fuch a cafe as this, ftating that there was a general riot, we have not been able to fix the name of any other 'rioter with thefe five Defendants." Has my Learned Friend denied that this was a general riot? Has my Learned Friend denied that it was a very ferious riot, affecting a great variety of perfons? Now, though he is bound to admit the existence of a riot, my Learned Friend is just as much at a lofs to find the names of the other perfons as I am; and why? because the circumftances attend. ing the tranfaction are such, that if you will not attend to the conduct of the few individuals who have been pointed out, it is not in the nature of things, that you should bring any man to punishment, in fuch a cafe. Then my Learned Friend fays, "What motive could Lord Thanet have?" Mr. O'Connor, who has been reprefented.as an extremely judicious man upon fome occafions, was certainly fo foolish, as to think fuch a project as this might have have been practicable; but is it in fact imputed to these perfons, that they meant to turn Mr. O'Connor loofe, in order to fubvert the conftitution of this country (for fo my Learned Friend states it)? and to do all this mischief which he is pleased to reprefent to you, must have been the confequence of Mr. O'Connor's efcape. He feems to have forgot, that all I meant to impute (for ought I know, there may be men in the country who know more of it than I do), that all I am charging upon these Defendants, is, that they meant to rescue Mr. O'Connor from any farther demand that Juftice might have upon him. Whether Mr. O'Connor was immediately to take himself out of this country, into a fituation in which he could do no mifchief, or whether he was to remain in this country to do mifchief, is a question with which I have no bufinefs.-I have no neceffity either to impute to the Noble Lord or the Learned Gentleman, any particular knowledge or intention upon that subject. Then my Learned Friend fays, "Do you think perfons in the Situation in which these two Defendants are (I mean Lord Thanet and Mr. Ferguffon), would further fuch a purpose as this?" Why, Gentlemen, if I am to give an anfwer to this question, I am bound (for I would not have brought this profecution, if I had not thought it a fit question for the decifion of a Jury) to fpeak out plainly upon the fubject; and I fay, fairly, that if any man had asked me before this trial was over, whether Mr. Ferguffon and Lord Thanet, having heard the particulars of the evidence, would not have removed to fituations where they could not have been implicated in this charge, I should have thought the imprudence of doing otherwife fo great, that it could not have happened. Mr. Ferguffon knew all the particulars of the evidence, and so did Lord Thanet, because he heard the evidence fummed up, and I' cannot help feeling here fome degree of furprize, when the

question

queftion was put to me, upon what was probable or what was improbable, after hearing the evidence upon that Trial.

Gentlemen, That there was a riot, is clear beyond all doubt. Now let us fee how it is occafioned :-Mr. O'Brien knew of this rumour, at the time the application was made to the Court, by Rivett and Fugion. He was aware, that Mr. O'Connor was not difcharged. He learned, and Lord Thanet learned, and I believe nobody doubts the fact, that every body learned this circumftance, not only that he was not then to be difcharged (with reference to which I am happy to find that my Learned Friend and I agree upon the point of law), not only that he was not then to be difcharged, but it was publicly taught to every body in Court, what was the reason and what the caufe for which his discharge was to be withheld from him. And here, without commenting upon that measure, which is fuppofed to have raised fo much indignation, I take leave to fay moft confidently, that it does not belong to any person, of any rank or fituation whatever, to interpofe in the execution of a warrant, upon his notion whether the magiftrate has acted right or wrong in granting it.-It is granted and must be acted upon.-If the magiftrate has acted improperly, the law of the country is not fo feeble, as not to be able to reach the mifconduct of the magiftrate. If every man is to judge in such a case, surely the country is in a fituation moft embarraffing, most difficult, and most awful; (for, remember, if men will take the law into their own hands where there are verdicts of Acquittal, they may where there there are verdicts of Guilty). Well, then, the parties having distinctly learned, that there was a warrant, and having been authoritatively told, that this warrant having iffued, Mr. O'Connor was not to be discharged, I fhall call your attention to what I take to be the few circumftances that muft decide this cafe :-Gentlemen, if you please I will put it fo, not to give Rivett any credit, if, upon any other part of the cafe, he is contradicted; but I fhould do that with great reluctance, till I am fatisfied that he is not worthy of credit. But I will fay this, that you may reject the whole of the evidence of Rivett, with refpect to Lord Thanet and Mr. Ferguffon, out of the cafe, and fay, whether out of the negative evidence given on the other fide, you can get rid of the facts fworn and depofed to by perfons whose characters are out of the reach of the breath of fufpicion.

