Page:Letters of Junius, volume 1 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/31

Rh —but that, whether the defendant had committed a crime or not, was no matter of consideration to twelve men, who yet, upon their oaths, were to pronounce their peer guilty or not guilty. When we hear such nonsense delivered from the bench, and find it supported by a laboured train of sophistry, which a plain understanding is unable to follow, and which an unlearned jury, however it may shock their reason, cannot be supposed qualified to refute, call it be wondered that they should return a verdict, perplexed, absurd, or imperfect?—Lord Mansfield has not yet explained to the world, why he accepted of a verdict which the court afterwards set aside as illegal; and which, as it took no notice of the innuendoes, did not even correspond with his own charge. If he had known his duty, he should have sent the jury back.—I speak advisedly, and am well assured that no lawyer of character, in Westminster hall, will contradict me. To show the falsehood of Lord Mansfield's doctrine, it is not necessary to enter into the merits of the paper which produced the trial. If every line of it were treason, his charge to the jury would still be false, absurd, illegal, and unconstitutional. If I stated the merits of my letter to the King, I should imitate