, or any passionate and prevailing prejudices, in regard either to persons or things, which may indispose him to see the truth, or to respect it. ”

“ The Judge in your case is a lawyer of great eminence; that is to say, he is jealous of the Law; he holds that above all things the Law must be feared. He is called a hanging Judge, being a most merciful man ”

“ Make what laws we will, and occasionally they will be harsh, and often inapplicable. Construct what tribunals we will, and the judge will now and again be prejudiced, or tired, or sleepy, the leading juryman stupid, or the counsel forgetful of his duty. ”

“ The duties of the judge, whether in a civil or a criminal matter, are to hear the statements on both sides in open court, to arrive at a conclusion as to the truth of the facts submitted to him or, when a jury is engaged, to direct the jury to find such a conclusion, to apply to the facts so found the appropriate rules of law, and to certify by his judgment the relief to which the parties are entitled or the obligations or penalties which they have incurred. ”

“ Under the direction of an acute and honest judge, as most of our true judges actually are, the Court of Errors would hardly form such a jury as would allow a creditable person to be tried by his peers, in a case affecting character, for instance, and here we have it set up as a court of the last resort, to settle points of law! ”

“ Where the facts are not disputed, the Judge often suggests, in a strong and pointed manner, his opinion as to the materiality of the concealment, and his leading opinion of the conclusion to which facts ought to conduct the jury. ”