stances of moderate verdicts. I can refer you to some
authentic instances of just ones. In the next county, L15,000 against a
subaltern officer. In Travers and Macarthy, L5,000 against a servant.
In Tighe against Jones, L1,000 against a man not worth a shilling.
What, then, ought to be the rule, where rank and power, and wealth and
station, have combined to render the example of his crime more
dangerous--to make his guilt more odious--to make the injury to the
plaintiff more grievous, because more conspicuous? I affect no levelling
familiarity, when I speak of persons in the higher ranks of
society--distinctions of orders are necessary, and I always feel
disposed to treat them with respect--but when it is my duty to speak of
the crimes by which they are degraded, I am not so fastidious as to
shrink from their contact, when to touch them is essential to their
dissection. However, therefore, I should feel on any other occasion, a
disposition to speak of the noble defendant with the respect due to his
station, and perhaps to his qualities, of which he may have many to
redeem him from the odium of this transaction, I cannot so indulge
myself here. I cannot betray my client, to avoid the pain of doing my
duty. I cannot forget that in this action the condition, the conduct,
and circumstances of the parties, are justly and peculiarly the objects
of your consideration. Who, then, are the parties? The plaintiff,
young, amiable, of family and education. Of the generous
disinterestedness of his heart you can form an opinion even from the
evidence of the defendant, that he declined an alliance which would have
added to his fortune and consideration, and which he rejected for an
unportioned union with his present wife--she too, at that time, young,
beautiful and accomplished; and feeling her affection for her husband
increase, in proportion as she remembered the ardor of his love, and the
sincerity of his sacrifice. Look now to the defendant! Can you behold
him without shame and indignation? With what feelings can you regard a
rank that he has so tarnished, and a patent that he has so worse than
cancelled? High in the army--high in the state--the hereditary
counsellor of the King--of wealth incalculable--and to this last I
advert with an indignant and contemptuous satisfaction, because, as the
only instrument of his guilt and shame, it will be the means of his
punishment, and the source of his compensation."

THE SERENADING LOVER.