and the third "felonious."
Felonious homicide is subdivided into two branches; the first is
murder, which is killing with malice aforethought; the second is
manslaughter, which is killing a man on a sudden provocation. Here,
gentlemen, are four sorts of homicide; and you are to consider
whether all the evidence amounts to the first, second, third or
fourth of these heads. The fact was the slaying five unhappy persons
that night. You are to consider whether it was justifiable,
excusable, or felonious; and if felonious, whether it was murder or
manslaughter. One of these four it must be. You need not divide your
attention to any more particulars. I shall, however, before I come
to the evidence, show you several authorities which will assist you
and me in contemplating the evidence before us.

I shall begin with justifiable homicide. If an officer, a sheriff,
execute a man on the gallows, draw and quarter him, as in case of
high treason, and cut off his head, this is justifiable homicide. It
is his duty. So also, gentlemen, the law has planted fences and
barriers around every individual; it is a castle round every man's
person, as well as his house. As the love of God and our neighbor
comprehends the whole duty of man, so self-love and social
comprehend all the duties we owe to mankind; and the first branch is
self-love, which is not only our indisputable right, but our
clearest duty. By the laws of nature, this is interwoven in the
heart of every individual. God Almighty, whose law we cannot alter,
has implanted it there, and we can annihilate ourselves as easily as
root out this affection for ourselves. It is the first and strongest
principle in our nature. Justice Blackstone calls it "The primary
canon in the law of nature." That precept of our holy religion which
commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves does not command us to
love our neighbor better than ourselves, or so well. No Christian
divine has given this interpretation. The precept enjoins that our
benevolence to our fellow-men should be as real and sincere as our
affection to ourselves, not that it should be as great in degree. A
man is authorized, therefore, by common sense and the laws of
England, as well as those of nature, to love himself better than his
fellow-subject. If two persons are cast away at sea, and get on a
plank (a case put by Sir Francis Bacon), and the plank is
insufficient to hold them both, the one has a right to p