It  is  not  an  inference  in  the  law  from  Ae  fact  of  die  kiBing
that  the  person  was  guilty  of  murders-it  might  be  man-
slaughter, justifiable  homicide,  chance-medley,  or  it  might  be
murder :— »the  fact  does  not  infer  the  crime  :  it  is  the  intui-
tion with  which  the  act  was  conunitted,  and  this  die  Jury  vt
bound  to  discover  and  decide  tipon  from  all  the  accompanjmig
circumstances. If  I  had  been  wrong  in  hokUng  this  opinioB,
all  my  opposition  to  that  great  luminary  of  the  law  now  de-
parted, but  who  will  always  live  in  public  memory,  was
wrong  and  false ;  I  revered  his  venerable  audiority,  I  ad-
mired  the  splendour  of  his  talents  which  illustrated  the  age
he  lived  in,  and  periiaps  ages  wiH  pass  without  producing  Us
rival. I  still  opposed  him,  in  the  meridian  of  his  fame,  00


Trml  (ff  Jamea  Perry  and  Another. 4^1

the  doctrine  that  the  law  of  libel  was  an  inference  from  the
fiict,  and  now  the  Legislature  have  solemnly  confirmed  my
pinion,  that  the  law  and  iact  are  compounded  together,  and
are  both  to  be  found  by  the  Jury. I  could  not  have  held  up
my  head  in  this  Court,  nor  in  the  world,  if  it  had  been  ad-
judged otherwise ;  and  how  my  Learned  Friend  can  hold  an
opinion  that  the  question  of  libel  is  to  be  tried  precisely  like
aU  other  criminal  cases,  and  yet  that  criminal  intent  is  an
inference  of  law,  I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  com^ehend. I
aver  that  you  are  solemnly  set  in  judgment  on  the  hearts  of
die  Defendants,  in  the  publication  of  this  paper;  you  are  to
search  for  their  intention  by  every  mean  which  can  suggest
itself  to  you^-— you  are  bound  to  believe  in  your  consciences
lliat  they  are  guilty  of  malicious  and  wicked  designs,  before
you  can  pronounce  the  verdict  of  Goilty.— It  is  not  because
one  of  them  published  the  paper,  or  because  the  others  are
proprietors  of  it,  but  because  they  were,  or  were  not,  actua-
ted by  an  evil  mind,  and  had  seditious  intentions,  that  you
must  find  them  guilty  or  not  guilty. Such  was  the  opinion  of
the  venerable  Hale. 