ound of justice; though, I confess,
that I hope and wish it with more anxiety, because I trust it will send
these embodied prosecutors, this Constitutional Association, as (by the
figure, I suppose, of _lucus a non lucendo_) they entitle themselves,
into that obscurity to which they properly belong, or at least if they
will obtrude further upon the impatience of the public, let them carry
with them the ill omen of a failure in their first attempt to insinuate,
either that the English Constitution is deficient in its establishment of
responsible law officers of the crown, or that those officers are
incapable of fulfilling the duties of their station. It is said, and I
hope truly, that the country is gradually recovering from the distress,
under which it has so long suffered, and that plenty and prosperity have
again begun to flow in upon us. May it be so! but we shall never derive
enjoyment from any improvement in our physical condition; unless it is
accompanied with domestic tranquillity. To be happy we must be at peace
amongst ourselves; and nothing will have the effect of allaying the heart-
burnings of political animosity and uniting us, as it were, in bands of
harmonious brotherhood, so much as a discouragement of these party
prosecutions, which, while they kindle feelings of indignation, and
hostility, and hatred in large numbers of the people, are of no general
benefit to the state. Fling back this prosecution, then, in the faces of
those who have instituted it; and, instead of sending this unfortunate
woman to a prison, send her back by your verdict of acquittal to the
children of her brother, who, deprived (in the manner you know) both of
their father and mother, are as much orphans as they would be by their
death; and who, sordid and neglected in her absence, are requiring her
care. And, what is more, you will, by your verdict of Not Guilty, give
security to the free expression of public opinion, compose our
dissensions, and protect both yourselves and posterity; since in calling
on you to acquit the defendant, I call on you to protect the freedom of
the press, and with it the freedom of the country; for unless the press
is preserved, and preserved inviolate, the political liberties of
Englishmen are lost.

Mr. Justice BEST.--It was his duty to call back the attention of the jury
to the question which they were to try. A number of observations had
been made relative to what had taken place in Virginia, but