Star.
London, England, 1820-10-10 00:00:00

MISTEFIO(IS PUZKICATZON,OF
TREA-
SONASLEAIVIS-BILLS

•

PUBLIC-OFFICE, BOW-STREET.
Saturday, a poor looking lad, named Adding*ld,
was brought before the sitting Magistrate, chit-god
with circulating handbills, purporting to be an Ad-
dress. to the Nation, from the Queeit's Plate Subscrip-
tion Committee, containing the,most undisguised in-
citements to the people to overthrow the Govern-
ment, and to set the Queen at the head of the Na-
tion. The prisoner said ho was out of work, and
was seeking for a job, at Charing-cross, when a gen-
teel elderly man asked him if he wished to earn a shil-
hag. He replied yes ; when a coach was called, and
they were driven towards Whitehall. When they
bad got a few yards, the person gave him the papers,
with a shilling, and desired him to distribute them in
and about Parliament-street. Prisoner then alighted,
and the stranger was driven off.—The Presiding Ma-
gistrate observing there was no printer's name to
the bill, told the prisoner he was liable to imprison-
ment, or a penalty of £2O, but Mr. BIRNIE, consi-
del ing him the tool of some crafty knave, interceded
for him, and the Elie was remitted. Mr. PE/instil-4
the Attorney, attended as Secretary to the Queen's
Plate Committee, to disavow any knowledge of the
bill. The lad, after giving a minute description of
his employer, was sent to a Watch-house, until in-
quiry could be made after him.
Yesterday, at an early hour, a great number of
respectable perams, among whom were observed
Mr. Hume, 1. P. Sir Gerard Noel, Bart. Major
Cartwright, and several other public characters, at-
tended, tc hear the examination of a Mr. Franklin,
a person against whom a warrant had been granted
on Saturday, at the request of Mr. Pearson, for hav-
ing published a great number of seditious and trea-
sonable hand-bills, and as is believed, the one al-
luded to above. _ _ _

_

Sir ROBERT BAKER and Mr. BIRNIE first took their
seats on the bench ; Mr.MIESHULL arrived soon after.
Mr. Pearson having requested that their Worships
would proceed upon the business of the warrant, Sir
Robeit Baker said, that he had let Mr. Franklin out
of custody upon good bail, and that he knew if he
did not attend that day, he would on some other.
Mr. Pearson expressed himself dissatisfied with this
statement,' and said that be would not leave the
Office until be had examined into the case a little
further. Shortly afterwards Mr. Minshull entered
the Office, and Mr. Pearson addressed the Magis-
trates to the following effect :
" Mr. Miushull having new arrived, as he granted
the warrant upon which Mr. Franklin was arrested, I
take leave to ask why the accused is not here to answer
to the charge which I have made against him ? If he
is not in custody, I demand to know by whose con-
nivance or authority he has been permitted to es-
cape ?--f Here a pause of some minutes ensned, aid
Mr. Pearans resuniedal perceive there is no an-
swer, and well may it be so. I new call upon the
Magistrates of this Office instantly to take measures
to apprehend the accused, who, by his absence, has
given an additional proof, if proof were necessary, of
his guilt. I call upon you, Gentlemen, to use the
salie vigilance, to take the same means, to appre-
hend this man, 'that you would have taken, had he
been, instead of %that he is, really a poor deluded
man,. entertaining the sentiments which by those bills
be circulates to delude and destroy the victims of
his credulity. It is evident, and the Magistrates
know it, that Mr. Franklin, a man of independent
fortune, of high family and connections, with a son
holding rank in the Army, and dependent for pro-
motion upon the Ministers—connected, as he is, with
the Editors of the Ministerial Press, I say, Gentle-
men, you know that this individual possesses no sym-.
pally with the sentiments contained in those hand-
bills. I now call upon you, if you respect the name
of justice, to exercise the same activity—to put all
your officers in motion, as if some poor half-starved
wretch, for the sake of a day's bread, had been
guilty of the crime of circulating that which, per-
haps, he could not even read. I charge Mr. Frank-
lin with having, dining the last three years, printed
and published all the seditious hand-bills which have
been laid at the door of the Reformers. I charge
him with having printed and published the atrocious
Address to the Livery of London, which, about two
years ago, hted the timid for the safety of their
homes and their fire sides. I charge him with having
deluged the Smithfield Meetings with the paper en-
titled " Bread or Blood," and the other papers ex-
citing the peoplz to Revolution and bloodshed. .1
charge this man wish having, in September, 1819,
practised upon the feelings of a starving populace,
by addressing to them an infamous placard, contain-
ing, among other things, the expression, " the majo-
" rsty has nothing to lose, and everythingto gain; this
" must kindle even cowards, and, in the words of our
" immortal Bard, steel with valour the melting spirits
"of woman : What indefeasible shame it would be,
were the womb-ripped females of Lancashire more
" heroic than the oppressed men of the Metropolis."
I charge him with having published the bloody "Ad-,'
dress to the brave non-represented Reformers," which,
in 1819, called upon the people to insist upon " Uni-
versal Suffrage, or Death. I charge him with having
-written the threatening letter addressed to Sir Fran-
cis Burdett's Jury, which operated so powerfully
against the Baronet's cause. In fine, Gentlemen, I
charge this man with having published, by thousands,
tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, all the
seditious and treasonable hand-bills which have been,
for the last three years, imputed to the disaffected
among the people. I have witnesses now in this room
ready to iaove these facts, and I charge Mr. Frank-
lin with having done so, as an agent of the Adminis-
tration; and, moreover, I am ready to prove his
iconnection with the Ministers, and that at this mo-
ment there are sitting in this neighbourhood, several
of his associates, who are, and have been for some
time devising treason against the people of England."
• Sir Robert Baker here interrupted Mr. _Pearson,
by. saying that there was no such crime as treason
against the people.
l‘lr. Pearson replied, that treason against the Go-
vernment was only such, as that Government might
be suppub,ed to be the guardians of the people's wel-
fare ; and that an attempt to urge on starving my-
rinds to .the attempt of desperate enterprises, for the
pulpost of making them the It ictims of despotism,

