Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/49

 your true ballancing of iustice, it is a flat wrong to punish the thought or purpose of any before it bee enacted; for true iustice punisheth nothing but the evill act or wicked word, that by the lawes of all kingdomes it is a capitall crime to devise or purpose the death of your King: the reason is, for that when such a purpose is effected, it should then bee too late to devise thereof, and should turne the commonwealth to more losse by the death of their Prince, then such punishment of the malefactors. And therefore the law in that case punisheth the thought; for better is a mischiefe, then an inconvenience. So that ius politiciim, though it bee not of it selfe iust, yet by application, or rather necessity, it is made iust; and this onely respect maketh all lawes iust. Now then, if these lawes of Ireland bee not likewise applyed and fitted for that realme, they are sure very inconvenient.

Eudox. You reason strongly: but what unfitnesse doe you finde in them for that realme? shew us some particulars.

Iren. The Common Law appointeth, that all tryalls, as well of crimes, as titles and rights, shall bee made by verdict of a iury, chosen out of the honest and most substantiall free-holders. Now, most of the free-holders of that realme are Irish, which when the cause shall fall betwixt an English-man and an Irish,