e manner of obtaining
Special Juries through the medium of an officer of the Government, such,
for instance, as a Master of the Crown-office, may be impartial in the
case of Merchants or other individuals, but it becomes highly improper
and suspicious in cases where the Government itself is one of the
parties. And it must, upon the whole, appear a strange inconsistency,
that a Government should keep one officer to commence prosecutions, and
another officer to nominate the forty-eight persons from whom the Jury
is to be struck, both of whom are _officers of the Civil List_, and yet
continue to call this by the pompous name of _the glorious "Right of
trial by Jury!_"

In the case of the King against Jordan, for publishing the Rights of
Man, the Attorney-General moved for the appointment of a Special Jury,
and the Master of the Crown-office nominated the forty-eight persons
himself, and took them from such part of the Sheriff's book as he
pleased.

The trial did not come on, occasioned by Jordan withdrawing his plea;
but if it had, it might have afforded an opportunity of discussing the
subject of Special Juries; for though such discussion might have had
no effect in the Court of King's Bench, it would, in the present
disposition for enquiry, have had a considerable effect upon the
Country; and, in all national reforms, this is the proper point to begin
at. But a Country right, and it will soon put Government right. Among
the improper things acted by the Government in the case of Special
Juries, on their own motion, one has been that of treating the Jury with
a dinner, and afterwards giving each Juryman two guineas, if a verdict
be found for the prosecution, and only one if otherwise; and it has been
long observed, that, in London and Westminster, there are persons who
appear to make a trade of serving, by being so frequently seen upon
Special Juries.

Thus much for Special Juries. As to what is called a _Common Jury_, upon
any Government prosecution against the Author or Publisher of RIGHTS OF
Man, during the time of the _present Sheriffry_, I have one question
to offer, which is, _whether the present Sheriffs of London, having
publicly prejudged the case, by the part they have taken in procuring
an Address from the county of Middlesex, (however diminutive and
insignificant the number of Addressers were, being only one hundred and
eighteen,) are eligible or proper persons to be intrusted with the power
of returning a