whom? Not by me I know nothing of him: he is the Crown's own witness.-He is called to confirm Grove's evidence; but not being a spy, he declared solemnly upon his oath, and I can confirm his evidence by several respectable people, that the knives in question lie constantly, and lay then in his open shopwindow, in what is called the show-glass, where cutlers, like other tradesmen, expose their ware to public view; and that the knives differ in nothing from others publicly sold in the Strand, and every other street in London; - that he bespoke them from a rider, who came round for orders in the usual way; that he sold only fourteen in all, and that they were made up in little packets, one of which Mr. Hardy had, who was to choose one for himself, but four more were found in his possession, because he was arrested before Green had an opportunity of sending for them.

Gentlemen, I think the pikes and knives are now completely disposed of; but something was said also about guns; let us, therefore, see what that amounts to. It appears that Mr. Hardy was applied to by Samuel Williams, a gun-engraver, who was not even a member of any Society, and who asked him if he knew anybody who wanted a gun-Hardy said he did not; and undoubtedly upon the Crown's own showing, it must be taken for granted that if at that time he had been acquainted with any plan of arming, he would have given a different answer, and would have jumped at the offer:-about a fortnight afterwards, however (Hardy in the interval having become acquainted with Franklow,) Williams called to buy a pair of shoes, and then Hardy recollecting his former application, referred him to Franklow, who had in the most public manner raised the forty men, who were called the Loyal Lambeth Association:-so that, in order to give this transaction any bearing upon the charge, it became necessary to consider Franklow's Association as an armed conspiracy against the Government;-though the forty people who composed it were collected by public advertisement;-though they were enrolled under public articles; and though Franklow himself, as appears from the evidence, attended publicly at the Globe Tavern in his uniform, whilst the cartouch-boxes and the other accoutrements of these secret conspirators lay openly upon his shopboard, exposed to the open view of all his customers and neighbors. This story, therefore, is not less contemptible than that which you must have all heard concerning Mr. Walker, whom I went to defend at Lancaster, where that respectable gentleman was brought to trial upon such a trumped-up charge, supported by the solitary evidence of one Dunn, a most infamous witness; but what was the end of that prosecution?-I recollect

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it to the honor of my friend, Mr. Law, who conducted it for the Crown, who, knowing that there were persons whose passions were agitated upon these subjects at that moment, and that many persons had enrolled themselves in societies to resist conspiracies against the government, behaved in a most manful and honorable manner, in a manner, indeed, which the public ought to know, and which I hope it never will forget: he would not even put me upon my challenges to such persons, but withdrew them from the pannel: and when he saw the complexion of the affair, from the contradiction of the infamous witness whose testimony supported it, he honorably gave up the cause.

Gentlemen, the evidence of Lynam does not require the same contradiction which fell upon Mr. Groves, because it destroys itself by its own intrinsic inconsistency;-I could not, indeed, if it were to save my life, undertake to state it to you. It lasted, I think, about six or seven hours, but I have marked under different parts of it, passages so grossly contradictory, matter so impossible, so inconsistent with any course of conduct, that it will be sufficient to bring these parts to your view, to destroy all the rest. But let us first examine in what manner this matter, such as it is, was recorded.-He professed to speak from notes, yet I observed him frequently looking up to the ceiling whilst he was speaking; -when I said to him, are you now speaking from a note? Have you got any note of what you are now saying? he answered; Oh no, this is from recollection. Good God Almighty! recollection mixing itself with notes in a case of high treason! - He did not even take down the words-nay, to do the man justice, he did not even affect to have taken the words, but only the substance, as he himself expressed it - EXCELLENT EVIDENCE! - THE SUBSTANCE OF WORDS TAKEN DOWN BY A SPY, AND SUPPLIED, WHEN DEFECTIVE, BY HIS MEMORY. But I must not call him a spy; for it seems he took them bonâ fide as a Delegate; and yet bonâ fide as an informer;-what a happy combination of fidelity! faithful to serve, and faithful to betray!-correct to record for the business of the Society, and correct to dissolve and to punish it!What after all do the notes amount to? I will advert to the parts I alluded to-they were, it seems, to go to Frith Street, to sign the Declaration of the Friends of the Liberty of the Press, which lay there already signed by between twenty and thirty Members of the House of Commons, and many other respectable and opulent men, and then they were to begin civil confusion, and the King's head, and Mr. Pitt's, were to be placed on Temple Bar. Immediately after which we find them resolving unanimously to thank Mr. Wharton for his speech to support the glorious revolution of 1688, which supports the very throne that was to be destroyed! which same speech they were to circulate in thousands for the use of the Societies throughout the kingdom. Such incoherent, impossible matter proceeding from such a source, is unworthy of all farther

concern.

