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Show [ 9 1 leave things as I found them. this aét of Henry the eighth, fl) caiyirued and fa afflied, almof'c 'all that is fuhflantial and beneficial in a trial by jury is taken away his is how= from the {object in the colonies. man under a try to for ever faying too little; that aét is, in effef'r, to condemn him unheard. A perfon is brought hither in the dungeon of a Ihip's hold: thence he is vomited into a dungeon on land ; loaded with irons, unfurnifhed with money; unfupported by friends, three upon, thoufand miles from all means of callin or confronting evidence, where no one local circumflance hat tends to detect perjury, can pofiibly be judged of;---fuch a perfon may be executed according to form, but he can never be tried according to juf'tice. I therefore could by no means reconcile my: felf to the bill I fend'you ; which is exprefsly provided to remove all inconveniences from the cilahlifhment of a mode of trial, which has ever appeared to me mor't unj nit and melt uneontlitntional. Far from removing the diffi-r culties which impede the execution of fo mif- chievous a projec't, I would heap new diflicul-f ties upon it, if it were in my pdwcr, All the ancient, honefl juridical principl .5, and infiitu- tions of England, (TC fo aany clogs to checl' and retard the headlong courfe of violence and opprefiion. They were invented for this one good purpofe 5-that what was not juf'c {hould not be convenient. Convinced of this, 1 would ' leave The old, cool- headed, general law, is as good as any deviation dictated by prefent heat. '1. bie expedience L fee no fair jurifia new fufpenfion of the lihert r of the fnhjeét. l the Englifh in the clones can {import the independency to 'hich they have been unfortunately driven, I fuppofe nobody has fuch a fanatical zeal for the criminal jui'rice of Henry the eighth, that he will contend for executions which mutt be retaliated tenfold on his own friends ; or who has conceived f0 f'trange an idea of Engliih dignity, as to think the defeats in America compenfated by the trium hs at Tyhnrn. If, on the contrary, the colonies are reduced to the obedience of the crown, there mull be, under that authority, tribunals in the country itfelf, fully competent to adminifier juf'tice on all ofi‘enders. But if there are not, and that we mull fuppofe a thing fo humiliating to our government, as that all this vat": continent ihonld unanimoufly concur in thinking, that no ill fortune can convert refillance to the royal authority into a criminal 38:, we may call the effect of our victory peace, or obedience, or what we will; but the war is not ended: The hoilile mind continues in full vigour; and it continues under a worfe form. If your peace be notning more that a lullilll paufe from arms; if their quiet be nothing Z , mag-«W, mamf- 331:5." MM 4., [ 8 ] |