unfortunate man whom you are trying; your sound understandings will easily enable you to distinguish infirmities, which are misfortunes, from motives, which are crimes. Before the day ends the evidence will be decisive upon this subject.

There is, however, another consideration which I ought distinctly to present to you; because I think that more turns upon it than any other view of the subject: namely, whether the prisoner's defence can be impeached for artifice or fraud; because I admit, that if, at the moment when he was apprehended, there can be fairly imputed to him any pretence or counterfeit of insanity, it would taint the whole case, and leave him without protection; but for such a suspicion there is not even a shadow of foundation. It is repelled by the whole history and character of his disease, as well as of his life, independent of it. If you were trying a man under the Black Act, for shooting at another, and there was a doubt upon the question of malice; would it not be important, or rather decisive evidence, that the prisoner had no resentment against the prosecutor-but that, on the contrary, he was a man whom he had always loved and served? Now the prisoner was maimed, cut down, and destroyed, in the service of the King.

Gentlemen, another reflection presses very strongly on my mind, which I find it difficult to suppress. In every state there are political differences and parties, and individuals disa fected to the system of government under which they live

E

as subjects. There are not many such, I trust, in this country; but whether there are many or any of such persons, there is one circumstance which has peculiarly distinguished His Majesty's life and reign, and which is in itself as a host in the prisoner's defence:-since, amidst all the treasons and all the seditions which have been charged on reformers of government as conspiracies to disturb it, no hand or voice has been lifted up against the person of the King: there have, indeed, been unhappy lunatics who, from ideas too often mixing themselves with insanity, have intruded themselves into the palace-but no malicious attack has ever been made upon the king, to be settled by a trial: His Majesty's character and conduct have been a safer shield than guards or than laws. Gentlemen, I wish to continue to that sacred life that best of all securities; I seek to continue it under that protection where it has been so long protected. We are not to do evil that good may come of it; we are not to stretch the laws to hedge round the life of the King with a greater security than that which the Divine Providence has so happily realized.

Perhaps there is no principle of religion more strongly inculcated by the sacred Scriptures than by that beautiful and encouraging lesson of our Saviour himself upon confidence in the Divine pro. tection: "Take no heed for your life, what ye shall "eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye "shall be clothed; but seek ye first the kingdom

" of God; and all these things shall be added unto "you." By which it is undoubtedly not intended that we are to disregard the conservation of life, or to neglect the means necessary for its susten. tation; nor that we are to be careless of whatever may contribute to our comfort and happiness; but that we should be contented to receive them as they are given to us, and not to seek them in the violation of the rule and order appointed for the government of the world. On this principle nothing can more tend to the security of His Ma. jesty and his government, than the scene which this day exhibits in the calm, humane, and impartial administration of justice; and if, in my part of this solemn duty, I have in any manner trespassed upon the just security provided for the public happiness, I wish to be corrected. I declare to you solemnly, that my only aim has been to secure for the prisoner at the bar, whose life and death are in the balance, that he should be judged rigidly by the evidence and the law. I have made no appeal to your passions-you have no right to exercise them. This is not even a case in which, if the prisoner be found guilty, the royal mercy should be counselled to interfere: he is either an accountable being, or not accountable; if he was unconscious of the mischief he was en. gaged in, the law is a corollary, and he is not guilty; but if, when the evidence closes, you think he was conscious, and maliciously meditated the treason he is charged with, it is impossible to con

ceive a crime more vile and detestable; and I should consider the King's life to be ill attended to, indeed, if not protected by the full vigor of the laws, which are watchful over the security of the meanest of his subjects. It is a most important consideration, both as it regards the prisoner, and the community of which he is a member. Gentlemen, I leave it with you.

SPEECH

FOR

GEORGE STRATTON, HENRY BROOKE, CHARLES FLOYER, AND GEORGE MACKAY, ESQUIRES;

AS DELIVERED IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH ON THE 5th DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1780.

THE following speech was one of the earliest of Lord Erskine's appearances at the bar, having been delivered in the court of King's Bench on the 5th of February, 1780. It was not comprehended in the former volumes, because the subject did not range within the title of that collection.

Time now begins to cast into the shade a proceeding which occupied at the moment a great deal of public interest and attention, viz.: the arrest and imprisonment of Lord Pigot, governor of Madras, by the majority of the council of that settlement, in the year 1776.

On their recal to Europe by the Directors of the East India Company, a motion was made in the House of Commons, for their prosecution by the Attorney-General, for a high misdemeanor.