The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-08 00:00:00

to deal with the case, can only deal with it, as it has been
opened, sustained, and placed before us by my Friend the
Attorney-General. We cannot anticipate the arguments
which may be offered by the Solicitor-General when he
comes to make his reply, but can only grapple with the
case as it stands at the close of the evidence which has
been produced for your consideration ; and we therefore
naturally look to the statement of the Attorney-General
for the intent, the object, aad declarations which lie set
forth in it, and which can be the only guides by which the
Counsel for the prisoner can be governed. My Learned
Friend, in the statement he made--and let us see how be
looks at the case—l observe, after elaborately referring to
the law of treason, and adverting to the bearing of the
law upon some of the facts, proceeds, and this is the first
indication or " purpose" we find 'in his opening speech.
My Learned Friend said, " It appears that there hes
been an armed insurrection of a public nature in this
realm for the purpose of superseding and destroying the
law and the authority of the Crown." Now, Gentlemen,
I certainly looked for something more explicit than this
in reference to the charge against the prisoner. I
know of no statute, Gentlemen, in which it is made high
treason to supersede or destroy the authority of the
Crown. Why, you supersede the authority of the Crown
by laying hands upon a constable, and obstructing him
in the performance of his duty, and if you subvert the au
thority of the Crown, which you may do many acts of
themselves innocent, you supersede the authority of the
Crown. I notice this, Ger tlemen, as it is the declaration
of the Attorney-General, but still it leaves the case exactly
as it was, before ; and for the purpose of saying that my
Learned Friend needed not to have reverted to a decla-
ration so vague, so unsatisfactory, and undefined. Further
on in his speech my Learned Friend, with respect to the
intent of the prisoner, states, and, Gentlemen, I entreat
your attention to this definition of the Attorney-General,
affecting, as it does, the life of the prisoner at the bar ;
and I hope not only that I shall satisfy you, but their
Lordships, when the time comes when they will address
you, will also inform you, that the Crown has no right to
prove the commission of a number of illegal acts, and then
to leave the Counsel for the prisoner to show that the pur-
pose, object, and the intent with which they were committed
is short of treason. Gentlemen, the Crown has no right to
leave the case in that position. The law is, not that they may
prove the levying of war, the collecting of a number of
armed persons, nay, the assembling an overpowering army,
and then say to the Counsel for the prisoner, " It is for
vou to show that these acts do not amount to treason."
No, they are bound by the indictment—they are bound by
the law—they are bound by moral duty in a case where a
human life—where many lives are at stake—they are
bound, I repeat, to state explicitly, plainly, and without
leaving over them the shadow of a doubt, the purpose and
the object which the prisoner had in view when he com-
mitted the illegal act charged against him. I protest, there-
fore, against the right of the Attorney or the Solicitor-
General, more especially the last—l protest against his
right to bring forward proof of the commission of five, six,
seven, or eight illegal acts, and then to say to the Counsel
for the prisoner, " It is for you to show that the purpose
with which those acts were committed falls short of trea-
son." No, Gentlemen, it is he who must show the pur-
pose, the object, and the intent, clearly, palpably, and
distinctly, which the prisoner had in view, and he must
prove to you as clearly and as indubitably that it thus
amounts to treason; and I shall now tell you what the
Attorney-General has said in reference to this. After
observing that meetings and consultations had taken
place, he says—" There was particularly a meeting held
at a place called Blackwood, on the Friday before the 3d
of November; various deputies attended that meeting.
There was a return made ot the armed force which could
be mustered, and it would appear that there the plan or
scheme was laid down which was afterwards to be carried
into effect." This, Gentlemen, was the statement of my
Learned Friend, and I appeal to you if it has been sup-
ported with one particle of proof'. It is proved, certainly,
that the prisoners Mr. Frost, William Jones, and Zepha
niah Williams, cad met at a public-house on the Friday
before the 3d of November, and that there were several
other persons there. But has it been proved with what
purpose they met ? Has it been proved that any re-
solutions were passed by them ? Has it been shown
that any deputies were there, or whether a return of
the numbers of the armed force which could be mus-
tered was made ? In reference to these points, Gentle-
men, I ask you if there has been a single iota of proof?
