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A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury of Norfolk, at the General Quarter Sessions held on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 1793, at the Shire-House on the Castle-Hill, Norwich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2009

Henry Jodrell
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Extract

Gentlemen, As the Grand Jury of this County you are now assembled for the purpose of discharging a weighty and considerable trust; it has therefore been usual for the Court to point out to you the general outlines of your duty.

Gentlemen, the inquest now established in your persons is one of those institutions which we owe to the wisdom of our ancestors, particularly calculated to the free spirit of the English Law, and the peculiar policy of this country. You are invested with an absolute, and also a discretionary superintending, power; the former in respect to the finding or reject-[4] ing of such bills of indictment as may be brought before you, the latter in presenting to the Court such crimes, misdemeanors, and other offences, as may have been committed, and should be the subject of public notice and observation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Camden Fourth Series , Volume 43: Charges to the Grandjury 1689–1803 , July 1992 , pp. 477 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1992

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References

page 483 note 1 Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man was published in two parts, the second part being available on 16 Feb. 1792. It was mainly on account of this text that the proclamation of May '92 was issued. Paine was not present at the trial of his pamphlet since he was in France, having been elected the representative for Calais at the National Assembly. The trial took place before Lord Kenyon in the King's Bench on 18 Dec. 1792, the jury being a ‘special jury’, the counsel for the defence was Thomas Erskine. See The Whole Proceedings on the Trial of an Information exhibited ex officio by the King's Attorney-General against Th. Paine, London, 1793.Google Scholar

page 484 note 1 There exists a second ed. of this text, also dated 1793, with the following differences: pp. 16/17: levying / war; 17–18: illicit / practices; 18–19: equal / rights. Furthermore, pp. 20–22 are also different: the last two paragraphs of p. 20, beginning with: The Spirit of the Nation… are in small capitals, which modifies the page numbers. The rest, without any further modification.