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PERJURY.
It is of indispensable necessity that no that should be a temporal
obligation sanction of one sort or another to declare his
real mind upon a transaction, co-extensive
with the whole latitude in respect of intensity
which by any possibility it is possible his answer can assume
– To fail in any one point of that
whole extent is to fail on the whole.
For whatever that point be, it is but fixing
himself there, & he a man may gets clear of the obligation.
It is otherwise thus in his power in this (for any
hindrance that the temporal sanction can be
of to him) to have the full benefit which
he looks for expects of false testimony, without the
danger.
The great question is, whether there shall
be a certain degree of intensity established in for
every case, to which it shall be necessary for a man (shall be required)
to have brought up his averment before he
shall be considered as having given his
testimony: or whether any degree shall be it shall be received in
received any degree & punished if false in any degree.
The latter method footing seems much the best –
In the 1st place – because the Judge not having
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Observe a difference
In criminal cases a slight degree may
be as nothing.
But in civil† † the business is to allot where a certain portion of pain or pleasure already subsisting, which must be allotted to one or t'other between party & party, the slightest
degree imaginable may turn the scale (as effectually
as would the strongest), & command the verdict.
I will suppose a case to illustrate this enquiry.
Many are the cases, in which it is as plain
that he who says he professes to hesitate whether he
saw a thing done or no, speaks against his
conscience, as if he had said that he did declared himself
not not to have seen it tho' he had.
In one case any more than is in the other, there 2 can 1 be any
no direct evidence, concerning of what has passed
in another's mind: it is but at most matter of inference
and presumption.
There are two motives from which
Perjury exculpatory may originate. The generous
one of Friendship, or the sordid one of
Lucre. The1st indicates a pond of virtue on
the character
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