Thus driven out of everything which relates to arms, and from every other matter which can possibly attach upon life, they have recourse to an expedient, which, I declare, fills my mind with horror and terror: it is this-The Corresponding Society had (you recollect.) two years before, sent Delegates to Scotland, with specific instructions, peaceably to pursue a Parliamentary Reform; -when the Convention which they were sent to was dispersed, they sent no others for they were arrested when only considering of the propriety of another Convention. It happened that Mr. Hardy was the Secretary during the period of these Scotch proceedings, and the letters consequently written by him, during that period, were all official letters from a large body, circulated by him in point of form. When the proposition took place calling for a second Convention, Mr. Hardy continued to be Secretary, and, in that character, signed the circular letter read in the course of the evidence, which appears to have found its way, in the course of circulation, into SCOTLAND. This single circumstance has been admitted as the foundation of receiving in evidence against the prisoner, a long transaction imputed to one Watt, at Edinburgh, whose very existence was unknown to Hardy.This Watt had been employed by Government as a spy, but at last caught a Tartar in his spyship; for, endeavoring to urge innocent men to a project, which never entered into their imaginations, he was obliged to show himself ready to do what he recommended to others; and the tables being turned upon him, he was hanged by his employers. This man Watt read from a paper designs to be accomplished, but which he never intended to attempt, and the success of which he knew to be visionary. To suppose that Great Britain could have been destroyed by such a rebel as Watt, would be, as Dr. Johnson says, to expect that a great city might be drowned by the overflowing of its kennels. But whatever might be the peril of Watt's conspiracy, what had Hardy to do with it? The people with Watt were five or six persons wholly unknown to Hardy, and not members of any Society of which Mr. Hardy was a member; I vow to God, therefore, that I cannot express what I feel, when I am obliged to state the evidence by which he is sought to be affected. A letter, viz. the circular letter signed by Hardy for calling another Convention is shown to George Ross, who says he received it from one Stock, who belonged to a Society which met in Nicholson Street in Edinburgh, and that he sent it to Perth, Strathaven, and Paisley, and other places in Scotland; and the single unconnected evidence of this public letter, finding its way into Scotland, is made the foundation of letting in the whole evidence which hanged Watt, against Hardy, who never knew him. Government hanged its own spy in Scotland upon that evidence, and it may be sufficient evidence for that purpose: I will not argue the case of a dead man, and above all, of such a man; but I will say, that too much money was spent upon this performance, as I think it cost Government about fifty thousand pounds. M'Ewen says, that Watt read from a paper to a committee of six or seven people, of which he, the witness, was a member, that gentlemen, residing in the country, were not to leave their habitations, under pain of death; that an attack was to be made in the manner you remember, and that the Lord Justice Clerk, and the Judges, were to be cut off by these men in buckram; and then an address was to be sent to the King, desiring him to dismiss his Ministers and to put an end to the war, or that he might expect bad consequences. WHAT IS ALL THIS TO MR. HARDY?-How is it possible to affect HIM with any part of this? Hear the sequel, and then judge for yourselves. -Mr. Watt said (i. e. the man who is hanged said,) after reading the paper, that he, Watt, wished to correspond with Mr. Hardy in a safe manner; so that because a ruffian and a scoundrel, whom I never saw or heard of, chooses, at the distance of four hundred miles, to say, that he wishes to correspond with me, I am to be involved in the guilt of his actions! It is not proved or insinuated that Mr. Hardy ever saw, or heard of, or knew, that such men were in being as Watt or Downie :-nor is it proved, or asserted, that any letter was, in fact, written by either of them to Hardy, or to any other person. No such letter has been found in his possession, nor a trace of any connexion between them and any member of any English Society:-the truth I believe is, that nothing was intended by Watt but to entrap others to obtain a reward for himself, and he has been amply and justly rewarded. Gentlemen, I desire to be understood to be making no attacks upon Government, I have wished, throughout the whole cause, that good intentions may be imputed to it, but I really confess, that it requires some ingenuity for Government to account for the original existence of all this history, and its subsequent application to the present trial. They went down to Scotland, after the arrest of the prisoners, in order, I suppose, that we might be taught the law of high treason by the Lord Justice Clerk of Edinburgh, and that there should be a sort of rehearsal to teach the people of

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England to administer English laws; for, after all this expense and preparation, no man was put upon his trial, nor even arraigned under the special commission in Scotland, but these two men; one for reading this paper, and the other for not dissenting from it when it was read; and with regard to this last unfortunate person, the Crown thought it indecent, as it would indeed have been indecent and scandalous, to execute the law upon him; as a gentleman upon his Jury said, he would die rather than convict Downie without a recommendation of mercy, and he was only brought over to join in the verdict, under the idea that he would not be executed, and, accordingly, he has not suffered execution. If Downie, then, was an object of mercy, or rather of justice, though he was in the very room with Watt, and heard distinctly the proposition, upon what possible ground can they demand the life of the prisoner at the bar, on account of a connexion with the very same individual, though he never corresponded with him, nor saw him, nor heard of him, to whose very being he was an utter stranger?

Gentlemen, it is impossible for me to know what impression this observation makes upon you, or upon the Court; but I declare I am deeply impressed with the application of it. How is a man to defend himself against such implications of guilt? -Which of us all would be safe, standing at the bar of God or man, if he were even to answer for all his own expressions, without taking upon him the crimes or rashness of others? This poor man has, indeed, none of his own to answer for: yet how can he stand safely in judgment before you, if, in a season of alarm and agitation, with the whole pressure of government upon him, your minds are to be distracted with criminating materials brought from so many quarters, and of an extent which mocks all power of discrimination?- I am conscious that I have not adverted to the thousandth part of them;-yet I am sinking under fatigue and weakness-I am at this moment scarcely able to stand up whilst I am speaking to you, deprived as I have been, for nights together, of everything that that deserves the name of rest, repose, or comfort. I therefore hasten, whilst yet I may be able, to remind you once again of the great principle into which all I have been saying resolves itself.

Gentlemen, my whole argument then amounts to no more than this, that before the crime of compassing THE KING'S DEATH can be found by you, the Jury, whose province it is to judge of its existence, it must be believed by you to have existed in point of fact. - Before you can adjudge a FACT, you must believe it-not suspect it, or imagine it, or fancy it, -BUT BELIEVE IT-and it is impossible to impress the human mind with such