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tablets should be used by the judges in their judgments, and the people in their comitia tributa, in which they treated of mulcts and amercements. Cælius the tribune extended this privilege of voting by the tablet to cases of treason, and Papirius to the proposal of their laws. The manner in which they voted was this. Every judge received from the prætor three tablets; on one there was an A. for absolvo; on another C. for condemno; and on the third N. L. for non liquet. These the judges, who answered to the jurors among us, conveyed privately into urns set for the purpose, and their determination was found by the majority. I do not find that the judges conferred between trial and determination, but that immediately upon receiving their tablets they disposed of them into the several urns according to their sentiments.

Thus we see both the Athenians and Romans, after having felt the ill effects of a method, in substance the same with ours, laid it aside, and betook themselves to that which I have been proposing. So we have their example, not only for the thing itself, but likewise for the expediency and prudence of the change. They, concealed their votes, which they could never have done had they conferred upon the merits, and they were determined by a majority; they were in some measure forced into this contrivance by the growth of artifice and ambition among them. If this seemed a sufficient cause for such a change to them, why shall it not when aggravated by the propagation of perjury under a religious dispensation so much more binding on the conscience than theirs, seem also sufficient to us? And if their legislature had the virtue and the concern for the public welfare, to make an alteration by which their private interests were more affected, than in such a case the interests of any peer or commoner among us can be, why may we not expect it from ours, who are prompted by the same love for their country, and the influence of a better religion? What blessings will that parliament merit from the people, and meet with from Divine Providence, whose zeal for justice, for liberty, and the veneration due to the name of God, shall bestow on their country a law so necessary and of such extensive benefit! Those worthy members of either house, who shall appear the foremost to set

on foot some effectual scheme for this great purpose, and bring it to effect, shall be esteemed the fathers of their country for the present, and be remembered by succeeding generations as public benefactors of the first rank. And as the righteous shall shine in a better life than this, as the stars in heaven, so I wish it were no offence to the mistaken delicacy of these libertine times, to say that such friends to justice and the sanctity of oaths, shall shine as stars of the first magnitude and lustre, or as the sun in his strength. Surely our poor country is not quite destitute of such patriots, nor truth, justice, and liberty of such assertors.

On the other hand, there can be no contempt too great, no reproach too infamous for such, as shall subscribe and abet the many grievances under which their religion and country labour by opposing the only visible remedy that can be applied to them. What notion ought we to entertain of a conscience capable of postponing so great and excellent a purpose to little base views of engrossing the interest of a county, of wresting the laws, and warping justice by such an instrument as perjury! Or what notion can we form of an understanding (if such a one there be) that is so wedded and enslaved to a usage, merely because it is old, that he dare not change it for a better, nay for an older! With what indignation ought an honest heart to rise at a wretch so impudently proud and selfish as to prefer the grandeur of being the ruling rogue of his county, to the cause of justice and his country's good! And with what scorn ought a man of sense to look down on a mind possessed with greater veneration for the mere rust and cobwebs of antiquity, than for conscience and liberty! Surely there cannot be many of these in our poor country: if there are, it is a poor and miserable country indeed.

Some people will say, perhaps, that this proposal is made by somebody, who has contracted a prejudice against petty juries in general, from some disappointment suffered by the verdict of a particular jury. But I solemnly protest that neither I, nor any near relation of mine that I know of, was ever engaged in a law-suit of any moment. Nor is there any more reason for my being prejudiced against a Gothic, than in favour of a Greek or Roman usage. It is tracing the source of this little Dissertation too far to suppose it the

effect of any thing, but that which it declares in every page, a concern for the sanctity of oaths, and the free and fair distribution of justice. If it is a fault to be grieved at the perversion of the one, or the violence done to the other, I am guilty. And if I have been mistaken in either the evil I complain of, or the remedy I have proposed for it, I stand corrected; but it is only by the censure of those, who have both understanding in such matters, and some zeal for conscience and common honesty. Those who have not, may be good critics in the laws of private cabals, and dark associations; but I hope they will never seem to be proper judges of their country's laws. They seldom look as far as their own real interest, never farther. They cannot extend their views to the public good, nor make a nation the object of their affection and concern. They cannot therefore judge of the public interest.

THE

CHEVALIER'S HOPES.

O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus, O quid agis? Fortiter occupa

Portum.

HOR.

An affair of great importance is no sooner undertaken by any one, than all persons and parties, according as they are more or less concerned in the event, become in proportion solicitous to inquire what hopes he may have of success; some, because they affect his cause, others, because they hate it and fear him; and not a few who are little influenced by the justice of any cause, would however be glad to know the strength of his, that they might the better judge on which side to seek for their own safety or advancement.

There are, no doubt, many persons, who know much better than the writer of this pamphlet, what reasons that young man, who is now making war in North Britain on one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe, may have to expect success; but there is a far greater number equally concerned, yet totally ignorant of those reasons, who by means of that ignorance may be tampered with on this occasion by designing persons, and in the end undone. For their information, and with an honest view to their real welfare, the hopes of this bold adventurer, are as fairly and fully set forth in the following paper, as can be expected from one who is not of his privy council.

In the first place, as his majesty king George is engaged in a war with France and Spain, and his forces on the continent give no inconsiderable obstruction to the ambitious views of the house of Bourbon, while his arms at sea are daily cutting off from it the sinews of war, and ruining its trade. To rid itself of these obstructions, no method so promising presents itself, as to set us together by the ears, and find us work at home, and for this purpose no instru

ment is judged so proper as that pretender to the crown of these kingdoms, whom France and Spain have so long despised and renounced in recognising his present majesty's, and his father's title to the aforesaid crown, not to mention that of queen Anne, king William, and queen Mary. The king of France thus reasons with himself. If I can, by means of the chevalier de St. George, raise a civil war in Great Britain, although that war should end in his ruin, yet in the mean time it will oblige my enemy to withdraw his forces from Flanders, and leave me the remainder of that country an easy conquest in the spring; it will also force him to recall his fleets to defend his own coasts, and once again open the seas to my merchants, that is, to my factors; and if for this purpose I employ the chevalier's son, perhaps as he is descended from a Polish family by the mother's side, the attempt in his favour may be made use of with the diet of Poland, to hinder that nation from espousing the Austrian interest next campaign. But in case the chevalier should by my assistance succeed, and mount the throne of Great Britain, I shall then have what terms from him I please, his Protestant subjects will render his possession so insecure, that without my support he will never be able to maintain it, he must therefore not only reimburse me all my expenses, and pay me for all my services in the most ample manner, but he must give me all the advantages in trade I shall ask; my wines must pass into all the British isles free from duty, their wool must be suffered to fall into the hands of my manufacturers at my own price, and in an unlimited abundance. They must not pretend to rival my subjects in the fishing trade, or that of the East Indies, or the Levant. Cape Breton must return to me gratis and of course. As the seeds of endless feuds and wars will by these means be sown in the kindly soil of Great Britain and Ireland, I can with little trouble keep them up and foment them, until those countries being ruined by their own animosities and my practices, shall like a horse broken and tamed by my rider the chevalier, take me on their backs, and instead of defeating all our schemes as they for many ages have done, shall trample down the liberties of Europe beneath me. It is true I have long treated the chevalier with neglect, but the prospect of a

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