An Essay on Professional Ethics: Second EditionSharswood, George
Philosophy
An Essay on Professional Ethics: Second Edition
Sharswood, George
Legal ethics -- United States
I am accused, secondly, of having "appealed to Heaven as to my belief in
Courvoisier's innocence," after he had made me acquainted with his
guilt. A grievous accusation! But it is false as it is foul, and carries
its own refutation on its face. It is with difficulty I restrain the
expression of my indignation; but respect for my station forbids me to
characterize this slander as it deserves. It will not bear one moment's
analysis. It is an utter impossibility under the circumstances. What!
appeal to Heaven for its testimony to a lie, and not expect to be
answered by its lightning? What! make such an appeal, conscious that an
honorable colleague sat beside me, whose valued friendship I must have
forever forfeited? But above all and beyond all, and too monstrous for
belief, would I have dared to utter that falsehood in the very presence
of the judge to whom, but the day before, I had confided the reality!
There, upon the Bench above me, sat that time-honored man--that upright
magistrate, pure as his ermine, "narrowly watching" every word I said.
Had I dared to make an appeal so horrible and so impious--had I dared so
to outrage his nature and my own conscience, he would have started from
his seat and withered me with a glance. No, Warren, I never made such an
appeal; it is a malignant untruth, and sure I am, had the person who
coined it but known what had previously occurred, he never would have
uttered from his libel mint so very clumsy and self-proclaiming a
counterfeit. So far for the verisimilitude of this-charge. But I will
not rest either on improbability, or argument, or even denial. I have a
better and a conclusive answer. The trial terminated on Saturday
evening. On Sunday I was shown in a newspaper the passage imputed to me.
I took the paper to court on Monday, and, in the aldermen's room, before
all assembled, after reading the paragraph aloud, I thus addressed the
judges:--"I take the very first opportunity which offers, my lords, of
most respectfully inquiring of you whether I ever used any such
expression?"--"You certainly did not, Phillips," was the reply of the
late lamented Lord Chief Justice, "and I will be your vouchee whenever
you choose to call me,"--"And I," said Mr. Baron Parke, happily still
spared to us, "had a reason, which the Lord Chief Justice did not know,
for watching you narrowly, and he will remember my saying to him, when
you sat down, 'Brother Tindal, did you observe how carefully Phillips
abstained from giving any personal opinion in the case?' To this the
learned Chief Justice instantly assented." This is my answer to the
second charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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