Star. — London, England, 1817-04-10 00:00:00

EDINBVItGIit, 'APRIL S. HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY. This morning the Court proceided to the trial of 'soder Madam, weaver, in Kilmarnock, and Tho ra Baird, merchant, there, accused of the crime of p e tition. B , i great an interest did this trial create, t hatwt an early hour the avenues to the Court were , r ,i r ded ; none, however, It first were admitted into tee body of the Court, eXCLI)! members of the faculty o f Advoeat-s in their gowns, end the Gentlemen of the youg Jury. The gag-Ty was ,o rued for strangers. Tne prisimers, who were atlaig.: on bail, having p!aced themselves at the hat, the indictment was read ° er to them by the clerk. Ii charged fvlaclaren with eTerrieg seditious aiel intl mate, y seeeCl:S:trl public trixt,nif,ii at De: !;p url, in ti.et vicinity of Kiltraar• wje k, on the ith December last,c.lcul ited to brin g into contempt the Government and Legislature, and to rah& ivy therefrom the confidence and affections of t t, u people; and Maclaren and Baird of afterwards printing and publishing a p rmphlet containing these :editions and ieflamrnateny remarks and assertions. The obnozhars yfassages were quoted at length in the indictment. The most object iunable passage was the fo o wieg, said to have been delivered in a speech by tuclaren That our sufferings are insupportable k d e monstrated to the weild ; and that they arc nci. eler temporary, nor occasioned by a transition from 'en to peace, is palpable to all, though have not tke cottage to avow k. The fact-is, we are roles' by mat w ily solicitous for their own aggrandizement ; and they Cate 110 farther for the great body of the people, th in they are subservient to their accursed par lous If y ou are convinced of this, any countrymen, I would thersfore put the qeestiou, Are you degenerate enough to bea r it ?Shall we, whose forefathers set limits to the all.graspng power of Rome shall we, whose forefather , on the never-to-be forgotten field of B in nosihuni told the mighty Edward,' Hitherto shalt th.iu cane and no farther;' shall we, I say, whose toielatl ers dried the efforts of foreign tyranny to en. slave our beloved country, meanly permit in our d a y, without a murmur, a base oligarchy to feed their filthy vermin on our vitals, and rule its as they will ? No, my countrymen ! Let us lay our Petitions at the foot of the throne, where sits our august Prince, whose gracious nature will incline his ear to listen to the cries of his people, which he is hound to do by the hers of the country. But, should he be so infa tuated as to turn a deaf ear to their just Petition. he hr: forfeited their allegiance. Yu, toy fellow-loworwar, tuc4 a cate,.ro hell with our allegiance The Pamphlet containing the statement of the pro ceedings presented also the following, among rather iufinumatory expressions : That the House. of COMM, is corrupted—is decayed and worn otit— is not really whet it is called—is cot a House of Commons."—" The House of Commons, in its ori gin' composition, consisted only of Commoners, cho se!' annually by the universal suffrage of tile. people. Nu Noblemen, no Clergymen , no Naval or Military Officer—in s hort, none who held places or received rysims from G overnment, had any tight to. sit in Ll:at House. This is what the House of Commons was, what it ought to be, and what we wish it to be; this is the wanted change in our form of Govern ineat—the Comma's, House of Parliament restored to is criginal purity; and ibis, ,beyend s doubt, wield strike at the root of the greatest part of the evils which we groan under at the present day."— * Is it any wonder, my friends, that this comfy is brow ,ht cobs present unprecedented state of, misery, wheu the rights of :he people have been thus want:mly violated ?" as But . let us come nearer home. L aok at year 1793, when the debt amounted to two hundred and eleven millions, and the annual taxation to about eighteen millions 1 when liberty began to rear her drooping head in the country ; wl:en asso• ciations were framed from one er.d of the kingdom to another, composed of nlen e mi nen ifor their talents and virtue, in assert their right; when a neighbouring na tion had just thrown off a yoke which was become into lerable—what did the wise rulers of this country Jo ?, Why,they declared war not only against the French na-1 tiny, but also against the friends of lOWA ty at home." Our oppressors have taxed the very light of HUTU ; and they seem surprised and indignant that we should not bear the insupportable burden, with which folly, corruption, and avarice. have loaded us, without reluctance and complaint."