Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/352

It remains only to apply the law, thus stated, to the fact in question. By an authentic copy of the mittimus, it appears that John Eyre was committed for felony, plainly and specially expressed in the warrant of commitment. He was charged before alderman Halifax, by the oath of Thomas Fielding, William Holder, William Payne, and William Nash, for feloniously stealing eleven quires of writing paper, value six shillings, the property of Thomas Beach, &c.—by the examinations upon oath of the four persons mentioned in the mittimus, it was proved, that large quantities of paper had been missed; and that eleven quires (previously marked, from a suspicion that Eyre was the thief) were found upon him. Many other quires of paper, marked in the same manner, were found at his lodgings; and after he had been some time in Wood-street Compter, a key was found in his room there, which appeared to be a key to the closet at Guildhall, from whence the paper was stolen. When asked what he had to say in his defence, his only answer was, I hope you will bail me. Mr. Holder, the clerk, replied, That is impossible. There never was an instance of it, when