I am extremely unwilling that we should take upon ourselves to exercise a jurisdiction which the law does not vest in us. - Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden

Human society was so constituted, for human nature was so constituted, that the honour and dignity of a father were connected with that of a son; and there was no son who must not be disturbed and disquieted by imputations on his father.

It is fit that justice should be administered with great caution.

A presumption of any fact is, properly, an inferring of that fact from other facts that are known; it is an act of reasoning; and much of human knowledge on all subjects is derived from this source.