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WILLIAM WEMMS AND SEVEN OTHERS. 471

judge with a becoming temper of mind; remembering that
they, who are under oath to declare the whole truth, think
and act very differently from bystanders, who, being under
no ties of this kind, take a Iatitude which is by no means ad-
missible in a court of law.

I cannot better close this cause, than by desiring you to
consider well the genius and spirit of the law which will be
laid down, and to govern yourselves by this great standard
of truth. To some purposes, you may be said, gentlemen, to
be ministers of justice; and ‘‘ministers,”’ says a learned
judge, ‘‘appointed for the ends of public justice, should have
written on their hearts the solemn engagements of his
majesty, at his coronation, to cause law and justice in mercy
to be executed in all his judgments.””

“The quality of merey is not strained;
It droppeth like the gentle rain from beaven ——-

It is twies blessed;
Tt blesses him that gives, and him that takes.”

IT leave you, gentlemen, hoping you will be direeted in
your inquiry and judgment to a right discharge of your
duty. We shall all of us, gentlemen, have an hour of eool
reflection, when the feelings and agitations of the day shall
have subsided; when we shall view things through a differ-
ent and a mueh juster medium. It is then that we all wish
an absolving conscience. May you, gentlemen, now act such
a part, as will hereafter insure it; sueh a part ag may occa-
sion the prisoners to rejoice. May the blessing of those, who
were in jeopardy of life, come upon you; may the blessing
of him, who is not faulty to die, descend and rest upon you
and your posterity.

Mr. Adams. May it please your Honor, and you, Gentle-
men of the Jury: I am for the prisoners at the bar, and
shall apologize for it only in the words of the Marquis Bec-
caria: ‘If I ean but be the instrument of preserving one
life, his blessing and tears of transport shall be a sufficient
consolation to me, for the contempt of all mankind.’’ As the
prisoners stand before you for their lives, it may be proper

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