N 



44 HIS TORT of the SOCIETY 



Account of 

 Lord Prefident 



of thefe Judges, and thus often to facrifice the life of a fellow- 

 Dundas. citizen, though convinced of his innocence, and earneftly defi- 



rous of his acquittal. 



Thus matters flood till the celebrated trial of Carnegie of 

 Finhaven, who, had the powers of a Scottifh jury remained thus 

 circumfcribed, muft have fufFered the punifhment due to the 

 fouleft malefactor, for an act on which it is fcarcely pomble to 

 affix a taint of blame *. The Court had found the facts in the 

 indictment relevant to infer the pains of law. The proof of thofe 

 facts was as clear as noon-day. There remained no hope for 

 the prifoner, unlefs the jury mould be roufed to afTert a right 

 which they had long relinquifhed, and vindicate the privilege 

 of deciding on the guilt or innocence of the accufed. And this 

 great point was gained by the powerful eloquence of the pri- 

 foner' s counfel. The jury found the prifoner Not Guilty. From 

 that time, the right of aScottifh jury to return a General Verdict, 

 is acknowledged to be of the very efTence of that inflitution. — 

 And God forbid ! a period fhould ever arrive, when that mofl 

 valuable of rights fhall again be called in queftion. 



As a Judge, Lord Arntston diftinguifhed himfelf no lefs 

 by the vigour of his talents, and his knowledge of the laws, 

 than by his flrict principles of honour and inflexible integrity. 

 His own idea of the character, both of a Lawyer and of a 

 Judge, remains, penned by himfelf, in that admirable eulo- 

 gium on Lord New hall, which flands upon the records of 

 the Faculty of Advocates ; and thofe who yet remember the 

 man of whom we now fpeak, know that many of thofe vari- 

 ous 



*• James Carnegie of Finhaven, was tried before the Court of Jufticiary in Scotland, 

 for the murder of Charles Earl of Strathmore, in 1728. At a meeting in the country, 

 where the company had drank to intoxication, Carnegie of Finhaven having received the- 

 mofl abufive language, and fuftained a perfonal outrage of the grofielt nature, from Lyon 

 of Bridgeton, drew his fword, and ftaggering forward to make a pafs at Bridgeton, 

 filled the Earl of Strathmore, a perfon for whom he had the higheft regard and efteem, 

 and who unfortunately came between him and his antagonift, apparently in the view of 

 Separating them. 



