Star.
London, England, 1820-08-05 00:00:00

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.AL go° tahe ra4iiiiiha*l44•l4ollll‘llo4 't
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fof mete/or. ''' •.
.---%Y, theft, Pave yes soilialadiribilitliepiLittearisi I 11" abject bt4rag I° 'rtteiM lif"umbek
allabett they an be et al um' ' 's ofvereene did not eseelthwily ethane the -ceettristly of
no thug. via oh, an beams pia Wadies** .-1.41 beat a -community of sentintelit and acts,' id . the etecutini
me ;ores; sad scent an bellll Sam to C.sn stildirkseitsesoss of their general dosigo. But where wet the common
they are at no use to you 7—" The witness gave no sr veg. design which wag charged -upon the defendants ?- His
Dal you ever see Maddox tieforel6...Nevert that ta, I oleos
never, except when I saw him on the hustings. Learned Friend had tteimphantly told the Jury; that
Have You ever seen him since?-;-Not tin I saw his dd. day they would find no ditficulty in satisfying themselves
b Court. as to a cammon design bellee entertained by the de-
• Therebavina only itgil him wee In your life, and that, toe, at feadants. e ril prove (said he) that they had met to
a distance, until you saw him to-day in Nutt, you a-e prepared - r"—
gether, and I'll spew von they had *common design ;
or Sew that this individual Is Mr. Maddox ?...I ..m, to the
hint et my recollection. and -next Tel sinew. that each individual bad a part
will you positively swear that it is him?..-I will not swear in the active etectition of this their common de;
to him point blank.
Mr. ntisx, coatemptimuly.—Point blank ! How did the Where But how and where bad he denim this 1--
Where had he 'hewn this soreof design? Where were
know dun you were at the Meeting ?—I cannot tell.
MMITeel y desire you so take satrap—They did not. his prnofs of a secret, dark, and lurking coafederacy?
* Mr. Levria.—Wdl you repeat the following sentence, or Where were there pro, is of their secret seseeengs?...
eves the substance of it to we, after I bare read It to you 7 None had been brought forward. He begged here
Mr. Lewis hens reatta lon sentence, but the witness was un- to request the attention of the Jury to the condition
the to stout it.
• Mr. DusasAw then rose to address the Jury on
in"'hick hip clients, Messrs. Maddox and Edmonds
behalf
of Messrs. Edmonds and maddna.- This was had been placed ley the effect of the evidence. The
• case which called on the Jute, as men exercising a proof against the Best amounted to this, that'he pal .
great public duty—the greatest next to that of a visit to Major Cartwright, on the morning after his
arrival at lfirmingliain, and that he remained with
&presentative, of the People—to lend to the eircutre
the Major full two minutes!—With
Stances of it their most calm met unbiasssed consi- to Ed-
monds, he too was proved to be wi3t.hescr Major Cart-
tion. He could have wished that his Learned
weight but-a few minutes. Such, then, was the full
!Wised bad abstained from the preliminary Ob4r-
value of the evidence by which the LeareedSesleant
unions in which he had indulged. He Mir.: )enman)
Promised he should show the closeting of the parties.
ems not aware bow the observations of the Learned P
Ole Monday, 'the 12th, it was not proved that Mad-
ilkirjeant, with respect to what had passed in the
dos was at the home where the Mater resides at all.
former part of the day with reference to the Spatial
The landlord expressly said, he had not the least re-
Jury, could be alluded to in connection with the
of
merits of the present case, except alone for the pine collection Maddox being these at all. He was not
pose of raking a prejudice in the minds of the Jury, seen at Nww"hail Min—he was not seen is the be=
and diverting then* from the consideration of the "Wm; in ohm; there was Dot a tittle' of evidence
merits themselves. But he would take upon bier to affecting this person at all. The accusation of neon-
say, that the observations of the Learned Serjeant :piracy might, with some propriety, be alleged
were not either reasonable or conformable to the
against persons whcsemployed themselves in delibe-
ends of impartial justice. What 1 to talk of a rating together for a length of time, and from whom
so
desultory warfare carried on against the Wort by me act had emanated, proving to any reasonable
the defendants—nothing that had passed at all war-
mind the existence of.a conspiracy amongst them.
