Imatges de pàgina
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ill attended to, indeed, if not protected by the full vigour 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.

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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 recall 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.

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Admiral Pigot, the brother of Lord Pigot, being at that time a member of the House, and a most amiable man, connected in political life with the Opposition party in Parliament, an extraordinary degree of acrimony arose upon the subject, and the House of Commons came to a resolution to prosecute Messrs. Stratton, and others, in the Court of King's Bench; and an Information was accordingly filed against them by the Attorney-General. They were defended by Mr. Dunning, and the other leading advocates of that time, but were found guilty; and, on their being brought up to receive the judgment of the Court, Mr. Erskine, who was then only junior Counsel, made the following Speech in mitigation of their punish

ment.

The principle of the mitigation, as maintained by Mr. Erskine, may be thus shortly described. Lord Pigot, considering himself, as President of the Government of Madras, to be an integral part of it, independent of the Council, refused to put a question for decision by the Board, which the members of the Council contended it was his duty ministerially to have done; and he also unduly suspended two of them, to make up a majority in favour of his proceedings. This act of Lord Pigot was held by the Majority of the Council to be a subversion and usurpation of the government, which they contended was vested in the President and Council, and not in the President anly; and to vindicate the powers of the government, thus claimed to reside in them, they caused Lord

Pigot to be arrested and suspended, and directed the act of the Majority of Council, which Lord Pigot refused to execute, to be carried into execution. It was, of course, admitted that this act was not legally justifiable; that the Defendants were properly convicted, and must, therefore, receive some punishment from the Court; but it was contended in the following Speech, that the Court was bound to remember and respect the principles which governed our ancestors at the Revolution, and which had dictated so many acts of indemnity by Parliament, when persons, impelled by imminent necessity, had disobeyed the laws.

The Defendants were only fined one thousand pounds, without any sentence of imprisonment.

SPEECH

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