the anxious judge, at least a
Brother-in-Law, and at last twenty-three men are found of whom twelve
consent to a "True Bill." Then great is the joy in the judge's
heart,--it is corrupt judges I am speaking of, Gentlemen of the Jury,
not of upright and noble men, may it please your Honors! There is
great joy in the judge's heart, and great rejoicing _amongst his
kinsfolk and intimate friends_ who whinney and neigh over it in the
public journals, and leer at the indicted man in the street, lolling
out their tongues greedy for his [Transcriber's Note: omit 'his'; see
Errata] vengeance!

* * * * *

II. Now, Gentlemen, look next at the judge's dealing with the
Trial-Jury. He proceeds as before.

1. He sifts the material returned to him, through those three sieves
of questioning, and gets a Jury with no hard individual lumps of solid
personal independence. They take the oath which you have just taken,
Gentlemen: "You shall well and truly try the issue between the United
States and the Defendant at the Bar, according to the law, and the
evidence given you, so help you God!"

The facts are then presented, and the case argued on both sides.

2. The Judge sums up, and charges the Jury. He explains their oath; to
try the issue _according to the law_ does not mean (a) according to
the whole complex which is called "_Law_," or "_The Law_," but
according only to that particular statute which forbids the deed
charged,--for otherwise the Jury must judge of the Purpose of Law,
which is Justice, and inquire into the rightfulness of the deed and of
the statute which forbids it. Nor does it mean (b) by the Jurors'
notion of that statute, but only by the Judge's opinion thereof. He
tells them--if they proceed to inquire into the natural Justice of the
deed, or into the law which forbids it, then they transcend their
office, and are guilty of "Perjury," and reads them the statute for
the punishment of that offence, and refers to examples--from the times
of the Stuarts, though he does not mention that--when Jurors were
fined and otherwise severely dealt with for daring to resist a judge.

Then out of the facts testified to by the government witnesses, he
selects some one which is best supported, of which there is no doubt.
He then declares that the question of "Guilty or not guilty" turns on
that point. If the accused did that deed--then he is Guilty. So the
moral question, "Has the man done a wrong thin