The Sun.
London, England, 1817-06-17 00:00:00

'Fief! TREASON.

tRt4L OF JAMES WATSON.

ITtST DAY,—N:oromit, Juni: 9.
We have already made our• Readers acquainted
most correctly with all the proceedings on the
First flay, Oieviout 'to the Address of the kr,
TORWHY-GENEnAL. It was in substance as fol-

intvs . ,
The-AITORNEY,OENETIAL.—rGentIemen of the 4nry,.

Yllll are :14,•enitstell'in that 'box to 01w-of-the Piii,At.it

portant function rt-hat,•-cith•thevols-e.to- ;riots in a s,tate of so-
ciety. You are assernlited to decide Imo t ;IP :milt or' limo.
ernes itt one of your fellow-subjects.' stands clustlvil
with the crime ct lltgh"Trettititrh,the highest crime that. eau
14: 11
1 0W111114411 by 1111th the society of which he, foiiits
It port; t'or it ,trihe, Ht the rOot of c;riciety--:-etrettsa total
dt\-
orlonizotto t of it breaks up ail the comforts
cturl 'bli sAngs that wait 'yu 111011, fuller flit oil u,iiti tr,,tintt
nt :11V law. Upon the one ham), you most lie
desirous to protect the toni.titution wider which you live
. against_ any treasonable attempts. You will act upan the
pril:eiple inseparable from freedom, by which this nation is
'protected, and stand forward to assert and prove your title
to the character which it supports. And on the other hand,
1.011 •.lilt Linisider before Tots crime to et COllOlll5lOll, Hutt guilt.
has been established--yon will take care t_liat the charge is
made out upon strong, probable, and convincing evidence.
I think, Gentlemen, that when •I hare stated and proved the
cdse which I hare to offer to your Cati-SideratiOn, there con nu
Inestion arise as to the verdict yon will deliver; there will
appear no-doubt as to the guilt of the pri:.oner,, not only as
regards the first, second, third, and fourth counts in the in..
dictment collectively, but as regards them separately and dis-
tinctly.--'fbere are four charges. .The first uttrilmtes to the
prisoner the-compassing and imagining the death of our
vereign Lord the King.; the second attributes to hint the
Crime of compassing and imagining the deposition of the
King; the third, thavof Icrybig War, with the .above-men-
tioned objects ; and the fourth, that of !crying war her the
' purpose of inducing the King to change-the ineature• of Go.
vernment and the principles of the Constitution. The first
and third counts are fouothql upon a statute of Edward W.
which slates the natiire and description of the acts wliich
&mount to high treason ; second and fourth counts are

