Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1844-11-22

leagues. contrary TO his private Judgment, after
having sworn 10 decide a case according to law
and evidence unless the true Interpretation Of
his oath is that he may thus acquesce.
This Interpretation, however, even If il pre-.
walls, is unsound because the law evidently
dcs gns that case shall no, be decided agains,
defendant except by an unanimous verdict of
twelve of his peers :. and hence eacn juror is
bound by his oath to adhere infexibly to his
opinion.
Some illustrations are familiar to all. A mas.
ter is sad TO have charged his servant, Frank;
not TO he out late al night. Having been DISC
hedlcn'. Frank shrewdly cndeavors to escape
punishment, without wounding his conscience,
by chalking the figure on one door post, and
the figure IL on the other; and so on being in
lerrogated IN the morning as 10 the time when
he returned home, he replied bet,ceen 9 and 10.
lie WAS Of course understood to mean between
nine and ten O'Clock and he therefore told a
lie, though IN another sense his declaration was
true.
A lady called at friends house about tea.
time, and on being invited 10 a seat a; the table
replied that she had taken tea She was un-
dersood 10 mean that she had taken tea that
evening, which was not the fact. When the
truth was d scovered, she apnlogized, by saying
that she had often taken tea.
Ananas and Sapphra probably expected to
escape the guilt OF lying BY using equivoca Ian
guage. They declared they sold the land for
50 much, sum less than what they actually re-
ceived. Yet they may have justified themselves
nv saying, we did sell the land for so much and
more.
This then is the rule Of Interpretation appl.
| cable hnh to declarations of fact and to promi-
SEES. When a promise admits of more senses
than one, it ought TO bc performed in that sense
in which the promiser supposed that the prom
sce received j.. 1t is not the sense in which
the tromiser actually intended it, which gov.
erns the interpretation Of an equvocal promise
for it is possible that his real intention might
not occur 10 the prumisee, and the prolniser
might know that il would not
Much less is it the sense in which the prom.
iscc receives promise for then the promiser
might be drawn into engagement of which he
never dreamed. 1t must therefore be taken in
the sense in which the promiser at the time of
the promise believed that the promsee UNDER
stood it, A general, says Paley. once promised
garrison, which he was besieginr. that if thew
would surrender no blood should be smiled. The
garrison surrendered, and he burned them all
alive. Now he fulfilled The letter of his prom.
lse, and in the sense in which he intended Il at
tie time. hut not in the sense IN which he knew
tho garrison received it. He was therefore
gully of breach of promise, for he ought to
have fulfilled his promise as he knew il was un.
derstond
promiser may, however, in many cases;
screen himself from human censure, behind the
ambiguity ot his promise, for it is no, possible
Tor the pronser to know in what sense the
promisce understood his language but still he
is bound in the sigh Of God to fulf the prom
lSe precisely as he supposed it was understood.