• magistrate . . . benevolent man As a magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, who treats all people with equity and compassion, contrasts
    with the Geneva judges who condemned Justine Moritz to death (I:7:14) as well as the
    rigged Paris tribunal that pronounced a like sentence on Safie's father (II:6:3).
    There is likewise to be observed here a curious symmetry, since at the other end of
    Victor's trip to the British Isles is another magistrate who, in effect, authorized
    it, Alphonse Frankenstein.