•
was not only treason stgainst the King, but agaiitst
the people also.
Mr. Pearson continual... I now, Gentlemen, call
upon you for yourbest exertions to detect this delin-
quent ; he has been permitted to isCaPe'by the neg-
lect of your Officer, and unless he be retaken by your
exertions, conclusions not very favourable to the Ma-
gistracy of the country will and must be drawn.--
The world will say that the whole business is a —,
but I will not finish the sentence, the consciences of
every one who hears, me will supply the omission."
Sir Robert Baker observed, that he had let Mr.
Franklin out of custody upon his word of honour to
return, added by a promise to the same effect from
a Mr. Williams, who was a respectable man. Vickery
was ordered to fetch Mr. Williams, who lived in St.
Martin's-lane. Upon his appearance, he was exa-
mined by Mr. Pearson, who drew from him that
Mr. Franklin lived next door to him at Maida Hill;
that he was a man of independent fortune, and had
a son a Lieutenant in the Guards, and that he (Mr.
Williams) had attended him to Sir Robert Baker as a
friend, that he knew nothing of where Mr. Franklin
then was ; he had called.at his house, and found that

he was gone.
Mr. Birnie then observed, that he had known Mr.
Williams for thirty years; that he w:ts a very respect-
aisle man, and that he (Mr. Birnie) had refused to ad-
mit Mr. Franklin to bail, and advised Mr. Williams
to have nothing to do with it, and partly so, because
he had received a letter from Mr. Pearson, saying,
that there were other charges against him, and that
they must not take less bail than £5OO. Mr. Birnie
appeared to take great pains to get at the bottom of
the case, and directed the Officers-to use every exer-
tion to apprehend the delinquent. •
Mr. Pearson unequivocally stated, thathe had evi-
dence to prove the direct agency of the Government
in the publication of all these seditious placards, and
that Mr. Franklin had been followed when carrying

