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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
V When this poor man was brought into court , and put to the bar , the prosecutor appeared , and swore most manfully to every tittle in the indictment * He was cross-examined by the Jurors , who were honest tradesmen and reputable farmers . The poor man had no lawyers to tell his fctory ; he pleaded his own
cause—and he pleaded , not to the fancy , but to the judgment and the heart * The Jury found him—Not Guilty * The court was enraged ; but the auditors , gladdened to
exaltation , uttered a shout of applause . The Judge told the Jury , they must go back to the jury-room , and re ^ consider the tnau ter 5 adding , he was astonished they should return so infamous a verdict . The Jury bowed ^ we tit back , and in a quarter of an hour returned , when the foreman , a venerable old man ,
thus addressed the Bench : ' * My Lord , in compliance with your desire , we went back to our jury-room , but as we , then found no reason to alter our opinion or our ferdict ^ we return it to you in the same words as before-- —Not Guilty * Weheard
your Lordship ' s language of reproof , but we do not accept it as truly or war rantably applying to us . It is true * liijr Lord , that individually considered , in our private capacities , we may be poor insignificant men : therefore , in that light , we claim nothing out of this box above the common regards of our humble but
honest stations 5 bat , my Lord ^ assembled here as a . jury , we cannot be insensible to the great and constitutional importance of the department we now fill . We feel * my Lord , that we are appointed , as you are , by the law and the constitution—not only as an impartial tribunal to judge between the king and his subjects , the offended and the offender , but that we act in a
situation of still greater confidence ; for we fortn , as sLjury the barrier of the people against the possible influence ' , prejudice , passion , or corruption of the Bench *—To you , my Lord , meeting you without these walls , I , for my own part , might possibly measure my respect by your private virtues ; in . this place your private character is invisible ; it is veiled in your official one , and to vour eonduct in that onlv we can look *— -We do not in this
business presume to offer the Bench the smallest degree of disrespect , much less of insult ; we pay it the respect which one tribunal should pay to another , for the common honor of both . This JurVj my Lord , did not accuse that Bench of partiality , prejudice , infamous decision , nor yet of influence , Corruption ,
oppression , or tyranny : no , we looked to it as the mercy-seat of royalty—as the sanctuary of truth and justice ; still , my Lord , we cannot blot from our minds the records of our school-T > o 6 ks , nor erase the early inscriptions written on the first page <> f our intellects # nd memories . Here we must be mindful
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SdS The Irish Juryman *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 358, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/22/
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