I cannot conceive a greater violation of order, nor a more abominable insult upon morality, and upon human understanding, than to see a man sitting in the judgment seat, affecting by an antiquated foppery of dress to impress the audience with awe; then causing witnesses and Jury to be sworn to truth and justice, himself having officially sworn the same; then causing to be read a prosecution against a man charging him with having _wickedly and maliciously written and published a certain false, wicked, and seditious book_; and having gone through all this with a shew of solemnity, as if he saw the eye of the Almighty darting through the roof of the building like a ray of light, turn, in an instant, the whole into a farce, and, in order to obtain a verdict that could not otherwise be obtained, tell the Jury that the charge of _falsely, wickedly, and seditiously_, meant nothing; that _truth_ was out of the question; and that whether the person accused spoke truth or falsehood, or intended _virtuously or wickedly_, was the same thing; and finally conclude the wretched inquisitorial scene, by stating some antiquated precedent, equally as abominable as that which is then acting, or giving some opinion of his own, and _falsely calling the one and the other--Law_. It was, most probably, to such a Judge as this, that the most solemn of all reproofs was given--"_The Lord will smite thee, thou whitened wall_." I now proceed to offer some remarks on what is called a Special Jury. As to what is called a Special Verdict, I shall make no other remark upon it, than that it is in reality _not_ a verdict. It is an attempt on the part of the Jury to delegate, or of the Bench to obtain, the exercise of that right, which is committed to the Jury only. With respect to the Special Juries, I shall state such matters as I have been able to collect, for I do not find any uniform opinion concerning the mode of appointing them. In the first place, this mode of trial is but of modern invention, and the origin of it, as I am told, is as follows: