DA506
E7A4

1870
v. 3

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
CALLAGHAN & COCK CROFT,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CHICAGO

CHURCH.COOGMAN & DONNELLEY

PRINTERS

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

Statement of the Case of John Horne Tooke,

Mr. Erskine's Speech in defence,

Statement of the Case of the Earl of Thanet and others, .

Speech of the Attorney-General,

IN THE SESSIONS HOUSE AT THE OLD BAILEY, ON THE 19TH DAY
OF NOVEMBER, 1794.

STATEMENT.

NOTWITHSTANDING the usual practice in England upon the trial of several jointly charged with high treason, has been, on the acquittal of the first, to abandon the prosecution as to the others, the government blindly and obstinately persisted in pushing the trial of Mr. Tooke after the acquittal of Thomas Hardy. It is indeed difficult to conceive upon what ground the crown could expect a conviction, since the jury upon the former trial, some of whom were also jurors upon the latter, by their verdict negatived the main fact charged in the indictment, and relied upon by the prosecution, viz., the holding of any conversation with intent by force to subvert the constitution and the laws. But, to the surprise of the legal profession, and of the public generally, the government proceeded to the trial of Mr. Tooke, relying upon the same propositions of law and of fact which had been so unsuccessfully urged in the case of Hardy. For, as appears from the report of the trial taken by Mr. Gurney, the eminent short-hand writer, at the conclusion of Mr. Erskine's speech, Mr. Tooke himself addressed the court as to the necessity of going into

the whole of the evidence, when he was answered by the attorney-general as follows:

Mr. Attorney-General. That address being made to me, I think it my duty to Mr. Tooke to inform him, that I speak at present under an impression, that, when the case on the part of the prosecutor is understood, it has received as yet, in the opening of his counsel, no answer; and I, therefore, desire Mr. Tooke to understand me as meaning to state to the jury, that I have proved the case upon the indictment.

Mr. Erskine. Then we will go into the whole case. See Gurney's Trial of Tooke, Vol. I. p. 453.

This took place on Thursday, the 20th of November, 1794, and the trial accordingly continued till Saturday, the 22nd, when the prisoner was acquitted. After the acquittal of Mr. Tooke, even a third trial was proceeded upon, viz., that against Mr. Thelwall, after which all the other prisoners were discharged.

For a statement of the charges upon which Mr. Tooke was tried, the reader is referred to the case of Thomas Hardy, in the preceding volume, as they were identically the same, and the evidence was not materially different.