[25] What was done before seemed to have passed
_sub silentio_, and possibly through mere inadvertence.
Your Committee observes, that the precedents by them relied on were
furnished from times in which the judicial proceedings in Parliament,
and in all our courts, had obtained a very regular form. They were
furnished at a period in which Justice Blackstone remarks that more laws
were passed of importance to the rights and liberties of the subject
than in any other. These precedents lean all one way, and carry no marks
of accommodation to the variable spirit of the times and of political
occasions. They are the same before and after the Revolution. They are
the same through five reigns. The great men who presided in the
tribunals which furnished these examples were in opposite political
interests, but all distinguished for their ability, integrity, and
learning.
The Earl of Nottingham, who was the first on the bench to promulgate
this publicity as a rule, has not left us to seek the principle in the
case: that very learned man considers the publicity of the questions and
answers as a matter of justice, _and of justice favorable to the
prisoner_. In the case of Mr. Hastings, the prisoner's counsel did not
join your Committee in their endeavors to obtain the publicity we
demanded.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56