bjections to the want of a jury are not without weight: on the other
hand it may be observed, that if the number of triers be not equal to a
full jury, they may yet be considered as more select; a circumstance of
infinitely greater importance to the slave. The unanimity requisite in
the court in order to conviction, is a more happy acquisition to the
accused, than may at first appear; the opinions of the court must be
delivered openly, immediately, and seriatim, beginning with the youngest
judge. A single voice in favour of the accused, is an acquittal; for
unanimity is not necessary, as with a jury, to acquit, as well as to
condemn: there is less danger in this mode of trial, where the suffrages
are to be openly delivered, that a few will be brought over to the
opinion of the majority, as may too often happen among jurors, whose
deliberations are in _private_, and whose impatience of confinement may
go further than real conviction, to produce the requisite unanimity.
That this happens not unfrequently in civil cases, there is too much
reason to believe; that it may also happen in criminal cases, especially
where the party accused is not one of their equals, might, not
unreasonably, be apprehended. In New-York, before the revolution, a
slave accused of a capital crime, should have been tried by a jury if
his master required it. This is, perhaps, still the law of that state.
Such a provision might not be amiss in this; but considering the
ordinary run of juries in the county-courts, I should presume the
privilege would be rarely insisted upon.

Slaves, we have seen, are now entitled to the benefit of clergy in all
cases where it is allowed to any other offenders, except in cases of
consulting, advising, or conspiring to rebel, or make insurrection; or
plotting or conspiring to murder any person; or preparing, exhibiting,
or administring medicine with an _ill_ intent. The same lenity was not
extended to them formerly. The act of 1748, c. 31, denied it to a slave
in case of manslaughter; or the felonious breaking and entering _any_
house, in the night time: or breaking and entering _any_ house in the
day time, and taking therefrom goods to the value of twenty shillings.
The act of 1764, c. 9, extended the benefit of clergy, to a slave
convicted of the manslaughter of a slave; and the act of 1772, c. 9,
extended it further, to a slave convicted of housebreaking in the night
time, unless such breaking be burglary; in the latt