ways pleafed with hearing that there was neither Law nor Government. The ignorant and credulous in all countries were an eafy prey to the crafty, who were ever ready to deceive them. The Jury would alfo confider the phrase, act, and manner of this author. He dealt in fhort fentences, and in fcoffing and contemptuous expreffions. Our Conftitution had not exifted for 700 years, as described by this defendant, but almost from eternity. The origin of it could not be traced. Julius Cæfar had defcribed itas it exifted when he appeared among our rude ancestors. It had proceeded from step to ftep till it was confummated at the Revolution, when it fhone forth in all its Splendor.

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The Attorney General then read 6 or 7 paragraphs from the pamphlet to the Jury, upon which he animadverted with great ability: he dwelt a confiderable time upon the paragraph in which Mr Paine calls the Bill of Rights a bill of wrongs and infults." He also read a letter fent to himfelf (the Attorney General) upon the subject of the prefent profecution. This letter is dated from Paris, and in it Mr Paine avowed himself the author of the Rights of Man.' In the concluding part of this letter, were feveral treasonable reflections upon the King of England and his Royal Sons. Mr Attorney General dwelt upon this part of the letter with great emotion and indignation, which infpired every perfon in Court with the feelings of loyalty and affection to their Sovereign.

The Attorney General concluded his excellent fpeech with a number of ingenious and important obfervations on the libellous matter which he had felected from the Second Part of the Rights of Man.

Mr Attorney General having finifhed his important observations on thefe paffages, obferved, that he thought it unneceffary to trouble the

Gentlemen of the Jury further in this ftage of the bufinefs. According as they should or should not be of opinion that this book had a dangerous tendency, would be their verdict. He had done his duty by bringing an offender of this fort before the Gentlemen of the Jury, and thereby putting the Public under the shield of their protection.

Several witneffes were examined, who proved the hand-writing of the defendant and, that he was the author of the pamphlet in question.

The evidence being finished on the part of the prosecution.

Mr Erskine delivered a speech of three hours and twenty minutes long, in favour of the defendant.

After a number of moft ingenious obfervations on the letter written by his client to the Attorney General, he remarked, that his name had been attacked, and his character torn to pieces for maintaining the freedom and integrity of the English Bar, without which the most valuable part of this Conftitution would be loft. He was entitled by the Law of England to plead the cause of the defendant, and he only fought a verdict for his client from that Law.

The question to be decided was, not whether the Constitution of our fathers under which we lived, was or was not preferable to the Conftitution of America, France, or any other human Conftitution; in the nature of things, that could not be the question. Suppose he addref fed himself to Gentlemen who were not friendly to our Constitution, and who thought that we should be happier under a Republic; he should have no difficulty to tell fuch Gentlemen, that they could not on that ground find their verdict for the defendant. He fhould inform them, that they had no authority but what was conferred upon them by the Law of England.

The Gentlemen of the Jury are therefore

therefore to inquire, whether the defendant, in publishing this book, had been guilty of an offence against the Law of England. The learned Counfel faid, he well knew he was addreffing himfelf to Gentlemen who were in love with the principles of our Conftitution; and he gave them the benefit of knowing that which was not neceffary then to ftate, because he had done it in another place-that he profeffed himself to be, and always had been, a man who loved and admired the genuine principles of the English Conftitution; and therefore, what came from him came from no fufpected quarter; and he meant to defend his client on the principle of the Liberty of the Prefs.

The true queftion for the decifion of the Jury was, When the defendant wrote his book, did he, or did he not believe he was doing that which would be beneficial to the English nation at large? No matter whether the abufes which he ftated existed or not. No matter whether the English Conftitution was fuperior to the Constitutions of America, France, or any other country on the face of the globe: yet if Mr Paine believed that it was not, and under the influence of that belief published his "Rights of Man," for what he conceived would tend to the benefit of the English nation, he conceived that was no libel. He addreffed himself to the reason of a whole nation; and his client was not a fubject of criminal juftice unless it could be fhewn, that at the time he wrote it was not to promote the happiness but to produce mifery to the fubjects of this kingdom. This was the principle, the root, and foundation upon which the learned Counfel erected his moft ingenious defence.

A number of obfervations had been made by the Attorney Gene ral on certain paffages which he had felected from the "Rights of Man;" but the Gentlemen of the Jury

would take also the context into their confideration-they would take the whole book together. He cited a paffage in which Mr Paine obferved, that the end of all political affociation is the prefervation of the Rights of Man, which Rights (Liberty, Property, and Security of the Nation) were the fource of all Sovereignty, All Authority was derived from it, and the Right of Property ought to be held facred. There was a difference between opinions and actions a man had a right to publish fpeculative opinions on Government, which he thought would improve it. Had this not been permitted in England

had it not been allowed to publish an opinion that was new-we should not now have had our free and excellent Conftitution, under which we enjoyed fo many bleffings, and under which he hoped we should foon enjoy more in confequence of a reform of its abuses. The English Government was capable of reforming all its abuses.

The learned Counsel produced many authorities in point from the most celebrated authors in fupport of his defence on the principle of the Liberty of the Prefs; particularly from fome of the political works of Mr Burke, fome paffages of which he contended were more libellous than any of thofe that had been taken up on this occafion by the Attorney General. He alfo cited the authority of Milton, Locke, Hume, Sig George Saville, Dr Johnfon, Dr. Price, Dr Paley, Lord Loughborough, and Earl Stanhope.

