DISMISSAL

Justice is often criticized for being slow; the judicial police seem to me, on the other hand, to be quite expeditious and perhaps the investigating judges issue arrest warrants too easily.
Sensational arrests are reported almost every day in the newspapers. Some newspapers go into detail; more or less accurate information is extracted from servants or concierges; a rather unflattering portrait is painted of the accused. Those who read the articles and who know him murmur: What a scoundrel! I suspected it! The next day, we learned that the despicable accused had been released, that the case had been settled, that the dismissal of the case had been signed. But the damage is no less done. Well-informed people seem to know even more, the servants regard the innocent with disgust, the concierges turn their heads as he passes.
I do not claim that all those about whom justice is concerned are dressed in candid probity and white linen. But, if a mistake can be repaired, if a minor mistake must remain without sanction, if an error is erased, it is perhaps useless to inflict two or three nights of prevention on a slight culprit and to ruin his situation because he doesn't completely agree with a supplier or because he is at fault for being in bad company.

D.