Your Lordships
know that it is not; the Commons know that it is not; and because we
have acted on that knowledge, and stigmatized crimes with becoming
indignation, we are said to be actuated rather by revenge than justice.
If it should still be asked why we show sufficient acrimony to excite a
suspicion of being in any manner influenced by malice or a desire of
revenge, to this, my Lords, I answer, Because we would be thought to
know our duty, and to have all the world know how resolutely we are
resolved to perform it. The Commons of Great Britain are not disposed to
quarrel with the Divine Wisdom and Goodness, which has moulded up
revenge into the frame and constitution of man. He that has made us what
we are has made us at once resentful and reasonable. Instinct tells a
man that he ought to revenge an injury; reason tells him that he ought
not to be a judge in his own cause. From that moment revenge passes from
the private to the public hand; but in being transferred it is far from
being extinguished. My Lords, it is transferred as a sacred trust to be
exercised for the injured, in measure and proportion, by persons who,
feeling as he feels, are in a temper to reason better than he can
reason. Revenge is taken out of the hands of the original injured
proprietor, lest it should be carried beyond the bounds of moderation
and justice.
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