This resolution is in itself so solemn, and is so bottomed on
constitutional principle and legal policy, that your Committee have
thought fit to insert it _verbatim_ in their Report, as they relied upon
it at the bar of the Court, when they contended for the same publicity.
"It was resolved, that, in case the Peers who are triers, _after the
evidence given, and the prisoner withdrawn, and they gone to consult of
the verdict_, should desire to speak with any of the Judges, to have
their opinion upon any point of law, that, if the Lord Steward spoke to
us to go, we should go to them; but when the Lords asked us any
question, we should not deliver any private opinion, but let them know
_we were not to deliver any private opinion without conference with the
rest of the Judges, and that to be done openly in court; and this
(notwithstanding the precedent in the case of the Earl of Castlehaven)
was thought prudent in regard of ourselves, as well as for the avoiding
suspicion which might grow by private opinions: ALL resolutions of
Judges being ALWAYS done in public_."[24]
The Judges in this resolution overruled the authority of the precedent,
which militated against the whole spirit of their place and profession.
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