Mr Erskine next proceeded to make a number of remarks on the paffages that were stated in the information to be libellous. In the course of thefe obfervations he mentioned a number of Noblemen and Gentle, men, who met fome years ago for the purpofe of a Parliamentary Reform, Among thefe were his Grace the Duke of Richmond, and the Right

Hon.

Hon. William Pitt, the prefent Minister of this country. This meeting of theirs was the very week after Parliament had told them they fhould have no Reform. The learned Counfel read fome of their Refolutions, which undoubtedly did not fpeak very handsomely of the Conftitution of this Country, particularly with regard to the unequal reprefentation of the People. How great had been the progrefs of Literature, Science, and Government, in confequence of the publication of new opinions which were improvements upon the old! Had it not been for that circumftance, we must still have been favages among the woods, living in a state of nature: If they attended to the courfe of the world with regard to the diffemination of truth, they would find that the univerfal God that created us, the author of our nature, was one of the first martyrs on account of the diffe mination of truth when he came to give it propagation. The Saviour of the world expired on a crofs for ftating that which was the object of fcorn at the moment it was published. His bleffed followers experienced the fame fate. Our Saviour might have come in the flesh, like the Mahometan prophet. He might have come like a great Sovereign. He might have appeared at once in dignity and authority. But he came to confound the pride of man, and to preach thofe univerfal and equal rights which have been the great privileges of

T

mankind in every age of the world and therefore he came in that low itate in which he is defcribed, and preached his confolations to the poor.

The learned Counfel concluded his fpeech with the dialogue in Lucan betwen Jupiter and the Country man, who went on reafoning very fnugly together till Jupiter began to fhew his thunder, when the Country man immediately faid, "I am now in the wrong, I cannot fight with thunder." In like manner, faid Mr Erskine, I cannot fight against the univerfal voice of England. God forbid that I fhould ever be called upon to fight with them. I am an obedient fubject of the law. Without tranfgrefling thofe rules that have maintained the integrity of the profeffion, I have only done that which the duties of my ftation have accidentally caft upon me.

Mr Attorney General was about to reply on the part of the profecution, when the Gentlemen of the Jury told him there was no neceflity for giving himself the trouble; and immediately found the defendant Guilty.

The Court was crouded at a very early hour of the morning, and we never faw fo many people affembled on fuch an occafion. When the trial was over,and Mr Erskine had got into his carriage, fome perfons took the horfes off, and dragged it to his houfe in Serjeant's Inn.

Olim ftudiis, ingenio, amore, infauftis nuptiis,

Hic

Sub eodem marmore jacent Hujus Monafterii Conditor Petrus Abaillardus,

Et Abbatiffa prima Heloifa,

Et poenitentia, nunc, æterna (ut fperamus) felicitate conjuncti. Petrus Abaillardus obiit xxi. Apr. Anno 1141.

Heloifa xvii. Maii 1163. Cura Carola de Rincy, Paracleta Abbeffæ, 1779.

OBSER

H

GENTLEMEN, E whom

you have condefcended to honour with a feat in this 1ociety, confecrated to merit, and to talents, has not the advantage to poffefs that warm and profound fa gacity, nor that animating eloquence, which diftinguishes genius. Nature has limited his faculties to a mere admiration of external and intellectual beauty, of useful and exalted talents. This is all, perhaps, that will be found in the few lines which he has written, and of which fome have been fo fortunate as to attract your notice, and to obtain four approba tion.

How much will he, who formerly regarded not himself as one of the favourites of fortune, be ftimulated in the career of letters, by the honour of an admiffion into a fociety, compofed, as this is, of men the moft diftinguished for genius and abilities, which the Swedish nation can boast! He will certainly regrét no longer the time which he has confumed in the cultivation of polite learning.

Permit me, gentlemen, on this occafion, to recall to your memory fome of thofe illuftrious characters, by whom genius may be faid to have been introduced into the world.

There have been nations more ancient than the Greeks, who poffeffed science; but, to the boaft of genius, no people can establish a prior claim.

Homer is the greateft prodigy in the reign of genius. In no matt did the poetic fire burn with equal contancy. In other writers the flame of genius is only visible by intervals. The major part of even their most mafterly compofitions, is filled with the play of words, with quaint points, with all thofe inferior graces, which can never reach the fublimity of genius; but those ebullitions of a petic

fancy, which agitated other authors in the compolition of their best works, appear, in the breaft of Homer, to have operated as an uniform principle. If this be true, he was the moit fortunate of inen. In other writers it was too vifible, that the foul, which animates their works, is hot that principle which actuates the whole of their conduct. It is only by extraordinary efforts, that they can be elevated above their daily fphere of action. The caufe of this is obvious. Converfation with other men is, at prefent, the principal object of all our ftudies. In order to please the multitude, we must resemble them; and in the efforts of a vulgar ambition, the fire of genius will confequently be extinguished. There is reafon to believe, that Homer, ever tranfported beyond himself, or removed from the circle of common life, had very little intercourfe with his contemporaries. His two poems, the nobleft monuments of human gcnius, appear to have been written, from first to laft, without effort, as if they had been dictated by fome fuperior intelligence. There is reafon to believe, that they would have appeared, even had the human underftanding never been able to comprehend them. Homer feems to have appeared on the ftage of existence, to produce the Iliad and the Odyffey, and then to expire.

A nation, which had Homer for the founder of its literature, might have been expected to have been favoured by the perpetual refidence of the Mules, did not the continual fluctuation of human affairs, did not the deftructive ambition of the fpirit. of war, forbid the hopes of immortality to all the works of man. All the geniufes of Greece dif

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