A jury is sworn to decide according to the law and evidence in the case. But how are jurors to decide according to the law, not being acquainted with law? It is manifest they cannot take their instructions on the law from the counsel employed in the case, as they will naturally differ widely in their constructions of law. It is made, therefore, the duty of the court, an impartial tribunal, skilled in law, to instruct the jury on all the points of law involved in the case. In this remarkable case the counsel for the defense, feeling that the court could not sustain the interpretations of the law on several important points which they had endeavored to impress on the jury in their arguments, took the remarkable position that the jury was to be its own judge of questions of law. Mr. Merrick, in the course of his argument, took this position, and argued it at some length, as follows: "The jury is specially charged, it is true, with the fact; but they are also charged with the law. You are to instruct them by your learning, your wisdom, and by your authority. You are to advise them; but they must know and they must believe. My learned brother on the other side (Mr. Carrington) seemed to feel that it was necessary to press you, gentlemen, very hard upon your obligation to follow the instructions of the Court. I have never heard him say that before. Other cases have been tried before this, but I have never heard him talk so earnestly to the jury about being obliged to follow the instructions of the Court. Why is he so solicitous in this case? Does he think you won't dare to do right? He told you, gentlemen of the jury, that you were sworn to try this case according to the law and the fact, and that you must take the law from the court; and if you departed from the law so given you, you would be perjured. I tell you it is no such thing. If you find a verdict of guilty, and do not believe the party to be guilty in every particular, in your judgment and in your hearts, then you are perjured men, I care not what the Court's instruction is. "Has my learned friend read the oath? I don't think he has. Mr. Clerk, will you be kind enough to read it." (The clerk then read the oath.)