Innocency is almost sure to be worsted, wherever it may be Abus’d with
Security and Advantage. _Guilty or not Guilty_, is not so much the
Point in the Case here of the _Crows_ and the _Pigeons_; for the matter
in question, is the _Person_ or _Party_, not the _Fact_. The One’s in
the Plot, let him be never so Innocent; and the other is as white as
the Driven Snow, let him be never so Criminal. There are _Cabals_,
_Ignoramus_’s, _False Witnesses_, among _Men_, as well as among _Birds_,
with all the Pompous Formalities of Countenancing Fraud and Corruption,
with the Sacred Name of _Justice_. Set a _Kite_ upon the _Bench_, and
’tis Forty to one he’ll bring off a _Crow_ at the _Barr_. Briefly, there
is nothing more in the Iniquity of this Fiction, then what we see every
day made good in common Business and Practice. ’Tis but dressing up a
_Bird of Prey_ in his _Cap and Furs_, to make a Judge of him; and so for
a _Knight of the Post_, ’tis but dubbing him with the Title of a _King’s
Evidence_, and the Work is done: For in these Cases, _Judge_, _Jury_, and
_Witnesses_ are all of a Piece.