some of them to Downing-street.
The following is a copy of the Placard, upon which
the warrant against Mr. Franklin was obtained : •
"EVIL-BE TO HIM WHO EVIL THINKS."
a Trot QUEEN'S F-assns, whenever and however assembled,
will ndt content themselves with empty professions, but give
solid proofs of their zeal by effectually promoting the Subscrip-
tion for such a Service of Plate as may be worthy of this noble
Country ; and spew her Majesty's nefarious persecutors, that it
is not in the power of an infamous Government, a corrupt Ju-
dicature, or bribed Blajorities--cf execrable perjurers, suborners
of 'evidence or malignant conspirators to shut the hands of the
People of England,: after they have opened their hearts. Eternal
disgrace would be stamps upon the Nation if this measure did
not thoroughly succeed. Mighty events are probably in the
womb of time. Except from the auricles, accidents of sex and
primogeniture, what claim has the King upon the Nation which
the Queen does not possess in common with him ? She, wired.
as he, is only third in generation from one King of Itnabod.
She is the niece and daughter-in-law of another King; and with•-',
out preaching any doctrine tending to civil convulsion, the his-
torical truth is undeniable that England never was greater de
happier than in the' golden days of good Queen Bess,' saddle
glorious ooes of Queen Anne. Some among the most remenae.
less of Queen Caroline's enemies, might bear in mind that there
is an express Act of Parliament which makes it penal to goa-
ded the right of the Nation to limit the Succession to the Thrones
Whilst the wife, with the magnanimity of a Semiramis, is pro-,
pounding a system that must shortly regenerate this enslaved ,
bad 6 and crush the Tyrant while It rends the chain' ' the Hus-
band
is playing the Dandy. ' Nero fiddled when Roost was
"Never will the generous hearts of Englishmen, after the plan
has been so promuiged, of supplying to her Majesty that Plate,
which, though denied to the Niece of George the Third, has
been made a boon to her Newspaper traducer—never will the
Public, whose annihilated liberties are sure of resuscitation in
the presidential 7 instrumentality of this noble-minded Princess
(of which, by the way, a recent glorious acquittal, even in one
of those right arms of tyranny, called Courts of Law, is auspi-
ciously portentous).—never will the British Public permit the
dishonour to her cause which would be inseparable from failure
of the Subscription for the Plate. Subscriptions continue to be
received at the following places, viz.
" Messrs. West, 329, &rand, Wirewor ker.
Parr, Russell-street, Covent-garden, tailor.
Ireland, Holborn-bridge, hosier.
Cabuac, Blackman-street, Borough, publisher.
Denison, West Smithfield, cutler.
Wading, opposite the Adelphi, Strand, publisher.
Whitaker, Surrey Coffee-house, Union.street, Borough.
Benbow, 269, Strand, printer.
4' Being the original Receiving-houses ; also by Mrs. Carlile,l
Fleet-street; and by all the other subsequeetly added Members
of the Committee. =PITTS/. i
The Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Otford, Lord Wm. Fitzgerald,,
And the following Members of Parliament and Gentlemen:
Sir Gerard Noel I Alderman Wood I Edw. Ellice, Esq.
Sir Francis Burdett Peter Moore, Esq. Major I. Williams
Sir Robert Wilson Joseph Hume, Esq. Alderman Thorp
Sir John Newport John C flobhouse, Mr. Sheriff Wait&
Sir 11. Parnell Esq. i man.
Hon. D. Kinnaird Chas. Calvert. Esq.
" N.B. All Friends to the glorious Revolutions of Spain, Por-
tugal, Naples, Sicily, and to unbudesqued liberty in England,
will not fail to attend the Crown and Anchor Dinner on the 2d
of October • Sir Robert Wilson, RP- KM:LT- and S. ST.
G. ST. A. Lid B.F. in the Chair.
" A PA3111012 WOiLD ox suss GaiI:RAZ Calies.
" Even in their festivities, the resisters of the detestable Go-
vernment which enslaves this once free Nation, should not for-
get those who are now suffering for their past well proved vir-
tues in the cause. Scaffolds have been the melancholy lot of
some. Others are languishing in chains and dungeons. A few
weeks only, unless the Nation be roused hi titre, will see two
more of our foremost champions ' laid in basest bonds' by the
corrupt judgment of ermined fiends. A lens pall, a strong pull,/
and a pull altogether, may save us all. Let the regenerators of
their country discard all petty jealousies; and keep in mind the
motto of that brave people which, by a glorious Revolution, east
of a tyrant's sway, and established independence : Chncersho
re Reno eviscuat, disperdia maxima dilsbantur.' "
Mr. MINsHULL. then retired into a private room,
accompanied by*Mr. Pearson and the witnesses, and
Mr. Williams's examination was continued, for the
purpose of obtaining, if possible, a clue to the dis-
covery of Mr. Franklin's place of concealment. Mr.
Williams resolutely persisted in his declaration, that
he had not in any way bound himself for Mr. Frank-
lin's appearance; for that he had merely assured Sir
Robert Baker- of the respectability of the accused,
and that he would attend with him in the morning
at the Office. From the examination of Mr. Wil-
liams, it appeared, that Mr. Franklin was a gentle-
man of independent fortune, and that he had a son
an Officer in the Guards; he also said, that he had
been on the Sunday with the officer and the prisoner,
to Mr. Birnie, at his country-house, in order to obtain
his liberation; but, that Mr. Birnie refused to com-
ply with his request, and had advised Mr. Williams,
as a friend, not to have anything to do with the pri-
soner. In defiance, however, of this advice, be went
to Sir Robert Baker with the prisoner, mind that gen-
tleman discharged him out of custody, upon his pro-
raising to appear. on the next day. At this time :Ir.
Pearson observed, that he had received information
that Mr. Franklin was probably at a house in the
neighbourhood, and requested that an officer might
be sent with him to search the house. Vickery was
appointed to that service. The house in question
belongs to a Mr. Denis O'Bryon ; is situated in Car

