_ that the list of
witnesses could have been made out. The trial, however, proceeded,
subject to the decision of the fifteen judges upon the question, thus
raised upon the supposed informality, which nothing but the _anxious
mercy_ of the crown had introduced into the proceedings; and the
parties were found guilty of the offence laid to their charge. In the
ensuing term, all other business was, for a time, suspended; and the
fifteen judges of the land, with all the stately majesty of the
judicial office, were gathered together in solemn conclave in
Westminster Hall. A goodly array, tier above tier they sat--the heavy
artillery of a vast legal battery about to open the fire of their
learning, with that imposing dignity which becomes the avengers of the
country's and the sovereign's wrongs. Day after day they met, heard,
and deliberated upon arguments, which were conspicuous from their
consummate learning and ability. At length these learned persons
delivered their judgments, and, amid much diversity of opinion, the
majority thought, upon the whole, that the conviction was right, and
that the terms of the statute had been virtually complied with. The
criminals, however, probably in consequence of the doubts and
difficulty of the case, were absolved on the most highly penal
consequences of their crime, and were, by a sort of compromise,
transported for life to one of the penal settlements.

The doubt which some have entertained of the real insanity of Oxford,
and others who have recently attempted the same crime which he so nearly
committed, has caused these cases also to be brought forward in
confirmation of the opinions, which we contend rest upon no real
foundation. The insanity of a prisoner is, however, a fact, upon which
it is the province of the jury to decide, under the direction of the
presiding judge. In each case the law was luminously laid down by the
judge for the guidance of the jury, who were fully instructed as to what
the law required to establish the insanity of its prisoner, and to prove
that "lesion of the will" which would render a human being irresponsible
for his acts. These verdicts, undoubtedly, gave rise to a grave
discussion, whether the law, as it now stands, was sufficiently
stringent to have reached these cases; and though this question was
decided in the affirmative, the mere entertaining of the doubt afforded
another specious confirmation of the impression, that a singular
fatality was atte