Why, the only evidence at all upon the matter is that of
the landlord of the house, who states that a number of
persons assembled there, but that he neither knew them nor
what had taken place amongst them. But now, agaic,
with regard to the purpose of the prisoner. This, Gen-
tlemen, is the object which the Attorney-General states
the prisoner had in view, and on which he calls upon you
to consign the deceased to death. This is his case, and if
in this he fails, you are bound to pronounce a verdict of
acquittal; but if he succeeds in proving it, the law is, as
I must acknowledge it to be, the prisoner must suffer the
death which it decrees. With regard to this, the object of
the prisoner, the Attorney- General said, "Arriving at
Newport they were to attack the troops who were there ;
to take possession of the town ; to break down the bridge
which is there across tile Usk ; to stop her Majesty's
mails ; and then by signal rockets, which were to be
thrown up, the success of the scheme was to be an-
nounced. The mail not arriving in Birmingham in an
hour and a half after its usual time, those who were in
concert with them in that town were to know by that
circumstance that the plan had succeeded, and there was
to be a rising there ; and generally in the north of Eng-
land, and the Charter was to be proclaimed as the law
of the land." That, Gentlemen, is the treasonable
purpose with which the prisoner is accused—the Charter
was to be proclaimed the law of the land; and I hope
I shall not prejudice the case of the prisoner by what I am
now about to say. I admit that if Mr. Frost intended to
attack the troops, to stop he: Majesty's mail, to seize upon
the. Post-office, to make a signal of the success of his
plans to his confederates at Birmingham and elsewhere, on
which they were to rise in rebellion, in order to proclaim
the Charter the law of the land—l admit that if these
were the intentions of Mr. Frost, then has he committed
the treason with which he has been charged, and that he
must go to an untimely grave for that offence. But,
Gentleman, as I said when [ began, I will go through it
step by step, sentence by sentence, and word by word, and
I will show that the evidence proves positively, convinc-
ingly, and beyond a shadow of doubt, that it was impos-
sible he could have entertained such a design, and that the
Attorney-General might as soon take a knife and stab
the prisoner to the heart as ask you to believe, from the
evidence, this was the intent of the prisoner, and upon that
I belief to convict him. Then, as to the rest—the acts
by which this object of the prisoner was to be carried
out, although some of the evidence proves these to be in-
credible—impossible—yet I shall address a few words to
you now in reference to this, as I do not wish at another
stage of my observations to perplex myself, or to harass
your attention. You will remember that, according to the
statement of the Attorney-General the prisoner was to
have seized Newport, by attacking the military there, to
seize the post-office, to blow up the bridge in order to stop
the mails, in order to make a signal is his confederates in
Birmingham to rise—nay, to congregate in open rebellion
—but all these acts were merely conducive to an ulterior
end. They did not want to destroy the mail-coaches ; of
what utility could this be ? They could derive no advan-
tage from the mere destruction of the bridge or by the
seizure ot a few letters, or by the people of Birmingham
occupying the highway. These matters could have been
of no benefit to the Chartists, and the acts alleged, there-
fore all conic dowa to this--that the Charter shall be at
once proclaim'ed the law of the land. That, Gentlemen,
is the only statement ai the Attorney-General as to the
ulterior treasonable object with which the other acts were
to he committed ; and if, Gentlemen, I show to you and to
their Lordships that this end, this object, has no existence
but in the statement of the Attorney- General, on this ground
alone I shall be entitled to ask that my client shall be
acquitted; and, Gentlemen, we have been now here
fcr a week occupied with this trial—the evidence took
up more than three days—and, I ask you, have we
been afforded a particle, a tittle of testimony, or a single
declaration in it to stew what this Charter was, or what
that law was which was to be proclaimed throughout the
land ? Gentlemen, there has not been any evidence what-
ever to show this. Certainly my Learned Friend, Sir F.
Pollock, conscious of the innocence of his client, and be-
lieving that he could not be injured by what he stated,
blundered a little—l may be allowed to say—for there
was nothing whatever in our briefs to lead to it—in his
address to you, and told you something of the first four or
five articles of the Charter, and that gave us the first in-
sight into what this Charter was. But, Gentlemen, before
the Crown can call upon you to send fifteen fellow-crea-
tures—fifteen human beings to an untimely tomb, must
they not show you, not by staten,ents speculative or imagi-
nary or presumptive, but upon evidence clear, palpable,
uncontradicted, and upon oath, what the nature of
the alteration of the law of the land which that
Charter would effect, and also that this was
the object of those who are alleged to contemplate
the alteration ; and, Gentlemen, having attended to the
evidence produced during the three days I do believe that
not a single point was elicited in reference to the position
which the opening of the Attorney-General rendered so
essential to be proved—not the remotest point was proved
as to this proclamation of the Charter as the law of the
land. Nay, Gentlemen—and if I ant wrong I hope I may
be corrected—l do not believe that the word " Charter"
was once introduced or mentioned, and yet men are to be
tried and sent to a bloody grave for conspiracy, to make
the Charter the law of the land, whilst by the 39 witnesses
who were examined out of the 70 who should have been
called, not one word cone Tning the Charter was mentioned,
and yet this is an accusation of a conspiracy to establish it.
This is not the way in which the predecessors of my
Learned Friends dealt with men who were placed on
trial for their lives. In the case of Lord George Gor-
don he was distinctly charged by the law officer of that
day with the design by force to compass an altera-
tion of the law; and were the Jury left in doubt as
to what that alteration was ? No. The case was
btyhattheanAtitloireegeayl. General of the day, and it was
meeting had been assembled
tactrit het
to
had
in to.
fa; our of the Roman Catholics, and thus the Counsel for
to compel the repeal of Sir George Savile's Act in
proved°Pce
deal with—tie; n'n. nweiwth"i
psi the repeal of Savile's Act. Ile knew that this was a
the pries: sass, the illustriousrgeofl
levying war
PalPable and a tangible object to ;grapple with. Again, in
They' were charged
the cases ...17 Watson, Horne Tooke, and Hardy, the
charges were plain and substantial. The
eine after the other with the intent to subvert the law of the
country,
Convention
was something to
setin asideitsp P
raem
thereet:t, and to establish a
neeet—something to gapple
.with—and the same was the
mode of proceeding in the cases
of Watson and Thistle-
wood, whereas in this case the only object stated by the
4.ttorney-General in hie opening speech to be that of the
prisonei, wee the establishment of the Charter as the few of
the land, whereas there has not bite:' the slightest approach
to proof or any attempt or design of this kind, or even of a
declaration to that effect from one of the ten thousand per-
sons
,W 4,3
,are said to have assembled in order that this Cha-
rter law shOtild be peaelesspetl. Well, then, if I have thus got
•rim of the " object" of to deal
with elle means and I trust I•shall be able to show, although
as to the meant: .here has not been the same failure as
ands the .evidence akolucA "rove them---yet that