For it is made too plain
by daily examples, that interest will prevail over the virtue of most
men, and that it is not safe to believe those who are strongly tempted
to deceive.
There are cases, my lords, where the interest of the person offering his
evidence is so apparent, that he is not even admitted to be heard; and
any benefit which may possibly be proposed, is admitted as an objection
to evidence, and weakens it in a measure proportionate to the distance
of the prospect and the degree of profit.
Such are the rules hitherto followed in criminal proceedings, the
violation of which has been always censured as cruelty and oppression,
and perhaps always been repented even by those who proposed and defended
it, when the commotions of party have subsided, and the heat of
opposition and resentment has given way to unprejudiced reflection.
Of these rules, my lords, it is not necessary to produce any defence
from the practice of distant nations, because it is sufficient in the
present case, that they are established by the constitution of this
country, to which every Briton has a right to appeal; for how can any
man defend his conduct, if having acted under one law, he is to be tried
by another?
Let us, therefore, my lords, apply these rules to the present bill, and
inquire what regard appears to have been paid to them by the commons,
and how well we shall observe them by concurring in their design.
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