Page:England's alarm!.djvu/49

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[ 45 ]

regretted much a motion had not rather been made in the beginning, to arrest the judgment. It is therefore due to him to say, that in this particular his art, though contrary to the maxim of ars efl celare artem, has favored his opponent, who, in spite of his wishes, held up his own tenets as absurd, and forced from Mr. Justice Willes and Mr. Bearcroft, a declaration, which implied every thing in direct contradiction to the prevailing doctrine of libels. By admitting that a Jury have a right to find a general verdict, they admit them, to all intents and purposes, to be judges of guilt, or no guilt, according to the charge of which a man is indicted, and which, if not made out in evidence, must with them, and them only, fall to the ground.

Yet, as nothing has been said on the criminality of the Dialogue, tho' judgment was properly arrested, because the indictment stated no averments from the inuendos, or otherwise, it may be proper, in this place, to confider its nature and tendency, in opposition to the prosecutors of the Reverend

Dean