more important thunder than cannon ever spoke, and Pym and
Selden, St. John and Hampden--nay, Penn, Bunyan, Fox, Lilburne--have
done great service for mankind. Gentlemen of the Jury, it is a matter
of great magnitude which hinges on the small question of fact and law
to-day. You are to open or shut for Humanity. If the People make
themselves sheep there will be wolves enough to eat you up.

[Footnote 80: This last name is thought to be extinct in Great
Britain, but I find one Thomas Scruggs _in Massachusetts_ in 1635 _et
post_, 1 Mass. Records (1628-1641), index.]

It is difficult to calculate the amount of evil wrought by such
corrupt judges as I have spoken of; they poison the fountains of
society. I need not speak of monsters like Scroggs and Jeffreys, whose
names rot in perpetual infamy, but creatures less ignoble, like
Wright, Saunders, Finch, Kelyng, Thurlow, Loughborough, and their
coadjutors, must be regarded as far more dangerous than thieves,
murderers, or pirates. A cruel, insolent Judge selecting the worst
customs, the most oppressive statutes, and decisions which outrage
human nature--what an amount of evil he can inflict on groaning
humanity!

* * * * *

Gentlemen of the Jury, in this long sad history of judicial tyranny in
England there is one thing particularly plain: such judges hate
freedom of speech, they would restrict the Press, the Tongue, yes, the
Thought of mankind. Especially do they hate any man who examines the
actions of the government and its servile courts, and their violation
of justice and the laws. They wish to take exemplary and malignant
vengeance on all such. Let me freshen your knowledge of some examples.

1. In 1410 the government made a decree "that whatsoever they were
that should rede the Scriptures in the mother tongue, they should
forfeit land, catel, body, lif, and godes from their heyres forever,
and so be condempned for heretykes to God, enemies to the crowne, and
most errant traiters to the land." The next year, in _one day
thirty-nine persons were first hanged and then burned for this
"crime."_[81]

[Footnote 81: 1 St. Tr. 252.]

2. In 1590, Mr. Udall, a Puritan minister, published a book,
"Demonstrations of Discipline," not agreeable to the authorities. He
was brought to a trial for a Felony,--not merely a "misdemeanor." The
jury were ordered by the judge to find him guilty of that crime if
they were satisfied that he published the