He sets the former by the town-clock, not because he believes it
right, but because his neighbours and his cook go by it.
_January_ 2. 1833.
JURIES.--BARRISTERS' AND PHYSICIANS' FEES.--QUACKS.--CAESAREAN OPERATION.--
INHERITED DISEASE.
I certainly think that juries would be more conscientious, if they were
allowed a larger discretion. But, after all, juries cannot be better than
the mass out of which they are taken. And if juries are not honest and
single-minded, they are the worst, because the least responsible,
instruments of judicial or popular tyranny.
I should he sorry to see the honorary character of the fees of barristers
and physicians done away with. Though it seems a shadowy distinction, I
believe it to be beneficial in effect. It contributes to preserve the idea
of a profession, of a class which belongs to the public,--in the employment
and remuneration of which no law interferes, but the citizen acts as he
likes _in foro conscientiae_.
* * * * *
There undoubtedly ought to be a declaratory act withdrawing expressly from
the St. John Longs and other quacks the protection which the law is
inclined to throw around the mistakes or miscarriages of the regularly
educated practitioner.
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