the law there is such a fiction--a beautiful
negation, indeed--but we know that Justice always holds the first
place, and when she is satisfied, then we call in Mercy. Such, at least,
is the wholesome practice and constitutional spirit of British law. I
have now, gentlemen, rendered you every assistance in my power. If you
think this old woman guilty, you will find accordingly; if not, you will
give her the benefit of any doubt in her favor which you may entertain.

"The woman," continued Coke, "was convicted, and here follows the
sentence of the judge.

"Martha Dotinghed--you have been convicted by the verdict of twelve
as intelligent and respectable gentlemen as I ever saw in a jury-box;
convicted, I am sorry to say, very properly, of a most heinous crime,
that of attempting to work out your salvation in an improper manner--to
wit, by making illegally free with the Word of God.

"'In troth, my lord,' replied the culprit, 'the Word of God is become so
scarce nowadays, that unless one steals it, they have but a poor chance
of coming by it honestly, or hearing it at all'."

"You have been convicted, I say, notwithstanding a most able defence
by your counsel, who omitted no argument that could prove available for
your acquittal; and I am sorry to hear from your own lips, that you are
in no degree penitent for the crime you have committed. You say, the
Word of God is scarce nowadays--but that fact, unhappy woman, only
aggravates your guilt--for in proportion to the scarcity of the Word
of God, so is its value increased--and we all know that the greater the
value of that which is stolen, the deeper, in the eye of the law, is
the crime of the thief. Had you not given utterance to those impenitent
expressions, the court would have been anxious to deal mercifully with
you. As it is, I tell you to prepare for the heaviest punishment it
can inflict, which is, that you be compelled to read some one of the
Commentaries upon the Book you have stolen, once, at least, before you
die, should you live so long, and may God have mercy on you!

"Here the prisoner fell into strong hysterics, and was taken away in a
state of insensibility from the dock.

"Now," proceeded Coke, closing the ponderous tome, "I read this
case from a feeling that it bears very strongly upon that before us.
Saponificus, the learned and animated civilian, in his reply to the
celebrated treatise of '_Rigramarolius de Libris priggatis,_' commonly
called his _