my CLXXIX. A.D. 1794. years of age. Swivels, you know, are guns so called because CHAP. they turn upon a pivot; but these were taken off their props, were painted, and put upon blocks resembling the carriages of heavy cannon, and in that shape may fairly be called 'children's toys.' You frequently see them in the neighbourhood of London, adorning the houses of sober citizens, who, preferring grandeur to taste, place them upon their ramparts at Mile End or at Islington. Having, like Mr. Dunn, - I hope I resemble him in nothing else, having like him served his Majesty as a soldier (and I am ready to serve again if country's safety should require it), I took a close review of all I saw, and observing that the muzzle of one of them was broken off, I was curious to know how far this famous conspiracy had proceeded, and whether they had come into action; when I found that the accident had happened on firing a feu de joie upon his Majesty's happy recovery, and that they had been afterwards fired upon the Prince of Wales's birthday. These are the only times that, in the hands of these conspirators, these cannon, big with destruction, had opened their little mouths; once to commemorate the indulgent and benign favour of Providence in the recovery of the sovereign, and once as a congratulation to the heir apparent of his crown on the anniversary of his birth. I went next, under the protection of the master-general of this ordnance (Mr. Walker's chambermaid), to visit the rest of this formidable array of death, and found a little musketoon about so high (describing it). I put my thumb upon it, when out started a little bayonet, like the jack-in-the-box which we buy for children at a fair. In short, not to weary you, gentlemen, there was just such a parcel of arms, of different sorts and sizes, as a man collecting them amongst his friends for his defence, against the sudden violence of a riotous multitude, might be expected to have collected. Here lay three or four rusty guns of different dimensions, and here and there a bayonet or broadsword, covered over with dust and rust, so as to be almost undistinguishable. We will prove by witness after witness, till you desire us to finish, that they were principally collected on the 11th of December, the day of the riot, and that from the 12th in the - A. D. 1794. CHAP. evening, or the 13th in the morning, they have lain unCLXXIX. touched as I have described them; that their use began and ended with the necessity, and that from that time to the present there never has been in the warehouse any machine of war or weapon of destruction, from a piece of artillery to a pop-gun." The case became so clear that Mr. Law abandoned the prosecution, and the Government spy was convicted of perjury at the same Assizes. * 23 St. Tr. 1055-1166. Erskine's Speeches, iii. 1–52. CHAPTER CLXXX. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE TILL THE CONCLU- CHAP. CLXXX. A. D. 1794. cute the mentary NOTWITHSTANDING the unfortunate result of the late State prosecutions, Ministers (it is supposed with a division of opinion in the Cabinet) resolved upon a much more extensive and a much bolder attack on public liberty, which, if it had Resolution succeeded, would have placed the lives of the great body of to prosetheir opponents at their mercy. There were now several members of societies existing for the professed object of Parliamentary the parliaReform - particularly the "Corresponding Society," and the son "Society for Constitutional Information," - having branch societies in most of the large towns of Great Britain. At their meetings very inflammatory and indiscreet speeches were occasionally made, and some of their resolutions and printed addresses were of a very objectionable character, although the principal leaders and the great bulk of the members were attached to the Constitution. Their evil designs and their influence were much over-estimated by the Government, and a still graver error was committed in the means adopted for putting them down. It would have been highly proper to prosecute for a misdemeanour the individuals who could have been proved to have uttered seditious language, or to have published seditious writings, making each party accused answerable for his own acts. But it was thought better to resort to the law of "Constructive Trea," which had received such a blow on the trial of Lord George Gordon, to assert that these societies intended to bring about a revolution, and therefore to insist that all who belonged to them were to be considered guilty of compassing the death of our Lord the King," and ought to die the death of traitors. I have not a doubt that most of 66 CLXXX. CHAP. those who advised this mode of proceeding, far from being animated by any bloodthirsty disposition, or love of arbitrary A. D. 1794. power, really believed it the only means of saving the country from anarchy; although I suspect that some of them were well pleased to increase the alarm in the public mind, Proceedings in Parlia ment. to throw obloquy upon their political rivals, — and to strengthen the foundation of their own power. But in my humble opinion, severe censure is due either to their judgment or their intentions. Indeed, at this distance of time, and when an arbitrary application of the criminal law has been abandoned by all parties in the state, we are at a loss to account for an attempt which seems to us not only very unconstitutional but very foolish, as it was not accompanied by the abolition of trial by jury. First came secret committees of the two Houses of Parliament, and upon their reports a bill was passed suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and containing this most reprehensible recital, to be referred to as proof in the prosecutions which were to follow. "that a treacherous and detestable conspiracy had been formed for subverting the existing laws and Constitution, and for introducing the system of anarchy and confusion which had lately prevailed in France.”* This was more exceptionable in principle than any thing done during the reign of Charles II.; for then the fabricators of the Popish plot did not think of corroborating the testimony of Oates and Bedloe by a public statute; and there, if the facts alleged had been true, they would have amounted to a plain case of actual treason; whereas here, admitting the truth of all the facts alleged, there was no pretence for saying that any treason contemplated by the legislature had been committed. If this scheme had succeeded, not only would there have been a sacrifice of life contrary to law, but all political "agitation" must have been extinguished in England, as there would have been a precedent for holding that the effort to carry a measure by influencing public opinion through the * Stat. 34 Geo. 3. c. 54. This declaration, the work of a ministerial committee and a ministerial majority, was relied upon in the treason trials as proof of the conspiracy. means openly resorted to in our days, is a "compassing of the death of the sovereign." The only chance of escaping servitude would have been civil war. It is now frightful to think of the perils to which the nation was then exposed; for, on account of the horror justly caused in England by the murder of Louis XVI. and the other atrocities which had recently been perpetrated at Paris, an attempt which in other times. would have excited universal disgust and indignation, was then received with considerable favour, and might have been crowned with success. But Erskine and the crisis were framed for each other. He might have passed through life a well-employed barrister, admired by his contemporaries for his skill in winning verdicts, and forgotten as soon as the grave had closed over him. But his contemporaries, who without him might have seen the extinction of freedom among us, saw it, by his peculiar powers, placed upon an imperishable basis. CHAP. CLXXX. A. D. 1794. ments for high trea son. The Grand Jury for the county of Middlesex found an Indictindictment for high treason against twelve persons who had belonged to these societies, and had professed themselves warm friends to parliamentary reform, the overt act laid being that they had engaged in a conspiracy to call a convention, the object of which was to bring about a revolution in the country—but it was not suggested that there was any plot against the King's life, or any preparation for force. Erskine assigned as counsel for the pri The prisoners, upon their arraignment, had Erskine assigned as their counsel, with Gibbs, hitherto only known as a good lawyer-from the distinction he now acquired, afterwards Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Common soners. Pleas. Declining to be tried jointly, the Attorney General selected Thomas Hardy, a shoemaker, as the one against whom he could make the strongest case. This memorable trial began on Tuesday the 28th of Octo- Trial of ber, 1794, at the Old Bailey, before Lord Chief Justice Hardy. Eyre, and several other Judges, sitting under a special commission of oyer and terminer. Sir John Scott spoke nine hours in opening the case for the prosecution. In the annals of English criminal jurisprudence there had not yet been |