greatest men that ever lived, that sedition was like Pandora's box, it contains every evil, it contains every vice. My lord, it is said, that he is to be sent among pickpockets, thieves and robbers; but my lord, this crime is not to be compared with their's, it comprehends every sort of crime, murder, robbery, rape, every thing that is criminal. I think, my lord, the punishment that has been proposed is the mildest that can be inflicted, and I hope will be sufficient to deter others from committing the same crime. Lord Dunsinnan.--My lord, the crime of which this unhappy man now stands convicted, is a crime for which, within a few months, two persons have been tried at that bar, who have been convicted, and upon those convictions, the court have pronounced the judgment of the law. My lord, it would give me great pleasure if there were any circumstances in the case of this panel that could distinguish it favourably from those upon which we have had occasion to pronounce judgment before: but the circumstances of this case tend rather to aggravate it. My lord, he is one of those persons who came into this country, for the purpose of exciting civil discord, by inflaming the minds of the people. We have had an opportunity of seeing that he possesses talents, which render him exceedingly capable of mischief; the harangue which we heard last night, though addressed to the jury, was, I believe, rather intended for another part of this court; we saw that his political principles are extremely dangerous and my lord, if there is any other country, which does not inflict such a punishment for such a crime, I am happy that I live in such a country as this; and if I were to propose any difference of punishment, it would be rather to increase than diminish it. I am of opinion, doubtless, that the same punishment should be inflicted in this case as in the former. Lord Abercrombie.-My lord, a legal objection was stated to the punishment now proposed; that objection was argued with uncommon ability, by the learned counsel for the panel, and your lordships gave your judgment upon it. But, my lords, that legal objection was grounded upon this, that the punishment was too severe for the offence of which he stands convicted by the unanimous voice of his country. My lord, it has been said, within these walls, that his intentions all along were innocent, that they were perfectly pure and honourable; and that had the same crime been committed in England, it would either have passed with impunity, or with a very small punishment, as imprisonment or pillory. My lord, upon that I shall say a very few words. With respect to the panel's motives, I shall, for a moment, suppose that his intentions were pure, and perfectly innocent; but even considering the case in that view, I must give it as my opinion, sitting here as a judge, that VOL. XXIII. it would afford no motive for a mitigation of punishment. My lord, we all know it is a fact, undoubtedly undeniable, that a mistaken principle, either in religion or in politics, has often led the way, with the best of intentions, to commit crimes of the deepest atrocity. My lord, the history of this country affords many instances and many examples of this kind; for example, in the case of the powder plott many of the conspirators were men of character, sir Everard Digby was one of the most accomplished, one of the most virtuous men in England, and my lord, he was sentenced to die as a traitor, for the part he took in that plot; and on the eve of his execution he wrote a letter to his wife, in which he expresses himself in these precise terms: "Now for my intention, let me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in the plot, I would not have been of it for all the world: and no other cause drew me to hazard my fortune and life, but zeal to God's religion." My lord, this letter, written at that fatal period, by a man who was beloved by every person in Europe, leaves no room to doubt of the sincerity of this confession. Then my lord, as to this man who lives at the distance of two centuries from the commission of that crime, will any person who now hears me say that the innocency of his intention or the purity of his motives ought to be urged as a reason against executing that sentence? My lord, I shall just take the liberty of stating, though I am sorry to give any opinion upon such a point, upon the most cool and deliberate observations, were I called to give my opinion upon the point, I would say, that if this conspiracy, in which the unhappy man at the bar was an active leader, had been carried into effect, if that conspiracy had been followed with entire success, there is not a corner of this kingdom in which a degree of misery and wretchedness must not have followed. My lord, we have the example of our own times also; I need not remind your lordships of 1745 and 1715, when many men, who Though civil government' says Bishop Butler" be supposed to take cognizance of actions in no other view than as prejudicial to society, without respect to the immorality of them; yet as such actions are immoral, so the sense which men have of the immorality of them, very greatly contributes, in different ways, to bring offenders to justice: and, that entire absence of all e ime and guilt in