tempted to be contradicted in evidence by my learned friends; their only resourse is to endeavour to lessen the offence, and to dilute it into a misdemeanor, instead of that charged, namely, High Treason: but I say we have proved the acts; then if we have proved them, the next and the only other point for your consideration is, with what intent were they done; were they done for the purpose and with the object of overturning the Government and of introducing a revolution, or had they any other object which human ingenuity can suggest or invent. I thought my learned friend Mr. Cross almost admitted their object, when he descanted to you upon those publications which he said had been actively distributed throughout the country, to the amount, I think, of forty-four thousand during the winter; and my learned friend the Attorney General had a lecture from Mr. Cross, for not having prosecuted this supposed libeller and suppressed the publication, though it turned out afterwards by the concession of Mr. Cross, that the Secretary of State had interfered, but that the arts of these persons were superior to the exertions of the civil power; my learned friend says, that by these publications, the minds of persons suffering want and privation were corrupted, and that some artful disaffected persons were thereby endeavouring to stir up disaffection among them. So that it is admitted that these pamphlets had had the effect of stirring up a treasonable spirit; but when it is found that they proceed to hostile acts, then indeed my learned friend would endeavour to persuade you that it was not the effect of this discontented spirit, which he admits had been excited throughout the north by means of these seditious pamphlets; that it did not arise from this spirit of disaffection, or from a view to change the Government, but that it is a mere riot by a parcel of mechanics thrown out of employment, and incapable of getting sustenance. Gentlemen, is there any evidence of this? who are the men who composed this assembly? are the Butterley men out of employment-were they called upon to join this party, because they wanted sustenance and food? if it.

was meant to apply only to persons upon that ground, why should they have recourse to the Butterley men? they had food and raiment, they were in constant employment, they were not in want, and yet you are asked to believe, that the only object they had was that of procuring food, and that they were entirely incited to these outrages by their miseries and their misfortunes.

Gentlemen, as I said before, when difficulties like these occur, we are obliged to have recourse to ingenious theories to account for them, though to common understandings, they are perfectly clear, for I cannot help thinking, that, in spite of these ingenious theories, you cannot, for a moment, have had your minds led aside from that which was the declared and avowed object of these persons; declared and avowed from the very commencement, to the close of these transactions; for, whether you begin with them at the White Horse at Pentridge, or pursue them in their course, the next night you find their avowed object, their declared purpose, is the overturning

of the Government.

Gentlemen, it is not an immaterial fact, I am sure, in this case, but one which will not escape you, that you have persons from different places all associating for one common purpose; that Brandreth, who went by the name of the 'Nottingham Captain,' is a person whom they had from Nottingham, for the purpose of leading them to that place, and where, as it appeared from the number assembled at Nottingham Forest, there were other persons, wicked enough to enter into these treasonable and wicked designs. In addition to the fact of what took place at Nottingham Forest, you have the evidence of Mr. Rolleston the Magistrate, and Captain Philips, of the state of Nottingham and its neighbourhood, during the evening of the 9th, and morning of the 10th; and you have from Mr. Goodwin evidence of what passed in his neighbourhood during that night; all concuring to show that there was an unusual agitation prevailing at different places at the same instant, evidently proceeding from the

same cause.

Gentlemen, I believe I have now glanced at most of the material facts which have been proved in this case. I have stated to you, more than once, that which I am sure you will not forget when you come to perform the very important functions which at present devolves upon you, that you are not the persons appointed to judge of the law; what is the law upon this important case you will receive as you are bound to do from those learned persons to whom the constitution has delegated that authority, who, as I before stated to you, are acting under the same sanction with respect to the exposition of the law as you are with respect to the judgment you are to form upon the facts, and upon the application of the law to those facts; and I am perfectly confident that whatever commiseration you may feel for the unfortunate individual who is placed at the bar, however much you may be inclined to regard (although it forms no part whatever of your present consideration) the other unfortunate persons who are named in this Indictment, I say, whatever commiseration you may feel for this unfortunate Prisoner at the bar, or, as my friend Mr. Denman has stated to you with great address in the close of his address, however much you may wish that these persons should not ultimately escape unpunished, these are not matters for your present consideration, the question before you is, has Brandreth been guilty of the acts charged upon him in this Indictment; if he has then, Gentlemen, you have a superior duty and superior motives to look to than commiseration for an individual, you have, give me leave to say, intrusted to you the future safety and well being of the public at large. However novel, and thank God it is novel, the commission of this offence, yet still when committed, it is one of the greatest magnitude, affecting not merely individual but our public security and happiness; do not be led away, therefore, by any notions that this is an attempt to introduce a new crime or a new offenceit is an offence known to the law as long as the law has existed, although we have had the good fortune not to have experienced its frequent commission. But if upon

calm deliberation and a cool consideration of all the facts of this case, (for by those and by those alone your judgment is to be guided) you find the conclusion inevitable that the acts charged against the Prisoners were committed, and that they were done for the purpose which is imputed to them and which they themselves avow, however much you may feel for the individual, however you may commiserate his situation and that of his accomplices, you will recollect that you have a higher and superior consideration to attend to, namely, the due administration of justice and the future safety of the kingdom.

Lord Chief Baron Richards. Gentlemen of the Jury, this trial has already taken up a considerable time yesterday and to day, and it is my duty to sum up the evidence to you with such observations as may occur in the course of stating it, that cannot be done without a considerable employment of time; as you Gentlemen cannot go home to night in any event, there will be no inconvenience in adjourning to to-morrow morning that I may perform my duty. You have already given a great deal of attention, and perhaps you will be more prepared to give that attention which is still necessary to morrow than this evening: as to myself I am not of course more strong than I was in the morning, but I should be able to go through-however if it is equally convenient to you I think it will be upon the whole better to go through it in the morning, consider of it Gentlemen, and let me know what is your wish upon the subject.

Foreman of the Jury. My Lord we wish to adjourn to the morning.

Lord Chief Baron Richards. I believe Gentlemen, that will be the best for you and for me, and for the public justice of the country.

Adjourned to to-morrow morning eight o'clock.

SPECIAL COMMISSION, DERBY,

Saturday, 18th October, 1817.

Jeremiah Brandreth was set to the Bar:

SUMMING UP.

LORD CHIEF BARON RICHARDS,
Gentlemen of the Jury,

I have now to request your attention while I state to you the evidence that has been produced before you upon this Trial, and suggest such observations as occur to me upon the subject, and in order to relieve you from any apprehension, such as has been attempted to be excited in your minds, that the Judges will at all interfere with your province. I beg leave to assure you, that no Judge upon this bench has now, nor ever had, any more inclination to trespass upon your province, than the learned Counsel himself can wish that they should.

Gentlemen, the Prisoner at the bar, Jeremiah Brandreth, otherwise called John Coke, otherwise called the Nottingham Captain, is charged by the indictment before you, with the crime of High Treason, that crime has been truly described to you as the highest known to the law of England; and indeed, it may perhaps be said, that it includes every other crime, and therefore it requires, most particularly, that which it has already received, great patience and attention on the part of the Jury; but it is to be tried by the same rules that govern other cases; you are to consider and weigh the evidence, and you are to decide according to that evidence, applying to it the law as you shall understand it, from the best opinion the court can form upon the subject; you will address yourselves to this duty, with all the impartiality which I am sure belongs to you, and