swelled the numbers of free residents; so
that there could be no difficulty in making out a list of jurors,
sufficient for every purpose, even if the assizes were ordered to
be held monthly, which is a more frequent occurrence than in the
mother country. Objections may be started to the propriety of
receiving those, who have been convicted and have suffered the
sentence of the law, as jurors; but if this description of
persons are worthy to be received as evidence at all in a court
of justice, and there are instances sufficient on record to prove
this to have been the case; and where this evidence of persons so
objected to and proscribed, has been the sole means of the
conviction to death of the accused, surely it could afford no
room for cavil that a jury should in part be composed of persons,
whose conduct during the term of their punishment has been such
as to give general satisfaction, and who have proved by their
conduct that they have reformed their dispositions, corrected
their principles, and are likely to become useful, and
consequently valuable, members of society; and none others should
be admitted on the list. Besides, even allowing this objection to
have some weight, will reason and policy justify the carrying of
this principle to such a length, as to exclude from this
privilege those free settlers who have been guilty of no crime,
and have suffered no punishment? Shall these, in return for their
voluntary exile from their native land to promote the interest of
the colony, lose the benefit of this inestimable distinction,
which operates as a security to the freedom of Englishmen, and
renders it so far superior to the boasted independence of any
other nation in the world? If it were thought inexpedient to
admit twelve jurors, in consequence of the limited population of
the settlement, eight might be allowed in the first instance, and
the rest could be added when circumstances would permit; so that
the principle of the system would be established, and these could
be instructed in the laws of the land from the bench. In each of
the settlements there are a great many persons competent to fill
the office of jurors, and it is to be hoped that no long interval
will be suffered to elapse without the colony being permitted to
participate in those inestimable privileges which render the
mother country the envy of the world.

The admission of the bankrupt laws into the colony would tend
still more to the perfecting