e,
Who are judges of fact, though not judges of laws.'

"It was the admission of the whole of that party; they put it
right; they put it upon the meaning of the _innuendos_; upon
_that_ the jury acquitted the defendant; and they never put up a
pretence of any other power, except when talking to the jury
themselves."

In Howell's _State Trials_ (xxi. 1038.) is a note on this passage. This
note (stated to be from the _Speeches of Hon. Thomas Erskine_) is as
follows:--

"It appears by a pamphlet printed in 1754, that Lord Mansfield
is mistaken. The verse runs thus:--

"'Sir Philip well knows,
That his innuendos
Will serve him no longer in verse or in prose:
For twelve honest men have determined the cause,
_Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws._'"{148}

Lord Campbell, in his _Lives of the Chancellors_ (v. 25.) and _Lives of
the Lord Chief Justices_ (ii. 543.), and Mr. Harris, in his _Life of
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke_ (i. 221.), give the lines as quoted by Lord
Mansfield, with the exception of the last and only important line, which
they give, after the note to Erskine's speeches, as

"Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws."

And Lord Campbell (who refers to _State Trials_, xxi.) says that Lord
Mansfield, in the Dean of St. Asaph's Case, misquoted the lines "to suit
his purpose, or from lapse of memory."

I know not what is the pamphlet referred to as printed in 1754; but on
consulting the song itself, as given in the 5th volume of the
_Craftsman_, 337., and there entitled "The Honest Jury; or, Caleb
Triumphant. To the tune of 'Packington's Pound,'" I find not only that
Lord Mansfield's recollection of the stanza he referred to was
substantially correct, but that the opinion in support of which he cited
it is expressed in another stanza besides that which he quoted. The
first verse of the song is as follows:

"Rejoice, ye good writers, your pens are set free;
Your thoughts and the _press_ are at full liberty;
For your _king_ and your _country_ you safely may write,
You may say _black_ is _black_, and prove _white_ is _white_;
Let no pamphleteers
Be concerned for their ears;
For every man now shall be tried by his _peers_.
_Twelve good honest men_ shall decide in each cause,
And be judges of _fact_, tho' not judges of _laws_."

In the third verse are the lines Lord Mansfield cited from memory:--