the moral sense, when plainly appearing, will almost of course procure, and circumstances of aggravated guilt prevent, a remission of the penalties annexed to civil crimes, in many cases, though by no means in all." Analogy, part 1, chap. 3, p. 76, edition of 1791. + See the case of sir Everard Digby, and the other conspirators, ante Vol. 2, p. 159. See the proceedings against the rebels of 1715 and 1745, in Vols. 15 and 18 of this Collection. ST Proceedings against Joseph Gerrald. [1012 had acted with the best intentions, died the | ately before me, that taking his own account death of traitors. My lord, I say, although the panel could have established by the clearest and the most satisfactory evidence, that his intentions were all along perfectly innocent, and his motives perfectly pure, it would have afforded no ground whatever for mitigation of punishment; but I am sorry to say that I can discover no proof of such innocence of intention. My lord, we in this world can only judge of the intentions of men from their actions; and viewing the actions of this panel, no man of the least observation can lay his hand upon his heart, and say, that the evidence affords the smallest proof of such purity of motive. My lord, with regard to the other point, it is our province and our duty to judge of this and every other case by the law of our country; we have nothing to do with the law of any other country, and I cannot think that the law of England would suffer an offence of this magnitude either to pass with impunity, or be punished with a slighter punishment; and I heartily concur with the rest of your lordships in the punishment that your lordships have proposed. Lord Justice Clerk.-My lords, in comparing this case with the others, I cannot find any thing that can possibly make it less criminal. My lords, transportation is, no doubt, a very severe punishment; we consider it as the highest arbitrary punishment that the laws of this country can inflict; but I think it is no more than adequate to the offence which has been proved against this panel, and of which he has been convicted by the verdict of a very respectable jury. My lords, I feel for the distresses of convicts as much as any man who hears me: but, my lords, the happiness of the innocent part of mankind requires of us to punish the guilty, and protect the innocent; and we cannot give that protection to the innocent part of society unless we inflict adequate punishments upon crimes committed against society. has acted from principle, and that his motives of the matter to be just, supposing that he are pure, I do say that he becomes a more dangerous member of society than if his conduct was really criminal, and acting from criminal motives. A man acting from criminal motives is not so dangerous a member of society as a man who thinks he is acting from principle: for when a man is so misguided in his principles he overturns society and government itself. I say "salus populi suprema lex," and it becomes us, let his intentions be as pure as they possibly can be, to remove that man from society, and put it out of his ples. I do not know whether his principles power to disseminate these dangerous princiare so pure as he professed or not, but if they are, I think it justifies this punishment just as much as if he had acted from the worst of motives, and therefore any other punishment would be insufficient. SENTENCE: going verdict, whereby the assize all in one The lord justice clerk and lords cominissioners of justiciary having considered the forebelled: the said lords, in respect of the said voice find the panel Guilty of the crimes liverdict, in terms of an act passed in the 25th for the more effectual transportation of felons and other offenders, in that part of Great Briyear of his present majesty, entitled "An act tain called Scotland," ordain and adjudge that the said Joseph Gerrald be transported beyond seas to such place as his majesty, with the advice of his privy-council, shall declare and appoint, and that for the space of fourteen years from this date, with certification to him, if after being so transported, he shall return to, and be found at large within any part of Great Britain, during the said fourteen years, without some lawful cause, and be death, as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy, by the law of England: and orthereby lawfully convicted, he shall suffer back to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, therein to be detained till he is delivered over for dains the said Joseph Gerrald to be carried being so transported; for which this shall be, to all concerned, a sufficient warrant. (Signed) ROBERT M'QUEEN. My lords, in all these cases, I was very sensible that transportation was a great punishment; but, after considering all the different punishments that the laws of this country can inflict, I did not see any one punishment we could inflict which could answer the purpose of checking this evil, unless it was by inflicting the punishment of transportation alone; any other punishment would Gerrald, and the other convicts, his associates, The legality of the sentences passed upon have been a very imperfect one. Simple ba- was much questioned at the time; and the subnishment from this country is not at all