It amounted nearly to a
mockery and profanation of religion to administer an oath to such
hardened and unprincipled wretches; yet their testimony could not be
refused when called for by a prisoner who was standing under the weight
of a capital charge; but of the credibility of such testimony it was
always in the breast of the court to judge.
On this occasion the governor deemed it advisable to explain, in public
orders, the nature of this dreadful offence, an offence so certainly
ruinous both to their temporal and eternal welfare. He pointed out to
them, that, as every man who stood convicted of this dangerous breach of
the law was thereby rendered infamous ever after, no one who had a
character to lose (alas! how few were there who would feel themselves
affected by this observation) would associate with such criminals, lest
he should endanger his own reputation, and be considered as a voluntary
approver and partaker in the infamy.
It may be some relief to turn from the contemplation of such iniquity,
though it should be only to the transactions of savages, differing from
these wretches but in complexion.
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