ments which they drank; some of them I like, some of them deserve reprobation: "The Church and (Here Mr. Justice Heath interrupted Mr. Erskine, by saying, "We are not to go into this, of which you "cannot give evidence"). Mr. Erskine. I don't know what effect these publications may have upon the administration of justice; why drink "The Lord Advocate and the "Court of Justiciary in Scotland," just when your Lordship is called upon to administer justice according to the laws of England; if I had seen the King and his Judges upon the northern circuit published as a toast Mr. Justice Heath. You know you cannot give this in evidence. Mr. Erskine. Gentlemen, considering the situation in which my Clients stand at this moment, I expressed the idea which occurred to me, and which I thought it right not to suppress:-but let it pass;— this is not the moment for controversy;-it is my interest to submit to any course his Lordship may think proper to dictate; the evidence is more than enough for my purpose ;-so mainly improbable, so contrary to every thing in the course of human affairs, that I know you will reject it, even if it stood unanswered; what then will you say, when I shall prove to you by the oaths of the various persons wha attended these societies, that no propositions, of the sort insinuated by this witness ever existed; that no hint, directly or indirectly, of any illegal tendency, was ever whispered;-that their real objects were just what were openly professed, be they right or wrong, be they wise or mistaken, namely, reformation in the constitution of the House of Commons, which my learned friend admitted they had a right by constitutional means to promote. This was their object; they neither desired to touch the King's authority, nor the existence or privileges of the House of Lords; but they wished, that those numerous classes of the community, who (by the law as it now stands) are excluded from any share in the choice of members to the Parliament, should have an equal right with others, in concerns where their interests are equal. Gentlemen, this very county furnishes a familiar instance; there are, I believe, at least thirty thousand freeholders in Lancashire, each of whom has a vote for two members of Parliament; and there are two boroughs within it (if I mistake not), Clithero and Newton, containing a handful of men who are at the beck of two individuals; yet these two little places send for themselves, or rather for these two persons, two members each, which makes four against the whole power and interest of this county in Parliament, touching any measure, how deeply soever it may concern their prosperity. Can there be any offence in meeting together to consider of a representation to Parliament, suggesting the wisdom of alteration and amendment in such a system? Mr. Justice Heath.-There can be no doubt but that a petition to Parliament, for reform or any thing else, can be no offence. Mr. Erskine, Gentlemen, I expected this interruption from the learning of the Judge; certainly it can be no offence, and consequently my Clients can 'be no offenders. Having now exposed the weakness of Dunn's evidence, from its own intrinsic defects, and from the positive contradiction every part of it is to receive from many witnesses, I shall conclude with the still more positive and unequivocal contradiction which the whole of it has received from Dunn himself.You remember that I repeatedly asked him whether he had not confessed that the whole he had sworn to-day was utterly false; whether he had not confessed it to be so with tears of contrition, and whether he had not kneeled down before Mr. Walker, to implore his forgiveness. My learned friend, knowing that this would be proved upon him, made a shrewd and artful observation, to avoid the effects of it; he said, that such things had fallen often under the observation of the Court upon the circuit, where witnesses had been drawn into similar snares by artful people to invalidate their testimony ;-this may be true, but the answer to its application is, that not only the witness himself has positively denied that any such snare was laid for him, but the wit - nesses I have to call, both in respect of number and credit, will put a total end to such a suggestion; if I had indeed but one witness, my friend the Attorney General might undoubtedly put it to you in reply, whether his or mine was to be believed; but I will call to you, not one but four or five; or, if necessary, six witnesses, ABOVE ALL SUSPICION, in whose presence Dunn voluntarily confessed the falsehood of his testimony, and, with tears of apparent repentance, offered to make any reparation to these injured and unfortunate Defendants.-This I pledge myself to prove to your satisfaction. Gentlemen, the object of all public trial and pu nishment is the security of mankind in social life. We are not assembled here for the purposes of vengeance, but for the ends of justice ;-to give tranquillity to human life, which is the scope of all government and law;--you will take care therefore, how, in the very administration of justice, you disappoint that which is the very foundation of its institution; -you will take care, that in the very moment you are trying a man as a disturber of the public happiness, you do not violate the rules which secure it. The last evidence I have been stating ought by itself to put an instant end to this cause: I remember a case, very lately, which was so brought to its conclusion, where, upon a trial for perjury of a witness who had sworn against a captain of a vessel in the African trade, it appeared that the witnesses, who swore to the perjury against the defendants, had themselves made deliberate declarations, which materially clashed with the testimony they were giving; Lord Kenyon, who tried the cause, would after this proceed no further, and asked me, who was counsel for the prosecution, whether I would urge it further, saying emphatically, what I hope every Judge under 'similar circumstances will think it his duty to say also, "No man ought or can be convicted in England, "unless the Judge and the Jury have a firm assurance that innocence cannot by any possibility be the "victim of conviction and sentence." And how can the Jury or his Lordship have that assurance here, when the only source of it is brought into such serious doubt and question? Upon the whole, then, I cannot help hoping, that my friend the Attorney General, when he shall hear my proofs, will feel that a prosecution like this ought not to be offered for the seal and sanction of your verdict. Unjust prosecutions lead to the ruin of all governments, Whoever will look back to the history of the world in general, and of our own particular country, will be convinced, that exactly as prosecutions have been cruel and oppressive, and maintained by inadequate and unrighteous evidence, in the same proportion, and by the same means, their authors have been destroyed instead of being supported by them ;-as often as the principles of our ancient laws have been departed from in weak and wicked times, so often the governments that have violated them have been suddenly crumbled into dust; and therefore wishing |