the papers charged upon his lordfhip as libellous. The information being read. he pleaded Not Guilty. Lord George took his feat among the king's counfel, and when the ordinary bufinefs of the court was concluded, arofe, and addreffed the bench. His lordship faid, he came for information; that he found by the books, that in all cafes where informations were brought on the part of the crown, the officers of the crown only could proceed, whereas, in this cafe, not one king's counfel appeared; he therefore defired to know, if Meffrs. Baldwin and Law, who had moved against him, were crown officers; or whether, in cafe they were not, they could act by delegation from the attorney general? Mr. Juftice Buller anfwered, they certainly could. Lord George then informed the court, that as a perfonal enmity was harboured against him by the fheriff, who, he understood, was to ftrike the pannel of the jury by which he was to be tried, he hoped the court would order the pannel to be ftruck by fome other officer of the court. Mr. Juftice Buller faid, his lordship was irregular; that if he had any challenges to make, he might make them on the trial. Lord George anfwered, that if the fheriff ftruck the jury, he fhould certainly challenge the array; but his with was to come to trial upon fuch fair grounds, as not to offend the jury, by challenges. Mr. Juftice Buller replied, that if his lordship had any objection to the theriff, he mutt ftate it by affidavit. Lord George rebutted, that, if called upon, he was ready to ftate his objections upon oath. Mr. Juftice Buller furrebutted, that the jury was to be special, of course the theriff could

not at partially, as he muft give in a lift of the freeholders at large, from which forty-eight being taken, each party had a right to strike out twelve. Lord George made his bow, and retired.

Mr. Wilkins being called to plead to the information of the attorneygeneral against him, for printing the petition of the prifoners to his lordship to prevent their banithment to Botany Bay, pleaded Not Guilty.

On the 6th of June his lordship was tried before Juftice Buller, at the court of King's Bench, on this information, for having written and published a pamphlet, intitled, “A Petition to Lord George Gordon from the Prifoners in Newgate, praying for his Interference, and that he would fecure their Liberties by preventing them from being fent to Botany Bay."- This ftrange performance being read, appeared to be a farrago of vague reasoning, and abfurd reference, interlarded with a great number of Scripture phrafes. The paffage quoted in the information was to the following purpose: "At a time when the nations of the earth endeavour wholly to follow the laws of God, it is no wonder that we, labouring under our fevere fentences, fhould cry out from our dungeons and afk redress. Some of us are about to fuffer execution without righteousness, and others to be fent off to a barbarous country. The records of juftice have been falfified, and the laws profanely altered by men like ourfelves. The bloody laws against us have been enforced, under a nominal administration,by mere whitened walls, men who poffets only the thew of juftice, and who have condemned us to death contrary to law, &c."

3

The

The attorney-general opened the profecution by remarking, that nothing could be more obvious than the purpose for which this publication was intended.-It purported to be an addrefs to Lord George Gordon; but, as it would appear, had been actually written by himfelf, with a view either to raife a tumult among the prifoners within, in an endeavour to procure their deliverance; or, by exciting the, compaffion of thofe without, to caufe a disturbance, and produce the fame effect. It was now but a few years fince, he said, without meaning any particular application in the prefent inftance, that the citizens of London had feen those effects completed, which this pamphlet went to produce; and the confequences were too well known to need a repetition. It included the law and the judges in indifcriminate abuse he would not contend for abfolute perfection in the latter; but thofe who condemned our laws fhould not refide under their jurifdiction. The criminal law was no where attended to with more care, or enforced with fo much lenity.This, however, had nothing to do with the prefent cafe, as the defendant had fufficiently fhewn, by his conduct, that reformation was not his object.

