defence of him that has abused it; and that high trust
is an honour only to that man, who, when he lays down his office, dares
stand an inquiry.

Had there been no precedent in our judicial proceedings, my lords, which
bore any resemblance to this bill, there would not from thence have
arisen any just objection. Common proceedings are established for common
occasions; and it seems to have been the principle of our ancestors,
that it is better to give ten guilty persons an opportunity of escaping
justice, than to punish one innocent person by an unjust sentence. A
principle which, perhaps, might not be erroneous in common cases, in
which only one individual was injured by another, or when the trial was,
by the law, committed to a common jury, who might easily be misled.

They might likewise imagine, my lords, that a criminal, encouraged by a
fortunate escape to a repetition of his guilt, would undoubtedly some
time fall into the hands of the law, though not extended on purpose to
seize him; and, therefore, they constituted their proceedings in such a
manner, that innocence might at least not be entrapped, though guilt
should sometimes gain a reprieve.

But in the present case, my lords, every circumstance requires a
different conduct. By the crimes which this bill is intended to detect,
not single persons, or private families, but whole nations, and all
orders of men have long been injured and oppressed; and oppressed with
such success, that the criminal has no temptation to renew his
practices; nor is there any danger of an erroneous sentence, because the
trial will be heard by this house, by persons whose integrity sets them
above corruption, and whose wisdom will not be deceived by false
appearances.

This consideration, my lords, affords an unanswerable reply to those who
represent the bill as ill-concerted, because the evidence to be procured
by it, is the testimony of men, partners, by their own confession, in
the crimes which they reveal.

Every court, my lords, examines the credibility of a witness; and the
known corruption of these men may be properly pleaded at the trial,
where your lordships will balance every circumstance with your known
impartiality, and examine how far every assertion is invalidated by the
character of the witness, and how far it is confirmed by a corroboratory
concurrence of known events, or supported by other testimonies not
liable to the same exception.

Thus, my lords, it may be