.

I /

• •
Itivermen4treeePtlknettnilltillni:ls:wv4hateitratydeeargPte of iengreen attarea.usitthe' nt4prfitlahc cae
e
under the Government, worth 4800 per year,: and
that he is a. writer fOr a certain celebrated Morning
Paper which advocates the cause of the Ministers.
Information was given at the Office that Mr. Fran-
klin had been watched for several days, and has been
Observed to 'meet every day at Mr. Denis O'Bryen s
house, with some other distinguished characters con-
nected with the Ministerial Press ; and that all the
treasonable and seditious hand-bills are carried to
that house, and the conspirators admitted by a signal
given of drawing a stick along the railing. When,
Mr. Pearson and Vickery arrived at Craven-street,
they were refusedudmittance by the servant, when
Vickery threatened to get in at the window. At
length a Gentleman from. within, who appeared not
to like the aspect of affairs, came out, and the officer
took advantage of the door being opened to enter
the house, followed by Mr.. Pearson. Mr. Denis
O'Bryen soon made his appearance, and declared
most vehemently that he did not even know Mr. Frank- •
lin, although Mr: Franklin has been traced into Mr.
O'Bryen's house constantly during the last three.
years, and although Mr. Williams, upon his exami-*
nation, admitted that he had met the aforesaid Mr.
Denis O'l3ryen at this,unktioten Mr. Franklin's house.
The search of Mr. O'Bryen's house was unsucceisful,
and Mr. Pearson returned to the office. During his
absence Mr. Haydon contrived to draw some very
important facts fr•m Mr. Williams ; he admitted that
on the Sunday night, as late. as ten o'clock, Mr.
Franklin told him that he meant to go out of town,
and that that moriling, at eight o'clock, Mr. Frank-
lin's daughter had told him, that before twelve o'clock
her father would be above 100 miles from London.
Mr. Minshull remarked, tintedit was very singular
that not -until three o'clock could this geatlenian re-
collect a circumstance so important to the inquiry,.
and that he should have thought an. honourable man
would not have rested until he had disclosed those
facts to Sir Robert Baker, is order that warrants
might have been issued early in the morning for
his apprehension.
We understand that warrants for the apprehension
of the accused are Sent off to different parts of the
country.
Mr.PearsOn, attended by Mr. Haydon, Mr. Wilson,
and two other Gentlemen, then went to the Secretary
of State's Office; and had an interview with Mr. Clive,
who, very much to the astonishment of the party, had
received intelligence of all that had transpired). -and
was as well acquainted with. the mysterious escape
of • the accused, and all the minutia of the case, as
were the Gentlemen themselves. He further laboured
to justify the conduct 0.1. Sir Robert Baker, by saying
that the charge was only that of a misdemeanour,
and that therefore he might let him out at his discre-
tion. Mr. Pearson, in very warm term, replied to
this assertion, that a Magistrate possessed no such
right, but that, whatever might be the rank, family,
connexions, or political feelings of a person accuse,
a Magistrate had no power to order his discharged
without taking good and sufficient bail for-his ap-
pearance. Mr. Pearson then entered into a statement
of all the facts which he had previously detailed at
Bow-street, and finally addressed himself with great
energy to Mr. Clive: he told him that he beggeddhe
Would expressly understand that, in the presence of
the Gentlemen then in the room, he invoked the aid
of the Home Department to secure the apprehension
of the accused. That,- as the Secretary of State was
in the habit of offering rewards, an/ issuing Procla-
mations, for the arrest of offenders of comparatively
!sit minor importance, he earnestly entreated cf him,
that very day, to take measures for the apprehension
of this daring. offender. Mr. Pearson further- rem
marked, than considering the individual in question
stood charged with having published seditious 'and
treasonable placards, and with, at a great expense
and trouble, distributing them gratuitously, by hun-
dreds of thousands, for a period of three years, ex-
tending over times in which public distress had driven
the lower classes to a state of irritation amounting
almost to madnes; considering the feverish state of
the public feeling at this moment, when those atro-
cious placards were being issued forth ;considering
Ithat he haa ordered fifty thousand copies to be print-
ed, and had actually bespoke a hand-bill, calling
upon the people to arm themselves and to resist the
constituted Authorities of the country ; considering
also that the accused had been suffered to escape,
through the extraordinary, mysterious, and unp;ece-,
dented conduct of their own Magistrate, Sir tobertl
Baker ; that if the Home Departnient did not use
extraordinary exertions to retrieve the error of their
' own Office, and to deliver up this man to answer to
Ithe offended laws of his country, there would not
be wanting people to suppose that the rank and occu-
pation of the man had secured his safety; and, in-1
deed, the world would draw conclusions too obvious
to need to be specified. -
Mr. Clive said, that Lord Sidmouth was not then;
at the Office, but that if Mr. Pearson would call.oul
another d 4, he should receive an answer.
Mr. Pearson replied, that as he believed the ac-
cused would quit the country, it was that night, and
that night only, that the services of his Lordship
would.be'of any use ; and that, therefore, he would
call again if such were Mr. Clive's pleasure, but he
could not leave the neighbourhood without receiving
a decisive answer. Mr. Pearson left with Mr. Clive
two of the seditious hand-bills, and was appointed to
call again at half-past four o'clock ; at which time
that Gentleman and his friends returned, and Mr.
Clive addressing them, said; that Lord Sidmouth did
not see anything in the hand-bills to justify his in-
terference—it should be remembered that the two
bills left were the one which we hate before copied,
and another, containing, among other seditious and
inflammatory expressions, the following, alluding to
the executions at Derby;—" Strike not at all, or
strike home—think of our present' insupportable ser-
vitude, and always remember that the alternative is
LIBERTY OR A GLORIOUS GRAVE." Mr. Pearson re-
plied, that if such were Lord Sidmouth's answer, and'
for such reasons, he had drawn his conclusions from
insufficient premises, saying, that be rested his claim
to Lord Sidmouth's interference, not only upon these
placards, infamous and treasonable as they were, but
also upon the eighteen others, all of-which bad been
circulated during the last three years... Mr. Clive
said distinctly, that he bad related this to Lord Sid-
mouth, who had replied, that he. silt' no reason for
the interfere= of the Department over which be'

