Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/335

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JUNIUS.
325

single judge, or by the whole court, that this very act provides a remedy for such persons, in case they are not indicted in the course of the term or sessions subsequent to their commitment. The law neither suffers them to be enlarged before trial, nor to be imprisoned after the time in which they ought regularly to be tried. In this case the law says, "It shall and may be lawful to and for the judges of the court of King's Bench, and justices of oyer and terminer, or general gaol delivery, and they are hereby required, upon motion made to them in open court, the last day of the term, session, or gaol delivery, either by the prisoner, or any one in his behalf, to set at liberty the prisoner upon bail, unless it appear to the judges and justices, upon oath made, that the witnesses for the king could not be produced the same term, sessions, or gaol delivery."—Upon the whole of this article I observe, 1. That the provision made in the first part of it would be, in a great measure, useless and nugatory, if any single judge might have bailed the prisoner ex arbitrio, during the vacation; or if the court might have bailed him immediately after the commencement of the term or sessions.—