Price.] 222 [May. 



of the majority, or to " afForce the assise," by abstractina^ the recu- 

 sant, and adding in their phice tlie willing tools of power j but their 

 judgment as to all right and lawful proceedings, standing as authori- 

 tative precedents in the law, was sound, just, true, and in accord 

 with their fealty to this inestimable institution of English and Ameri- 

 can common law. 



And when such an attempt at innovation and reform was made in 

 the British Parliament, it was opposed by Lord Lyndhurst, in lan- 

 guage in which he contrasted the present milder and juster proceed- 

 ings in trials for political offences, with those he had witnessed at 

 the beginning of this century. "We may," said he, "be perfectl}' 

 satisfied with our present, but unfortunately, I have lived in times of 

 a different character. I have seen the time when the government 

 was carried on upon arbitrary, and even tyrannical principles; when 

 political prosecutions were of constant occun'ence, and were conducted 

 with extreme harshness, and punishments of great severity were in- 

 flicted for political offences. I have been myself, to a certain extent, 

 not merely a witness, but an actor in those times. The growing 

 prosperity of the country, producing a greater amount of content, 

 has caused a change from the feelings that then prevailed. But, my 

 lords, we must not so far delude ourselves as to suppose that such ai 

 state of things can never again arise. Violent political feelings may 

 again be excited, and who can venture to say that a similar state of 

 things may not again occur? At all events, let us not, acting 

 under such a delusion, take any steps towards destroying the bars 

 and fences the Constitution has given against the exercise of arbi- 

 trary power." This solemnly warning language of an English peer, 

 of American birth, is as applicable in republican America as in mo- 

 narchical England. 



A verdict by majority would be dangerous from the too ready 

 facility of attaining it. It would then be but the product of the first; 

 impression, and that often the impulse of feeling. The minority 

 would be disregarded, and could not check undue impulsiveness, nor 

 command a prolonged or mature deliberation. This would be the 

 result in mere questions of property, and in the assessment of 

 damages, where the feelings have been excited by artful and eloquent 

 counsel, would be fearfully dangerous. But it would, in cases of a 

 political cast, in times of high political excitement, be unendurable 

 and fatal to liberty. It would be better that there should be no 

 political convictions, than that they should be attained at such a 

 cost. It is in this aspect that the institution has received its highest 



