The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-07 00:00:00

gois4 Ui II SPL,CIAL
Co NI

TRIAL OF MR. FROST—(Strrti DAY.)
THE DEFENCE.
MONMOUTH, MoNnsv NIGHT.
Their Lordships t,.elt their sects at nine: o'clock precisely.
Sir Frederick Pollock—May it please your Lordships,
and gentlemen of the Jury—lt is now my duty to address
you on behalf of the prison•sr, Mr. John Frost, and to state
to you wh.it is his answer to the charge that has been made
aFailist him. My Learned Friend, towards the close of
his address, spoke of the difficult ta,k which the prisoner's
Counsel would have to perform. Ido not agree with my
Learned Friend ; and I would to God that I had as little
difficulty in relieving Mr. Frost from every charge of
criminality on that fatal and eventful day, as I believe I
have in answering the charge of high treason. I believe I
shall satisfy you, certainly I believe so, that I shall bring
the case within the compass of those expressions used by
the Attorney-General, and that will entitle the prisoner
to your verdict of acquittal. In the course of my address
I must entreat your indulgence to me. To me criminal
business is exceedingly new—a charge of high treason al-
together so. The business of this Court (so opposed to that
of the other) is always accompanied with feelings of inte-
rest and anxiety to me so intense and painful, and almost
overwhelming, that I have on all occasions, where I could
with propriety do so, declined it altogether. But, on the
present occasion, I readily accepted the office ; I thought
it my duty when called upon, to undertake this task ; and
I stated to the gentlemen who first applied to me on the
instant, and without hesitation, that if I could make it
accord with my professional engagements, it would be a
want of manliness on my part if I did not give to Mr.
Frost the benefit of any services which he wished to corn-
' mand. lam sure that my Learned Friend will cordially
agree with me that no loyal subject can be better em-
ployed than in thus disproving the existence of treason ;
and in satisfying you and the public at large that there
has been no case of that complexion, whatever degree of
criminality of another sort may to attach to it. lam far
from making any complaint, as sometimes hat been made on
occasions of this sort, on occasions of such solemn, and I may
almost say awful proceedings, as those in which you are
called to take a part. I make no complaint of the is-
suing of a Special Commission on the charge of high treason
being preferred ; and, least of all, do I make a com-
plaint of the manner in which these proceedings have been
conducted. I think it quite right, on occasions when the
public peace has been flagrantly disturbed, when numbers
of her Majesty's subjects have been alarmed by the events
which you have heard described by my Learned Friend,
and to some extent proved by the witnesses who have been
examined, I think it quite right that these things should
be as early as possible investigated, the law vindicated, the
offenders punished, and that species of protection given to
her Majesty's peaceable subjects which results from the
law taking instant cognizance of such proceedings, of as-
certaining the character and nature of the offence, and
awarding to it its due punishment, nor do I complain of
the form of the proceeding being that of k igh treason. I
think it becomes the law officers of the Crown, under all
the circumstances that first presented themselves, so to
offer that charge to your notice; nor has the prisoner
himself any reason to complain that it puts him
in a worse position than he would otherwise occupy.
From the earliest period of our history, and from all
that I have read and heard of questions of this
sort, it will be found that those who have been most en-
gaged in conflicts with the Crown for the liberties of the
subject especially guarded individuals charged with high
treason. The prisoner so charged is protected by having
a copy of the indictment ten days before trial—a privilege
from which others are excluded. He is also protected by
having a list of the jurors and a list of the witnesses
against him. And even before the Prisoners' Counsel
Bill had passed, he had the privilege of being fully de-
fended by such advocates as must be assigned by the
Court ; and even the inexperience, in the present case, of
the Counsel assigned has been a benefit to the prisoner, for
instead of taking the practice of the law from any books,
we sat down with the Act of Farliament before us—we
had the original documents in our view, and even
our very inexperience induced us to exercise that
caution and vigilance which has given rise to that point
which my Lords have deemed so important as to reserve it
for further consideration With respect to the proceedings
which have occurred in your presence, so far as the
Learned Judges are concerned, s-3 far from being entitled to
make any complaint, I do most fully and absolutely declare
that justice was never—l was about to say so ably—cer-
tainly never so satisfactorily, administered from the Court
in such a case as the present. I have never. known en any
occasion—l have never read of any proceedings of this sort
which have been conducted with such patient and untiring
attention on the part of the Learned Judges presiding ; and
I do, on the prisoner's behalf, most fully and deeply thank
them for the tirae and consideration—for the patience in
hearing every point suggested--for their reaeliness in giving
the prisoner's Counsel everypossible opportunity of hearing
and getting at the truth of the evidence, and for the con-
sideration which they have been enabled to give that evi-
dence before they were called upon to address you for the
defence. To you also, gentlemen of the Jury, for your
ready acquiescenee in the suggestions of the Counsel at
the bar, and for your cheerful endurance of %hat all per-
sons will admit to be the greatest inconvenience—your
protracted absence from your homes and your business—
asy sincere and cordial thanks are fully due and most fully
and gratefully rendered. It is, permit me to add, a very
good omen for the administration of justice. Thus far
everything has been satisfactory. Of my Learned Friend's
opening address I have nothing to complain. It was
short— I think it was meagre. He abstained very
much from a detailed statement. I make no com-
plaint of that, because I ascribe it partly to the
moderation and forbearance of my Learned Friend,
and partly also to the nature of the case
he had to disclose. I know that it would be satisfactory
to me if, instead of the case being summed up as it will
be by my Learned Friend the Solicitor-General, it had
been in some degree detailed at the opening; it would
have been some assistance to me in looking at that evi-
dence the giving of which has eccupied three not very short
days. It would have been of great assistance to me if my
Learned Friend had stated distinctly and precisely, not a
few general points--not that so and so was treason—
not that some general facts wculd be proved to bring home
guilt to Mr. !lost, but what were the particular facts, or
what the particular delarations on which he meant to rely,
as fringing home the charge to the prisoner at the bar.
And after I had heard the evidence I own it would still
have been further assistance to me if he bad said which it
was of the many inconsistent parts of this case he meant to
adopt ; for not only is it one, or two, but in ten instances that
it will be found that the evidence of one part of the case is
completely at variance with the evidence of the other, and I
should like to know which of those inconsistent statements
it was that my Learned Friend meant to say was the true
one, which one it was of the varied, absurd, and incon-
sistent disclosures supposed to be made, my Learned Friend
adopted as the true one. And it would have been gratify-
ing to me to have learned whether such and such a witness,
whose misconduct, I might almost say whose infamy, I be-
lieve, has already distinctly appeared to you would be
adopted by my Learned Friend as trustworthy. I should
like to have asked my Learned Friend which of the wit-
nesses, thirty-Wino in number, he has called—which of
them he required of you to believe, which it was that he
relied upon when he would ask of you to give your verdict
against the prisoner. Gentlemen, I believe it was not be-
e

