Who hasn't wondered what it means, for a jury to be out?

We have never understood this idiom. Possibly it's like losing an army or two, under Bonaparte, carelessness as distinguished from audacity. Still, there are more juries than armies, even in our most garrisoned states; and so if one were to mislay a jury, presumably one could get another one? Suppose, however, "Order and Progress," the motto on the Brazilian flag. Surely, these virtues of the perfect orb, stated in gold, green, and blue, promise a happier grip on this agency of justice; such that, one wouldn't expect a jury to be out, so much as constituted with less mystery, and yet with advanced humanity. We have not lost touch with our equatorial friends, I trust?








Christopher Fawcett