George Bernard Shaw a penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

Madness in Court
The demoralization did not spare the Law Courts. Soldiers
were acquitted, even on fully proved indictments for wilful
murder, until at last the judges and magistrates had to an-
nounce that what was called the Unwritten Law, which meant
simply that a soldier could do what he liked with impunity in
civil life, was not the law of the land, and that a Victoria Cross
did not carry with it a perpetual plenary indulgence. Unfortu-
nately the insanity of the juries and magistrates did not always
manifest itself in indulgence. No person unlucky enough to
be charged with any sort of conduct, however reasonable and
salutary, that did not smack of war delirium, had the slightest
chance of acquittal. There were in the country, too, a certain
number of people who had conscientious objections to war as
criminal or unchristian. The Act of Parliament introducing
Compulsory Military Service thoughtlessly exempted these
persons, merely requiring them to prove the genuineness of
their convictions. Those who did so were very ill-advised from
the point of view of their own personal interest; for they were
persecuted with savage logicality in spite of the law; whilst
those who made no pretence of having any objection to war at
all, and had not only had military training in Officers’ Train-
ing Corps, but had proclaimed on public occasions that they
were perfectly ready to engage in civil war on behalf of their
political opinions, were allowed the benefit of the Act on the
ground that they did not approve of this particular war. For

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the Christians there was no mercy. In cases where the evi-
dence as to their being killed by ill treatment was so unequivocal
that the verdict would certainly have been one of wilful mur-
der had the prejudice of the coroner’s jury been on the other
side, their tormentors were gratuitously declared to be blame-
less. There was only one virtue, pugnacity: only one vice, paci-
fism. That is an essential condition of war; but the Govern-
ment had not the courage to legislate accordingly; and its law
was set aside for Lynch law.
The climax of legal lawlessness was reached in France. The
greatest Socialist statesman in Europe, Jaures, was shot and
killed by a gentleman who resented his efforts to avert the
war. M. Clemenceau was shot by another gentleman of less
popular opinions, and happily came off no worse than hav-
ing to spend a precautionary couple of days in bed. The slayer
of Jaures was recklessly acquitted: the would-be slayer of M.
Clemenceau was carefully found guilty. There is no reason
to doubt that the same thing would have happened in En-
gland if the war had begun with a successful attempt to as-
sassinate Keir Hardie, and ended with an unsuccessful one
to assassinate Mr Lloyd George.