First, the
nature and extent of the matter to be tried. Secondly, the general
nature and quality of the evidence produced: it was principally
documentary evidence, contained in papers of great length, the whole of
which was often required to be read when brought to prove a single short
fact. Under the head of evidence must be taken into consideration the
number and description of the witnesses examined and cross-examined.
Thirdly, and principally, the duration of the trial is to be attributed
to objections taken by the prisoner's counsel to the admissibility of
several documents and persons offered as evidence on the part of the
prosecution. These objections amounted to sixty-two: they gave rise to
several debates, and to twelve references from the Court to the Judges.
On the part of the Managers, the number of objections was small; the
debates upon them were short; there was not upon them any reference to
the Judges; and the Lords did not even retire upon any of them to the
Chamber of Parliament.
This last cause of the number of sitting days your Committee considers
as far more important than all the rest. The questions upon the
admissibility of evidence, the manner in which these questions were
stated and were decided, the modes of proceeding, the great uncertainty
of the principle upon which evidence in that court is to be admitted or
rejected,--all these appear to your Committee materially to affect the
constitution of the House of Peers as a court of judicature, as well as
its powers, and the purposes it was intended to answer in the state.
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