CHAP. CLXXX. which he was affected, and to have separated him from the rest. By such a course I could have steered his vessel safely A.D. 1794. through all perils, and brought her without damage into a harbour of safety, while the other unfortunate prisoners were left to ride out this awful tempest. But he would not suffer his defence to be put upon the footing which discretion would have suggested. Though not implicated in the supposed conspiracy, he has charged me to waste and destroy my strength to prove that no such guilt can be brought home to others. I rejoice in having been made the humble instrument of so much good-my heart was never so much in any Pitt examined as a witness Tooke. When the evidence came to be adduced, he strenuously assisted Mr. Tooke in examining the witnesses, and particufor Horne larly in trying to refresh the memory of Mr. Pitt respecting a meeting of delegates, at which the young patriot had been present previous to one of his motions for parliamentary reform, but could extract no answer from him except that he did not recollect. The Minister evidently quailed under the discipline of his former associate, and of the man whom in the House of Commons he had treated with such contempt. Indeed, this was the most humiliating passage of his whole life -and the recollection of it must have been painful to him amidst all his subsequent triumphs over political foes.* Acquittal of Horne Tooke. Trial and Although Hardy's jury had deliberated several hours, Horne Tooke was acquitted as soon as the Judge had concluded the summing up when he gracefully returned thanks to the Bench and the jury for the fair trial which had ended so auspiciously, and above all for the noble exertions of his counsel, who had done such effectual service to public liberty. Still the Government was not satisfied, and a third prisoner, acquittal of Thelwall, was put upon his trial. They would have had a better chance of a conviction if they had begun with him, as Thelwall, It is curious that after the examination of Sheridan, Pitt voluntarily declared that he did recollect a meeting at the Duke of Richmond's, at which were present delegates from different county meetings, and from several cities and towns. At this moment he must have wished that he had been true to the cause of Parliamentary Reform, instead of grasping supreme power in the state. СНАР. CLXXX. he had taken a much more active part in the societies than either of the other two. The effort now was, to shorten the case for the prosecution, and it ended early on the third day. A.D. 1794. Erskine expressed some embarrassment at being so unexpectedly called upon to enter on the defence, but he executed the task with his never-failing ability and energy.* I must content myself with giving one passage from it, in which he tried to take off the effect of most intemperate words against the Government imputed to the prisoner by a spy. After attacking the credibility of the witness, he thus proceeded :"Even if the very phrase had not been exaggerated, if the particular sentence had not been coloured or distorted, what allowance ought there not to be made for infirmity of temper, and the faults of the tongue, in a period of intense excitement. Let me ask, who would be safe, if every loose word, if every vague expression, uttered in the moment of inadvertence or irritation, were to be admitted as sufficient evidence of a criminal purpose of the most atrocious nature? In the judgment of God we should, indeed, be safe, because he knows the heart - he knows the infirmities with which he hath clothed us, and makes allowance for those errors which arise from the imperfect state of our nature. From that perfect acquaintance which he possesses with our frame, he is qualified to regard in their proper point of view the involuntary errors of the misguided mind, and the intemperate effusions of the honest heart. With respect to these, in the words of a beautiful moral writer, the accusing angel, who flies up to Heaven's chancery, blushes as he gives them in, and the recording angel, as he writes them down, drops a tear upon the words and blots them out for ever.' Who is there that in the moment of levity or of passion has not adopted the language of profaneness, and even trifled with the name of the God whom he adores? Who has not, in an unguarded hour, from a strong sense of abuse, or a quick resentment It is said that Thelwall was a very troublesome client, and frequently interfered indiscreetly in the defence. At one time he was so much dissatisfied, that he wrote on a piece of paper, which he threw to Erskine, "I'll be hanged if I don't plead my own cause; upon which his counsel returned for answer, "You'll be hanged if you do." CHAP. CLXXX. REIGN OF GEORGE III. of public misconduct, inveighed against the Government to which he is most firmly attached? Who has not, under the A.D. 1794. impulse of peevishness and misapprehension, made use of harsh and unkind expressions, even with respect to his best and dearest relations expressions which, if they were supposed to proceed from the heart, would destroy all the affection and