—• 4 Their reverend hirelings would convince you that you are suffering under the visitation of the ALMIGHTY. and therefore ought to be submissive under the chastening stroke." We have these twentg-five years been coedemned to incessant and unparalleled slavery, by an maePed oligarchy. who pretend to be our guar dians and represrntative% while. in fact, they are no- 1 thing but our inflexible and determined enkmies."..... l "They have robbed us of our money, deprived us of our friends, violated onr rights, and abased our pri- I 'llegesP—" At present we have no reprisentatives; they are only nominal, not real; active only , in pro. ling their own desi g ns, and at the same tel. ling us that they are agreeable to our wishes." To this indictment the prisoners generally pleaded NorGniky.. Mr. CAMPIIIILL, jonior Counsel for Nl' Laren, stated that'he had no objections to ante to the relevancy of the indictment, it remained entirely for the Jury to decide, whether the crime of sedition was made out from the statement in the indictment t The Counsel for the Crown had in this case behaved with the ut most liberality, and he ( tvlr.•Campbell) would fairly state the nature of the defence he meant to set up.— !Hs client, so far from being a seditious person, bad many years been a member of a volunteer regi ?mu is Glasgow, and could produce evidence of his character foe strict order and regularity. He did not deny his having attended the meeting hi question,: but driven as lw was by the general distress of the t ,"otry, and him s elf r e d u ced to wages of ss. weekly. neon co . iiinon with others. began to enquire into the canoe of the general distress which prevailed. The 'fleeing in question was a regular meeting, openly "eds andallowed by the Magistracy. Many of the expressions contained in the indictment were not ac tually uttered at the meeting, although contained in the manuscript as intended to have been uttered.— The meeting was for a legitimate purpose, and the Petitions in consequence were brought tip, and or dered to lie upon the tables of both Houses of Palls. moot. The Learned Counsel then Argued. that it was the undoubted right of- every subject of this °metre to comment upon the conduct of Milligan NW proceedings of the Legislature, and referred to . . . the *ides !Ind Petrtids. jinni the Thatched. Tavern, as containing moth strdnger language _ any thing stated in the indictment, and concluded by trusting that he should he ible tb convince the Jury that the words made use of were perfectly justifiers's. ' Mr. Jervitay, AS Counsel, for the prisoner DAM, a ddressea the Conic in warty simil it terms. His client 114 d na wisa k liner the diictis.ion, bl. any ohi:ction to the relevancy of the iodictmenr. He was a person rat h er in the better rink of life, and had also served his country iii a military capacity. He did attend the meeting in question, and patroniaed it. and such meeting, he contended, was held tnr A 100. ernate purp.s s e„ The manuscripts of the sperch?s were IlAlided in to him by the different metros: they were whited and published fa a small sum, to fray the expense of the proceeding., and each mem b:r of the Committee engaged to sell a few at their side, ent shops. The Lomv ADVINCATIC. while he acknowledged the handsome and op'in way the Counsel on the other side had stated their case, openly and distinctly ad mkted that it rested solely with the Jury to say, upon their oaths, whether the facts charged amounted to sedition or not. Lood HERMAN% in giving his opinion upon the relevancy, otoset vest, that this was not an attack upon Milkers, but a direct attack upon the Parliament now sitting. The speeches were of the most inflam matory nature, and the words—" To hell with our aliegiA4zt," it Inlinwed- layattly- overt act, would have undenteedly amounted to high treason. Lards Citcale, Peranua.v. lteeroe, and Joartcs CLERK being of the same opinion, and having deli vered their opinions at considerable length, the Court prunouaced the usual interlocutor, finding the indict ment relevant, and remitting the case to the decision of a Jury, both as to the hew and the tact. 