1788.
LESHER verʃus GEHR.
T
HE Venus in this cafe was laid in Philadelphia, and Judgment being entered, an execution was thereupon iffued immediately into Bucks county.
Sergeant obtained a rule to fhew caufe, why the execution fhould not be quafhed, alledging that it ought to have been preceeded by a Fi.ƒa in the county where the Venus was laid, in order to ground a Teʃtatum into Bucks.
Levy,
“tence they had pronounced ; and whether, of courfe, they had not made themselves proper objectsof impeachment.”
The Affembly, having previoufly appointed a committee to report the order of proceeding on Mr. Oʃwald‘s memorial, refolved itfelf into a committee of the whole, to hear the evidence in fupport of the charges exhibited. Three days were confumed in the examination of witneffes, during which, the above report was fubftantially proved, together with the fubfequent tranfaction relative to Mr. Oʃwald‘s imprifonment.
Mr. Lewis, as a member of the houfe, then delivered a very elaborate argument, in vindication of the conduct of the judges; and, though, this is, in fome degree, foreign to my immediate undertaking, it may not be unprofitable to thofe, who, either now or hereafter, with to underftand the principle of fo interefting a cafe, to delineate the leading features of the doctrine which be maintained.
He began with ftating teh ineftimable character of true liberty, which is equally endangered by tyranny on the one hand, and by licentionfnefs upon the other. He faid, it did not confift in the ucontrouled power of doing whatever the will might prompt an individual to attempt, but, while it was independent of arbitrary and defpotic rule, it was happily regulated by the laws and conftitution of the ftate. Having refued Sir William Blackʃtone from the ftigma of being a courtly writer, by fhewing the enthufiafm of that author in favor of the trial by jury, Mr. Lewis referred to the celebrated Commentaries in fupport and illuftration of his fentiments upon liberty. 1 Black Com. 125. 2 Black. Com. 4. Black Com. 3.42.
He then commented upon the origin, nature, and purpofes of a ftate of fociety, which, he faid, was principally formed to protect the rights of individuals ; and, of thofe rights, he pathetically defcribed the right of enjoying a good name, to be the moft important and moft precions. He obferved, that the juries which could be done to any other property, might be repaired ; but reputation was not only the moft valueable, but, likewife, the moft delicate of human poffeffion. It was the moft difficult to acquire; when acquired, it was the moft difficult to preferve; and when loft, it was never to be regained. If, therefore, it was not as much protected, as any other right, the aged matron, and the youthful virgin, (fince purity of character is the palladium of female happinefs) while they are fettered by the habits and expectations of fociety, are expofed and abandoned by its laws and inftitutions. But this evil is effectually removed, when we confider the bill of rights as precluding any attempt to reftrain the prefs, and not as authorising infidious falfhoods and anonymous abufe. The right of publication, like every other right, has its natural and neceffary boundary ; for, though the law allows a man the free ufe of his arm, or the poffeffion of a weapon, yet it does not authorize him to plunge a dagger in the breaft of an inoffenfive neighbour.
Mr. Lewis then proceeded to confider the immediate fubject of complaint. He ftated it to be two-fold ; 1ft, That the chief justice had protracted Mr. Oʃwald's imprifonment beyond the legal expiration of his fentence; and, 2dly, Tht the imprifonment itfelf, was unconfiftutional, illegal, and tyrannical.
On the firft point, he obferved that it was, indeed, a ferious charge if Mr. Oʃwald could prove that a fingle juftice, had arbitrarily altered, or counteracted, the record of the court, in order to accomplifh the imprifonement of a citzen. But how was the charge fupported? The opinion given by the chief justice to the ʃailer, was not given in his judicial capacity ; and though a paper, faid to be a
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