afe
way of constituting a private marriage _de presenti_. The
defender had been induced, from the practice of other justices,
to consider the receiving these declarations, whether true or
false, as a part of his duty, which he could not decline, even
had he been willing to do so. Finally, the defender must remind
the Venerable Assembly that he acted upon these occasions as a
justice of peace, which brings him back to the point from which
he set out, namely, that the Reverend Court are utterly
incompetent to take cognizance of his conduct in that character,
which no sentence that they can pronounce could give or take
away.

The second grand division of the libel against the defender
refers to his conduct as a clergyman and a Christian. He was
charged in the libel with the most gross and vulgar behavior,
with drunkenness, blasphemy, and impiety; yet all the evidence
which the appellants have been able to bring forward tends only
to convict him of three acts of drunkenness during the course of
fourteen years: for even the Presbytery, severe as they have
been, acquit him _quoad ultra_. But the attention of the Reverend
Court is earnestly entreated to the situation of the defender at
the time, the circumstances which conduced to his imprudence, and
the share which some of those had in occasioning his guilt, who
have since been most active in persecuting and distressing him on
account of it.

The defender must premise, by observing, that the crime of
drunkenness consists not in a man's having been in that situation
twice or thrice in his life, but in the constant and habitual
practice of the vice; the distinction between _ebrius_ and
_ebriosus_ being founded in common sense, and recognized by law.
A thousand cases may be supposed, in which a man, without being
aware of what he is about, may be insensibly led on to
intoxication, especially in a country where the vice is
unfortunately so common, that upon some occasions a man may go to
excess from a false sense of modesty, or a fear of disobliging
his entertainer. {p.190} The defender will not deny, that after
losing his senses upon the occasions, and in the manner to be
afterwards stated, he may have committed improprieties which fill
him with sorrow and regret: but he hopes, that in cas