The Sun.
London, England, 1817-06-18 00:00:00

lie borne. .
Me. E
e. IVETHRALL--4%1y hke " w
d:tl'
personal imputation. It there is in the statue of NU, a clause
restrainieg from prosecuting, the sane offence. as Treason,'
wharfs has before been charged as Felony, I say the Crown has
had its election ; and, as . it chose to prosecute these trans!'
actions zoi a Felony before, why should it now come forward
with an indictment for Treason ?
The COLT tiT,.—The Statute of ee'enacts what shall beTteas
sort ; and provides, that, where a charge of Treason fails, the
party shall not tor tried for Felony after. •
Mr. WESTIERALL Said, the interpretation of the Learned
Gentleman bad been hasty and unnecessary, as he had no in--
tentiou of impugning the motives for the present proceeding.
lf e said. that they first chose to try for Felony what they now
prosecuted as a Treason ; and his construction of that Act
hail been continued to him by several lable'frietrls whom he
had consulted upon it. Having gone through the main fea-
tures of the case, the ultimate question was, Csiuld the Jury
believe, on the evidence of Castles, that a Treason bad beet'
committed. Supposing even that the prisoners meant to do
what they did, unless the plan was directed against the State,:
plainly and proveably, he could find nothing whatever like it.
before, that It id been denominated aTi casein. No trainee-
tian, in which even more mischief had been done, and
venter malisimucy appeared, that had been pushed up to a.
!'reason. Every thing here depended upon Castles and,.
supposing all true, he was at a loss to discover that such a
transaction had ever been brought within the Statute of
Treason. The Jury would bear his Learned Friend, with
whom he bad the honour of being associated, who would go 1
into a more minute examination of the evidence. They.
would find, in his Address to them', the same 'broad lines of
arguments-the saute view of the case, 'more .ably: put before.
time, as he had taken:—they had conferred together closely
And industriously, and their minds were made lip without
doubts ur differences of Opinion remaining. His Learned
Coadjutor, whose talents were of the highest order, and
whose legal knowledge 88,1, great and authoritative. would
pursue the same line of argument Which be had tine, because
he thought as he thought; hut he wuuldSlo this more aislys
and could not fail of producing conviction •of the truth of
his arguments, And the invincibility of the positions which
they jointly maintained. It was that which made hint bold
in asserting what in his conscience he held to be lam, mid
what he thought, with the tree agency of a men, he within
say ts ith the free agency of a gentleman; and if any one
should say that he had Mined to the Crown that length of.
interpretation, that' latitude of construction, that extent and
application to which it was fully and fairly entitled, he wool*
.confront that sian's statement with the unvaried teller of his
life. He was no candidate fur popular admiration, no patron
:of disturbances, ho advocate fur tatting from the crown what
belonged to the Crown, nor from the people what belonged
to the people—be would keep the balance even, giving unto
Caesar the things which belonged to Cense. He bad been la-
flouring one entire month, without interruptioti, and almost
without ceasing, the investigation ; the result had been.
an 'impression upon his mind, which he was afraid he could'
not strongly coniumnicute to theirs, which nothing could
erase, and he believed nothing could- weaken, that if these
transactions were to be. construed into Treason, the tact
would be withoet precedent, and the law without jollier. tie
called on the Attorney-General to give him authorities to'the
contrary if he could. lint he would' not be told by the At-
torney-General what was law, let the law speak for itself. He
would not take his challenge to spew what these things were
if they were not treitiens. 'He was not to law Wend to do so,
the labour of proof lay with the Attorney-General, not with
him; he had given his definition af treason, let it lie proved, if it
were possible, that the present was a case of treason. He would
give another definitive proof, bat of Sir J. Scott in P 5; he said,
the proofs must lie formal and convincing," that is, fOrmal
in the number of witnesses, two credible witnesses being tie-
cessary to prove-an overt ect of treason, and coevineing in
the plain direct tenor of the face themselves; sheiving than
they were treason, and could not he any thing else.. Sir J.
Scott, too, said he disclaimed constructive treason, or treason
by party. Compere him with the Attorney-General of the
present day. Was this an attempt to overturn the State,-
-what had they to prove its--4 little flee at little speech mak-
ing film a waggon ; ri littietainperaig with the soldiers? very
little indeed, a little speaking to the town walls? a little
tumult ?' a little breaking of windows ? a little lettings Off of
gunpowder ? Yes, very little of each. What theft was cue-
etructive treason ? Why, the putting together a limber of ,
little facts, accomulating a number of trifling circumstances
into the solemn and ponderous offence of treason ; was this
charge any thing snore at best ? Then Slr J. Scott said he
wanted no treason by parity; parity of treastm menet the
application of facts to prove a treason which might or night
nut be intended to he treasonable, but such as might be
taken within the range of: an obvious and undoubtedly trea-
sonable design. What was the case here ? Why, a number
of transactions were stated, and the Attorney-General says,
if you do not chew what those transectiOn4 were, 'I Shall M.
