Judge's " Certificate to indemnify the Prosecutor from Dam- " ages he would otherwise be liable to, giving them a " concurrent Jurisdiction of Causes heretofore cog- " nizable only in the Courts of Common Law, and by " that means depriving the American Subject of his " Trjal by a Jury, are destructive to Freedom, and " subversive of the Rigiits and liiberties of the Colo- "nies." The fifth and last of these Resolutions declared " that a Trial by a Jury of the Vicinage, in all "Ca[)ital Cases, is the grand Security of Freedom and " the Birthright of Englishmen ; and, therefore, that " the seizing any Person or Persons, residing in this " Colony, suspected of Treasons, Misprisions of " Treason, or any other Offences, and sending such "Person or Persons out of the same, to be tried, is dan- "gerous to the Lives and Liberties of His Majesty's " American Subjects.""

The politicians of New York, those of later as well

^ As the action of the Committee which resulted in those Amendments was not generally noticed on the Jouni'tl or in the lit-port, it is very evit'eut that they were, generally, only verbal corrections, unimportant in character, and involving no distinguishing princii)les. But there were two amendments, proposed by Colonel Nathaniel WoodhuII and George Clinton respectively, which were rejected, although the the motions for amemlment were supported, in each instance, by several members of the ma^iority, as well as by the full force of the minority ; but because the principle involved in each of the proposed Amendments was distinctly declared in another of the Resolutions, the rejection of the proposition to repeat it, possessed no political significance whatever.