The Judge, although his family had suffered considerably by the late
madness for speculation, summed up in the most impartial manner. He
told the jury that, although the case was quite clear against the
prisoner, they were bound to give him the advantage of every reasonable
doubt. The foreman was about to deliver the verdict, when a trumpet
sounded, and a Government messenger ran breathless into Court.
Presenting a scroll to the presiding genius, he informed him that a
remarkably able young man, recently appointed one of the Managers of the
Statue, in consequence of the inconvenience which the public sustained
from the innumerable quantity of edicts of the Statue at present in
force, had last night consolidated them all into this single act, which,
to render its operation still more simple, was gifted with a
retrospective power for the last half century.
His lordship, looking over the scroll, passed a high eulogium upon the
young consolidator, compared to whom, he said, Justinian was a country
attorney.
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