fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect their most evil and wicked treason and treasonable compassings and imaginations aforesaid, they did maliciously and traitorously consent and agree to the procuring and providing arms and offensive weapons, to wit, guns, muskets, pikes, and axes, therewith to levy and wage war, insurrection, and rebellion against our said Lord the King within this kingdom, against the duty of their allegiance, against the peace of our said Lord the now King, his crown and dignity, and against the form of the statute in that case made and provided.

Mr Attorney-General stated to the Court, that he had been informed by the counsel for the prisoners it was their wish the prisoners should be tried separately. It was therefore his intention to proceed first on the trial of Thomas Hardy.

At the request of the prisoner's counsel, the Court adjourned to Tuesday, the 28th October.

On Tuesday, the 28th of October, the Attorney-General opened the case for the Crown against the prisoner Thomas Hardy in the following speech :

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,In the course of stating what I have to offer to your most serious attention in this great and weighty cause, affecting, as it certainly does, the dearest interests of the community, affecting, as you will remember throughout this business, every interest which can be valuable to the prisoner at the bar, I shall have frequent occasion to call that anxious attention to the different parts of the indictment which has just been opened to you. I forbear to do so at this moment, because I think that attention will be more usefully, both with respect to the public, and to the prisoner, given and required in another part of what I am to address to you.

Gentlemen, the prisoner who is before you stands charged (to state the indictment generally) with the offence of compassing His Majesty's death: he was committed upon that charge by His Majesty's Privy Council. I will explain to you presently why I state this and the following facts. In consequence of the apprehension of this prisoner, of several others charged by this indictment, and of others whose names do not occur in this indictment, proceedings of some notoriety were had in Parliament, and an Act passed empowering his Majesty to detain such persons as he suspected were conspiring against his Government. That Act has asserted that a traitorous and a detestable conspiracy had been formed for subverting the existing laws and government of the country, and for introducing that system of anarchy and confusion which had so fatally prevailed in France. The Act, upon the spur of the emergency which it contemplated, authorised the detention.

without bail, mainprize, or discharge, of the persons then in prison for high treason or treasonable practices, or who should afterwards be committed for high treason or treasonable practices, by warrants from the Privy Council or Secretary of State, until the 1st of February 1795.

Gentlemen, this measure, which did not suspend the operation of the Habeas Corpus Act, that great palladium of English liberty, but with reference to particular persons, under particular commitments, for particular offences, is a measure never adopted in this country by Parliament but in cases in which it is understood, after giving all possible attention to secure the right of the subject from being broken in upon, to be of the last possible necessity, and which has been repeatedly put in force, in the best of times, in such cases where the wisdom of Parliament apprehended that it was matter of their duty to provide that the nation should part with its liberty for a while, that it might not lose it for ever.

Gentlemen, appearing before you this day in discharge of that duty which I have been commanded to execute, and the execution of which appears to me to be absolutely necessary, you will collect from the fact that I do appear here this day, that, according to the true constitutional meaning of such an Act of Parliament, it is not that the trial of such persons shall be delayed during the period of the suspension of the Act, but that the Act shall, with reference to the time of trial, be allowed, in the right execution of it, an operation only to that extent in which the due consideration of the public safety, tempered with a due attention to the liberty of the individual subject, may require.

Gentlemen, the proceedings of the Legislature having been such as I have stated to you, His Majesty, constitutionally advised in the exercise of his duty, as the great conservator of the public peace, directed a commission to issue to inquire whether any such treasons as the presumption of such a traitorous conspiracy must necessarily suppose to have existed, had been committed by any persons, and by whom. In the execution of the duties of that commission, a grand jury of this county, upon their oaths, have declared that there is ground of charge against the person at the bar, and against others, sufficient to call upon them, in a trial to be had before you, their country, to answer to an accusation of high treason, in compassing his Majesty's death.

Gentlemen, I have stated these circumstances that I may convey to you, in as strong terms as I can express it, this observation, that, as the proceedings of Parliament ought to have had (and I am persuaded, from the deliberation which they gave the subject, that they had) no influence upon the judicial mind of the grand inquest, neither ought these proceedings to affect your inquiries, or to induce you to any determination which you are to make upon the issue which you are now sworn to try.

Gentlemen, there is no one circumstance of any proceedings before Parliament with reference to which you ought to suffer yourselves to be influenced in the trial of this issue. It is obvious that such proceedings as were had in Parliament, providing for great emergencies, may be required and authorised by the genuine spirit of the constitution, even in cases in which a grand jury might not, upon anything that could be offered to their consideration, be justified in finding a bill: it is much more obvious that, in a proceeding before you, a consideration of the wisdom and propriety of the acts of the Legislature is not called for.

You therefore, gentlemen of the jury, will consider the prisoner as standing before you in full possession of an absolute right to the presumption of innocence, notwithstanding he is charged with guilt by this indictment, as you will hear, except so far as that presumption is met by the single simple fact that he has been accused by a grand jury of his country.

Gentlemen, before I conclude these general observations, you will permit me to say, on the other hand, that if there has been anything that has fallen under your observation, by act or publication -any attempt to make any impression upon the minds of those who are this day impannelled to try this great cause, to disparage that advice which, under the most responsible sanction, may be given you in matter of law, to work in your minds any prejudice either against the prisoner or on the prisoner's behalf; on the one hand I am perfectly sure that your integrity will be security to the public that you will not permit any attempt of that kind to have any operation; on the other hand, gentlemen of the jury, I am equally sure that I need not ask from an English jury that they would permit no such attempt to prejudice them against the prisoner at the bar,-no, not even an injudicious or ill-executed attempt to influence them in his favour.

