such individuals, would, he trusted, be disappointed in this their desperate at tempt. If, however, the object of this attack was to descant in terms of obloquy and reproach on the illustrious individuals who supported this Association, the object had certainly been attained, and that too without any danger of retaliation. It was easy to throw stones at such individuals, whose exalted rank and station afforded many points of contact; whilst the assailants, from their insignificance, were only to be found, on looking for them, in impervious holes and inscrutable corners. He would not waste the time of his Lordship, by replying to such trash as roses smelling sweetly under whatever name, and the other shabby and threadbare quotations that had been made use of, nor the sneers that had been attempted to be thrown up. on the Association. Had it been the real intention of the prosecutors, or the informers, to put an end to this society, or had that alone been their object, they should not have seen it attempted to be accomplished by a proceeding before a Justice of the Peace; (he spoke it in no disrespect, for it was in that character that his Lordship appeared on the information,) but they would have seen a jury of honest men impanelled, and the matter fairly tried before the sages of the law. It would have been put in the hands of lawyers, men of practice and of established weight. It would not have been left to be supported by the flippant assertions of one, whom he had never seen or heard of either in a Court of Justice or else where. He (Mr Adolphus) was surprised at the hardihood with which they had on this occasion ventured charges so utterly destitute of evidence or truth. Not one word had been given in evidence to prove the existence of any meeting whatever, of any com

bination, or of the "unlawful, treason. able, or seditious purposes" of the As sociation. The witness had seen Mr Sharp in a room, but Mr Sharp did not form any meeting. He admitted the correctness of the observation, that an illegal society was not the less ille gal, because the Duke of Wellington belonged to it. The law viewed all with an equal eye; and the poor man of the pot-house, who became a mem ber of his benefit club, had equal advantages with the most illustrious. But he would guard himself from admitting, that attacks ought to be suffered with impunity upon those on whom a stain was a wound, and disho nour not to be endured, whilst those who assailed were beneath reproach. His Lordship had been told most happily, that his decision would make the Duke of Wellington quake! He congratulated them on the excellence of the pun, which was well worthy of the quarter from which it came; but he could not think that the bar was so low, that any member of it could be father of it. He would tell them the origin of the joke: During the French Revolution, at a Jacobin club, Marat, a

celebrated reformer of those days, mentioned to the club, "I waited on Dumourier, and when I entered the room Dumourier trembled."-" Dumourier tremble !" said some one present," Dumourier would not tremble at the sight of 10,000 such fellows as you!" The Duke of Wellington quake!" said the learned counsel, in a tone of ineffable contempt," he would tell them, that neither their words nor their blows would reduce him to that, although it was part of the system to throw dirt at men of exalted rank, to render their situations less tenable." As to the allusion which had been made to his having recommended an assessor, he must say that he did it as a mere matter of suggestion, and with

all that genuine and sincere respect which he paid to every civil officer, before whom he had the honour to appear. He was one who thought respect to the magistracy the first duty of the subject. The "class" was always respectable, and respect ought to be paid to it, although the individual might be unworthy of it; and he displayed bad taste, if not bad sense, who could censure a class ;" and he (Mr Adolphus) would not follow any example set him that way by any persons, however high their stations might be. The learned gentleman then adverted to the statute under which the proceedings had been instituted, and asked whether any evidence had been given, to shew that the objects of the Association were as had been described? If this society, in defiance of the obloquy cast upon its members, and the machinations set on foot against them, proceeded with firmness to repress that blasphemy with which we were inundated-if, in defiance of placards and paragraphs, they dragged to light and punishment those whose trade was to blaspheme, from the God who made us, to the meanest officer of society, in such a cause, and with such objects, he thought that the society deserved the support of all good and honest men. Want of confidence, despair in the attack that had been made upon this society after so much preparation, so many consultations and meet ings, was visible in every feature. They appeared tremblingly alive to the objections that would be made to it, and they had carefully recapitulated them. But he would proceed to remark on the facts set out in the information, and the shabby and desperate attempts that had been made at proof, after he should have made some observations on the origin of the Act. It would be recollected, that this Act was passed in the year 99, a year memorable for

