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him not perfift in a wrong measure through fhame of retracting, or through diflike to the person who has pointed out the mistake.

A Justice is under an especial tie unremittingly to promote by all right and feasonable means the influence of religion. From the various methods by which he may be enabled in the course of his official practice to diffuse a sense of piety, and an abhorrence of vice, two may be selected as deferving of particular notice. The one is, by never failing to administer oaths with deliberation and folemnity; nor to imprefs on the careless, the ignorant, and the profligate witness the extent of the obligation incurred, the heinous (b) guilt of perjury, and the futility of all attempts to efcape that guilt by outward evafive acts, or by concealed mental equivocations. The other, by calling the attention of the culprit

(6) In fome parts of the country many of the common people who come before Magiftrates as evidences, are found to make use of a very blamable latitude in their interpretation of the ninth commandment; and think that they are guilty of no breach of it in deviating, though upon oath, from ftrict truth, in favour of the party accused.

to

to these very material circumstances; that his offence, be it what it may, is not merely a breach of the laws of the land, but a fin against God; and that it is not rendered lefs criminal in the eyes of his heavenly Judge, by any defect of evidence, or any informality of proceedings, which may shelter it from the cognizance of a human Magiftrate.

Every fituation and employment in life influences, by a variety of moral caufes, the views, manners, tempers, and difpofitions of those who are placed in it. The Justice of the Peace can plead no exemption from this general rule. The nature of his authority, and the mode in which it is exercised, have an obvious tendency to produce fome very undefirable alterations in his character, by implanting new failings in it, or by aggravating others to which he may antecedently have been prone. His jurisdiction is extremely extenfive, and comprises a multiplicity of perfons and cafes. The individuals who are brought before him are almost univerfally his inferiors; and commonly in the loweft ranks of fociety. The principal fhare of his

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business is tranfacted in his own houfe, before few fpectators, and thofe in general indigent and illiterate. Hence he is liable to become dictatorial, brow-beating, confequential, and ill-humoured; domineering in his inclinations, dogmatical in his opinions, and arbitrary in his decifions. He knows, indeed, that most of his decifions may be subjected to revifal at the feffions: but he may easily learn to flatter himself that he fhall meet with no fevere cenfure from his friends and brethren on the Bench, for what they will probably. confider as an overfight, or at the most as an error easily remedied, and therefore of little importance. He knows too that he may be called to account before the Court of King's Bench: but he is alfo aware that great tendernefs is properly fhewn by Courts of Law to the conduct (c) of a Juftice, unless a culpable intention

(c)" The country is greatly obliged to any worthy "Magiftrate, that without finifter views of his own will "engage in this troublefome fervice. And therefore if " a well-meaning Juftice makes any undesigned slip in his "practice, great lenity and indulgence are fhewn to him "in the Courts of law; and there are many ftatutes "made to protect him in the upright discharge of his

"office,

intention on his part is clearly proved; and that the objects whom he may be tempted to aggrieve are usually too humble, ignorant, and timid, to think of feeking redress except in very palpable and flagrant cafes, and frequently too poor to be able to undertake the task of seeking it in any. In confequence moreover of being perpetually conversant in his official capacity with the most worthless members of the community; destined as it were to register every crime perpetrated within many miles of his habitation ; and witneffing petty acts of violence, knavery, and fraud committed by men who had previously maintained a tolerably good character in their neighbourhood; he may readily acquire the habit of beholding all mankind with a fufpicious eye; of cherishing fentiments of ge

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"office, which, among other privileges, prohibit such "Juftices from being fued for any overfights without "notice beforehand; and ftop all fuits begun, on tender "made of fufficient amends. But, on the other hand, any malicious or tyrannical abuse of their office is << usually feverely punished; and all perfons, who receive "a verdict against a Justice for any wilful or malicious "injury, are entitled to double costs." P. 354.

Blackstone, vol. i.

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neral distrust; and of looking with lefs and lefs concern on the diftreffes of the common people, from a vague and inconfiderate perfuafion that they feldom fuffer more than they deserve. Against these fnares and temptations which befet him on every fide, and will infallibly circumvent him in a greater or a less degree, if he rests in heedless inattention, or in false ideas of fecurity, let him guard with unremitting vigilance. If they are fuffered to undermine thofe better refolutions, and fupplant those better purpofes, with which he entered upon his office; let him not think that he fhall escape from the circle of their influence, when he quits the limits of his juftice-room. They will follow him into every scene of private and domeftic life. The habits of the Magiftrate will infect the conduct of the husband, the father, the friend, the country gentleman; they will render him arrogant and overbearing, four and morofe, impatient of contradiction, obftinate in his defigns and undertakings, gloomy, fufpicious and unfeeling, uncomfortable to all around him, and more uncomfortable to himself.

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