know, and we all must feel, how extremely difficulty it is to separate the consideration of the question for trial, from the personal conduct of the man who is placed before you, and, therefore, I beg leave to repeat that you are to try the question for which you are at present impaneled, as if it were the case of any other of the individuals engaged in the imputed conspiracy, and to consider whether the five and thirty miserable paupers, who have been arraigned here did levy against the King, that is the great question to be tried. What this man did, and various incidental matters which occured, are shocking to ones feelings, I shall say nothing about them, for they form no part of the subject matter for enquiry, and should therefore be dismissed from your consideration Let us see then,

what are the relative acts and declarations proved. But first I should state what the indictment is; the first count charges that these persons did levy war against the King, that is contrary to the statute of King Edward, and the overt act is, that they were arrayed and armed in a warlike manner, and did march in a hostile manner, and did attempt and endeavour to subvert and destroy the Government and Constitution of the realm, as by law established. The second and third counts are framed upon a statute of the present King's reign, which is a temporary act, as you have already heard, and is only to continue during the life time of his present Majesty, and till the next sitting of Parliament afterwards, by virtue of that act, it is charged in the second count, that the Prisoner did invent, devise, and intend, to deprive and depose the King from his style, honor, and kingly name of the imperial crown of this realm, and then it charges, that they did divers overt acts of which you have heard a great deal of evidence. The third count alleges that they did intend to levy war against the King in order, by force and constraint, to compel him to change his measures and his councils. So that you see the first count charges an actual levying of war against the statute of King Edward; the second charges an intention to depose the King; and the third is an intention to levy war against the King, for the purpose of

compelling him to change his measures and his councils Such is the indictment,-Now what are the facts adduced in evidence in support of it? But before I call. your attention to the facts already proved, it may be right that I should remind you of the state of the country and the public mind at the time when these unhappy disturbances occurred, and to the causes which lead to them. You will remember, we had just then attained to the close of a glorious and successful war of nearly five, and twenty years continuance, when the promised fruits, the long promised and expected fruits of peace were to come into immediate enjoyment, it pleased Providence, however, that we should have a most unfavourable season,, the last year, you well know, was a most unfortunate one, a season of scarcity combined with a deficiency of em ployment, so that our poor manufacturers had the misery to find all their expectations of increased trade and prosperity at once destroyed, and when they hoped to enjoy the fruits of peace, "instead of fruit chewed bitter, ashes."

The scarcity of food, and a general obstruction in the circulation of property and employments, occasioned by a variety of causes which have been the subjects of great discussion and contention in other places, and to which I would not willingly allude. These circumstances had combined to drive a vast number of honest and industrious manufacturers into a state bordering upon absolute famine. There were people in this country of far differ¬‚ ent dispositions from these miserable men, who did not lose the opportunity of instilling into their minds, and those of all the labouring classes, discontent against the Government, and of persuading them that the sole cause of all their misery was the mismanagement of our public affairs, and the enormous weight of public taxes, and that the only remedy was a change of the Constitution of the House of Commons. Accordingly they fell, you know, to petitioning the Prince and the two Houses of Parliaand although from day to day the Act against tumultuous petitioning was violated within the walls of the

ment;

of

House of Commons, the tender commiseration of that House for their real sufferings prevented any person there from noticing such violation of the law. I may possibly be mistaken when I state this, as I perceive a learned member of that House, who appears not to approve of what I say, I may have fallen into a mistake, but it has appeared to me; and I saw with some surprise that petitions, signed by hundreds and thousands, were presented to the House of Commons for an alteration of the laws, contrary to the Statute against tumultuous petitioning: far be it from me to presume to blame that forbearance. The House of Commons, as well as the Prince, I have no doubt felt the utmost anxiety to relieve, to the best of their ability, those distresses which it had pleased Providence to inflict upon us. But it was not in the power the Prince or the Parliament to create one single bushel of wheat more than the ordinary course of the seasons may have produced for the sustenance of man. They could only do their best to distribute the food, which it had pleased Providence to send us, in due proportion amongst all the people. The petitioners were, however, by artful and insidious publications, excited to a very unbecoming feeling towards those from whom they had sought relief in vain; and, by one in particular, to which I cannot help alluding, and earnestly directing your attention, as one of the most malignant and diabolical publications ever issued from the English press. It was addressed to the labouring classes in the midst of their distresses! It is entitled "An Address to the Journeymen and Labourers of England, &c." I will not shock the ears of this Court with stating what I here find as an excitement to this insurrection, and out of which I am persuaded it almost entirely grew. This publication was scattered into the hands of every unhappy (idle for want of employment) and every destitute artizan; it teaches such things as I hope and trust may, by the exertions of the Attorney General of England, be prevented at least from repetition. But, gentlemen, all this went on in the face of day; this wicked author publicly avowed what he was doing, and

