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WILLIAM WEMMS AND SEVEN OTHERS. 433

liege subjects as set forth in the several indictments, which
have been read to you. The persons slain, those indictments
set forth, as ‘“‘being in the peace of God, and our lord the
king,”’ at the time of the mortal wounds given.

To these indictments, the prisonera have severally pleaded
not guilty, and for their trial have put themselves on God
and their country, which country you are: and by their
pleas, thus severally pleaded, they are to stand, or fall, ac-
cording to the evidence which shall respectively apply to
them.

By their plea of not guilty, they throw the burden of
proof, as to the fact of killing, upon the crown; but, upon
that being proved, the matter they allege to justify, excuse,
or ertenuate, must be addueed by them, and supported by
legal evidence. The truth of the facts they may thus allege,
it is your aole and undoubted province to determine; but upon
the supposition that those facts shall appear to your satis-
faction, in the manner we allege, the grand question then to
be determined will be, whether such matteré, go proved, do,
in law, extenuate, exeuse, or justify. The decision of this
qneation belongs to another department, namely, the court.
This is law, so well known, and acknowledged, that I shall
not now detain you by a recital of authorities, but only refer
you to Foster’s Crown Law, where this point is treated with
precision, and fixed beyond controversy. It may not be
amiss, however, to assure you, that as certain as the cogni-
gzance of facts is within your jurisdiction, so certain does the
law, resulting from these facts, in cases of the present kind,
seem to reside solely in the court; unless cases, where juries,
under direction of the court, give general verdicts, may be
denominated exceptions.

In the case now before ns, it will not be contested, that five
persons were unfortunately killed, at the time the indict-
ments charge; and this case will naturally enough divide it-
self into three main divisions of inquiry.

First. Whether any homicide was committed!

Secondly. By whom was it committed?

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