ranted the Learned Gentleman in his reararks.—
But where was the apology for pressing such a charge
On the contrary, he (Mr. Denman) _would ever main-
against the leaders of a political Meetnig, conducted
tain, that if the Statutes which secured to defendants in the manner in which that at Birmingham bad
in cases of indictment an impartial trial were to he been carried -on.? The leaders, six days before the
held as sacred, no course which a Counsel could take Meeting, sent a proper notice to the Clerk of the
was more analogous to their spirit, or more calcu- Peace, in which they stated the object of the Meet-
laced to give effect to the intentions in which they ing. Was this like a conspiracy? The words of the
letter. were, that a Meeting was intended to be held
originated, than a strict, jedous, scrutinizing atten-
at
tion to tbe conduct of the Master of the Crown Office, the place mentioned, for the purpose of taking into
the
-Sheriffs of the County, and all the other Oflicets consideration the best means of bringing about
having any influence in the nomination' of Special the Reform of the Commons House of Parliament.
The object, as thus set forth, was perfectly legal.
Juries. Was it not competent, therefore, to the de.
_The letter said not a word about the election of a
((indents or any of them to urge, in the best IMlni er
they were able, the belief which they entertaisted that Member of Parliament, or that of a Legislatorial At-
they would not obtain a fair trial, in consequence of torney. Ilwrefore, to his mind, these circumstances
the manner in which the Jury ha 4 been assembled ? 'carried the conviction that no conspiracy was enter-
and when they had 'so urged their justifiable appre-
hension', were the Jury to be told by the Learned ury amid bear in mind, thar they were to dis-
• tut of indtters that occurred a year ago? were
they to have pressed upon their attention the tin
puta-
r a charge from their consideration everything that had
been done after the Meeting. He wished to press
ei,on their attention, that the charge of conspiracy
cessary by what they considered their duty to them-
tion against the defendants that a conduct made tie-
gave to the prosecutors the advantage of fixing the
;
. criminality of the whole defendants on each of them
selves; was only a desultory warfare agailist the Court ?
and hence :it was an exceedingly prudent mode of
But he should maintain that the Court would have
been guilty of a dereliction -of its diny—it would Proceeling,nithough. it was anything but fair or con-
not be It to be trusted with the-administration of jus- formable to Justice ;His Learned Friend had said,
tire, if it did not chew that willingness to '
attend rci that thealefendants. at the Meeting, assume 4, and es.
the observations of the defendants, wide! his indeed, the Royal authority. There he would'
ship on the Bench had manifested that dey,!l,4lteg leave to-state, in answer to the Learned Ser-
owned candidly that he had witnessed in the sPiriiitur panes. i mask, that, after looking into the Act of
prosecutions recently set on foot by Governtisent, ;041-Union; he-could find nothing in it which restrained
unbecoming anxiety to procure a verdict •agaTh*the the King from sending his writ to whatever place he
defendants. After the speech of his Learned Friend -wished to ieturn Members, or a Member, to serve in
(Mr. Vaughan), and, the evidence which had been Parliament. The indictment further charged the de-
brought forward to support its allegations, the Jury fenclants sal a wish to bring about disaffection, and
would be, no doubt, surprised to hear, that the in- on unlawful change in the House of Commons.—
dictment was of such magnitude as that the reading His Learned Friend then gave what be considered a
of it would occupy as much time as the reading of proper idea of the nature of the alleged offence—be
-the whole of the evidence which they had heard that avoided the question of Reform, but substituted a
' day It comprised multifarious matter, unconnected Panegyric on the British Constitution. He (Mr. a)
wiih the subject of fully subscribed to all that had fallen- from the
the immediate charge against
Learned Sitrjeant in praise of that high Constitution,
the defendants ; it contained the greatest variety of
and believed, that with all the abuses which greedcharges, and was open to the greatest variety of an-
upon it, it was superior to all other Constitutions m
swers—but defying, in almost every line, the human
understanding to cornprehead its import. There the world. Its great practical blessing, however, was
were not less than nine counts—on each of which a popular representation, and this therefore- was the
question upon which the minds of the people were
the defendants had pleaded not guilty. The prin-
most disposed to be ardently interested. But were
cipal charge, however,- was that of a conspiracy.
