網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

You

OU have heard his Majefty's proclamation read against prophanefs and immorality: I dare fay no motive for a discharge of the duty required by it can be wanting to you and I am extremely happy to fee, in point of character and property, a Grand Jury fo very refpectable: It will be the less neceffary therefore for me to prefs upon your attention the importance of that truft which the conftitution of your country reposes in

you.

With you, Gentlemen, as a Grand Jury, the laws begin and end: I mean with regard to their effect: for unless bills are found by grand juries, no crimes against the public peace and the fafety of perfons or properties can be brought to punishment, and fo future attempts difcouraged and repreffed; because without bills are found no perfons can be tried. An ill-judged lenity therefore of Grand Juries, if occafioned by perfonal favour, or the fears or hopes of private connection, is a crime against the conftitution of our country, and deftroys the laws in the first entrance of justice.

The bench, however enlightened or fupplied in any place, can do little more than explain and announce the laws; but you, Gentlemen, are in fact the Judges for your Country: for you are, as judges of the fact in the first instance, the Guardians of the peace, and properties, and lives of your fellow fubjects; because you are to judge whether the bills preferred are fuch as are fit to be proceeded upon by a more exact trial of the parties charged.

I know it has been attributed to an excess of lenity of former Grand Juries in this place, whether with or without a caufe I know not, that crimes against the peace have escaped without farther trial. If this charge were true, the confequence would have been plainly the greatest public diforder, from a prefumption of impunity. I inquire not into the cause, but what paffed last winter is as obvious to your reflection as it is recent in your memories. Your houfes were not fafe: scarce a week paffed without fhops being robbed, or attempted to be robbed: the streets fwarming at unfeasonable hours with vagrants, and disorderly perfons of both fexes. The magiftrates and officers of juftice intimidated in the discharge of their duties: a murder committed, without the actor of that barbarity being yet difcovered.

When I recollect a magiftrate in this place, of the most refpectable rank, being infulted by the populace in the streets upon the fuccefs of a certain caufe, I cannot help obferving to you the general difpofition among the lower orders of the people to hold in contempt the authority of the magiftrates; it has fhowed itself almoft in every corner of the kingdom, and broke out into violent disorders: For my own part I tremble, left the continuance of them fhould occafion remedies as terrible as the disease. While this licentioufness ftalks abroad you cannot be too watchful, Gentlemen, to fupport the laws and the magiftrates: In them you fupport your own property and fafety. More particularly muft you be attentive to stop the first fources of public evils: I know none more certain causes of them here, than the numerous finall public houses, the pefts of this town; and those which come under the general defcription of the law as diforderly houfes, or houfes of bawdry. From hence proceeds all that diffolutenefs, and fa

tal

[ocr errors]

tal extravagance attending it, which induce young perfons, by inflaming their paffions, to deftroy their conftitutions, and to betray too often their trufts and their duties towards their masters, their parents and families. Pilferings, robberies, and murders, flow from thefe places of vicious entertainment. You have a long lift of prifoners: Among others, I fee the son of a respectable inhabitant of this place charged with affaulting his own father, and afterwards drawing a knife upon the magiftrate. If this is fo: it is madness; fuch as every greatly wicked perfon is poffeffed with: and to what can we attribute fuch sort of outrages, if it is poffible, but to fuch caufes as these which I have mentioned ?

You have in the calendar of prisoners feveral perfons who are charged with keeping houfes of debauchery: Among them is one who once was fo fuccessful as to obtain a verdict against a refpectable magiftrate who was unfortunately mistaken in the mode and forms of office. I think it neceffary to obferve here, for the fake of the audience, that this verdict, as was the declared opinion of the King's Judges in Westminster Hall, did not, and does not affect in any degree the jurifdiction of the magiftrate, nor the right of the officers under him, nor the privileges of that body in which the magiftrate prefided, who acted upon that occafion.

By the laws of this land in favour of liberty, mistakes in form are always useful to the criminal; a defect in the nicety of pleadings, the negligence or want of judgement in any counfel who fettles them; the prejudices, or a little too much firmnefs of opinion, in perfons not verfed in the laws which are out of their profeffion, are circumftances, any one of which may occafion at any time the lofs of a fuit: but fuch a cafe may happen with

A 3

without destroying the general authority of the magiftrates, or the legal privileges in the mode of exerting it, neceffary to good order and government. There are great privileges exifting within the district of this place. Thofe privileges remain the fame: they were granted for great public purpofes: they have always been fupported, and will, I truft, this day, and ever be fupported by thofe whofe duty it is to fupport them, on the best and fureft foundation.

Should this woman, who has once triumphed, be now found guilty, I mean, if the evidence fhould be full, in your opinion, and in that of the reft of the jurors, it will only fhow that public justice, however evaded or infulted, however flow or obftructed, at laft overtakes a criminal. But I would not prejudice you against the perfon: I only mean to awaken your attention to the nature of the crime; that if you fee reafon you may find bills in this and the like cafes, in order to try the fact..

There are two other perfons charged with the fame offence of keeping a common houfe of bawdry; Morris Bearfoot and Sarah his wife. I muft obferve to you, Gentlemen, that there is a ftile of vice, fo much the more dangerous to the morals of this place as it is fuperior in elegance, and therefore it will deferve your serious attention.

In order to obviate any niceties or diftinctions which may be taken by counfel as to the indictments of these two perfons, it is proper for me to inform you that, by law, a wife may be indicted together with her husband, and condemned to the pillory with him for keeping a bawdy house: for this is an offence as to the government of the houfe, in which the wife has a principal fhare;

and

and it is alfo fuch an offence as may generally be
prefumed to be managed by the intrigues of her
ex. And fo it is laid down 1 Haw. 2. ibid.
I

74.

I must farther observe to you, that although two perfons are profecuted according to the 25 Geo. 2. which is made perpetual by the 28 Geo. 2. c. 19. yet that act only directs the mode of profecution, and neither alters the nature of the of fence, nor the punishment of it at common law.

This act is declarative of the common law, when this act fays, fect. 1. That the mafter or miftrefs are equally punishable, and that any perfon who fhall at any time appear, act, or behave. him or herself as mafter or mistress, or as the perfon having the care, government, or management of any bawdy houfe, gaming house, or other diforderly house, fhall be deemed or taken to be the keeper thereof, and shall be liable to be profecuted: For, according to Lord Coke, Inftit. 205. and 1 Hawkins 196. it is held, that the keeping a bawdy houfe is an offence at common law, as well as ecclefiaftical; being a common nufance, not only in refpect of its endangering the public peace by drawing together diffolute and debauched perfons, but alfo in refpect of its apparent tendency to corrupt the manners of both fexes.

For punishment of fuch offences, antiently, the lords of leets had pillories: fo 2 Hawkins, p. 73. and the sheriffs held the leet or view of frankpledge, where all perfons appeared, and took oaths of allegiance, and fwore to maintain the King's peace; and fo great an effect, fays Lord Coke, had this univerfally in keeping the peace, that before the conquest a man might have rode with a white wand, and much money about him, without weapon, throughout England. And although the view

[ocr errors]
« 上一頁繼續 »