of guilt, over half the globe. The
judge admitted that the boasted liberty of the subject would be a
delusion, were such powers vested in the local authorities. After a
lengthened research and repeated hearing, he was unable to find a
precedent, or to solve the difficulty of a case so new.

Mr. Montagu, the attorney-general, maintained that the writ had been
improperly granted; that on the face of the warrant there was no
illegality. The chief justice, however, was dissatisfied, and desired
proof that the secretary of state could grant a warrant without sworn
testimony in cases of felony, and that Mr. Burnett, the colonial
secretary, possessed the same powers. Mr. Montagu, who had recently
suffered ill health, refused to argue the question; and to the complaint
of the bench replied with asperity. The chief justice still urged that
he had received no assistance on the part of the crown. Montagu
rejoined, that speaking not as attorney general, but as an advocate, he
repelled such assertions. "I will not," said he, "allow your honor, or
any man in Christendom, to dare to make such observations without
repelling them." The caution of the chief justice was extremely
gratifying to the colony. The arrest went to the foundation of personal
freedom, and assumed a power capable of great error and perversion.

In this case there was no danger of mistake; and the governor, having no
doubt of the prisoner's guilt, determined he should not escape: Mr.
Capon, the chief constable, cut the knot by putting Solomon on board a
vessel, and conveying him to England. The adventure was barely
successful; Solomon was acquitted on the greater part of the
indictments. The legal claim of parties to the plunder found on his
premises could not be established, except by his conviction.

On a trial of Salmon and Browne, for a murder at Macquarie Harbour
(1829), a military jury exhibited that institution in no pleasing form.
They disagreed on their verdict. Lieutenant Matheson conceiving that the
facts did not sustain the indictment, declined to convict. His co-jurors
were unanimous; and after three days and nights resistance he submitted.
On the Saturday evening the men were sentenced, and executed on the
Monday following. Their confession left no doubt of their guilt: they
had committed murder that they might escape from misery; but they
asserted that the principal was Browne, and the accessory Salmon--the
reverse of the indictment. During their lo