ject was more than once discussed in both proper; long imprisonment is a thing not houses of parliament, particularly in the known in this country, and very hurtful to the House of Commons, on March 10th 1794; country as well, because we know a seditious Professor Hume has since published a learned person in prison may do a great deal of harm. and able defence of the doctrines established I cannot have the least hesitation in thinking on this occasion by the court of justiciary. that the punishment of transportation for See his Com. on the law of Scotland respectfourteen years is the least that we can inflicting the des. and pun. of Crimes, Vol. 2, Ch. 10. in this case. My lords, we have heard a great deal of the innocence of his intentions; but it was justly observed by my brother who spoke immedi ing the fate of Gerrald and the others, will be 600. Trial of DANIEL ISAAC EATON on an Indictment for pub lishing a Seditious Libel, intituled, "Politics for the People, or Hog's Wash." Tried at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, before Sir John William Rose, Serjeant at Law, Recorder of the City of London, February 24th: 34 GEORGE III. A. D. 1794.* DANTEL ISAAC EATON was put to the bar.* Mr. Recorder.-I have ordered the whole panel to attend, in consequence of the defendant having challenged some of the jurymen on a former day; therefore the jury should be called, not as they have served, but as they stand upon the panel. The panel was called, and the following twelve gentlemen, being the first who appeared, were sworn : A brief account of this case will be found in the Sessions Paper of the mayoralty of Mr. Alderman Le Mesurier, [A. D. 1793, 1794.] p. 540. † Prefixed to the original edition of this trial was the following advertisement: The indictment was found by the grand jury in December sessions 1793; as soon as it was returned into court, Mr. Knowlys, of counsel for the crown, moved Mr. Justice Ashhurst to direct in what sum the defendant should be held to bail; the indictment was read, and the sum named by Mr. Justice Ashhurst was, the defendant himself in one thousand pounds, and two sureties in five hundred pounds each. The same night the defendant was apprehended and lodged in Newgate, where he lay till the next session, not being able to procure bail to so large an amount. When the trial was to have come on, Mr. Vaughan was too ill to conduct the defence; it therefore devolved on Mr. Gurney. In January session the defendant was put to the bar, and the jury were about to be sworn, when the defendant challenged two of the jurors peremptorily; the recorder disallowed peremptory challenges, and called upon him to assign a cause; the cause the defendant assigned was, that those jurymen had made declarations which rendered them unft to sit upon a jury to try a man charged with having published a libel. Though the defendant had no proof of these declarations having been made, Mr. Fielding very liberally consented to allow the challenges; the remainder of the jury having been discharged, the trial went off for defect of jurors to February session, and the defendant was remanded to Newgate. London, THE jurors for our lord the king, to wit. upon their oath present, that Daniel Isaac Eaton, late of London, bookseller, being a malicious, seditious, and evil-disposed person, and greatly disaffected to our said ford the king, and to his administration of government of this kingdom, and unlawfully, maliciously, and seditiously contriving, devising, and intending to scandalize, traduce, and vilify, our said lord the king, and the regal power and office established by law within this realm, and to represent our said lord the king as sanguinary, tyrannical, oppressive, cruel, and despotic; and thereby to stir up and excite discontents and seditions amongst the subjects of our said lord the king, and to alienate and withdraw the fidelity, affection, and allegiance, of his said majesty's subjects from his said majesty's person and As Mr. Gurney had prepared himself to government, on the eighteenth day of Nolead the defence at the January session, Mr.vember, in the year of our Lord one thousand Vaughan in compliment to him, would not resume it afterwards. seven hundred and ninety-three, at London aforesaid, in the parish of St. Mary-le-Bow [1016 in the ward of Cheap, unlawfully, maliciously, I tinate the pang for half an hour; however, and seditiously did publish, and cause to be I managed the business very well, for I caught published, a certain pamphlet, intitled," Po- Mr. Tyrant by the head, and dragging him litics for the People; or, Hog's Wash;" con immediately to the block, with a heavy knife taining therein, among other things, certain in my hand, separated his neck at a blow; scandalous, malicious, inflammatory, and se- and what will surprise you very much, when ditious matters, of and concerning our said his fine trappings were stripped off, I found lord the king; that is to say, dunghill pullet; no, nor half so good; for he was no better than a common scratch he was tough and oily, and rank with the pollutions of his luxurious vices;"-in contempt of our said lord the king, and his laws, to the evil and pernicious example of all others in the like case offending, and against the peace of