'Vas tol:ewing Jury was Eisen chosen : limes Wao on, of :augliton Arch. M.Kinillay, haberdasher , John Dodd., twiner John &ma, confectioner John I:St Male, farmer James Heviden, jeweller „ David Pringle, art negbie William Kennedy, glop! ~ Johu Sweat c, ui Bennie Win. Lindsalle o rerchant o , iu Caklrr, farmer Joh' Gowan, -merchant John Kneen, fariurr Jasnesecnialdart, wine merchant. William Marshall, jeweller "Ille first witness for the prosecution, Andrew Finnic, merchant, in Kilmarnock, had b :en present at the Meeting, which consisted of about 4,000 per sons, chiefly of the lower order. The day was very stormy, with much wind and rain, so that he heard little more than the sound of the speeches; but there WAS one passage in Maclaren's speech which struck his attention so forcibly, he still retained it in his memory. The words were, 44 We will I sy" or rr Let us lay our Petition at the foot of the Throne, where sits our august Prince, whose generous nature will incline his ear to hear the cues ul his people, which be is bound to do by the constitutional lawslif his country ; and we are thereby boutid to give him our alleeinnee: but if he should be- so infatuated as to turn a deaf ear to the general sties (or voice) of his people, to hell with allegiance." • Witness had seen the pamphlet, and did not consider Maclaren'aspeech to have been correctly printed in it. Expressions had been omitted, and. others had been inserted w'uich bad not been spoken. Witness knew that 'Baird hid been of the Committee which had prepared the Re. solutions for the public • Meeting. tie knew that 4 Baird had asked permission the Chief Magistrate of Kilmarnock for assembling the Meeting. He knew that Baird had, supefintended the printing of the pamphlet. and had'solifseveral copies at his shop.' Knew that Baird did not speak at the Meeting, and, that he disapproved of printing the expressions in Maclaren's speech relative to allegiance, which he considered to be very bail:cent. At the meeting of the Committee, the prisoner, Maclaren, and a Mr. Johnston, objected to publishing at all. The:profita ot the sale of the pamphlet were to delray . the penses of the Meetina. There has been no public Meeting since December. The Petitions were fore , warded to both Houses of Pediment. There has' been no riot or disturbance of the peace in Kilmar nock singe the public Meeting. Maclaren sail to the Committee, that if there was any thing wrong in his speech, to keep it. out altogether. Maclaren was backwatdee open the Meeting ; but he was pa:lieu ' lerly requested to do so. in the Committee, some days before. The night before the Meeting he hes : tated l whetht4 be would do so or not. Maclaren told wit -suss, that the passage about' allegiance was a quota tioa from Shakespeare. The next witness, W. blerric, a carpenter, had been at the Meeting, and remembered to have heard Mac !area utter the words, Hell with such allegiance," or, 4• for such allegiance." Witness conceived the tendency of all the speeches he heard to be nothing more than to recommend the measrue of petitioning Parliament. Hugh Crawford, printer, proved that Baird had attended in the Printing-office at least once, along with others, for the purpose of superintending the irinting of the pamphlet, of which about four hun dred copies had been thrown off. The printing had not been paid for, and witness held Baird to be one of the persons liable to hint for his bill. Murray, an operative printer employed, corroborated this evidence. The nest witness, Johnstone, a muslin agent, had been chairman of the public meeting. Had heard Maclaren say, that the words "to bell allegiance" were not in the MS. of the speech, but had come it his head at the moment, being a quotation from . a, Play. Witness mated, that the wages of weaving had oven reduced from 14s. per week for work Ira (Inking from 14 to 16 hours a day, to I.S. 6d. pee week, for the same work, which had lately bees raises to .51. 6J. The Meeting was solely held to prtit:on.Parliainent and the Prince Regent. Wit• ness has known, bil•Lsren for eight years. and never saw any thing in him but quiet and orderly conduct. He was a member of the rifle-corps at Kilmarnoek., He objected particularly to the printing ot bisseieeihe' as it had been made up in a hurried manner, and be had no intention that morning of speaking at all So far as witness knows bins, be would not have been a member of •joy society for illega l or seditious pur poses, other•lte witness would not have kept his company. There was nothing secret discussed in the meetings of the Committee—it was open to every one. The Magistrates were apprised of the public meeting. and uo ebstructioa was given, and the pe titions were forirarded to the Prince Regent and both Houses of Parliament, and so fair a4i witness's .ane scary served high the Printed paper sheen ham now 41Npagains