672. The whole Proceedings before the Courts of King's-Bench and Exchequer in Ireland, and before the Court of King'sBench in England, in the Case of the Hon. ROBERT JOHNSON, one of the Judges of his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, on an Indictment for composing, writing, publishing, and printing certain Libels on the Right Hon. PHILIP Earl of HARDWICKE, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; the Right Hon. JOHN Lord REDESDALE, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland; the Hon. CHARLES OSBORNE, one of the Judges of the Court of King's-Bench in Ireland; and ALEXANDER MARSDEN, Esq., January 18 -November 23: 45 & 46 GEORGE III. A. D. 1805.

PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS.

On Friday the 18th of January 1805, Mr. Justice Johnson was arrested at his house in the county of Dublin, under a warrant signed "ELLENBOROUGH," endorsed by J. BELL, a magistrate of the county of Dublin, and said to be so endorsed pursuant to the statute 44 Geo. 3, c. 92, it being the first attempt to carry the said act into execution. For the better understanding the arguments in this important case the statute is here inserted. Anno quadragesimo quarto Georgii III. Regis. CAP. XCII.

An Act to render more easy the apprehending, and bringing to Trial, Offenders escaping from one Part of the United Kingdom to the other, and also from one County to another. [20th JULY, 1804.]

WHEREAS it frequently happens that persons, against whom warrants are granted by justices of peace for the several counties and places in Ireland, escape into other counties or places, out of the jurisdiction of the justices of peace granting such warrants; and it may also frequently happen, that persons having committed offences in some county or place in Ireland, may reside or be in some other county or place, out of the jurisdiction of the justice or justices of the county or place in which such offence was com mitted, whereby such offenders may or will easily avoid being punished for the offences wherewith they are charged; be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual, and Temporal, and Commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the auVOL. XXIX.

thority of the same, that from and after the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and four, in case any person against whom a warrant shall be issued by any justice or justices of the peace of any county, city, liberty, town, or place, within Ireland, shall escape, go into, reside, or be, in any other county, city, liberty, town, or place, out of the jurisdiction of the justice or justices granting such warrant as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for any justice or justices of the peace for the county, city, liberty, town, or place where such person shall escape, go into, reside, or be, and such justice or justices is and are hereby required upon proof being made upon oath of the hand-writing of the justice or justices granting such warrant, to endorse his or their name or names on such warrant which endorsement shall be a sufficient authority to the person or persons bringing such warrant, and to all other persons to whom such warrant was originally directed, to execute such warrant in the county, city, liberty, town, or place, where the same was endorsed, and to apprehend and carry such offender or offenders before the justice who endorsed such warrant, or before some other justice or justices of such other county, city, liberty, town, or place, where such warrant was endorsed; and in case the offence for which such offender shall be apprehended shall be bailable in law, and such offender shall be willing and ready to give bail for his or their appearance at the next assizes or general gaol delivery, or next general quarter sessions of the peace to be held in and for the county, city, liberty, town, or place, where the offence was committed, such justice or justices by whom such warrant G

consideration: they were of opinion, that although the act was framed in a manner so loose and inaccurate as to make the matter a question of construction; yet, that upon a fair interpretation of the law, it did not appear to include such a case as that laid before them, but had for its objects only those persons, who having committed offences while they resided in one part of the United Kingdom, had escaped, departed from it, or fled, in order to elude justice. This opinion, he said, was doubly satisfactory; not only relieving his own case from a very oppressive operation of law, but also relieving the persons above alluded to from the possibility of having it supposed that they had, in bringing the bill into parliament, a particular case, in the event of which they were interested, in view. Mr. Justice Johnson said, that soon after his illness increased so much, that he became utterly incapable of attending to any business, and continued in that state until about the beginning of December last, when he began, in some degree, to recover, and his physicians strongly recommended it to him to try (as soon as any increase of strength and a milder state of the weather would enable him to travel) the effect of the water at Bath. About this time, a friend of his having happened to call on him, the subject of his going to Bath was mentioned; and he said, he had apprehensions, that if he should go, some effort to arrest his person, while there, might be made under this charge of a supposed misdemeanor. His friend said, he could not conceive, from the character of lord Hardwicke, that he would permit such an advantage to be taken; and that he would himself either speak to lord Hardwicke, or convey Mr. Justice Johnson's wishes, and express his hopes that some assurance might be given that while his health compelled him to remain at Bath, he should be permitted to continue there unmolested. This was accord

cumstances of evidence, circulated with equal confidence, as to other persons whose names were publicly mentioned by persons supposed to form a part of the administration. The circulation of these reports gave him no uneasiness, and indeed did not engage his attention. He did not perceive, from a perusal of the published papers imputed to him, that they contained any matter which could involve the writer in any moral censure; and as to the censure of the law, as the law of the land then stood, and as the eternal principles of justice he hoped would always preserve it, he was conscious that he could not be charged in a place where the same law did not enable him to defend himself; and if he should be charged where the law did enable him to defend himself, he was equally certain, from his own consciousness of the facts, that no such charge could succeed; he remained, therefore, perfectly indifferent to the bustle of these reports, and though in a very precarious state of health, he went the summer circuit. After his return, his illness having increased, he was obliged to put himself under the care of physicians, and for above four months previous to his arrest had been confined to his house, and under the necessity of having constant medical attendance. In the month of September, Mr. Justice Johnson had been informed by a friend (who had just heard it reported) that the prosecution talked of was of a much more serious nature than had been at first imagined; for that he had been told, that a bill had been brought into parliament, and had passed in the month of July last into a law, which by an ex-post facto construction would over-reach the fact (with which it pleased some people here to charge him) and under which it was intended to arrest him in Ireland, to have him carried in custody to England, and tried there; for the avowed purpose of depriving him of all means of defence, inasmuch as it was said that the act had, subsequently to the fact havingly done, and Mr. Marsden was requested ing been committed, erected a jurisdiction over his person to which he had not been before subject, and while it provided for the expense of his being transmitted into England, it provided no power by which he could summon one witness on his behalf from this country, where, as he certainly had resided at the time the fact laid to his charge was committed, his defence could alone arise. It was added, that this act had been brought into parliament by the brother-in-law * of the person in whose name, and at whose instance, Mr. Justice Johnson was to be prosecuted. This account of the act appeared so extraordi nary, that it was laid before counsel for their

to apply to the lord-lieutenant on the subject. About the 10th or 11th of December, Mr. Marsden sent as an answer the following note:

