Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-01-24
MAssAoHUsErTs LEGIsLATURE.
WEDNESDAY,, January %.

"WEDNESDAY, January %.
sENArE.-The bill in addition, &c., to es-
tahlish Police Court in Chicopee was passed
10 third reading.
The order directing the Committee on Pris.
ons to yisit'celtain jails, &c, was adopted.
AT II l2 o'clock the special assignment
was taken up, being the bill concerning the
duties and rights Of Jurors.
Mr.. d. Warren of Suffolk, addressed the
Senate at length, contending that Jurors have
not, and ought not to have, the right of de-
Gliding questions of constitutionality.
He opposed the amendment, because by
fair inference it declares that jurors have the
right to judge of the constitutionality of the
laws.
Mr.. Raymond of Middlesex moved an
amendment to Mr.. Whites amendment, so as
simply to repeal the present law.
Mr.. White of Norfolk thought it would
have been better ii the act of last year had
not been passed, because the moral effect of
Its repeal would be to declare, at least by i'm
plication, that jurors have no right to Judge
of the laws. 1t would take away even the
shadow Of right hitherto conceded to jurors,
and strengthen the lands of the Judiciary,
already too prone to aggression.
The act Of 1866 gave no new right. but
merely reafhrmed a law which in the revision
of the statutes in 1886 was left ont, either by
some unaccountable accident or by design
The old usage was to give jurors the right to
judge of the law in criminal, cases. while in
civil suits they received the law from the
courts.
Mr.. Mills of Berkshire would vote for the
bill as reported, and against the amendment.
1t seemed to him that judges are the best ex-
ponents OF the law, and that jurors are the
proper Judges of the fact
Mr.. Baker OF Middlesex, the President,
chr. Pierce Of Norfolk in the chair) defended
the right of jurors to judge of the laws, in
an eloquent speech. When it is proposed 10
strike down right which was wrung from
tyrannical judiciary by our Englr> h ancestors,
and handed down to US as u sacred trust, it is
time torrevery freeman to speak out.
HOUSE, Petitions, &c., Presented and Re-
.terred-Of Isaac Stebbins and 80 Others of
Chelsea, for annexation to Boston; of VIM.
5. Andrews for law making it penal of.
fence to destroy the will of a deceased person.
Orders Adopted-As to further legislation to
suppress gambling; as to repeating the act of
1854 entitled " An Act concerning Lunatics
or Insane persons !" as to amending the act
OF 1852 relating to Justices Of the Peace.
Mr.. Devereaux of Salem, offered an order
that the Committee on Finance consider
whether any retrenchment in the ordinary or
extraordinary expenses of the Commonwealth
be practicable, and report to the House there
on.
The order of Mr.. Titcomb of Lynnfeld, rel.
alive to furnishing public schools with books,
was adopted
The bill relating to the unlawful use of pri-
yate property was ordered to third reading
The bill in addition to several acts to secure
a Decennial Census and Statistical Informa.
ton, was ordered to third reading, and the
bill requiring new promise of an insolvent
debtor, after his discharge, to be in writing,
mot ordered TO be engrossed, as reported yes
terdayl, was ordered to be reprinted, with
various amendments.