our said lord the king, his crown, and dignity. aforesaid, do farther present, that the said And the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath Daniel Isaac Eaton, so being such person as aforesaid, and so devising, contriving, and intending, as aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the said eighteenth day of November, in the said year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, at London aforesaid, in the parish and ward aforesaid, unlawfully, maliciously, and seditiously, did publish, and cause and procure to be published, therein, amongst other things, certain scana certain other printed pamphlet, containing dalous, malicious, inflammatory, and seditious matters, of and concerning our said lord the king, according to the tenor and effect following; that is to say: 66 a "You must known then," [meaning know] "that I used, together with a variety of youthful attachments, to be very fond of birds and poultry; and among other things of this kind, I had a very fine majestic kind of animal, a game cock," [meaning thereby to denote and represent our said lord the king], a haughty, sanguinary tyrant, nursed in blood and slaughter from his infancy, fond of foreign wars and domestic rebellions, into which he would sometimes drive his subjects, by his oppressive obstinacy, in hopes that he might increase his power and glory by their suppression; now, this haughty old tyrant," [again meaning our said lord the king], "would never let my farm-yard be quiet; for not content with devouring by far the greater part of the grain that was scattered for the morning and evening repast, and snatching at every little treasure, that the toil of more industrious birds might happen to scratch out of the bowels of the earth, the restless despot" [meaning our said lord the king]" must be always picking and cuffing at the poor doves and pullets, and little defenceless chickens, so that they could never eat the scanty remnant, which his inordinate taxation left them, in peace and quietness; now, though there were some aristocratic prejudices hanging about me from my education, so that I could not help looking, with some considerable reverence, upon the majestic decorations of the person of king Chaunticlere," [meaning our said lord the king], "such as his ermine spotted breast, the fine gold trappings about his neck and shoulders, the flowing robe of plumage tucked up at his rump, and, above all, that fine ornamented thing about his head there, his crown, or coxcomb, I believe you call it (however, the distinction is not very important), yet I had, even at that time, some lurking principles of aversion to bare-faced despotism struggling at my heart, which would sometimes whisper to me, that the best thing one could do, either for cocks and hens, or men and women, was, to rid the world of tyrants" [meaning our said lord the king, among others]," whose shrill martial clarions (the provocatives to fame and murder) disturbed the repose, and destroyed the happiness, of their respective communities; so, I believe, if guillotines had been in fashion, I should certainly have guillotined him, being desirous to be merciful even in the stroke of death; and knowing, the instant the brain is separated from the heart (which, with this instrument, is done in a moment), pain and consciousness is at an end, while "Kings" [meaning, among others, our so"The Reflexions of a True Briton." the lingering torture of the rope may procras-vereign lord the king]" are wolf shepherds; "I had a very fine majestic kind of animal, and represent our said lord the king], a game cock" [meaning thereby to denote haughty, sanguinary tyrant, nursed in blood and slaughter from his infancy; fond of foreign wars and domestic rebellions, into which he" [meaning our said lord the king] "would sometimes drive his subjects by his sive obstinacy, in hopes that he might increase his power and glory by their suppres sion;"-in contempt of our said lord the king and his laws, to the evil and pernicious example of all others in the like case offending, and against the peace of our said lord the king, his crown, and dignity. oppres aforesaid, do farther present, that the said Daniel And the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath Isaac Eaton, so being such person as aforesaid, and so devising, contriving, and intending, as aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the same eigh teenth day of November, in the said year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninetythree, at London aforesaid, in the parish and ward aforesaid, unlawfully, maliciously, and seditiously, did publish, and cause to be published, a certain other printed pamphlet, containing therein, among other things, cer tain scandalous, malicious, and inflammatory matters, of and concerning our lord the king, among others, according to the tenor and effect following; that is to say Homer styles them devourers of the people; and they do not appear to have lost their original taste;" in contempt of our said lord the king and his laws, to the evil and pernicious example of all others, in the like case offending, and against the peace of our said lord the king, his crown, and dignity. The indictment having been opened by Mr. Raine, Mr. Fielding.