treated ate: founded upan The ;nit Of his ;starlit
, 7, which, tdtliougli in some respects it differs front that
'el F.tlnatd 111. does not eary open any matelial "point, and
way be said to be in sulsstance the Artme. The statute of Ells
ward 111. to which I in chap. 5. see. 2. " When
a ruin compassrs• and imagines the death of our Sovereign'
Lord the. King, or levies war against e King in hi,
Were one of the Cotinsel for the prisoner said. "•provef
04-1 I read the section front the English .tratisiction.—
It is trot my intention to deny the u*a. of any phrase Where
its neloption coo serve a prisoner. If tbe proof does not exist,
there can hr no dispute tis to the conduct to he: adopted.. 1
say, if it is proved that the person chorged commits overt acts
prevealily with the object of effecting the death of th-e Kiog,
there c.in he no dispute as to the criminality. 'Compassing
does not mean, in its ordinary application, effecting an ob.
ject. It means the iutention to effect, and shot by overt acts
and endeavouring to carry the means resorted to into execu-
tion ; that reeving war is an iivt;rt •,.ct to 'compass the dent
esf the King,- none'ean 'deny; for whether the person wiin le-
vies war has in contemplation the actual death of the King
or nut, if his' purpose is Si, destroy the Constitution, he is
gpilty of compassing and imagining the death of the King.
.:'Although he should not mean the actual death of the King,
• still the act he commas is treason against the majesty of the
King and if his object is to destroy the Constitution, and be
suanifestelhat object try overt acts, those ;tete are 'so many
evidence; that the death of the Kint is meditated. If men
conspire and consult to levy war, their- conspiring and !coo-
, totting must he by overkacts by which they intend that their
plans should be carried into efteet. Upon 'the first count,
thatad compassing and imagining the death:of the King,
the indictment states a great variety of overt acts, the proof
cif one of which would, ateomoanierl at it is by circum•
stances which point out the object in the most uneqoivocal-
tininner, be-itiflieient to i.stabliell tile--guilt of the prisoner.
Standin alone, and wholly destitute t t ;soy support from
whet cireitinitaiievs, it would be d'iticult to show the oilject
whieyany p4rtaeolari act performed, but here is a tr...ts
Of eretiti which were intimately hleittled with the acts of
,splash the prisoner stored accts edt a cuiiit ant series of °pc-
retioos alsd contrivances combined together in such a mariner,
*its so-present the possibility. of mistaking the end, and aScribs
AN; to them any other than the death of the King, t will
state here the overt acts that are 'collected-from the testimony
- I Khali by And bye call. They are these :—Causult•ing to de-
pae the 'king -_conspiring to att-ieli the Batik and the
-Tower-fen:l4:ring to 'sedate the soldiers and others front
their allegiance—Providing pike-heads for hostile purpose;—
' Conspiring to burn•the'llarracks, 'with the View of preveat-
ing the military- front resisting the nefarious efforts of trai-
tors=Hiringls louse fur the purpose of' preparing,:the. com-
bustibles by which the-Barracks were to have been burnt--
And oonSpiring to procure Meetings at Spa-fields. I will
Errs take the opportunity of tualiiog a few
.commeute upon
'this last accusation. I con iider the plan that' procured the
-Iteetings, of which hare spoken, and which have made so
deep an imprssion upen the minds of the people, as descry..
• ing the-character of overt acts of treason ,upon this grotind.
Those who
.coospired to procure them; did so from an object
Very eliffetent from thiet which they professed. Itavas not
, their intention to seek the consent of those whom they RS-
.
aembled together for the purpose elf doing what was the right
opt' Kitglishosen to do. It was not their object to exercise the
"tight of petitionilig Pierliaitiettt for the redress of gt ievattas,
!of applying to that eerottitutiottal music which. formed ,one of
leading features in the superiority of the Government of
:this country. .Theie.object was to get the passions of the peo-
ple open their side ; to turn those passlims into the instruments
*of their execrable operations, and Upon -the pretext of
,tiunrt~g, to.clologe their dupes into a multitude armed :galosh
'the authority of the King, anti conducted to levy war against
!hint.' When- acts are done expressly to answer the purpose f
..attribute to the prisoner, however indifferent they nosy he
-'under other ciroomstances, certainly under those 4they are
decidedly overt acts of treason; parading the.streets under a
intention t attaching gonsmitine•heuses; endeavours.
,ing to persuade the soldiers to open the Tower gates, order
that these who used the persnaitous might become masters,'
.lire acts which, combined together with the great range of,
'operations in evidence against the prisoner, can leave no
Itionist of the dreadful change t hetavas-contemplated.
The second count, which comprehends the compassing and,
'imagining the •deposition of the ahnost the' echo of
the S•rst ; for he teho compasses the deposition, certainly com-
passes the death of the King. Levying war is'the assembling
together a etnititades• for a hostile purpose, to presenter by
force at firms any general object in slew. lusurrections to
'pull down pritions or brothels, in tact all acts of this descrip-.
Con, which arise from, a purpose hostile to the tranquillity of
the'Smte, are comprehended render the denomtuation. oflevy-
fitg w appear that the object of those, one of whom
Is non: taking his trial for life or death, was'agaiust the safe-
ty and the tranquillity of the State I that 'it vesti revoin-
tint' and the introduction of disorder and coofustien.—'
It has been funnel necessary-to try the prisone.r4apprehended-:
-upon- this, charge,,separately, iii, order to avoid the difficulty
end confusion necessarily attendant upon the practice of
cliidiengiifx the Bury-t,. I;ut it niuSt,aot be fergotten, in the
course of the trial, that that prisoner is named.as a conspire
ter with others, atttl that his C0.11(1143 ins avepiy affected by
that of those with rho., he conspired. Illthough,James-
Watson' is alone au his trial, the particulars 'of 'the cooduet
rtf Thistk.Wood, Preston, and Hooper,': tetra stand near
Nits,
toast not be omitted in -the consideration
,of ithe Case.' In
the matter of iiutuiry *nose pameolare are not to operate
against any other Mao Watson with respect to your verdict;"
but their acts ere his,. and- there is nu poseibility of dis-
, joittiog. them. When. men hate a:plan to pat. into effect,
each tunes sipart in the' operation differsust trent that Wien
gay theother ; hitt if they-all act hi conjunction lind con-.
'ae;iitatertogether, tei accomplish their plan, the act of one is
the ;tad all ; and if you believe that %Voisin! conspired With
Thistlew94l -and. the others' .to eatry Into effect that with
which the vises:et is charged, it is impossible to separate the
OM of the aid front that of the others.' I shalt, few the
purpose malting ti-y view as compechensible as possible,
put no in Janet.: suppose it to bp inferred front those Oreum-
stances thata oonspicacy to take the Tower of Lansilots
exist-
intl if one of thuseasho Noe-liked came tut one day, 'and per-
Atrind S,IKSC:Ict c.o.itirmat,.ll of such intention, and another
d3Y, iind also made his 404 clOrre,,pplitielit
vatr the Merest sicking- Open the Tower, and so 00, tluise
r.4!..,ai•iite anti apparently disteisct salts Constderittl us the .
aas itf one esaispiring min.:. , .
Bees the Letar,.'a ti.aitlea. r,N, .1t.i1,11 detailed his-
tory the, sire am:stool:es 'eft:Troy/I with the couspleaey,
,Alllll.l wort asik.ivireloi itthlutedilt the Vyidence delivered by
Si, =overall wit oases-calk/ea-or theairotacatlttn,
Cac Astotaivy-t3eneral, is the eantelto!isorpart Obis speech, tl
aio. .—For what prihinsewiassailtitinlnsigusie of war, but to put
Vitimselres ltr battle-array, atilt to turnisittlierrseleis With re-
mews and iye4polir. of de.nr,ticlion ? Why' was,
the gunantitlN shop attacked, and h'o pavinbrokersta except