Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/309

Rh assisted by those who are able to assist him: and that almost the whole labour of the press is thrown upon a single hand, from which a discussion of every public question is unreasonably expected. He is not paid for his labour, and certainly has a right to choose his employment.—As to the Game Laws, he never scrupled to declare his opinion, that they are a species of the Forest Laws, that they are oppressive to the subject; and that the spirit of them is incompatible with legal liberty:—that the penalties imposed by these laws bear no proportion to the nature of the offence: that the mode of trial, and the degree and kind of evidence necessary to convict, not only deprive the subject of all the benefits of a trial by jury, but are in themselves too summary, and to the last degree arbitrary and oppressive: that, in particular, the late acts to prevent dog stealing, or killing game between sun and sun, are distinguished by their absurdity, extravagance, and pernicious tendency. If these terms are weak or ambiguous, in what language can Junius express himself?—It is no excuse for Lord Mansfield to say, that he happened to be absent when these bills passed the house of lords. It was his duty to be present. Such bills could never have passed