In the first place, with refpect to the evidence of fomebody, whofe name I forget, upon the trial at Maidstone, a witness was asked, whether Mr. O'Connor wished to favour an inva fion of Ireland? he faid, Quite the contrary. So here, a witnefs when he was afked, whether Mr. Ferguffon appeared to be favourable to this refcue, he said, " Quite the contrary. This was a much stronger negation than that of the Maidstone

witnefs;

that he makes a complaint of thele perions itanding between 'the Prifoner and the Jury; whether the fact was fo, or not, I do not know. Mr.Garrow fays, he apprehends, from the state of the Court, it could not be at that period of the trial. Then what is the answer to that? I will put it in plain intelligible words :-If Mr. Ferguffon had been misled, by reading the statute 14 Geo. III. which fays, "that gaolers shall not detain prifoners for their fees, but that they fhall be discharged;" if he had not found out the difference between a verdict of Not Guilty, and that judgment which authorizes a man to go without paying his fees; if it had not occurred to him, that, when this difcharge is given, detainers may be lodged in civil fuits, or for other felonies, I hope in God we are not fo revolutionized as to contend, that a man shall not be charged with two treafons, as well as with two felo nies. Upon Mr. Ferguffon being told, that there was this warrant (the warrant being publicly exhibited), it is not for me to examine, what it became Mr. Ferguffon to do, because of that he is himself the judge. But I fay, if, after he was apprized of that, he took any part, not by pofitive actual conduct, but by encouragement, capable of being exhibited to the understandings, and impreffed upon the minds of the Jury, as fuch (however differently perfons may tell their ftories, with reference to certain facts, in which they do not agree, however ftrongly individuals may speak with refpect to facts that they did not obferve, however negatively they may fay they did not fee this or that, and they do not think it poffible, and fo forth); if there are pofitive circumstances fworn, which amount to acts of encouragement, which a Jury can feel and act upon, they must look to that pofitive evidence; and if, in this cafe, Gentlemen, you find that pofitive evidence exifting, however unwilling you may be to find fuch a verdict, you are fworn, upon your caths, to give a verdict according to law; and you muft find a verdict therefore in fupport of this information.

Gentlemen, I will not go into a detail of the evidence, which you will hear from his Lordship; but with reference to Lord Thanet and Mr. Ferguffon, I cannot part with the evidence given, by Mr. Solicitor-General; but I fhall first make this obfervation upon the evidence of Mr. Serjeant Shepherd,

to

to whofe credit, honour, and accuracy, we all do juftice, that where that evidence preffes upon Mr. O'Brien, he fays, that "Mr. O'Brien having turned round and looked up at Mr. O'Connor, it made an impreffion upon his mind;" and alfo that, "as far as he obferved, Lord Thanet was defending himfelf." He judges therefore of appearances, both with reference to Lord Thanet and with reference to Mr. O'Brien; and what he fays of the appearances with reference to Mr. O'Brien certainly throws a great degree of credit upon his accuracy when he speaks with respect to Lord Thanet. The fame credit is due, I take it, to Mr. Solicitor-General and you

