Governor Hutt remarks, in addressing Lord Glenelg on this
subject: - "In furtherance of the truth of these remarks, I would request
your Lordship particularly to observe, that here is one class of Her
Majesty's subjects, who are DEBARRED A TRUE AND FAIR TRIAL BY JURY,
whose evidence is inadmissible in a court of justice, and who consequently
may be the victims of any of the most outrageous cruelty and violence,
and yet be UNABLE, FROM THE FORMS AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW, to obtain
redress, and whose quarrels, ending sometimes in bloodshed and death,
it is unjust, as well as inexpedient, to interfere with.
"A jury ought to be composed of a man's own peers. Europeans, in the case
of a native criminal, cannot either in their habits or sympathies be
regarded as such, and his countrymen are incapable of understanding or
taking upon themselves the office of juror."]
I have no wish to give the native evidence a higher character than it
deserves, but I think that it ought not to be rendered unavailable in a
prosecution; the degree of weight or credibility to be attached to it,
might be left to the court taking cognizance of the case, but if it is
consistent and probable, I see no reason why it should not be as strong a
safeguard to the black man from injury and oppression, as the white man's
oath is to him.