confidence of private life? If there is such a man present so uniformly correct in expression, so guarded from mistake, so superior to passion, let him stand forth, let him claim all the praise due to a character so superior to the common state of humanity. For myself, I will only say, I am not the man." The Jury found a verdict of NOT GUILTY. Folly of these pro secutions. Public gratitude to Erskine. At last the Attorney General said he should proceed no farther, and all the other prisoners were acquitted without any evidence being offered against them. Even Adolphus, the zealous advocate of all the measures of Mr. Pitt's Administration which can be praised or excused, is obliged to say, “Considering calmly these prosecutions, they appear in every point of view to have been unfortunate, not to say unwise. . . . . It was desirable to frustrate the schemes of desperate innovators; but the British public, who had ever been accustomed to meet, to associate, to proclaim their political opinions and predilections, to devise means and to recommend measures for removal of their grievances, and improvement of their social condition, viewed with anxiety and alarm those measures which tended to plunge individuals into the dreadful gulf of high treason, when they had unintentionally, perhaps, exceeded the bounds which an exact knowledge of the laws and a timid prudence would have prescribed." There were strong manifestations of the public gratitude for the services which Erskine had rendered in saving the country from the peril with which it had been threatened. On the last night of the trials his horses were taken from his chariot, amidst bonfires and blazing flambeaux, he was drawn home by the huzzaing populace to his house in Serjeants' Inn, -and they obeyed his injunction, when, addressing them * Vol. vi. 71. CLXXX. A.D. 1794. from a window, with Gibbs by his side, he said, " Injured CHAP. innocence still obtains protection from a British jury, and I am sure, in the honest effusions of your hearts, you will retire in peace and bless God." The freedom of many corporations was voted to him, and his portraits and busts were sold in thousands all over Great Britain. What was more gratifying, his speeches for the prisoners were read and applauded by all men of taste, his political consequence was much enhanced with his party, and he had full revenge for the sarcasms of Pitt. He now occupied a position as an advocate which no man before had reached, and which no man hereafter is ever likely to reach at the English Bar. Erskine in private life. It is delightful to find the same individual a few weeks after A peep at thus writing to a friend: "I am now very busy flying my boy's kite, shooting with the bow and arrow, and talking to an old Scotch gardener ten hours a-day, about the same things, which, taken altogether, are not of the value or importance of a Birmingham halfpenny, and am scarcely up to the exertion of reading the daily papers. How much happier it would be for England and the world if the King's Ministers were employed in a course so much more innocent than theirs, and so perfectly suitable to their capacities!" + When he used to boast of this ovation, some of his friends sought to mortify him by asserting (I know not with what truth) that the patriots, who took his horses from his carriage, forgot to return them to him. Letter to Dr. Parr. CHAPTER CLXXXI. CHAP. CLXXXI. Jan. 5. 1795. Erskine's improved position in the House of Com mons. His censure of the Govern secutions. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE TILL THE TRIAL WHEN the victorious advocate again spoke in the House of Commons, his reception there was much more flattering than any he had previously experienced. The occasion was a motion for a repeal of the "Habeas Corpus Suspension Act," when he went through the history of the late State Trials, — contending that they proved "a conspiracy to alarm the country, and to deceive Parliament." Having stated the opinion of the Judge against the objection that the prisoners were not privy to the plans of the obnoxious societies, he proceeded: -“The Judge said true: we forbore to urge it, because we knew ment pro- that it was not tenable ground, though we were firmly convinced that the defence was invulnerable in point of law, not only by the statute but even by all the authorities; yet we did not expect that the jury would prefer our statement as advocates to the judgment of the Court, whether well or illfounded; but we looked to the great sheet-anchor of the cause the gross falsehood and absurdity of the supposed conspiracy. On that we relied, and on that we prevailed." Thus he concluded:—“If the threat of invasion is carried into effect, who is to defend the country? Who, but this insulted people, whom you calumniate? The people only can do it, and they will do it only as they feel an interest worth the exertion. Let the Chancellor of the Exchequer attend to the maxim happily expressed by the poet, and no less happily applied by his great father to the case of alienated America: Be to their virtues very kind, * 31 Parl. Hist. 1087. 1177. |