It Is To Be Considered, Also, That The Sailor Comes Into Court
Under Very Different Circumstances From The Master.
He is thrown
among landlords, and sharks of all descriptions; is often led to
drink freely; and comes upon the stand unaided, and under a certain
cloud of suspicion as to his character and veracity.
The captain,
on the other hand, is backed by the owners and insurers, and has
an air of greater respectability; though, after all, he may have
but a little better education than the sailor, and sometimes,
(especially among those engaged in certain voyages that I could
mention) a very hackneyed conscience.
These are the considerations most commonly brought up on the
subject of seamen's evidence; and I think it cannot but be obvious
to every one that here, positive legislation would be of no manner
of use. There can be no rule of law regulating the weight to be
given to seamen's evidence. It must rest in the mind of the judge
and jury; and no enactment or positive rule of court could vary the
result a hair, in any one case. The effect of a sailor's testimony
in deciding a case must depend altogether upon the reputation of
the class to which he belongs, and upon the impression he himself
produces in court by his deportment, and by those infallible marks
of character which always tell upon a jury.
In fine, after all the well-meant and specious projects that have
been brought forward, we seem driven back to the belief, that the
best means of securing a fair administration of the laws made for
the protection of seamen, and certainly the only means which can
create any important change for the better, is the gradual one of
raising the intellectual and religious character of the sailor,
so that as an individual and as one of a class, he may, in the
first instance, command the respect of his officers, and if any
difficulty should happen, may upon the stand carry that weight
which an intelligent and respectable man of the lower class almost
always does with a jury.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 551 of 618
Words from 151155 to 151508
of 170236
