LETTER LXVIII.
TO LORD CHIEF JUSTICE MANSFIELD.
I have undertaken to prove, that when, at the intercession of three of your countrymen, you bailed John Eyre, you did that which by law you were not warranted to do, and that a felon, under the circumstances, of being taken in the fact, with the stolen goods upon him, and making no defence, is not bailable by the laws of England. Your learned advocates have interpreted this charge into a denial, that the court of king's bench, or the judges of that court, during the vacation, have any greater authority to bail for criminal offences than a justice of peace. With the instance before me, I am supposed to question your power of doing wrong, and to deny the existence of a power, at the same moment that I arraign the illegal exercise of it. But the opinions of such men, whether wilful in their malignity, or sincere in their ignorance, are unworthy of my notice. You,