-Gentlemen of the jury, your attention, as a jury of the city of London, is called to another prosecution for the publication of a mischievous and seditious libel. I say another, for true it is, there have been lately many prosecutions for offences of this description, and unless it be that your servants, the servants of the public in responsible situations in government, and particularly that servant of the public, the attorneygeneral, should be remiss where he ought to be active, should be sluggish where he ought to be alert, or be asleep when he ought to be awake, prosecutions of this nature must come before you. When they do come before you, they come before the tribunal best calculated to determine upon every thing that such a prosecution imputes, and before the tribunal best calculated to determine upon the innocence or guilt of the accused. Gentlemen, I take upon me to assure myself, that you are well aware of the nature and extent of the duty you are now exercising. There have been agitations lately about the power of a jury, and the interposition of a court; the differences always seemed to me extremely trifling; but now there is no kind of hesitation as to the extent of the proper province of a jury upon such occasions as the present:-it is this, and God forbid it should be otherwise, that in the very frame-work of the crime, the jury should have a full cognizance of it, and a full jurisdiction over it; that the jury should be alone the judges, as to the nature and extent of the criminality charged; that neither the book itself, nor a paragraph selected from the book, nor any expression, shall be said to be criminal, unless the jury go with that idea, which forms a part of the indictment, imputing to the publisher the criminal intention ascribed upon that indictment. God be praised, that power is fully acknowledged. All that the officer of the crown has done in this instance is-and with a vigilance becoming him-to see that the matter imputed to the prisoner now, should come before a jury of the city of London for their determination. What the duty of the attorney-general was, in the first instance, is as it were your duty now. You are to look at the circumstances as he has done; but you have a greater power than he has, for you are to determine upon the guilt or innocence of the party accused. Gentlemen, I confess, in the agitation of questions relative to libel, it has frequently struck my mind, that some things perhaps had been better without prosecution, and that prosecutions ought to be directed against others; but in the result of all these inquiries, as far as my mind has enabled me to come to a result, I can only lament the imperfection of all possible human establish ments. abroad among the people in any possible way, to be sure any man of common sense must easily and readily go along with me in saying, that infinite mischief must follow. What then is to be done? It is the duty of that great law officer of the country, the attorney-general, when he has information from the different persons who are employed under him, and by his directions to inform him of those things that are going on in society, if they should appear to have a dangerous tendency, it highly becomes him to put them in a state of inquiry, that punishment may follow where punishment is deserv ed, and punishment may follow under the administration of justice in this country, according only to the law; that idea is conveyed in a short Latin sentence, which I will beg leave to translate: punishment is only intended "ut pana in paucos, metus in omnes incidat," that is, that the punishment which must follow the conviction of the crime, should only fall upon a few, and falling upon a few glaring offenders, that all should apprehend the danger of transgressing. If sedition were suffered to be scattered The attorney-general (who cannot do himself the honour of attending before you today, and therefore it devolves upon me, in my humble station, to represent this case to you) would have said this, if he had been here, which I will say for him. I have now discharged my duty, I only submit the question to you, and it is for you to decide; he can do no more, and I am sure you will do your duty, as he has done his. Gentlemen, the particular charge which has been stated by my friend, and had before been stated to you by the officer of the court, I shall beg the liberty of calling your attention to again. But before I do this, let me remark, that when a man is prosecuted for words spoken, it seldom happens, unless the behaviour of the person has furnished evidence against himself, either by the manner in which he has spoken the words, the place in which he has spoken the words, or other circumstances, that the evidence of intention can so fairly be got at, as to leave no doubt whatever. In a publication, likewise, it may sometimes be difficult to come at the intent of the author; but in order to do that, you must necessarily go into the context, and into the whole publication. Where it can arise as a defence for the man accused, that the words which are selected for prosecution convey a different meaning when taken in detached sentences, from what they bear in connexion with the general context, it is fair that he should have that |