Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/65

 Pbifudeqobia Couar or Comton Paras. gg * toalledge, that a man has forfworn himfelf generally, is not rygo. I actionable ; beeaufe he may be forfworn in common converfa- /VV tion 5 or, it may be an exprellion of mere pallion and anger. ‘ ` 4. Ca. rg. I:. nor {hall it be intended to refer to a cafe where perjury may be committed. 1 Com. Dig. rg:. ‘ II. But, in the next place, tl1e oath mult appear to have been ‘ a lawful one, adminiltered in the courfe pf a judicial proceed- ing, upon a matter material to the i{l`ue on trial. 2 Buy. 1 go. The oath, in queftion, was merely a voluntary ailidavit ; and that, too, taken by a man in his own caufe ; which can never judicially be allowed: The jultice could not have compelled him, and ought not to have permitted him, to take it. 1 Ha·wl·. P. C. I74-5. 4 Bac. Ah-. 484. For that caufe alone, the judgments of ]uftices have often been reverfed in the Supreme Court ; and the act of taking, or adminiltering, voluntary alli- davits, is highly cenlirred by Sir HGlliam .Blac@/fone, 4 Bl. Com. 137. Nor in favour of this fpecies of action will there be any intendment, that the fuit was depending before a proper tribu- ` nal. 4 Ca. 16 b. An inuendo is not, in itfclf, fullicient to {hew that RM was a jultiee, and had authority in the caufe. .Y2·I·v. 21. 3 Let-. 166. 4. Cv. 17. 5. Burr. 2700. Sujeaht, for the plaintiff] arguing in {`upport of the verdict, {Enid, that in modern times, a very ialutary change had taken place in the doctrine, refpecting actions of {lander ; which were _. _ now liberally encouraged, witha view to the correction of li- eentioufncfs, and the prefervation of peace. 4 Bur. Abr. 497. jog. 506. Nice exceptions are never allowed to prevail, againit · areafonable interpretation and common undcrltandiug of theo , {lander. 2. IVilr. 87. 1 14. 300. The words {hall be taken ` in the fame {`enfe, as they would be undcrltood, by thofc who hear or read them. Bull. N. P.. 3. 4. But as the jury have pafled upon the fubjett, the inm·udat·r mult be taken to be true. It is too late, therefore, to contend, that the words do not import a charge of perjury : The verdict eltablilhes that point, and the competency of the jurifdittion of the jultice, as well as the malice and falfehcod of the {lander. _ The 1’r.fd.·ut delivered the opinion of the Court, in the folr lowing terms. S11u»1·1aN, P»·t_y€t!crrt. The {`enfe in which words are re. eeivcd by the world, is the fenfe which Courts of J-uftice ought to afcribe to them, on the trial of actions for {lander. Slander imports an injury; and the injury mult arlfe from the manner in which the llandcrous language is underitood. The words, in the prefent cafe, certainly import a crime G and the inuenda (which the jury have found to be true, and which, therefore, mult govern our interpretation of the {acl) H2 fhewa

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