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The last rule in regard to suretyship which I shall state is, that in becoming bound for the good conduct of an individual in a new employment, you should be well aware that the situation into which you are about to introduce him, is one suited to his natural dispositions and capacities, and not one calculated to bring the weaker elements of his character into play, and be the means of ruining him, as well as injuring yourself. Suppose, for example, that a young man has any latent seeds of the love of intemperance, or even great conviviality, in his constitution, or that he is fond of a wandering and unsettled life, and that, by becoming surety for his good conduct and intromissions, you get him employed as a mercantile travelling agent, you manifestly expose him to temptations which may completely upset his virtue. I have known individuals, who, in more favorable circumstances, had acquired and maintained excellent characters, ruined by this change. Again -if an individual be either extremely good natured, so much so that he cannot resist solicitation; or if he be extremely ambitious and fond of power; or very speculative; if you aid him in obtaining an agency for a bank, in which he will obtain an immediate command of large sums of money, and be thereby exposed to solicitation, or tempted to indulge in magnificence, or speculate on his own account, for all of which the command of money presents many facilities, you may bring him to ruin, when you intended to do him a great service. It has been remarked, that more men prove unsuccessful as bank agents, than almost in any other office of trust; and the reason appears to me to be, that the free command of money presents greater temptations to the weak points of character than almost any other external circumstance. For this reason, it is only men of the highest natural moral qualities, who should be appointed to such situations; individuals whose integrity and love of justice and duty are their strongest

feelings; and then, with average intellectual endowments, their conduct will be irreproachable. It is clear, that until we possess an index to natural talents and dispositions, that can be relied on in practice, much disappointment, loss, and misery, must inevitably be sustained, by the improper location or employment of individuals, in the complicated relations of society; and if phrenology promise to aid us in arriving at this object, it is worthy of our most serious consideration.

Another social duty, which men are occasionally called on to discharge, is that of acting privately as arbitrators between disputing parties, or publicly as jurymen. According to the present practice, no particular preparation for these duties is supposed to be necessary. A young man may have obtained any kind of education, or no education; he may possess any degree of intelligence and talent, or none of either; and he may be upright in his dispositions, or very much the reverse; yet none of these things are of the least consideration, in regard to his qualification to serve as a juror; but as soon as he is found inhabiting a house, or possessing a shop, or a farm, of a certain rent, his name is placed on the list of jurors; he is summoned, in his turn, to sit on the bench of justice, and there he disposes, by his vote, of the lives and fortunes of his fellowmen. The defence maintained for this system is, that as twelve individuals are selected in civil cases, and fifteen in criminal, the verdict will embody the average intelligence and morality of the whole; and that, as the roll of jurors includes all the higher and middle ranks, their decisions, if not absolutely perfect, will, on the whole, be the best that can be obtained. This apology is, to some extent, well founded; and the superior intelligence of a few, frequently guides a vast amount of ignorance and dullness in a jury. Still, the extent of this ignorance and inaptitude is a great evil; and as it is susceptible of removal, it should not be

permitted to continue. All of you who have served as jurors, must be aware of the great disadvantages under which individuals labor in that situation, from want of original education, as well as from the want of the practice of mental application. I knew an instance in which a jury, in a civil cause which embraced a long series of transactions, of bills, purchases, sales, excise entries, permits, and other technical formalities, was composed of four Edinburgh traders, and of eight men balloted from the county of Edinburgh, where it borders on Lanarkshire and Peeblesshire; men who occupied small farms, who held the plough and drove their own carts; persons of undoubted respectability and intelligence in their own sphere, but who knew nothing of mercantile affairs; whose education and habits rendered them totally incapable of taking notes of the evidence, and of course, of forming any judgment for themselves. When the jury retired, at ten o'clock at night, after a trial of twelve hours, one of the merchants was chosen foreman, and he asked the opinion of his brethren in succession. Eight of them echoed the charge of the presiding judge; but the other three announced a contrary opinion. The jurors from the country, seeing that the merchants. were all on one side, in opposition to them, acknowledged that the details of the case had extended far beyond their capacity of comprehension; that they really could form no judgment on the question; and, therefore, concluded that it was safest to follow the judge. The minority differed from the judge; they took great pains in explaining, from their own notes, the leading circumstances to the majority, and succeeded in bringing them round to their opinion; and the result was, a verdict of a totally opposite description from that at first proposed. I obtained this information, the day after the trial, from one of those who had stood in the minority. The verdict was right, and no attempt was made to disturb it by the party who lost his cause.

The majority here were not to blame; they had been called on to discharge a public duty for which they were totally unprepared, and they did their best to attain the ends of justice. But what I humbly submit to your consideration is, that as the ordinary members of the community are called on to exercise the very important office of jurors, and may become the instruments of taking away the life or property of their fellow-men, their education should be so conducted as to qualify them, to a reasonable extent, for discharging so grave a duty. If we were accustomed to look on our social duties as equally important with our private interests, instruction calculated to qualify us to comprehend questions of private right and public criminality would undoubtedly form a branch of our youthful training. It has sometimes occurred to me, that it would be highly useful to confer certificates, or degrees of qualification, on young men, founded on an examination into their educational attainments, and that these should be indispensable to their being placed on the roll of jurors, or even of voters, and also to their exercising any public office of trust, honor, or emolument. The effects of such a regulation would probably be, that it would be considered disgraceful to want that qualification; that parents would strain every nerve to obtain it for their children; and that men who were the architects of their own fortunes would begin by pursuing such studies as would enable them to acquire it. The standard of education is still very low, even in Scotland; but in England it is much more so. I knew an Englishman who had acquired a fortune exceeding £70,000, whose whole educational acquirements consisted in reading and the ability to subscribe his own name. He was, as you may suppose, a man of great natural talent. He travelled with a clerk, who conducted his correspondence, drew his bills, kept his books, and supplied the want of original education, as far as this could be done; but he

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strongly felt the extent of his own defects. His affairs required such constant active exertion, that he had found it impossible, after he had entered into business, to educate himself; and he was so far advanced in life when I conversed with him, that he had then no hopes of going to school.

Analogous to the duty of jurors, is that of acting as arbitrator between individuals who have differences which they cannot amicably settle. This being altogether a voluntary duty, it may be supposed that those only who are well known to be qualified for it will be called on to discharge it. But the reverse is too often the case. Individuals who are themselves ignorant of the nature of an arbitrator's duties are no judges of what qualifies another person to discharge them, and often make most preposterous selections. It is indeed a very common opinion, that the referee is the advocate of the party who nominates him, and that his duty consists in getting as many advantages for his friend as possible. Hence, in anticipation of disagreement, power is given to the two referees, in case of difference in opinion, to choose a third, whose award shall be final; and not unfrequently this oversman, as he is called in Scotland, halves the points of difference between the two discordant arbitrators, and assumes that this must be absolute justice. It is a favorite maxim with persons not conversant with law, that all disputes are best settled by a reference to "honest men judging according to equity." I have never been blind to the imperfections of law and of legal decisions; but I must be permitted to say that I have seen the worst of them far surpassed in absurdity and error, by the decisions of honest men judging according to equity. If any of you have ever acted as an arbitrator, he must have found that the first difficulty that presented itself to his understanding was the wide difference between the contending parties, regarding matters of fact. The law solves this

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