that whenver offences should be committed in
the Colonies against particular Acts imposing
various duties and restrictions upon trade, the
prosecutor might bring his action for the penal-
ties in the Courts of Admiralty; by which means
the subject lost the advantage of being tried by
an honest uninfluenced jury of the vicinage, and
was subjected to the sad necessity of being judg-
ed by a single man, a creature of the Crown,
and according to the course of a law which ex-
empts the prosecutor from the trouble of prov-
ing his accusation, and obliges the defendant
either to evince his innocence or to suffer. To
give this new indicatory the greater importance,
and as, if with design to protect false accusers,
it is further provided, that the Judge's cetificate
of there having been probable causes of seizure
and prosecution, shall protect the prosecutor
from actions at common law for recovery of
damages.
BY the course of our law, offences committed
in such of the British dominions in which courts
are established and justice duely and regularly
administred, shall be there tried by a jury of the
vicinage. There the offenders and the witnesses
are known, and the degree of credibility to be
given to their testimony, can be ascertained.
IN all these Colonies, justice is regularly
and impartially administered, and yet by the
construction of some, and the direction of other
Acts of Parliament, offenders are to be taken by
force, together with all such persons as may be
pointed out as witnesses, and carried to
England,