JB/081/188/001

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Finally, in whatsoever is
now deemed and taken to be perjury,
guilt, over and above that which consists
in the mendacity, either has or has not
place: if guilt there is none, then, by
the supposition, the ceremony by which
the mendacity is constituted perjury,
is of no use: if guilt there is, we humbly
pray that whatsoever by the Honorable
House can be done may be done
towards exonerating us and the rest
of his Majesty's subjects from the burthen
of it: and in particular, such of
us, whose destiny on any occasion it
may be to serve as Jurymen: for if in
perjury there may be guilt, we see
not how, by men's setting in a jury-box,
it is converted into innocence.

Accordingly, that which, in
relation to this subject we pray for, in
conclusion, is — that by the substitution
of the words affirm. and affirmation,
or asseverate and asseveration,
to the words swear and oath, all
persons at whose hands, on a Judicial
occasion, any declaration in relation
to a matter of fact is elicited or received,
may be put upon the same footing, as
in and by the Statute of the 9th of his
present-Majesty, Chapter 30, Quakers

30.

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own particular interest required to be given
to those parts of law on which personal
security depends, join in necessitating, as
above, some restraint on mendacity in certain
cases: at the same time, their official and
professional interest requires that, to a vast
extent, that same security should be inefficient.
By a compromise between these two antagonizing
interests has been produced the
form of prosecution for perjury.

Not applying the temporal
punishment but in the comparatively small
number of instances in which it has been preceded
by this ceremony, and the application
of it requiring a Separate Suit, with two
witnesses to give effect to it - a suit, of which
the expence to the prosecutor is great, and
the advantage, in case of success, limited to
the few cases in which it has for its effect the
reversal of the judgement. granted on the false
Testimony, they thus make a Show of wishing
to extinguish the vice, to the propagation
of which, so far as profitable to them, their
endeavours have been so diligently and successfully
directed. Rating this rare case, ere
any such prosecution can have been instituted,
signal must have been the triumph of
passion over prudence - Among ten thousand
perjuries committed, is there so much as
one punished? For ten might have been

19.

Identifier: | JB/081/188/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 81.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	081	Main Headings	petition for justice
Folio number	188	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c19 / c20 / c29 / c30
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	25975
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