ABSTRACT
Council. May it please you, Mr. Captain, and you, Gentlemen of the Jury, I am of Council for the Prisoner, and I do apprehend it will be needless to trouble you, Mr. Captain, with any of the manifold Exceptions which might be taken to this Indictment, since the Crime alledg’d against the Prisoner is such, that, was it never so fully charged, or was he ever so clearly convicted of it, no Judgment would, I conceive, be given against him: For what is it we are accused of, but of holding our Tongue, or, in a legal Phrase, of not giving People their own? Now we hope, Mr. Captain, you will not punish any one for not doing that which he would be punish’d in other Courts for doing. We therefore desire to read the Statute of Noli me tangere,4 by which it will appear that the Prisoner could act in no other Manner, without bringing himself into visible Danger, which the Law will not oblige any Man to incur.
