The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-01 00:00:00

11:E REGIME OF 1794.
Peskitica of , Paul Thomas Lemaitre, presented to the
Mouse of C ommons by Mr. Warburton on the 14th of
August:—
The hur able petition of Paul Thomas Lemaitre—
Shower 41,—That your petitioner, now in the 70th
year ofl s age,
suspens Ais one of those persons who, during the
,iew of the Habeas Corpus Act, towards the close
of the last and the beginning of the present century,
were. &arrested, and were confined in prison for long
pen lids of time, on charges of traitorously. of whichin
conspn
ag` site st the King's person and Government;
sent
pehrsons your petitioner is now nearly the de survivor.
That in the year 1794, your petitioner, then in his
eigb teenth year, became a member, and at a more ad -
/fenced period of the same year, a delegate of the Lon-
don Corresponding Society; his function, as delegatf:
being to attend committees of the society, to take i
metes of their proceedings, and to report such minut ms
to
the division of the society to which he belonged.
That, in the month of May, 1794, the papers of the
said Society were seized, by order of the Privy Ce)uucil,
and were referred, with other papers, to Secret Com-
asittees of the two llouses of Parliament; that a statute
;vas passed in the same month fur sus pending the Habeas
Corpus Act ; that Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke,
and other active members of the said Society, or of other
societies of a like nature, were arrested and committed
to prison on a charge of high treason ; and that these
persons, "in the month of November and December
following, were tried and acquitted of the crime laid to
their charge.
That, on the 27th of September, 1794, your petitioner
was arrested, by warrant of the Privy Council, for
alleged " trensonahle practices;" and that his books and
papers wers.; seized, and that ho was treated with brutal.
Insolence by the officers who arrested him; and that, •.0-4
the foliating and two subseqnent days, he was exarr,i' Led
before t'oo Privy Council, respecting the proceee'Athgs of
the London Corresponding Society, and also etapecting
his cognizance of an alleged plot, for 5h00;474. through
an
a air-gun a poisoned arrow at the Kim,' person ; and
that after such examination, without ine knowing what
had been deposed against him, or luy whom any matter
criwanatory of him had been deposed, and without his
being permitted to communicate with his friends, and
receive professional assistance, be was committed to the
prison of Coldbath-fields (or which he was the first
inmate); and was there cor,lined, and subjected to rigo-
rous treatment,* until the 9th of May, 1795, when he
was released,' on his giving bail in the amount of 501. to
appee .r personally to answer any indictment which might
be pr eferred against him in respect of the charges for
-.vhi eh he had been confined.
'Chat, some months after his liberation, you petitioner
w•as summoned to appear before the Privy C',-)uncil, and
Vaat he did attend at the time and place anointed in the
f•suinnions, and made known his atteendance to the
`Treasury solicitor, whom he then nod there saw; and,
-after waiting until eig.;-,t in the evening, was informed
by the office-keeper Vaat the col:ilia had broken up some
hours before.
That, on the 3 4th of January, 1796, the grand jury
for the City oF London, after examining the witnesses
produced fo'r the Crown, and particularly one Upton,
hereafter 'to be mentioned, returned a true bill for high
treason. 'against one Crossfield, together with your peti-
tioner a nd-two other persons named Smith and Higgins.
Thu'.;, on the day following the finding of the several
bilis., your petitioner, and also Smith and Higgins (who,
like yln.A. petitioner, had been admitted to bail), sur-
rencf ered themselves in court, and were committed to
Nev vgate.
:hat, at the London sessions held on the 26th of
Ja'suary, 1796, Crossfield, your petitioner (who now for
the first time met this his alleged co-sonspirator), and
the two other aforenamed parties, were arraigned on the
indictment, and severally pleaded 1‘ Not Guilty ;" but, in
consequence of the jury:nen not having been summoned
by the Crown solicits)... in due time, the trial was post-
poned to the next 'ensuing session, held on the 11th of
ay, and your Petitioner, and the three other persons
arraigned, worse sent back to prison.
That, the charges in the indictment were substantially
as follows: that is to say, that Crossfield, your petitioner,
and the twc, other above-named parties, did conspire,
with diverr• others unknown, to procure to be made a
certain in strument intended to be used for discharging
an arrov to be loaded with poison against the person of
the Whisag, and therewith to kill the King; and that the
said 'parties did meet, consult, and deliberate among
themselves, and together with divers others unknown,
how arid when such putting to death of the King might
be most readily arid effectually accomplished; and that
the said parties did employ and engage one Thomas
ITpt'en to assist in making the said instrument, and did
deliver to him certain designs and certain wooden models,
as instructions for making the said instrument, or parts
-thereof, and also a certain metal tube to be used in
making the said instrument.
That the said Crosafield was first triedf on the said
indietraent, and apart from your petitioner and the two
other above-mentioned parties, and was acquitted of the
crime laid to his charge ; and that a week after the
giving of the said verdict your petitioner, Smith and
Iliggras, were pro forma, put on their trial, in order to
recei're their acquittal, and were acquitted accordingly.
That it appeared from the statement of Sir John Scott,
Attorney-General, made in the course of the said trial
of 'Crossfield, that, in August 1797, the said Thomas
Upton gave information to the Privy Council, wherein he
charged himself, Crossfield, your petitioner, and the two
other above-named parties, with having engaged in the
traitorous conspiracy hereinbefore set forth.
That, from the evidence given on the part of the