John Pitt, the turnkey of Newgate, was then called. He depofed, that, in the month of December laft, Lord George Gordon had repeatedly vifited the lodge, and atked to fee the prifoners; particularly thofe under fentence of death; which request was often denied. On the publication of the pamphlet in queftion, Lord George fent a copy to him, and others to Mr. Akerman, and Mr. Villette the ordinary. A

few days after he found a man and woman diftributing them in great numbers at the door of the prison. In confequence of this, he waitedon Lord George, at his house in Welbeck-ftreet, and told him that there was fad work about the distribution of the pamphlet; to which his lordship replied, " No matter, let them come on as foon as they please; I am ready for them." He then faw a great number of the books in the room, and took one to Mr. Akerman, at Lord George's particular defire; and alfo gave a direction to the refidence of those perfons who had diftributed the pamphlets in the Old Bailey.

The records of the conviction of feveral perfons were then read and authenticated; and Mr. Akerman, and Mr. Hall, the keeper of the New Gaol, Southwark, were called, for the purpofe of proving, that there exifted, at the time, convicts of the fatne defcription as thofe who were fuppofed to have addreff. ed the pamphlet to the defendant.

Lord George atked the witnesses, feverally, whether he had ever any conference with the perfons mentioned in the record; to which they replied in the negative.

His lordship then entered on his defence; which was of a strange and defultory kind. A petty fraud, he faid, committed in his own family, had firft drawn his attention to the laws against felony, when he found that it conftituted a capital crime, though the fum taken was no more than eighteen pence. then entered into a hiftory of our criminal law from the time of Athelftan, for the purpose of proving that code, in its prefent ftate, to be by much too fanguinary. This, he faid, was a fubject which struck [2]

his

his heart. He had communicated his ideas to Lord Mansfield, and to the recorder, who had admitted their propriety; and to Judge Gould, who had defired him to put his thoughts on paper. This was all he had done in the prefent inftance. His idea was only to enlarge the powers of the judges, though wicked lawyers had attributed to him another intention. He quoted the act of parliament for fending the convicts to New South Wales, as a proof that the legislature thought with him on the fubject: he quoted the Gazette of laft Saturday, as a proof of his majefty's attention to God's laws, which he faid were directly contrary to the prefent practice: and he affured the court, that, if he had time to fend for his books, he could thew them that every word of his pamphlet was actually in the Bible! His lordship complained very much of thofe vexatious profecutions whichwere inftituted against him. He quoted Blackftone's Commentaries, book iv. cap. 23, who fays, that informations filed ex officio, by the attorney-general, are proper only for fuch enormous mifdemeanors as peculiarly tend to difturb or endanger the king's government, and in the punishment or prevention of which a moment's dejay would be fatal." This, he faid, had by no means appeared in his cafe, as one of the informations against him had been pending for ten, and the other for fix months. This extraordinary mode was therefore a grievance on him, which was not juftified, as it appeared, by any prefling neceffity. He exhorted

Judge Buller not to lose the presen opportunity of inftructing the jury on the difputed point, whether they were to judge of law as well as of fact. He then complained, that fpies had been fet over him by the treafury for feveral months; and concluded with repeating his declaration, that his object had been reformation, not tumult. His lordfhip fpoke for upwards of an hour and a half.

Judge Buller, having briefly fummed up the evidence, remarked, that there could be no doubt of the fact of the defendant's having written and published the libel, the former of which he had actually confefted. There remained, therefore, only to determine whether the averments in the information were equally true; that is, whether the judges of the different courts, his majetty's law officers, were those alluded to, on which the jury were to determine.

The jury, without hefitation, returned their verdict GUILTY.

The printer, Thomas Wilkins, was then tried, and found GUILTY.

Lord George then prefented an affidavit for the purpose of putting off his trial on the fecond information; ftating, that he had proceeded, accompanied by a proper perfon, to Mrs. Fitzherbert's, in order to serve her with a fubpoena : that, on appearing at the door, he read the original fubpoena, and at the fame time prefented the copy and a thilling; but was, together with his attendant, turned out of doors by the fervants: under thefe cir

cumstances,