Objection will not be made to Mr. Justice Johnson going to England in the course of a month; he must be prepared to give bail then himself in 1,000l.; and two sureties in 500l. each. Adopting this course, it will not be considered necessary to put in force the warrant of the Chief Justice in England, 'under which Mr. Justice Johnson might be sent to England."

This note seemed to have conceded a favour of rather an extraordinary nature,namely, that if Mr. Justice Johnson should, by causing bail to be put in, render any arrest of his person an act of false imprisonment; why then, indeed, he need not be under any apprehension of being arrested.

January, 1805. John Bell. (Seal.) To Edward Medlicott, esq. and his assistants." And I did accordingly take and do still detain the said Robert Johnson in my custody under the several warrants and authorities aforesaid, in order to convey him by the most direct way into England; and I did accordingly for that purpose upon the day of his arrest, aforesaid, and immediately after it, bring him into the city of Dublin (being the most direct way from Milltown aforesaid to England) where the said several warrants were duly endorsed by Frederick Darley, esq. a justice of peace in and for the said city; and I was then about immediately to proceed to England with the body of the said Robert Johnson, there to bring him before the next justice of the peace near the place where he should arrive and land, when I was served with the annexed writ, by which I have been delayed from proceeding to England with the said Robert Johnson, under the several warrants and authorities aforesaid, and under the provisions and authority of an act passed in the 44th year of the reign of his present majesty, entitled, "An act to render more easy the apprehending and bringing to trial offenders escaping from one part of the United Kingdom to the other, and also from one county to another." And I do further certify, that I have the body of the said Robert Johnson on the day and at the place in the said annexed writ, as by the said writ I am commanded, so answers EDWARD MEDLICOTT.

of the perfection thereof, and ever since resided at Milltown aforesaid in the said county) was, previous to the said arrest, duly endorsed with his name by John Bell, esq. a justice of the peace for the said county; and, after I had arrested the said Robert Johnson, under the said warrant, so endorsed as aforesaid, I brought him before the said John Bell, at Milltown aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, to be dealt with according to law-he, the said John Bell, having been present at the said arrest: and the said Robert Johnson then and there declined and re. fused to tender any bail, or to enter into recognizance, although requested so to do by the said John Bell, for the purposes stated in the warrant of the said lord chief justice; thereupon the said John Bell directed me to detain the said Robert Johnson in my custody; and, at the same time, handed to me a warrant, under the hand and seal of the said John Bell, now in my possession, and which is in the words and figures following:"Whereas a warrant, issued under the hand and seal of the right honourable lord Ellenborough, lord chief justice of England, bearing date the 24th day of November, 1804, and directed to Edward Williams, gent. his lordship's tipstaff, and to all chief and petty constables, headboroughs, and tythingmen, and all others whom it may concern, to apprehend and take the body of the hon. Robert Johnson, late of Westminster in the county of Middlesex;—and whereas, the said Robert Johnson, at the time of issuing of the said warrant, and ever since, The Chief Justice was assisted by six of the hath resided in the county of Dublin, in other judges. A seventh came on the last Ireland, and for the purpose of author- day of the argument. The counsel of Mr. izing the execution of said warrant, I, Justice Johnson then required time to consiJohn Bell, esq. one of his majesty's jus-der of the return, as it was of a very peculiar tices of the peace for said county, did duly endorse my name on the said warrant; and whereas, the said warrant hath been executed, and the body of the said Robert Johnson hath been brought before me accordingly;-and whereas, the said Robert Johnson hath declined, and altogether refused, to give or offer any bail for the purposes specified in the said warrant of the said lord Ellenborough, or to enter into a recognizance in his own name, for such purpose, which, by the consent of the attorney-general I offered to accept. These are, therefore, to authorize and require you forthwith to convey the said Robert Johnson in the most direct way into England, and then to bring him before the next justice of the peace, near the place where he shall arrive or land; and for so doing, the aforesaid warrant of the said lord Ellenborough, and the endorsement of my name thereon, and these presents shall be to you and dthreach of you a sufficient authority. 18th

nature, no instance of a like kind having ever occurred before, and the return having been then instantly made. To this the Attorneygeneral refused to consent.

Mr. Justice Johnson then (though in a weak state from ill-health) stated the following circumstances of his case, to induce the Court to grant him time until the next day :

He said, it was true, that he had so long ago as early in the last summer, heard it reported that it was the intention of the king's administration in Ireland, to charge him in England with some misdemeanor, said to have been committed there in the publication of certain papers, which were said to be libellous. It was reported, that manuscripts had been procured in England from the publisher of the papers, which some persons, said to be acquainted with the hand-writing of Mr. Justice Johnson, would swear they believed to be of his hand-writing, and that, upon this evidence, such a charge was intended to be brought against him. He had heard the same report, grounded upon similar cir