Crown on the trial of Crossfield, it did appear that the
said Crossfield and one Palmer, a witness for the Crown,
had lent themselves to certain projects, in which the said
Thomas Vpton was the real and principal actor ; and
that the said Thomas Upton, in company with the said
Crossfi old and Palmer, did apply to sundry workers in
wood and, metal to have certain models and parts of an
air-gun made, which models, &c. were, about the mid-
dle of 'September, 1794, in the possetaion of the said
Thornas Upton ; and whatever wag the nature of the
protects in which the three said parties were together
engaged and concerned, such projects were invented,
framed, and organised by the said Thomas Upton, and
were moulded.by him into a conspiracy which he nefa-
ri,ausly imputed to others.
That during the trial of Crossfield no trace of evidence,
or hint, or allusion, fell from any witness, to connect or
implicate your petitioner, Smith, or Higgins, directly or
indirectly, in any the remotest degree whatever, with the
peculiar transactior., whatever may have been its nature,
in wlaich Upton, Crossfield, and Palmer were together
so:reflected.
That the said Upton, on whose information your pe-
titioner, Smith and Higgins were arrested and had been
imprisoned, was not produced as a witness on the said
trral of Crossfield ; and that the Attorney-General Sir
John Scott, to account for his non-production on that
occasion, alleged-that the said Upton was dead, and was
permitted to produce Upton's wife, in widow's attire, as
evidence in support of that allegation ; that the counsel
of your petitioner tendered two witnesses, to prove, as
was the fact, that the said Upton was alive, and at his
residence in London, on the morning- of the trial ; but
the czurt would not allow such evidence to be given, as
being irrelevant to the issue, unless it could be shown
that the said Upton was, by fore or fraud, kept away ;
and that one week after the trial of the said Crossfield,
on the day whereupon your petitioner, and Smith, and
higgins, were put to the bar in 'order to be acquitted,
the said Attorney-General repeated in court, that he was
as satisfied as he could be of' any such fact, that the
said Upton Was not in existence, but should it afterwards
appear then the person who had come forward to induce
a belief of Ifs death had practised an imposture on the
court an& the country, he (the Attorney-General) would
bring that person to condign punishment. •
That, some months after the said trial, your petitioner
meeting Upton in London, in Middle-row, Holborn, en-
deavoured to arrest him, with the view of delivering him
up to justice; but a riot ensuing, the 'said Upton made
his escape, and that your petitioner immediately wrote
and forwarded letters to Mr. Pitt, and to the Attorney-
General, apprising them of the occurrence, and claiming
of them, as an act of justice, that they should withou-
delay cause the said 'Upton to be apprehended and pu
fished according to his deserts.
That it was given in evidenc'e on the trial of Cross.
held that in August and September, 1794, and antece •
dently to Upton's giving information to the Govern-
ment, your petitioner, Sen;:th, and Higgins, without any
concert with each othrJr, endeavoured to effect the expul-
sion from the London Corresponding Society of the said
Thomas Upton on the ground of his disreputable charac-
ter, he having b'een indicted for firing his own premises,
and also having been in custody on a charge of horse-
stealing ; tb.a.s., in return for these endeavours so to ex-
pel him tl‘..e said Upton transmitted to your petitioner an
hostile r.:ttallenge, and that the said Upton stated to
severalersons that he would be revenged on those who
bad Traduced his character before the society.
That the sole purpose for which your petitioner now
rec'llis froth oblivion these miserable contentions, is to
remark how 'wholly inconceivable it is that your peti-
tioner, had he been disposed to engage in a dangerous
conspiracy, should have chosen for an accomplice, at
whose disposal he would have placed his life, a man be-
tween whom and himself there-existed at the time the
most hitter animosity; and these facts, and the vindic-
tive motives which- had induced Upton falsely to ac..
ease your petitioner, Smith, and Higgins, were proved
on oath ythe inn.temony of many witnesses, not only on
Croasfield'e. trial May, 1796, but also in September,
1794, before the Privy Council.
• That yotir petitioner, after his acquittal and libera-
tion, returned to his aforesaid cousin's establishment, to
complete•the period of his articles, by which articles
your petitioner was bound to give his personal attend-
ance sixty hoUrs per week for three years, at a salary,
with liberty to enlarge or abridge the hours of business
at his pleasure, on condition that the difference should
be accounted for at the rate of 9s. per day, plus or
minus, weekly, and bat the balance due from your pe-
titioner in pursuance of this agreement, was claimed of
him and enforced for the whole period of his imprison-
aunt, and for all time lost in consequence of his said
prosecution.

- That, in the year 1798, the year of the arrest of
Arthur O'Connor, and of the breaking out of the Irish
rebellion, there was held, on the 19th of April, a meeting
pf, the committee of the London Corresponding Society,
for the purpose, as. your petitioner had previously been
Wormed, of considering the propriety of making to the
Government as offer of the services of. the society as al
volunteer corps, to resist the then apprehended French
Invasion; and being of opinion that the effect of the
course proposed (whiph he knew to -have originated
with spies) would be to render the society ridiculous in
;public estimation, your petitioner, at the earnest solicits-1
tion of a deputation of the•society, attondedthe,meeting,
lthough not a member thereof, with the sole view of
dissuading the committee from making -the \offer in
question.

* This treatinent was solitary confinement, no person
being permitted to see him, unless by order of the Privy
Council, and even then in his cell, a jailor being prinent.
See Mate p.l.