Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850 by Various
page 13 of 69 (18%)
page 13 of 69 (18%)
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Lord Campbell, in his _Lives of the Chancellors_ (v. 25.) and _Lives of the Lord Chief Justices_ (ii. 543.), and Mr. Harris, in his _Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke_ (i. 221.), give the lines as quoted by Lord Mansfield, with the exception of the last and only important line, which they give, after the note to Erskine's speeches, as "Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws." And Lord Campbell (who refers to _State Trials_, xxi.) says that Lord Mansfield, in the Dean of St. Asaph's Case, misquoted the lines "to suit his purpose, or from lapse of memory." I know not what is the pamphlet referred to as printed in 1754; but on consulting the song itself, as given in the 5th volume of the _Craftsman_, 337., and there entitled "The Honest Jury; or, Caleb Triumphant. To the tune of 'Packington's Pound,'" I find not only that Lord Mansfield's recollection of the stanza he referred to was substantially correct, but that the opinion in support of which he cited it is expressed in another stanza besides that which he quoted. The first verse of the song is as follows: "Rejoice, ye good writers, your pens are set free; Your thoughts and the _press_ are at full liberty; For your _king_ and your _country_ you safely may write, You may say _black_ is _black_, and prove _white_ is _white_; Let no pamphleteers Be concerned for their ears; For every man now shall be tried by his _peers_. _Twelve good honest men_ shall decide in each cause, |
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