to be acquainted with the business, profession, or study to which he
belongs, or to which he has devoted himself. The converse-a most
rational converse, is that he is unacquainted with what he does not
belong to, or has not studied; or, in plain terms, that he is
unacquainted with that of which he knows nothing. Sir Isaac Newton would
have been a most ignorant Juryman upon a ease resting upon the details
of business in the butter trade of Cork; and a Mr. Jones, in that trade,
would be an equally ignorant Juryman on a case involving the complex
observations and abstract calculations of Sir Isaac's Observatory.
Shakspeare, as a Juryman, would have been puzzled to determine a
disputed point of commerce; and a tradesman would be as equally
perplexed in deciding a point upon the machinery of Arkwright, or the
steam-engine of Watts. In the present case, a man named Haslam, (but the
name is immaterial, for I apply myself to abstractions and not to
individuals,) has devoted himself to the study of a subject. He is
evidently a man of strong mind, of great knowledge, and of the most
honest intentions. On many points I differ with him, but individual or
public difference is not the case at issue. His very able work is
submitted, not to the public mind, but to 'Trial by Jury;' and its
merits or demerits are determined upon by merchants, brokers, tradesmen
and jobbing peculating Jurymen called 'Tales.' as totally ignorant of
Mr! Haslam's studies and works, as he most probably is of their
different lines of traffic. Is this a test of the merits of the case? Is
this any barometer of the truth of the Gospel, of public feeling, or of
the intelligence of our population?
"My Lord Denman, the Attorney-General, tried, in the usual slang of his
profession, or rather of his office, to attach moral imperfection and
social dangers to speculative points of theology-to points of creed. We
have now on our Bench, including Ireland and Scotland, Catholic Judges,
Judges belonging to the Church of England, to the creeds of the
Baptists, Anabaptists, Unitarians, and to the no-creeds of the Deists,
and yet what barrister, attorney, or client, ever complained of a Judge
on account of his creed or his construction of the Scriptures? In
Ireland we have Catholic Judges, in Scotland Presbyterian, and in
England Judges of the Clutch, and of every dissenting sect, and yet,
when in 'Term time,' a new Trial is moved for, on account of a
misdirection of a Judge, who ever heard of the misdirection lying
attached to the Judge's creed? The Solicitor-General of Ireland is a
Catholic, the Attorney-General of England is a Presbyterian (if he has
any religion at all), and the Solicitor-General of England is of the
Church (the refuge of all sceptics), and what does this amount to with
respect to the discharge of their duties? Lord Chancellors Shaftesbury
and Thurlow, and very many others, were avowed Deists, and yet in moving
the House of Lords to set, their judgment aside, their creeds or
opinions were never put upon the briefs.
"Let me suppose, my Lord, that our most pious Monarch, George the Third,
had indicted David Hume, the most perfect, of unofficial characters; or
Adam Smith, a great benefactor of his species; or Edward Gibbon, the
most illustrious of historians, for their Atheism or Deism; and let me
state the fact, that the pious Monarch bestowed upon them all very good,
and, in one instance, very confidential employments, what difference
does this make? in either case the men, their public functions, and
their doctrines, would have been equally at issue with public opinion at
the present day. The merchant, in reading Adam Smith; the philosopher,
in studying the superior works of Hume; and the scholar, in tracing
Gibbon's magnificent outline and correct details of Roman history, never
condescend to inquire whether the authors were patronised by a pious or
an impious monarch, or whether they were indicted by a Presbyterian,
Episcopalian, or Atheistical Attorney-General--the slave of an order
from the Secretary of State's office. This species of scrutiny expired
years ago, and why should it be revived?
"My Lord Chief Justice Denman, the eyes of the country, and of foreign
countries, are upon you. The issue of your sentence is the same, except
to the individual; for, liberate him, you respond but to the voice of
all enlightened men throughout Europe; incarcerate him, and by passing
an inhuman sentence upon an innocent man, you enforce a judgment that
you have promulgated in Parliament to be abhorrent in principles and
feelings, and this will produce a powerful redaction.
"PUBLICOLA."
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