mitted that the general criminal law of England was the
law of libel. And by the general criminal law of England,
the office of the jury is judicial. "They only are the
judges," as Lord Somers observes (Essay on the Power and
Duty of Grand Juries, p. 7), "from whose sentence the
indicted are to expect life or death. Upon their integrity
and understanding the lives of all that are brought into
judgment do ultimately depend. From their verdict there lies
no appeal. They resolve both law and fact, and this has
always been their practice."

And, after referring to the case of Franklin, and other cases
holding a contrary doctrine, he denounces them as innovations,
and adding that the subject underwent a patient investigation and
severe scrutiny upon principle and precedent in Parliament, says:

And a bill declaratory of the right of the jury to give a
general verdict upon the whole matter put in issue, without
being required or directed to find the defendant guilty
merely on the proof of publication and the truth of the
innuendoes, was at length agreed to, and passed with
uncommon unanimity. It is entitled "An act to remove doubts
respecting the functions of juries in cases of libel"; and,
although I admit that a declaratory statute is not to be
received as conclusive evidence of the common law, yet it
must be considered as a very respectable authority in the
case, and especially as the circumstances attending the
passage of this bill reflect the highest honor on the
moderation, the good sense, and the free and independent
spirit of the British Parliament.

And again he says: The result, from this view, is, to my
mind, a firm conviction that this court is not bound by the
decisions of Lord Raymond and his successors. By withdrawing
from the jury the consideration of the essence of the
charge, they render their function nugatory and
contemptible. Those opinions are repugnant to the more
ancient authorities which had given to the jury the power,
and with it the right, to judge of the law and the fact,
when they were blended by the issue, and which rendered
their decisions, in crim