the subitalits. . Mr. Gm* hat MA ae ettract front the Petition, as in the printed Journal of the House of Commons, An which the Petitioners complain of the corrupt re presentation, and that seats were bought and sold as openly as tickets for the Opera. Witness declares they are the words used, and the Petitkn was ordered to lie : on the table of tie House of Commons. Other three viitnea;es on the part of the Crown. On the part of the Prisoners a number of most re erectable' witnesses were also calk.!, whose evidence went to prove that the meeting in celestial' was called for a legititinate purpose, viz. that of t - ,.. , :it;otong the Priuce Regent, ane both House. of Peril.' u:ent, I or R e. form; thatdue intimation had been given to the Civil MAgibzrate; that the Petitions were transmitted, read. .and laid on the t shies of beth Hstuses ; that the speech of Matlaren had not been fairly reported in the printed pamphlet; that in fact he was avulse to its being printed at all; that Baird was averse also to the printing of the obnoxious passage, observing, that it, wet indecent and indecorous—but he was outvoted in the Committee ; and that the pamphlet was print ed and sold solely with the view of dell-eying the expenses of the meeting. Beth of the prisoners pro duced the clearest evidence of their forma good cha racter ; Baird, as being one of the most respectable persons in Kilmarnock, formerly a Captain in the Volunteer and Local Militia Regiments, and a Com missioner of Police there : Madmen, as having been :e•geeicant in the Volunteer kid* Crisps, and et a quiet and orderly behaviour ; and formerly, in all 'qwections upou.politics, taking the side of Govern ' ment ; although bode prisoners were always friendly . to Resorm in Parliament. by constitutional means. Upon this evidence the LORD ADVOCATR charged the Jury for the Crown in a speech of two hours and half durst i on, in the course of which his Lerdship observed, that nothing was farther from the intention of e l i feble j csty's Government than to prevent the ietsji•ct's undoubted right of petitioning; but it ought to be distinctly kept in view, that the speeches deli vered at meetings- duly assembled, ought strictly to apply to the business of the meeting, and not, by in flammatory and seditious 'trunks and assertions, de grade and bring into contempt the Government and Legislature, and fill the kingdom with bloodshed. tumult, and dissention. He mentioned the Case of Fish Palmer, in 1793; and read the publication which he issued, and for which he suffered the pu nishnatist of sedition, to thew that the language used by the prisoners was muck stronger and more in tiemmatory. Mr. CLERK addresiesl the Jury on the part of Mac lam. He expatiated at much length, and in a very argumeetative manner, on the right of petitioning Parliament as one the most valuable privileges of the subject, and without which all his other tights might be annihilated. It became necessary, when grievances were to be complained of, to slate them in plain language; end, although the grievance might be imaginary, still the right to complain must ' not be encroached upon ; nor, consequently, the lan guage used in expressing the complaint. The object of tee meeting having been proved to be exclusively tleat of petitioning Parliament; the case of the priso ners comes to be entirely different from that of Pal mer, and the other cases 447.9* and. 1794. Olieit in these instances was not to petition Parlia steer, but to connect•an.organised system of resist ance to Government. Mr. Clerk commented at great ispgth, and with much ingenuity, upon the expres sions founded on in the indictment, in order to 'hew, that, in reference to the object of petitioning PArlia went, they were not to be held to be seditious.— There were read by Mr. Grant, as part of Mr. Clerk's speech, passages from several Petitions to Petletinent, to prove tart similar language was ad• , "tted of in Petitions to PArliameat. Mr. Clerk's speech occupied nearly two limns. Mr. JkFlgitY addressed the Jury on the part of Baird. He went over the facts as adduced in evi dence in reference to his client, from which, by mast forcible and eloquent illustration. he endeavoured to, make out that itaire's intentions had been entirely free of all wicked or felonious views, in whioh the, essence of sedition consisted. Mr. Jeffery also coin roented most ingeniously on the expressions founded upon in aecusAtion, and interpreted them to be such as, however vulgar or indecorous, were still not such, used for the purposes proved, as a Jury could in con-, science find to be seditious. The tight of petitioning. he contend/IJ, was, since the glorious Revolution, the inherent right of every Briton.