FOR THE PRISONER.

THE HON. THOMAS ERSKINE.

GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,

WHEN I compare the situation in which, not many days ago, I stood up to address myself to a Jury in this place, with that which I now occupy-when I reflect upon the emotions which at that time almost weighed and pressed me down into the earth, with those which at this moment animate and support me, I scarcely know how to bear myself, or in what manner to conduct my

cause.

I stood here, Gentlemen, upon the first trial, not alone indeed, but firmly and ably supported by my honourable, excellent, and learned friend, whose assistance I still have

[Here Mr. Erskine was interrupted by the noise made by some workmen, which the Court ordered to be stopt; which being done, he proceeded.]

Gentlemen, I am too much used to public life to be at all disconcerted by any of these little accidents, and, indeed, I am rather glad that any interruption gives me the opportunity of repeating a sentiment so very dear to me-I stood up here, not alone, but ably and manfully supported by this excellent friend,

who now sits by me *; yet, under circumstances of distress and agitation, which no assistance could remove, and which I even now tremble to look back upon. I appeared in this place as the representative of a poor, lowly, and obscure mechanic, known only, of course, to persons in equal obscurity with himself; yet, in his name and person, had to bear up against a pressure which no advocate in England ever before had to contend with, for the most favoured or powerful subject. I had to contend, in the first place, against the vast and extensive-but, after the verdict which has been given, I will not say the crushing influence of the Crown. I had to struggle, from the very nature of the case, with that deep and solid interest which every good subject takes, and ought to take, in the life of the Chief Magistrate appointed to execute the laws, and whose safety is so inseparably connected with the general happiness, and the stability of the Government. I had further to contend with an interest more powerful and energetic-with that generous and benevolent interest, founded upon affection for the King's person, which has so long been, and, I trust, ever will remain the characteristic of English

men.

These prepossessions, just in themselves, but connected with dangerous partialities, would, at any time, have been sufficiently formidable; but at what season had I to contend with them? I

* Mr. Gibbs, now Sir Vicary Gibbs, the Attorney General.

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had to contend with them when a cloud of prejudices covered every person whose name could be meutioned or thought of in the course of my defenceprejudices not only propagated by honest, though mistaken zeal, but fomented in other quarters by wickedness beyond the power of language to express

and all directed against the Societies of which the Prisoners were members; only because they had presumed to do what those who prosecuted them had done before them in other times; and from the doing of which they had raised their fortunes, and acquired the very power to prosecute and to oppress.

I had to contend too with all this in a most fearful season; when the light and humanity, even of an English public, was with no certainty to be reckoned on-when the face of the earth was drawn into convulsions-when bad men were trembling for what ought to follow, and good men for what ought not-and when all the principles of our free constitution, under the dominion of a delusive or wickedly infused terror, seemed to be trampled under foot. Gentlemen, when we reflect, however, upon the sound principles of the law of England, and the exalted history of its justice, I might, under other circumstances, have looked even those dangers in the face. There would have still remained that which is paramount to the ordinary law, and the corrector of its abuses:-there would still have remained that great tribunal, raised by the wisdom of our ancestors, for the support of the people's rights;

that tribunal which has made the law itself, and which has given me you to look at that tribunal, which, from age to age, has been the champion of public liberty, and which has so long, and so often, been planted before it as a shield in the day of trouble. But looking to that quarter,-instead of this friendly shield of the subject, I found a sharp and destroying sword in the hand of an enemy: THE PROTECTING COMMONS WAS ITSELF THE ACCUSER OF MY CLIENT, AND ACTED AS A SOLICITOR TO PREPARE THE VERY BRIEFS FOR THE PROSE

CUTION. I am not making complaints, but stating the facts as they existed. The very briefs, I say, without which my Learned Friends (as they themselves agree) could not have travelled through the cause, were prepared by the Commons of Great Britain-came before the Jury stamped with all its influence and authority, preceded by proclamations, and the publications of authoritative Reports, in every part of the kingdon, that the influence of the prejudgment might be co-extensive with the island.

Į had, therefore, to contend with an impeachment, without the justice belonging to such a proceeding, When a subject is impeached by the Commons of Great Britain, he is not tried by a Jury of his country; why?-because the benevolent institutions of our wise forefathers forbad it. They considered, that, when the Commons were the accusers, the Jury were the accusers. also,-They

considered the Commons in Parliament, and the Commons at large, to be one and the same thing, though one would think, from the proceedings we are now engaged in, and every thing connected with them, that they had no connexion with one another; but that, on the contrary, the House of Commons was holding out a siege against its constituents, and supporting its authority against the privileges of the people, whose representatives they are and ought to be. Upon an impeachment besides, the Lords in Parliament, upon the same principle, form a criminal court of justice for all the subjects of England. A common man is not forced before that high assembly, but flies to it for refuge; because, as Mr. Justice Blackstone well expresses it, all the rest of the nation is supposed, by the law, to be engaged in the prosecution of their representatives. But did the Lords in Parliament stand in that situation in the case of the Prisoners at this bar? Though not formally arraigned before the great men of the realm, could they look up to them for countenance and support? Gentlemen, the Lords united themselves with the Commons in the accusation, and, like the Commons, prejudged the cause by the publication of Reports, which contain the whole mass of the criminating evidence.

I had, besides all this, to wade through a mass of matter beyond the reach of the human understanding to disentangle or comprehend, and which no strength of body could communicate if understood;

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