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The next thing to be enquired into, is the pretended right of a Judge, to decide arbitrarily upon the law, in cases of libel. First, let us hear what two great men say on this subject. Lord Somers, in treating of the power of juries, observes, that "the Judges are assistants to them in explaining the difficult points of the law, in which it is presumed they should be learned. The strength of every judgment consists in the verdict of these juries, which the Judges do not give, but pronounce or declare: And the same law that makes good a verdict given contrary to the advice or direction of the Judges, exposes them to the penalties, if, upon their own heads, or a command from the King, they should presume to give sentence without, or contrary to a verdict; and no pretensions to a power of interpreting the law can exempt them if they break it: Nay, even in special verdicts, the Judges are only assistants to the Juries, who find it specially, and the verdict is from them; though the Judges, having heard the point argued, declare the sense of the law thereupon."
