Yet I cannot forbear to observe, that high rank
is an aggravation of villany; that to have enjoyed the favour of his
sovereign, is no defence of him that has abused it; and that high trust
is an honour only to that man, who, when he lays down his office, dares
stand an inquiry.
Had there been no precedent in our judicial proceedings, my lords, which
bore any resemblance to this bill, there would not from thence have
arisen any just objection. Common proceedings are established for common
occasions; and it seems to have been the principle of our ancestors,
that it is better to give ten guilty persons an opportunity of escaping
justice, than to punish one innocent person by an unjust sentence. A
principle which, perhaps, might not be erroneous in common cases, in
which only one individual was injured by another, or when the trial was,
by the law, committed to a common jury, who might easily be misled.
They might likewise imagine, my lords, that a criminal, encouraged by a
fortunate escape to a repetition of his guilt, would undoubtedly some
time fall into the hands of the law, though not extended on purpose to
seize him; and, therefore, they constituted their proceedings in such a
manner, that innocence might at least not be entrapped, though guilt
should sometimes gain a reprieve.
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