—When assembled to consider grievances, was it for a moment to be sup posed, that persons, such as assembled at this public meeting. would express their ideas in such refined terms as those in a different station of life, and with a supesior education would do. The liberty 'of speeds spots mach occasions was licensed, net only by the Constitution, but by every law authority in England ; in so far as expressions,' mush more indemmeten y than those !me charged. were daily made upon the hustings in the sputhero part of the kingdom, without 'hers -sons soleipreuing themselves being laid lioid . by the pultliceerosecutor. The fact was, that the law ed England mildly looked upon her children, wl.en ex pressing their grievances, and probably oversteeping inc strict bounds of correctness of speech, in tee URIC light as a physician looks upon a patient ia a slight fever (*delirium, rather to be cured by emollient than coercive medicines. If, then. the people of England had the glorious right of stating their grievances with all the phlegmatic characteristic of theoestion, was the hot and stormy ficotchman, smarting, as he ima gined-himself, under suppdsed grievames, not mill tied to express himself, unless in terms se the strictest .propriety and decorum, because an obsolete law had made that sedition Which was perfectly consistent with a tree nation. Week must that Government be; which was under the necessity of catching at the un guarded expressions of a few obscure individual-. Ihe right of petitioning, the Learned Counsel ob served, for annual Parliaments and universal suffrage, were legitimate and constitutional objects of pursuit ; they were principles recognized in the theory of our Constitution ; and although the Jury might be of a different opinion, yet, (son forbid that any man should be punished for differing from them in opi nion, while-what he had in view was a fair and le gitimate object of pursuit. • He observed, that the cases of 1703 and 1794 ought to be no precedent at die present day. He explained, in glowing language, .the perilous state of the country NI those eventful times. Mina theft judged in a trembling state of' alarm; the village trineaction of Kilmarnock in ' feneeable times, and followed by no consequenee•, 'was a mato of a eery diff-rent complexion. The eye.' ni the country were derected,upon tliii first tri4l fur sedition in the present times. and it would be i 0 glory te: the Jury - to lend themselves in aid of what he must consider to be over-7.g in the °dicers of the Crown. Tuis teas a e ese of all.ptheis fit fur the con side:La:ion of a Jusy. The'lriil by Jerry was pas text'. larly precious 'when th- ;I:oldie 41 rights of initviSurls ,were at valte.—Mr. JclFrey spoke three hours. At elrven o'clock at night the Low Juince at:lte: pruccedeJ to sneu up the evidenre. as Lord. ship b:g.an by readia.r. from Mr. hurne's celceir.ded book en '.:e Crinlinal Law of sco laud Ole nature of the crime of seßion. and which he kit to the Jury wi..Lou: c.inerrTa His Lordship au went over the ditrzrcut pus A igricitinteei its the lodize...l:cm, .I.id is ii;c:), he observed. he and his brethren on the b nd, ( Lords Gillies, Hernutn.l, Pineal'', and It.ston).wore cdear! y 01 . *anon were, by the law of Scotland, of a stilt tioni nature. His Lordship thin went at consider*. tie length into the evidence, as proving the crime to the prisoner; ; chiming, that it the Jary were satiilicil With such evidence, thi were baw:d by their oaths t.) 6,1 d them guilty ; hot li , held It :rico to be his indispens 'hie duty to state, that • the lair character of both the prisoners completely est ald;rhed, particularly in reference to their p.ilitic el cenedoct on other occasions, ought to have much weielit on the minds of the Jury in estienae;ng their beenriger ; fur. unless those had been wicked iin.ifbee:o, At 11 tie:64 :in the indictment, the caw was hot in.re nut by the prosecuted.. The Lord .lititice Cletk's addre.s was concluded about halt.past twelve at night. At one o'clock on Sunday morning, the Jury (hav ing expressed a wish to retire) were encloseil, and 1 directed to return a verdict in writing on Mond,7 morning, at ten o'clock. • MONDAY, APRIL 7. This morning the Court met, and The Jury return s . ed a verdict, finding the prisoner *Laren, by a plu rality of votes. Guilty of the crimes libelled ; and all in one voice finding 110 