SERMON III.

ON THE DUTIES OF JURORS *.

ROMANS XIV. 10.

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

THE Apostle, in these words, My Brethren, simply prescribes the use of charity and candour in the estimate which men form of each other, and in the censures which they mutually pass upon their character and conduct. It is of harsh and unnecessary judgments that St. Paul is speaking, and not of those judicial acts which are essential to the peace of society, and to the welfare of every nation on the face of the earth. "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," or in other words, as you reasonably think they ought to do unto you, is the rule of charity; and if this is to be applied to the common conversation of life, how doubly, how fearfully imperative is its obligation on them, who, in clear, though distant, analogy to the tribunal of omniscient

* An Assize Sermon.

power, are to minister that portion of justice which pertains to man on this side of the grave. It is by bringing Christianity to bear on these momentous transactions of human life, that you can best discharge the duty of reasonable and responsible beings. Your religion, My Brethren, if it be genuine must be of a practical nature. True religion confirms and sanctifies every obligation which an improved condition of nature and of reason had previously prescribed. It is the cement and the seal of justice, honour, benevolence, and patriotism; one great and luminous proof of its divine authority is built upon its obvious applicability to the affairs and exigencies of our mortal state. It contains a principle of holiness, which not only contemplates the devotions of the closet and the temple, but asserts an influence over all the designs and deeds of associated man, supplying them with an energy and rectitude of direction, which nothing but a ray of divine intelligence could possibly have communicated. Were the Gospel dispensation understood to abrogate the codes and institutions of our country, what could arise from such a misinterpretation but broil, and anarchy, and confusion? Were the various employments and professions, into which mankind are necessarily distributed, to be washed away by the waters of baptism, how useless would be those heavenly precepts of our blessed Saviour, by which on

this scene of trial he has taught us to exemplify the force and virtue of Christian sentiment and education! Of those that surround me, many are this day called upon to enter on one of the most sacred and momentous duties, that the necessities and infirmities of humanity have devolved on man. Divine and human is the charter under which you are to act. The voice of the eternal God, whose habitation is judgment and mercy, no less than the common weal, has summoned you to this awful task. On this occasion, I am here, as the messenger of Christ, to demand of you in your several capacities as judge, or counsel, or juror, or witness, that you give to the world an illustration of the Christian principle of future responsibility, by an impartial administration of those just and equal laws, which are at once the highest honour and the dearest blessing of our native land. To preserve the stream of justice unpolluted, to protect alike the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak, in the enjoyment of their respective rights; to rebuke the insolence of tyranny, and to restrain the oppressor's arm; to keep entire the majestic pyramid of society, to secure property, and to perpetuate liberty, the wisdom of our ancestors devised, and their fortitude and vigilance have transmitted to posterity, that noblest monument of ancient days; that amulet of native freedom; that palladium of the British constitution; that

most venerable of human inventions, the Trial by Jury. While, in our legitimate admiration of this inestimable system, of which the simplicity of truth and the majesty of learning are the constituent materials, we wonder at the blindness of those nations which have rejected it; let us remember, that the chief value of the trial by peers must of necessity depend on the prevalence of integrity and knowledge through the people among whom it is introduced. The best constructed fabric may perish prematurely from the rottenness of its materials; and the iniquity, or even the ignorance, of a jury may defeat the very object of its institution. To the eternal honour of the British Empire, be it said, that her judges have ever been as conspicuous for their religion as their learning, nor is it possible for a foreigner to read the report of a criminal trial in an English paper, without being struck with the piety which pervades every fatal sentence which is passed by. the presiding judge. Against the corruption of the bench, every security, which human jealousy can exact, is afforded by their education, and their independence; and I know not that any thing could be added or wished for to the improvement of that part of our inestimable constitution. But, My Brethren, if any good can be hoped for from a discourse like this, it must be from directing it more particularly to another class of men who are elected, sometimes unexpectedly,

from the great body of the people, to perform a novel and most anxious part. Of all the obligations which bind you to society, of all the civil duties which you can at any period of your history be invited to perform, that which belongs to a juror in the administration of justice is the most solemn in its nature, the most arduous in its performance, and the most eventful in its issues. It is not enough, My Brethren, that in such a situation you should preserve the most religious regard to the sanctity of your juridical oath, it is not enough that you labour to divest your heart of every enmity, prejudice, and partiality; but you must hold yourself as bound by an inviolable tie, to keep your understanding awake, and to devote every faculty of your mind to the meanest cause which the exigencies of your country may have submitted to your investigation. In such an office I affirm, that indolence and supineness are scarcely less pardonable than downright dishonesty and corruption; since the consequences which result from the former may be as fatal to the ends of justice as those which accrue from the latter. It is no easy task for the most enlightened and exercised mind to detect the sophisms of ingenious advocates; to unravel the web of cross and contradictory testimony, and to remove from beneath the complicated mass the plain and naked truth. To capacitate yourself for the conscientious discharge