Proceedings in an action for debt, between the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, plaintiff, and John Horne Tooke, Esq. defendant / published by the defendant.

  • Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812.
Date:
1792
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings in an action for debt, between the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, plaintiff, and John Horne Tooke, Esq. defendant / published by the defendant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    eumftances which prccc-ded this action and gave i‘ife*to it. It is to put you in pofleffion of that hillory, and to make you acquainted with the nature and circumftances of this aftion. Under all thefe circumftances and ill this manner I am brought before you. And I lhall now apply myfelf to you only, and to your verdict? But before I make my appli- cation to you, which fhall be as Ihort as I can poffibly make it, I beg leave to read to you an extract from a Judge, who was not made a Peer; that you may know what he has delivered down to us concerning your prefent office and du- ty. And I earneftly intreat you, I beg of you all, gentle- men, not to let your minds tire. I defire you to carry a- long with you all that has hitherto palled; but I efpecially intreat you to pay particular attention to what I am now going to read to you : for it was written many years ago; when the judge who wrote it could not poffibly forefee this trial, nor imagine that fuch an Aft, as this frivolous and vexatious aft, would ever be endured or attempted in this land. It is in the third book and the twenty-third chapter of Blackllone’s Commentaries. “ The Trial by Jury ever has been, and I trull ever “ will be, looked upon as the glory of the Englilh Law. “ It is the moll tranfcendent privilege which any fubjeft “ can enjoy or wilh for, that he cannot be affefted either “ in his property, his liberty, or his perfon, but by the “ unanimous confent of twelve of his neighbours and e- “ quals. A conllitution, that I may venture to affirm, “ has, under providence, fecured the juft liberties of this “ nation for a long fucceflxon of ages. And therefore. “ a celebrated French writer, who concludes, becaufe “ Rome, Sparta, and Carthage, have loft their liberties, “ therefore thofe of England in time mull periffi; Ihould “ have recollefted that Rome, Sparta, and Carthage, were “ ftrangers to the 'Trial by fury. “ Great as this eulogium may feem, it is no more than “ this admirable conllitution, when traced to its princi- “ pies, will be found in fober reafon to deferve. The im- “ partial adminillration of juftice, which fecures both our “ perfons and our properties, is the great end of civil fo- “ ciety. But if that be entirely entrufted to the magiftracy, “ a fele£l body of men, and thofe generally felefted by the 4i prince or fuch as enjoy the higheft offices in the Hate, “ their decifions, in fpight of their own natural integrity, “ will have frequently an involuntary bias towards thofe “ of their own rank and dignity: It is not to be expefted “ from human nature, that The few Ihould be always at- tentive to the interefts and good of The many. E