LORD KENYON. 35,> 



country if they act uprightly, detested if they 

 furnish the least suspicion of a contrary con- 

 duct, possessing their places by the most certain 

 tenure to persons of honour, receiving for their 

 labours a fixed and ample reward, and solemnly 

 sworn to administer justice impartially, are still 

 supposed liable to be influenced by improper 

 considerations, and are therefore forbidden to 

 try a great class of causes, when these occur in 

 the counties where they were born, or at pre- 

 sent reside. 



If a situation can be conceived in which in- 

 terest could furnish no temptation to the aban- 

 doning of duty, or none which might not be 

 easily resisted, this would surely occur, when we 

 were charged with the preservation of the life 

 of some one connected with us by the closest 

 ties of consanguinity, who from tender years 

 or imbecility of mind, might be unable to pro- 

 tect himself. On one side, good faith, honour, 

 humanity, the claims of blood, would urge us 

 to the faithful execution of our trust ; on the 

 other, public execration, eternal remorse, and 

 disgraceful death, would necessarily present 

 themselves as consequences of its breach. Yet 

 our Saxon ancestors, perhaps not less virtuous 

 than any other .nation in the world, whether 

 ancient or modern, building their law upon ex^ 

 perience, and knowing hence how unfit men 



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