his success in carrying on the wholesale trade of sedition. It was just on the commencement of the winter, in the month of November last, that that sanguinary publication first came forth; and, in the course of about a fortnight afterwards it was followed up by another, which is styled "An Address to the Luddites;" and it was there boasted, as I will read to you in this writer's own words, you will see, gentlemen, to what extent the minds of these unhappy and miserable people were acted upon; he has the impudence to put forth this advertisement,-" That he has reprinted such and such matters, alluding to the one I have mentioned, in a cheap form, price twopence retail, and 12s. 6d. per hundred wholesale: any number may be had by application through the post, or otherwise to the publisher, No. 192, Strand, London." The Attorney General shall know where to find him ;-" Parcels will be sent off by the coach to any part of the country upon a plain direction being sent to the publisher. If any person take one thousand copies or more regularly, the price then will be only 11s. a hundred. But in all cases the money must be paid to the publisher weekly; that is to say, the sale is to be for ready money, which is perfectly reasonable, seeing how low the price is, and that the retail must necessarily be for ready money. Friends to truth," friends to falsehood and misrepresentation he means, "who live near country towns will doubtless point out the means of obtaining this publication to some persons in such towns, whether booksellers or others, booksellers and reading-room keepers may, perhaps, be afraid of parsons and taxing people; but shoemakers and other shopkeepers may not be afraid of them, and the profit on three or four hundred a week is sufficient to support a small family.-N. B. Forty-four thousand copies of No. 18. have been printed and sold" that is, the detestable publication I have alluded to. Gentlemen, let the Attorney General of England look at these publications, and let me ask where was the Attorney General of that day? what were the Magistracy of the country doing at that time? Poor miserable hawkers, wanting bread, were

going up and down the country selling forty-four thou sand of the most mischievous publications that were ever put into the hand of man, and the Magistracy of the Country looked on. I impute no blame to them on that account; this wicked and detestable wholesale and retail trade in sedition was so perfectly new, that the Magistracy of the Country did not know how to deal with it, and the mischief went on; the poor manufacturers were thus persuaded that all their miseries and distresses were owing to taxation, and that it was in the power of Government and of His Majesty's Ministers to relieve those distresses at any hour if they only thought fit to do it: this they were taught; this they were suffered by the Magistracy of the Country to learn, and I am sorry to find they did learn it. At last, however, the attention of the Secretary of State was called to these proceedings, and he thought it his duty; and such I conceive it was to remind the Magistracy of the Country that there was no greater nuisance on earth than such detestable libels, and that a Justice of the Peace must not stand by till the Assizes came round, but must abate the nuisance: my Lord Sidmouth taught that duty to the Magistracy, and I hope in future they will observe it; but, Gentlemen, unfortunately it came too late. These unhappy men were without employment, and they had already felt the powerful excitement of this seditious Writer, who seems to have acquired an extraordinary facility in this way, and writes in a manner that it is not very easy for these poor illiterate persons either to refute or detect him. Such was the state of public feeling at the time these outrages were committed, and such were the causes that lead to them.

Now let us see what was the conduct of these parties. The first transaction that the witnesses speak of, is that of Sunday the 8th of June: a witness of the name of Martin says, that he went to the public house about ten o'clock in the morning and he saw a few of these miserable paupers and politicians sitting talking about a revolution, what revolution he did not explain, whether that glorious revolution of which my learned Friend and my