list upott it that they are treasons. But such is not the rule
of law, and the autunt of the Learned Attorney-General was
not sufficient to make it so, The Learned Gentleman then
proceeded to examine and'compare the case of Lord G. Gor-
don with the present, contending that the amount of leis'.
ehisit did not make the transaction .a treason; and that the
beainneigeif tumults, which might by possibility be terned
against.. the State, if *littered to' proceed without any cheek,
wage not treasonable till the design was formed fur 'destroy-
ing the Government. He thought the Jury on that occasion
did themselves eternal honour, by leaving out of their deci-
sion all such considerations. He trusted they would not, es
they could not legally operate in the present case, though the
mischief was trilling compared with what had then been <loth-
witted. When did the treasons begin in this case ? Was it when
Sir J. Shaw with his right arm stopped it, • and dtspetted
the rebel army? d nn, it was when the e!rators leapt down •
from the waggon atter their- speeches were :made, for so it
was laid in the record. Why, at that time there were Ma-
gistrates in the field, the military was at hand, though that
was &Int he had obtained -front one of the Crown witnesses
with a deal of difficulty; the Lord Mayor of the City of Landon
was prepared, the Tower was closed; why then not stop the
proceedings if it was all a treason ? The meeting had been
announced a fortnight before by haad-hills ; there was noseS'
crecy ; the Police was well informed of. what was twhe done,
and might have prevented all the mischief, it any treason
was intended.' Why was not the.meeting of the 15th of:'No-
ember not a- treason ? The 'flags"weee there, and toweettes
were made; and these, were the overt acts of treasfaLs In-
deed, a speech of Mr. Hunt's was then delivered, mach more
inflammatory than any thing imputed to Mr. Watson, and
which he GI not hesitate to say he coinideredlii lie of very
dangerous tendency, as it mustseree to irritate the feelings of
the lower orders against the Government; hut all this was no
treason, no, not in the judgment of Mr; Attorneys Genera—
l, this was not ripe enough he supposed. The fact was, the
want of empinyhtent had created it soreness of feeling, which
degenerated Into a riot which had nothing to do with Oolitic's.
The people had not-risked for the repealaw the passing of .auy
law which bad been referred to them ; it was nothing but
that epidemic soreness produced by the dislocation of the
tin**. No attack was intended on the State; not so in Lord
G. Gordon's case, Where the object of the 40,000 persons who
went down to Parliament was to obtain the repeal of Sir Gs
Seville's Act in favour of Religious Toleration. He put it to
the' Jury whether he' was right' in this contrast. Never was
there a time when it could bu less-truly said, -that this was a
riot for a political purpose. He apologized to the Jury for
the want of method M Iris adaress, urging the fatigue of mind
he had Undergone, and the effect upon his health, which it
had proanceci, particularly that morning. but his Learned
Friend would supply all his defiCietices: He should trouble
them with a few words more before be sat down. There was
one circumstance he had overlooked, he meant the fact of
the pikes not Wring found till a fortnight after they were said
to have been on Young Watson's premises. When they were
found the number-was the • same; they were in the same
state ass Bentley delivered them; they -had -not been
used at all, and there was twitting in the whole evi-
-.dance to raise `a. fair presumption upon this fact against
the prisoners. If then he was asked bow they came
there, he should not hesitate to. declare it as hi's' opinion
that Castles had put them there to bring the fact against the
prisoners on the'prosecution. , There was no proof that young
Watson either ordered thetusor paid for them.:
,Why were
they not used? the tale told respecting them was trues
there were no sticks get ready to put them in -; nut one itordue
mint of death prepared. The only. theory, taeO, supported
by probability,was- as he had already -stated.' What a strange
civil war was this I—There was another points to which: he
would beg their attention. •It hail heen stated that theriscio
was to get the handles fur the pikes, but the Crown had pet
called Harrisonah corroborate this: fact, It was Said he Was
r
to go to °e back of the King's Bench
the sticks, but
'Was it not then
they could not find that one was urtiereir for
evident that Cantles put the pikes. in . their hiding piece, or
perhaps asked young Watson to put them there, Bvho, slip-
posit;` himto be a smith, consented to do so for. some pur-
pose. or other? It was a most material faatsllaeuttlielisaohy.lll;
among the many infamous tradea that this villain Castles
followed, he. had not worked as smith 14 yeafst yet
made the pattern of the pikes, anti told Bentley they were for
a rabbit warren. -Be it remembered-tufts thins mate of the
150 afterwards made were sharpened,
pear, e sopeosed that these wine to be inetrumentiliOr
the Government? The lapses in the evitievee, b
were to be filled .utssby interpret:Laub' arid 'caastrnairat,—