the situation in which the country was placed. At that time, societies were formed by those who wished to bring about a revolution in this country, in which only a portion of the members were permitted to be acquainted with the general management; these were controlled by others, and those in their turn by an executive directory, (in the manner of the Executive Directory, which was then the form of government in France), having a director who governed the whole, but who was kept out of sight. It was against societies of this nature, having the character and intention of hostility to the established institutions of the country, that this Act was directed; and at that time, it having been shewn by the Abbe Barruel in France, and by another person in England, that, under the name of freemasons' lodges, societies of this nature were held for the pur poses above-mentioned; they were therefore obliged by the Act, to register their declarations. As to the societies for charitable purposes, they were lawful before, and were never made unlawful by any thing that had been done since. The society was charged in the information with being an unlawful combination and confederacy. He then took a view of the history of the Act, and quoted the preamble, to shew the nature and description of societies intended to be suppressed, which were clearly designated, while the objects of the present Association were entirely opposite. He denied that the address of the Association could be construed into a declaration under the Act, and remarked that the word "test" was omitted in the information, because it was known that there was no test subscri bed or assented to. He instanced the case of a society, which should be formed for the encouragement of home manufactures, the members of which

should assent to a declaration to dine together, and to have a ball, where every one must appear in the manufacture of the country. This would be a declaration not required by law; but would any one venture to say, that this was an illegal combination? This construction would equally affect numberless valuable societies and institutions; and let it be remembered, that this object was now avowed, as the learned gentleman had contended, that let their intents be wicked or charitable, they were all equally within the meaning of the Act. Thus he might claim an acquittal, on the high ground of the principles of the Association, and a denial that any test existed among them; but there was not even a tittle of evidence in support of the facts set forth in the information. The existence of the Association had not been proved. No evidence had been given that they had ever met. Mr Parkins had seen only Mr Sharp alone in a room, and solitude and society he had always understood were direct opposites. No proof had been adduced but the list of subscribers; and persons

might be subscribers, and yet not members. Even in the list Mr Sharp was set down as secretary, and it seldom happened that the secretary was a member of a society; nobody thought that the Clerk of the House of Commons was therefore a member; the very printed address had not been proved to have been issued by the socie ty; the manuscript should have been produced, and evidence brought forward, tracing it to the defendant.-The learned gentleman concluded, by repeating that he had a right to claim a decision in his favour, upon the high ground that the Association was not within the meaning of the Act; but even if that should fail him, upon the total absence of evidence to prove the facts stated in the information.

The Lord Mayor consulted for a few minutes with Mr Newman, when the latter gave the decision, that his Lordship thought there was not evidence before him to induce him to pronounce the Association an illegal combination, and therefore he dismissed the information.

Jury should hear.-[Here the Learned Sergeant read the article in the Western Luminary of July 11, in which the Libel was contained.] This, he said, was the paper on which the Jury, under the obligation of their sacred oaths, would have to pronounce; and unless some species of proof, some line of argument with which he was wholly unacquainted, should be adopted for the defence, he was sure they would be bound to consider it, as he himself did, a foul, scandalous, and malicious libel. Proof of publication was then adduced, and Mr Sergeant Pell said this was his case.

MrColeridge rose for the defendant. If in his conscience he went along with the Learned Counsel for the prosecution, as to the character of the alleged libel, and the probable result of the case, he would not waste the time of the Jury, or that of his Lordship, by another word, but would reserve his arguments for a future opportunity. However the prospect of being engaged in this case might have been flattering to him, as he approached it, the nearer view was alarming. It needed not the disparity that existed between himself and the Counsel for the Crown, to clothe this case with disadvantages to the defendant; for the information charged him with having published a foul, slanderous, and malicious libel; and such a charge was inferior only to those that affected the lives and property of individuals, because it attacked the reputation. And against whom was the defendant charged to have published this libel? Against a woman who of all others was in a situation entitled to commiseration--an individual of exalted rank, the Queen of this mighty empire. He would not justify the passage which formed the ground of this information-it was an intemperate sentence; and if the defendant would have had him justify it, he must have sought another advocate. The