lif El also Guilty of the crimes lihelkd--.but, in consideration of their fortner good character, unanimously recommended .them to the mercy of the Court. • Mr. JEFFREY stated an objettion to the verdict, in so far as the prisoners were charged with the crime of sedition, whereas the Jury had found them guilty of the crimes libelled. Var.ous crimes may he charg ed in an indictment, and ti eJury may find one crime proven, or, generally, the wi , oie crimes proven ; but here the prisoners were tried for (;he crime, v.z. sedi tion. and of that crime alone the Jury sl-ould have found them guilty, and not of climes, when only one was charged. The Cotirt were of opinion that :he virdict was right, in so far as the prisoners were charged with speaking the seditious v... rds, and after wart.is printing and publishing tb.m. The LOKI) ADV(ZATE then craved the judgment of the C ,, urt upon the prisoners. The Judges haviag dOivered their npinions as to the s-q:tence which oligh: to be pronounced. the I.4tit• Jcsi i e CLLItK, after Admonition, !ell., aced the pi isont.ts to Six I.oprisonnumt in the of Caninigate, and to find caution for their trJ itsvielvforthererisid . ot Tine Yeterthiriaiter, Bald in £2OO, and M'Laren in re4o, and to be datitiaet until such caution be folnd.. About twelve. o'clock yesterday, the Manchester coach, called the Traveller, drove to the Police Office. Bow-street, with three men in the inside, heavily ironed and chained together, in the custody of Mr. P,ansoes, the Ki.ig's Messenger, who had brought t'eem frinn Milecheeter on a charge of Hio Treason. They %tele also guarded by a Police OJicer belong ing to Manchester, oil the outside of the coach. Their ii ',nes ;tie ffil sari Kni, Jahn Plans, ant James L.each. They write l ut into confinement in the Otfice. One of these men lives at Rochdale, one at Mid dleto" a nd one near that place. They were all taken . At Mola S r:stet on Friday setinight, which was the day appriotiVor the general meeting, lint wirier was prevented hoer taking place by the •elertion of the.klagistrates, the Police UrEettr, and a very nee merous assemblage hf the military, !terse and font, who poured into town in the morning in all direc tions. The prieoners were confined it, the New Bailey Ptisim till Monday, when they unclerwint.examitia tions before a Magiarate on Monday evening, at Manchester, previous to their removal by the Tra. yeller coach to London. About two o'clock yesterday they were conveyed from the Office to the ziecre;ary of State's Office for the Home Departmeet, wh er e ;they underwent an 'examination he'ore Lard Stir MOUTH, the I.l.ider Secretary of State, the Law cers. Sir NATHANIEL CONANT, &C. At the same Samuel Rinford, John Lanrarki e, JAR &tern, Junes Seller:, Robert !hut ton, Libantrd Connor, and Dr. Kicking:. who • were brought to Load: n from Manchester on the el m , o f ;...I ;ef o i , by tvielMs. WTI.? lANIi mild liT k ES, the King's Mest;ene.ets, Were yesterday rem iv-d Irons the House hit: , irrection by Mr. Beceere, the :lira.' •key, and others, to the Secretary of Stitt's Office, where they underwent A second examination: Mr. Knish, a rnaoulact on:r, whu was brought from Manchester to Landon by Manchester price affect:, WAS conveyed in a coach to liotv.street by Mr: Nou- Dalt, the Governor tit Tothill fields Brider:ell, an I he also underwent an etamiitatiou ; his trunk Accompa- Died him, whizlf, we understood, contauttd articles essential to the charge preferred•against hm. The • proceedings continueil till' !IC ar six o'clock, -• All the parties were remand-d to their former places of confinement. ii 'Niche Kew. %bat, Leach, and John Plant, were• ter _feted to be detained in canto-Iy. foe prisoners were confined in different apart. naeuts, and had no communication with each other. l'he whole proceedintTs were conducted with the strictest seat cy. The nature of the cnarges inferred against any of th:m did not transpire. Yesterday the Westminster Sessions were held at the Sessions House before the Ch.firman, R. Warsof , Esq. and a full Bench of Magistrates. The CliAlitNlAV,* in •addressing the Grand jury, observed, that if any•c•ase came before therm rsis. sire to those public nnitancet, the sale or rapi),tire fur sale of blasphemous publication, such as 1•10 fre quently be was afraid of late tunes disgraced this me tropolis; they would'give any such case their n s ,, s r re rious consideration. He quoted the opinion ~ag e Hale, that such publications; were a violation 't ss S • - law of the laud. The Grand Jury thto wrcuite.e,