Gentlemen, in order to understand the law of treason, and the indictment, I shall take the liberty first to state to you the character which I apprehend the King, for the protection of whose person and government the statute in question was made, has in the state and constitution of this country.

Gentlemen, the power of the state, by which I mean the power of making laws, and enforcing the execution of them when made, is vested in the King; enacting laws, in the one case, that is, in his legislative character, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and of the Commons in Parliament assembled,-assembled according to the law and constitutional custom of England; in the other case, executing the laws, when made, in subservience to the laws so made, and with the advice which the law and the constitution have assigned to him in almost every instance in which they have called upon him to act for the benefit of the subject. The King's authority, under the check of constitu

tional and legal provisions and limitations, convenes and regulates the duration and existence of Parliament, convening those whom, according to the law and custom of the country, he is bound to convene. The King, in his Parliament, sitting in his royal political capacity, and the Lords and Commons there assembled, form the great body politic of the kingdom, by which is exercised sovereign authority in legislation. Gentlemen, whilst the present law, the present constitution, and present government of Great Britain exist, no law can be made but by that authority; no legislative power can be created against the will and in defiance of that authority. Whether in any or in what circumstances, an attempt to create such a power is a treason forbidden by the statute of the 25th of Edward III., I propose to examine presently.

Gentlemen, as in the King the power of legislation is vested, as well as the executive power of the state, to be exercised with consent and advice, to be exercised according to those laws which are the birthright and inheritance of the subject, having upon him the care and protection of the community; to him, in return, the allegiance of every individual is, according to the law of England, due; that allegiance by which the subject is bound, in the language of the statutes of this country, to defend him "against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his person, his crown, or his dignity."

Gentlemen, to ascertain to whom this care and protection is committed to ascertain to whom this allegiance is due, the breach of which, according to the venerable Lord Hale, constitutes high treason is necessary to the peace of the community; to ascertain and to define accurately what constitutes a breach of that allegiance, is essentially and absolutely necessary to the security of all that our ancestors have claimed, demanded, and insisted upon, as the ancient undoubted rights and liberties of our country.

Gentlemen, the former of these objects is secured by the law and constitutional custom of England; that law which alike secures to you every right, whether it be a right of person or of property. It has made the crown which his Majesty wears hereditary (and I beg your attention to that), subject to limitation by Parliament. The latter object has been most anxiously secured by the statute referred to in the indictment, which brings forward the charge the truth of which you are now to try.

Gentlemen, the King having this hereditary crown, the law and constitution have also ascertained his duties-those duties which it is incumbent upon him to execute for the benefit of the subject; in the execution of which duties they have aided him with counsel, and in consideration of which duties they have clothed him with dignity, and vested him with high prerogatives. With respect to the duties of the King, they attach upon him the instant he becomes such; from the moment that his title accrues, in the same

instant the duty of allegiance (the breach of which is high treason) attaches to it; he recognises these as his duties in that oath, to which, throughout this business, I must again call your attention, in that oath which he is bound to take upon him, at his coronation, to promise and swear "to govern the people of this country,"-mark the words, gentlemen,-" according to the statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and customs of the same; that to his power he will cause law in justice and mercy to be administered; that he will maintain the laws of God, and the true profession of religion established by law."

Gentlemen, this oath, stated by that great and venerable constitutional Judge, Mr Justice Foster, to be a solemn and a public recognition, not only of the duties of the King, but of the fundamental rights of the people, imposeth upon him (and throughout this case it cannot be too strongly recollected that it imposeth upon him) the most sacred obligation to govern according to the laws and statutes in Parliament agreed upon, according to the laws and customs of the same, and no other.

Gentlemen, addressing this Court, which is a court of law, in which you, the jury, are sworn to make a true deliverance aceording to the law of England, can I impress it too strongly that it cannot be supposed by possibility-not by possibility-that the King can, consistently with his oath, and with the antecedent duty recognised in the explicit engagement, the terms of which you have heard, either act, or permit himself to act, as King, according to any rules of government, formed by any bodies of men, assuming any character, functions, or situations, those rules of government being meant to operate as laws, the statutes agreed upon in Parliament, and the laws and customs of the same, only excepted?

Gentlemen, it seems to me to follow, as a necessary conclusion from the reasoning to be addressed to a court of law, not only that those who conspire to remove the King out of the government altogether, but that those who conspire to remove him, unless he will govern the people according to laws which are not statutes in Parliament agreed upon, and the laws and customs of the same, or as the head of a government framed and modified by any authority not derived from that Parliament, do conspire to depose him from that royal state, title, power, and government, which the indictment mentions, and to subvert and alter the rule and government now established in these kingdoms. He ought not so to govern-I say, he cannot so govern-he is bound to resist such a project at the hazard of all its consequences; he must resist the attempt; resistance necessarily produces deposition, it endangers his life.

Gentlemen, to that King upon whom these duties attach, the law and constitution, for the better execution of them, have assigned various counsellors and responsible advisers: it has clothed him, under various constitutional checks and restrictions, with various