neous;"-" from the circumstances of publication, the spirit of the pamphlet, and his own manners, occupations, and modes of life." г Having enlarged upon these topics, his defence he thus concludes: "We live, gentlemen! in the midst of perturbations and suspicions, most singular and unexampled. Former days, in other countries, and in these respects, were far better than our own. Aristotle, in his book on politics, makes no secret of a predilection for republican government, in competition with monarchical; not apprehensive that Alexander, like the unbookish bigots who are molesting me, would take offence at the speculations of his precep manifestly existing and undeniably notorious; not inferred by conclusion from a fact demonstrated. He, who denies this statement, may be, for aught I know, very learned in the law, but is an absolute ignoramus in the sense and construction of his native language." Defence," p. 27. See the account of Mr. Justice • Defence, p. 28. In support of the last species of evidence, Mr. Wakefield had at one time determined to summon upon his trial several persons of high rank, chiefly ecclesiastics," in general old associates, and intimately acquainted with his manners and dispositions." From these he had no doubt of drawing a testimony in favour of his integrity, however different from his own the political opinions and present connexions of the greater part of them. This design he after wards abandoned. See Appendix. tor; nor have I read in the monuments of attic genius, that the Macedonian AttorneyGeneral filed an information against the philosopher of Stagira. Nay, even the reign of our second Charles was more liberal than this. JOHN MILTON, an angel of eloquence, a prophet of liberty, and a saint in life, after a bold apology for the father's murderers, and the bitterest invectives against kings and kingly government, was generously permitted by the unresentful son to close the evening of his days in the calm sun-shine of peace and glory. "Gentlemen! I have demeaned myself through life from deliberate principle by the standard of the scriptures, the perpetual subject of my studies, as uniformly and punctually as most men. I have so demeaned myself in the transaction, which now awaits your verdict. Grant, that I be deluded in my judgment, and mistaken in my purpose; these persecutions are not the proper methods of enforcing truth, or refuting error, or reforming manners. contemplate with a mixture of indignation and sorrow, of compassion and abhorrence, that unhappy creature who delights in tormenting his fellow-men for the operations of intellect and the free communication of opinion: a practice not less ignorant and irrational than intolerant and unchristian. I look down upon I such a man, be his sation what it will, with sentiments of inexpressible superiority; as a civilised being, as a votary of letters, as a disciple of UNIVERSAL LOVE, looks down on at perverter of religion, a museless worldling, and a stranger to humanity. "Gentlemen! ye may live long, ye may be concerned hereafter in many transactions of importance; but ye never can be implicated as ye are this moment. Respect not my safety or convenience, but the liberties and happiness of your countrymen, your own probity, and the approbation of your consciences. Suffer not the present impression to be dissipated from your minds by sophistry and calumnies, which I could easily refute, when compelled to be silent. Consider, whether your hours of solitude and darkness and decaying nature will be cheered and brightened and supported by congratulating yourselves on your equity, your tenderness, your charitable judgment, in consigning such an one as me to the inexorable cruelties of law and the gloomy horrors of a prison. For myself, I tell you freely, no sentence of this court, or any other terrestrial tribunal, no malice of an illiberal accuser, no persecutions, no fines, no imprisonments, shall tear from my breast the glorious consolations of this day; the glory of resisting and ex posing a system, as I esteem it, of irreligion, venality, and murder, at the hazard of all personal convenience, with resolution unshaken and integrity unseduced. I could go out, I trust, from this court, with complacency and exultation, even to the scaffold, in the cause of humanity and the gospel, of civil freedom, and its associate, civil happiness, in opposition to all the malignity of their mercenary and depraved adversaries: so that the worst, which can befall me, will come upon a soul prepared to endure and triumph. But, for you, the alternative is pre-eminently formidable; and will affect your comforts beyond the horizon of time and place, beyond the precincts of this short existence, through a boundless succession of eternal ages. If ye condemn mẹ, with a shadow of uncertainty upon your minds, with a single step on this side an indubitable conviction of my guilt, such condemnation precludes all forgiveness of your own great and manifold offences; a forgiveness, which ye supplicate at the throne of SUPERNAL MERCY, by that measure, which ye have measured to your brethren: but to pronounce against me, when I am clearly innocent, no malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person, as stated in the information, were a sin of transcendent heinousness; and, whether committed by you, the umpires of this cause,-by him, my prosecutor, or by my advocate, the Judge upon the bench, will not finally pass unpunished by that omnipotent Avenger of iniquity, who is no respecter of persons, and rewardeth every man according to his work!" It might have been supposed that a jury. who heard this address would not have been deficient in any of those customary forms of deliberation, which carry with them, at least, a semblance of impartiality. Mr. Wakefield had said to them, "Whatever your determination may be, it is a debt of reason both to me, to your country, and to yourselves, that ye return a verdict free from all imputation of inconsiderate precipitancy." Yet, after a short reply from the Attorney-General, and a few words from the Lord Chief Justice, who presided throughout these trials, they hastened to deliver their verdict of guilty, without going out of court to deliberate, or even looking at the pamphlet. S Upon this, bail was immediately tendered by two of the defendant's friends, and accepted by the court; the Attorney-General readily assenting to the accommodation. Mr. Wakefield was accompanied, upon this occasion, by many of his intimate acquaint |