we to be told that the Constitution had undergone
The Learned Serjeant had laid down as a principle,
with great propriety and truth, but subject to some, no other detriment than those flight alterations Which
the lapse of time brings about in all human inven-
modification—tbat, in a case of conspiracy, the con- tie
Were we übe told, as a matter of. doubt,
duct of all the defendants was to be received in eri-
that it might have experienced some little declension
deuce against each. That such a charge should be
brought forward at all, with full information of the from its theoretical perfection? And be would say,
that if the people were not permitted the liberty of
nature of the conduct of the defendants before the
Learned Prosecutor, was a subject of deep complaint, meeting peaceably to pittest and petition against the
corruption. which threatened to overpower them, he
because it might be shewn that the offence with
which each individual respectively stood charged, knew nothing Of the practical history of the Consti-
might be committed by each individually, without tution, and the history of the last century was a fat
involving the guilt of any general concert between laity. Let the Jury consider the motives of the Sep-
tennial Act, enacted in 171.5.-.. that usurping Act of
them. The charge was, that the defendante had done
Parliament, for he would .not ?hesitate to Caillieso.
so and so, for the purpose of exciting ditaffection to
the Government. and subverting the constitution of In 17334, a motion was made for its repeal, but
he Cominens House of Parliament. Was not this was rejected by 940 to' 189;: of the maimitri. haw-
! going far attengh e Why erect-it into conspiracy p, over, it turned out that 114 Members were in the -en-
He did not mean to say that the chargoof a conspi. joyment of places and Tensions, They had heard
racy should not be brought forward, when a clear something o Penbioni-to-day. -Was it a
.t ihne to.
say that the permission to sit in. Parliament allowed
and, indisputable series of facts suggested the pro-
to pensioneis and placemen was bad ? If so, he
priety of producing such a charge. But he would
wished to be put first in the list of criminals.- It was
ask, was not every act of the individuals charged
with conspiracy, as proved in evidence, totally incon- a crime that ought to be .genend. • Year after year
sistent with any such view? The troth was, that-the Bills were brought in; excluding such persists from
accusation was extended to a conspiracy for the bare Parliament, yet, after all, they kept their seats, al-
purpose of giving to the prosecutorthat great but ins- though the Act of Settlement expressly' prohibits
quitous advantage over the defendants--provided in. theix, admission into that assembly. The motion for
deed by the law, contrary as it was in most instances, , repeal, in 1733, was made by Mr. Bromley, Member,
practically, to the spirit of law; namely, of being telt
..he was happy to say, for the county cf. War-
to produce the evidence of the guilt of sevetahpersons _wink, and
_seconded by -Sir John Se. Albans.—
spea
to support a charge against one. - e Oh," said thf .111borlocnier concluded his h upon that &Malkin
-Learned Serjeant, e the act of one is the act of all.'-::. din the following words :---4. In -this, Sir, I hope Isbell
Yes, so it was, but not until the conspiraty--thelb: *jiver ftsdi tbat.no private consideration has itichided
neral concert between the parties, was. Xtet eatisfie: :mete matemp proposition—but the happiness tithe
torily established. Now, he would eatreai Of-the nation arlaige, and because / knew lam sepposleti
Jury to examine more minutely this position of his-' jilt...it:4ll4h" voice of thopeoplei by a majority of my
Learned Friend. Luckily, during the present pro,' :Constituents, and by the particular retommendation
ceedings, it was in their power to.observe I practieal ;alba pm* of Coventry, whop I greatly respect,
illustration of the falsehood of this principle, for upon adthough I teatime count eltein amongst the number
the present occasion, there was he (Mr. Denman) rei, 06 lor •Constistleute-""31c..1% 'wens dui-sentiments
presenting two defendants; his Learned Friesi. 'Mr.. 'milk& aseasenteasained 'at that dolls and' sinew Mee-
Hill, for another; and the rest of the defendants silt kiwi-bee* thought ahiltball'ossr'Polltiale egeib were
engaged in a common -object namely, to obtain Ito lie leseale bishe;shasils waalh-Plevalled in -the ma,
verdict of Not Guilty. Yet ;.he Jury would see, in• enesensative-milhasuwimehis the bagasele ofigatelita
the course of the'proceeditig that the acts and sena latoliksi ' I Nca4itsoilliToseastigt'ar Usollittlitii emb-
timents of one part of the were totally at, deavanci.rim: ithe-questikinoisaelf.had hair advo-'
variance with those of another past; so that here was icated strenuously by the latter, and it was to that

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