evidence of crime, however, rested on the intention of a party; and if he could shew them, from a train of circumstances, that Mr Flindell had no malicious intent, he would be entitled to their verdict. In doing this he should be compelled to enter into a painful detail of particulars, which he deeply deplored should ever have taken place, and which he wished could be forgotten.-The Learned Counsel, after disclaiming the influence of any personal feelings, proceeded to narrate the circumstances that preceded the late trial of her Majesty. He particularly dwelt on the Report of the House of Lords, which cast a reflection on the Queen's character, ten thousand times more serious than any thing the defendant had said; and a bill was brought into Parliament, that, for the charges it contained, out-heroded Herod. The libel, in comparison with it, was milk and water. Was Mr Flindell to take no notice of this? Was he to be the only one to remain unmoved on the subject? But he should wrong his cause if he stopped here. It was ge. nerally thought that those who favoured the Queen's cause were connected on other political points; and it was Mr Flindell's intention to oppose them; an injury to the person of the Queen was not his intention; he thought only of the idol whom the party had set up; for in the same breath as he makes the accusation against her Majesty, he tells you, that her answers to addresses were written by the same persons as the addresses themselves. He should not, however, be dealing candidly, if he did not admit, that the line of defence he was pursuing did not cover the whole of the alleged libel; yet, if the Jury found that the sentence, though intemperate, was not written in a bad spirit, they would give a verdict in his favour. He had brought the matter to a balance of evidence on one side they had the bare proof of publication, on

the other a thousand facts of extenu ation. If the evidence appeared to them so balanced, that their minds wavered, they should acquit; for the still small voice of mercy was of more avail than the loudest tones of justice. Could either of the Jury go home and say, "I have consigned an honest, industrious man, the father of twelve children, to a prison, although the reasons in his favour raised a doubt in my mind whether his error was the effect of intemperance or guilt?" The Learned Counsel concluded by saying, he knew of no occurrence more heart-rending to an honest Juror, than the reflection that he had given an inconsiderate verdict. Mr Sergeant Pell rose to reply. He could not conceive how the Jury were to consider the defendant the innocent man represented by his Learned Friend. At the very time when the defendant published this paper, the Queen of England was, according to his Learned Friend's statement, in a situation that ought to have excited the greatest commiseration; this was a broad admission of his Learned Friend, but it was nothing more than the truth. On that day, when her Majesty was surrounded by dangers that almost reach ed her life, the defendant had described her as abandoned to the utmost profligacy, a fit inmate for a prison, and deserving of a degrading punishment, inflicted only on the most notorious criminals. His Learned Friend had admitted it was a coarse publication, that reflected no credit on the taste of Mr Flindell. He agreed with his Learned Friend, that it was as coarse, as illiberal a sentence as was ever put forth from the press; but, though vulgar, it was not less malig nant; though the weapon were rough, the wound inflicted by it would not be less deadly. His Learned Friend had commented on a circumstance which he confessed he heard with some degree of surprise that because the King up

on his throne, aided by his Privy Council, had made representations of the nature alluded to, every subject in the kingdom had a right to do the same. This was sacred ground-it was not for him to call in question the motives of such high authority, or to impugn the wisdom of his councils. Yet Mr Flindell had gone far beyond even that description. Good God! was it in England, a country where a charge was not considered as implication of guilt, that a person charged with a crime should be prejudged just on the eve of being called up for trial? Was that justice?-was that according to the spirit of the Constitution under which we live? What would this innocent man-this father of a numerous family say, if one of his children were about to be charged with a crime before a tribunal of his country, which God forbid-what would he say of that man, the justice of his mind, or the ho nour of his feelings, who should attempt to corrupt the source of justice, and poison the minds of those who may be called on to pronounce on his guilt or innocence? The liberty of the press, invaluable as it was, had unfortunately gone beyond what may be termed its legitimate bounds. God forbid he should ever live to see the day when its power should be cramped beyond a necessary restriction-he would rather see it licentious than dead. It could not be ascertained where its limits began, or where they ended-a British Jury were its guardians, and would best protect this invaluable blessing by restraining it when it degenerated into licentiousness; for where there was licentiousness there was crime. He would call their attention to the strong language of the libel, and leave it with the Jury to say, if it were not of the foul, infamous, and malicious description charged in the information." A wo. man as notoriously devoted to Bacchus as to Venus." It was false-he would