ause my Learned Friend had any desire to keep back re-
marks that ought to be made. I should do him an injustice
if I were to put forth any such complaint; but I believe it
arose from this, that my Learned Friend distrusted his own

case. He was afraid to state circumstances which might.
possibly not only be proved, but possibly be contradicted,
and knowing this, that the case would come to be sifted;
and my Learned Friend being fully instructed, seemed to
consider it was of such a description, that the least said
of it the better. Ido complain that he did not give us
his statement in detail; that he gave an outline I do not
deny. I should like to have known how my Learned
Friend would have put the case, and not left to the Soli-
citor-General to collect together the scattered fragments of
the evidence upon which he will call upon you to give a
verdict against the prisoner. The charge is one which our
law always considered—and believes justly so—to be the
highest crime against the State. It is one, also, which is
visited with the severest punishment. This charge you will
now find presented to you in an indictment of four very long
counts. I make no complaint of the form of pleadings in
our Courts of Law, whether criminal or civil. But here, you
perceive, the four counts of the indictment contain much,
certainly, of repetition, and a plain man of sense might
wonder that a charge apparently so plain should be in.
volved in so much circumlocution and repetition, as make
it exceedingly difficult for an unlearned and uninformed
person to know what it means, or why there should be so

many counts, or so many repetitions in the same count. I
believe I have my Learned Friend's authority for saying,
that you need not give yourselves much trouble in direct-
ing your attention to the third and fourth counts, that is,
so far as they involve a personal attack on the Queen. I
believe I may say that my Learned Friend's speech showed
you that this charge could not be sustained ; and so it is
with reference to the charge of the Government. It is, I
believe, on the fourth count my Learned Friend, if I re-
collect right, did not point it out as one which would call
for much attention from you or from me. I thus call
your particular attention to the third and fourth counts
now, as these are the charges contained in them, so far as
I could collect from reading them. The first count, upon
which my Learned Friend relies, is for levying war for a
certain defined object ; the second count is for levying and
making war generally. I believe I shall be able to satisfy
you, in stating the offeace of Y.r. Frost, that he is not
guilty. I mean to confine myself to the second count of
the indictment, for I am not aware that, substantially, the
charge in the second count differs from that in the first,
except that the second states a certain purpose.
Ba.on Parls observer! that there was n.:t much d;ffet-
ence between them, Out the first cunta'ned more particu-
lars t an the accord.

war in Fv.etP-y4glienneeltr—s.l
Si-
intah.e second states the levying of
liteLl'i
The Attorne, -Geriera'— I am sort y to inteerupt tr
Learned •
Friend, but Ithink•
•t right to inform him Y :hat I
do n-o.
. mean to give up the t it. h• 4 aid fourth counts.
Sir F. Poltoek—l ")
so newhat surpi ised at my Learned
Fa iend's interruption In my Learr.ed Fr;end's open;. g
addrel• to you he said tha' your attention woukl br d rect• d
to the first and second counts. When he said Ibis it a,
neared to me as much
an
General of a t• ird or lotn atbhandonrnent by an Att.,rney-
count as any
I Attorney-Ge-
net al could poisibi% give,
atidnicirthen, rather astonished,
when I compare his opening address with what he now
says ; or he says i ow, though It: y'Ai on the r pqring
your attention would be narti Y
eularl addressed to the first
a d second count,, yet I now t ,ii
Y must be call, d
to the third and fourth al-o But, i•
GentlemenProduc, tly., mil-
mat ea from my Learned Friend
purpose in my mind--alters not e
a jot the produce
no
nub_
of
the b-
j,,et which I had t,kcn, and which is confirmed of
by what
has fallen fr,rn the Bench—not stating that the Attorney_
Attorney-
General ought to abandon the third and fourth
fiat
ancdounts of
the indic:ment, but that in substance the
°L
counts contained the same offs nee—the levy nge"d
of