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which, pretending to enlighten, serve only to keep the court and the suitors in the dark as to what they are conflicting about, and oftentimes teach them nothing certain, but that they are ruined, and cannot tell how: this parchment lash was a far more safe as well as powerful scourge for the rich and crafty lawyer, and a far more deadly one for his poor and simple antagonists, than any rod of iron which he could have forged in all Colebrookdale !

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Speaking from experience, and experience alone, as a practical lawyer, I must aver, that I consider the method of Juries a most wholesome, wise, and almost perfect invention, for the purposes of judicial inquiry. In the first place, it controuls the Judge, who might, not only in political cases, have a prejudice against one party, or a leaning towards another; but might also, in cases not avowedly political, where some chord of political feeling is unexpectedly struck, if left supreme, shew a bias respecting suitors, or, what is detrimental to justice, their council or attornies. In the second place, it supplies that knowledge of the world, and that sympathy with its tastes and feelings, which Judges seldom possess, and which, from their habits and station in society, it is not

decent that they should possess, in a large measure, upon all subjects. In the third place, what individual can so well weigh conflicting evidence, as twelve men, indifferently chosen from the middle classes of the community, of various habits, characters, prejudices, and ability? The number and variety of the persons is eminently calculated to secure a sound conclusion upon the opposing evidence of witnesses or of circumstances. Lastly, what individual can so well assess the amount of damages which a Plaintiff ought to recover for any injury he has received? How can a Judge decide half so well as an intelligent Jury, whether he should recover as a compensation for an assault, fifty pounds or a hundred pounds damages, for the seduction of his wife or daughter, fifteen hundred or two thousand, or five thousand pounds damages? The system is above all praise, it looks well in theory, and works well in practice.

The great stream of time is perpetually flowing on; all things around us are in ceaseless motion; and we vainly imagine to preserve our relative position among them, by getting out of the current and standing stock still on the margin. The stately vessel we belong to glides

down; our bark is attached to it; we might

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pursue the triumph and partake the gale;" but, worse than the fool who stares, expecting the current to flow down and run out, we exclaim-stop the boat!-and would tear it away to strand it, for the sake of preserving its connexion with the vessel. All the changes that are hourly and gently going on in spite of us, and all those which we ought to make, that violent severances of settled relations may not be effected, far from exciting murmurs of discontent, ought to be gladly hailed as dispensations of a bountiful Providence, instead of filling us with a thoughtless and preposterous alarm.

I must, once more, press upon the attention of the House the necessity of taking a general view of the whole system in whatever inquiries may be instituted. Partial legislation on such a subject is pregnant with mischief. Timid men, but still more blind than they are timid, recommend taking a single branch at a time, and imagine that they are consulting the safety of the mass. It is the very reverse of safe. In the body of the law all the members are closely connected; you cannot touch one without affecting the rest; and if your eye is con

fined to the one you deal with, you cannot tell what others may be injured, and how. Even a manifest imperfection may not be removed without great risk when it is not in some insulated part; for it oftentimes happens that, by long use, a defect has given rise to some new arrangement far beyond itself, and not to be disturbed with impunity. The topical reformer, who confines his care to one flaw, may thus do as much injury as a surgeon who should set himself about violently reducing a luxation of long standing, where nature had partially remedied the evil by forming a false joint, or should cut away some visceral excrescence in which a new system of circulation and other action was going on. Depend upon it, the general reformation of such a mechanism as our law, is not only the most effectual, but the only safe course. This, in truth, alone deserves the name of either a rational or a temperate reform.

After a long interval of various fortune, and filled with vast events, but marked from age to age by a steady course of improvement, we are again called to the grand labour of surveying and amending our Laws. For this task, it well becomes us to begird ourselves, as the honest representatives of the people. Dispatch and

vigour are imperiously demanded; but that deliberation, too, must not be lost sight of, which so mighty an enterprize requires. When we shall have done the work, we may fairly challenge the utmost approval of our constituents, for in none other have they so deep a stake.

The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of sending your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame, and more useful import, than ever were done within these walls. You saw the greatest warrior of the age-conqueror of Italy-humbler of Germany-terror of the north-saw him account all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph you are now in a condition to win-saw him contemn the fickleness of fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his memorable boast, "I shall go down to posterity with the Code in 66 my hand!" You have vanquished him in the field; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom in arms you overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise which false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys, the Justinians of their day, will be

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