the rising generation, and the wants of the necessitous, in this provincial metropolis. About a mile from the town, the hexagonal shaft of a cross, to which the name of White has been prefixed, marks the spot to which, under one of their prelates, of the name of Charlton, on account of the plague, the market of Hereford was for a time transferred.

The inns in Hereford are good; the City-Arms Hotel, the Redstreak-Tree near the town-hall, and the Swan, are the principal; at the latter of these we arrived at nearly ten o'clock. Our young travellers were tired, and we were all ready for the fowls and ham, which in less time than the former could have been dressed, were smoking before us the fact was, they were warmed up for the second time. As the house, however, was crowded with limbs of the law, and other appendages of the assizes, which were then holding, we were too glad of accommodation at any rate, to make any complaints; I think, also, that nothing betrays a littleness of mind more evidently, than being put out of temper by such transient ills as these, where one is treated with civility; and that, amidst all the bustle, was our case; an expression of satisfaction on the part of the guest is as much a debt of justice, as the money that he pays for his entertainment.

As it was our intention to prosecute our journey early in the morning, it was not long after supper before we sought our places of repose; the beds were excellent, and it was not long before the

poppies of Morpheus had sealed our eyes, and for a few hours charmed even the electricity of thought to rest.

As I am not, however, asleep now, I cannot help congratulating our country upon the peculiar ex cellence of that mode of trial by which our criminal cases are determined-for a little while the trial by JURY, naturally suggested by the scene which was then passing at Hereford, kept me awake. I have lately met with a proof of its excellence, which I wish was deeply impressed up. on all judges and jurors, with a few particulars of which I shall conclude this letter:

A judge, on the north-west circuit in Ireland, came to the trial of a cause in which much of the local consequences of certain gentlemen in the neighbourhood were concerned. It was the case of a landlord's prosecution against a poor man, his tenant, for assault and battery, committed on the person of the prosecutor by the defendant, in the defence of his only child, an innocent and beautiful girl, from ravishment. Not only the bench, but the whole bar, dined with the prosecutor's fa ther the day before the trial; and some of them praise the venison and the claret even to this day.

When this poor man was brought into court, and put to the bar, the prosecutor appeared, and swore most manfully to every tittle in the indictment. He was cross-examined by the jurors, who were honest tradesmen and reputable farmers. The poor man had no lawyers to tell his story;

he pleaded his own cause-and he pleaded, not to the fancy, but to the judgment and the heart. The jury found him-Not Guilty.

The court was enraged; but the auditors, gladdened to exultation, uttered a shout of applause. The judge told the jury they must go back to the jury-room and reconsider the matter; adding, he was astonished they should return so infamous a verdict. The jury bowed, went back, and in a quarter of an hour returned, when the foreman, a venerable old man, thus addressed the bench: "My lord, in compliance with your desire, we went back to our jury-room, but, as we then found no reason to alter our opinions or our verdict, we return it to you in the same words as before-Not Guilty. We heard your lordship's language of reproof; but we do not accept it as properly or warrantably applying to us. It is true, my lord, that individually considered, in our private capacities, we may be poor insignificant men-therefore, in that light, we claim nothing, out of this box, above the common regards of our humble but honest stations; but, my lord, assembled here as a jury, we cannot be insensible to the great and constitutional importance of the department we now fill. We feel, my lord, that we are appointed, as you are, by the law and the constitutionnot only as an impartial tribunal to judge between the king and his subjects, the offended and the offender, but that we act in a situation of still greater confidence; for we form, as a jury, the barrier of

the people against the possible influence, prejudice, passion, or corruption of the bench.

"To you, my lord, meeting you without these walls, I, for my own part, might possibly measure my respect by your private virtues; in this place your private character is invisible; it is veiled in your official one, and to your conduct in that only we can look.

“ We do not, in this business, presume to offer the bench the smallest degree of disrespect, much less of insult; we pay it the respect which one tribunal should pay to another, for the common honour of both. This jury, my lord, did not accuse that bench of partiality, prejudice, infamous decision, nor yet of influence, corruption, oppression, or tyranny; no, we looked to it as the mercyseat of royalty as the sanctuary of truth and justice; still, my lord, we cannot blot from our minds the records of our school-books, nor erase the early inscriptions written on the first pages of our intellects and memories. Here we must be mindful that monarchs and judges are but fallible mortals, and that the mercy-seat of royalty, and the sanctuary of justice, have been polluted by a Tresilian, a Scraggs, and a Jefferies."

The bench frowned at these words, but the intrepid juror thus proceeded :

“ Nay, my lord, I am a poor man, but I am a free-born subject of the kingdom of Ireland—a member of the constitution-nay, I am now higher, for I am the representative thereof. I

therefore claim for myself and fellow-jurors, the liberty of speech: and, if I am refused it here, I shall assume it before the people at the door of this court-house, and tell them why I deliver my mind there instead of in this place."

The bench here resumed its dignified compla cency, and the honest orator continued his address.

"I say, my lord, that we have nothing to do with your private character; we know you here only in that of judge, and as such we would respect you; you know nothing of us but as a jury, and, in that situation, we look to you for reciprocal respect, because we know of no man, however high his titles or his rank, in whom the law or the constitution would warrant an unprovoked insult towards that tribunal in which they have vested the dearest and most valuable privilege they possess. I before said, my lord, that we are met here, not individually, nor do we assume pre-eminence; but in the sacred character of a jury, we should be wanting in reverence to the constitution itself, if we did not look for the respect of every man who regards it. We sit here, my lord, sworn to give a verdict according to our consciences, and the best of our judgments, on the evidence before us. We have, in our own minds, acquitted our duty as honest men. If we have erred, we are answerable, not to your lordship, nor that bench, nor to the king who placed you there, but to a higher power, the KING of Kings."

The bench was dumb, the bar was silent; as