will have the goodness alfo to attend to the evidence of Mr. Huffey; for if you believe what he states, that when the man was preffing forward to execute the warrant, Lord Thanet inclined towards the bar, and put his perfon in the way; if that fact is proved to your fatisfaction, Lord Thanet is guilty upon this Record. And if other facts are proved against Lord Thanet, and fimilar facts are proved againft Mr. Ferguffon, you must decide upon all the evidence, and not from what other men did not fee or obferve; you are not to decide upon the eloquence of my Learned Friend, but upon the oaths of perfons who depofe pofitively to facts. Then my Learned Friend made an obfervation upon the evidence of Mr. Solicitor. General, with reference to whom, as a moral character, I fay nothing, because he is above all praise that I can bestow upon him I have no doubt that it was an extremely painful thing for him to give his evidence this day; but his evidence is extremely material, because he speaks to the circumftance of Mr. Ferguffon crying out that Mr. O'Connor was difcharged. He tells you the pains he took with his brother in the profeffion to tell him that he was not discharged; and he speaks to the warrant being produced, and therefore there was a public notice, that there were further demands of juftice upon Mr. O'Connor. He ftates upon his oath, that he did moft diftincty and cautiously attend to the conduct of Mr. Ferguffon and Mr. O'Connor; and then he fays this: "I fixed my eye upon "O'Connor, and I obferved Mr. Ferguffon, and other perfons "whom I did not know, encouraging Mr. O'Connor to go "over the bar." Encouraging is a general word undoubtedly; but it is a word which expreffes the impreffion which facts falling under his eye had made upon his mind; and when he was asked what he meant by encouragement? he defcribes it to have been by his actions. But he not only gives his evidence in this way as to that particular fact, but he gives it also with a caution, which entitles it to the fame degree of credit which Mr. Serjeant Shepherd's evidence derives from its accuracy; for when he comes to fpeak of a circumftance, with reference to which he is not certain, he tells you, “Mr.

6

"O'Connor

has told you, that he heard Lord Thanet exprefs himself in the manner which he has described, and I trust I shall not be told that the manner of an expreffion is not evidence of the import of the mind of the man from whofe mouth the expreffion flows. He states to you the circumftance of Mr. Sheridan's conver fation with the Learned Judge, and he was ftruck with the extreme difference of the manner in which Mr. Sheridan expreffed himself to that Learned Judge, from the manner in which Lord Thanet expreffed himself. Am I to be furprized that Lord Thanet could be engaged in fuch a project, if I can be lieve, that he, a Peer of the Realm, made use of fuch language to a Judge of the Country, that he thought it fair that he "(the prifoner) fhould have a run for it ?"—a run, for what; Why, a run to elude juftice!—a run to get out of the hands of a Court of Justice-a run to prevent being brought to juftice; and this is the fentiment of a Peer of the Realm-" he thought "it fair to have a run for it. And, confidering it to be fair, he acted upon that apprehenfion, as far as he had the power of acting. This is a circumftance requiring your anxious confideration. Whether this Noble Peer ftruck Rivett firit, which I do not find Rivett say that he did, is of no importance. Thefe men have a certain temper and degree of fpirit about them, which might perhaps induce them to thrash a Peer more than any body elfe, if they felt themselves ill-treated; Mr. Rivett may take this advice of me-I hope, in future, he will not use fuch treatment if he can avoid it. But what preffes upon my mind is, that if Lord Thanet, treated in the manner he was by Rivett, had no connection with this project of rescue; if he had not, either from the circumstances that fell under Mr. Sheridan's obfervation, or from other circumstances, manifested that he meant there fhould be a rescue, is it the conduct of a man of confiderable fituation-is it the conduct of a man of common fenfe, instead of making a serious complaint upon the fubject, instead of ftating, as he naturally would have done, "this project of refcuing a man from the

but

hands of juftice, is that fpecies of project, which, in my "fituation, it must be known I must feel to be inconfiftent "with propriety, duty, and honour, to have embarked in ?” On the contrary, he is perfectly neutral; no complaint is made