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AND THE DECLARATIONS OF THE SAME MADE IN PARLIAMENT BY MANY STATUTES.

BY JOHN LORD SOMERS.

LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,

OBSERVATIONS

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CHARACTER OF GRAND JURIES,

AS NOW CONSTRUCTED;

AND OF THE NECESSITY OF RECURRING TO FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

"Thus has the course of Justice wheeled about."-SHAKSPEARE.

"This is a species of knowledge most absolutely necessary for every Gentleman in the
Kingdom; as well because he may be frequently called to determine, in this capacity,
the rights of others, his fellow subjects; as because his own property, his liberty, and
his life, depend upon maintaining in its legal force the constitutional TRIAL BY JURY."
BLACKSTONE.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE.

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1821.

HENRY COOPER, ESQ.

BARISTER AT LAW,

THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED

AS A MARK OF

THE WRITER'S ADMIRATION

OF

THE SPIRIT AND THE TALENTS

WHICH HE DISPLAYED,

AND OF

THE GENUINE PRINCIPLE,

MORAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL,
WHICH HE ASSERTED,

ON TWO RECENT OCCASIONS,

IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH:

WHEN HE CONTRIBUTED

TO RESTORE THE CHARACTER

OF

THE ENGLISH BAR,

BY SUCCESSFULLY COMBATING DOCTRINES

WHICH, IF ONCE ESTABLISHED,

WOULD PLANT DISCRETION ON THE RUINS

OF JUSTICE;

AND,

DEGRADING DEFENCE INTO APOLOGY,

WOULD RENDER ACCUSATION

EQUIVALENT TO CONVICTION!

Liverpool, 10th August, 1821.

OBSERVATIONS.

THE Treatise, of which a reprint is now of fered to public attention, was first issued from the press in the year 1681, anonymously; it was afterwards republished with the author's name; and has since been incorporated in the valuable collection of the Somers Tracts.

A new edition is prepared with a view of bringing under the consideration of reflecting men in our own day, a subject which is second in importance only to the representative system; but which, notwithstanding the general interest excited by the course of events towards political concerns, has of late years been too much disregarded. In truth," the trust, power, and duty of grand juries" is very imperfectly understood as "the security of Englishmen's lives," and the manner in which they are now constituted will be found, on examination, to differ as essentially from "the fundamentals of the English government," as, in the genuine spirit of the system, it ought to conform to them. To compare the existing practice with original principles cannot, therefore, be an useless undertaking; more especially as those principles are deve

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