. „_.

presided ; and therefore Mr. Pearson and his friends
made their bow and _retired.
Upon their leaving the OtfiCe, Sir A.Balcer entered,
apparently from the aparLinent Of Lord Sidniouth.
'Mr: Pearson attended the Office late in the evening,
and .was informed by. Mr. Nlinshull, that the ,Focr
youth who was arrested on Saturday, on a charge of.
having dis•:ributed the hand-bill, for the publication
of which Mr. Franklin stands accused, and who stood
weeping at the 13ar of the Office, and in a most af.
fecting manner, said, that he was a poor country
lad, without friends or money, who had been an at-
tendant at a cofee-house in the H.iyniarket, which
was pulled down ; and that, labouring wafer distress
and absolute want, he had agreed to Oistr.bute the
bills, to get a shilling. It appeared that he could
not read, and therefore could not have knows the
contents of the hand-bills. • •
Mr. Minshull said, that having found that the
'boon boy's statement was true, he had, in compa.,sion
to his situation, oily fined him five pounds, and
prisoned him in the House of Correction for three
months A Gentleman standing by, said, with great
feeling, From such compassion, good Loa; deliver
us." • What a singular inversion of the rules of ju.,:g-
ment. Mr. Franklin is charged with being the author
of this bill ; poor Addingtield could not read it. Air,
Franklin is a man of fortune ; 'ooor Aningfielti is
the very picture of wretchedness and disue,s.
Franklin is charged with having, for three yetrs,
deavoured to excite the tleople to treason and rebt::-
lion—poor A.ddingfield, evidently had not b..tins
enough to catch a goose upon a common. Vet
Franklin is permitted to escape, and A,ldilitieid re-
ceives the compassio:: of a Magistrate, which sends
him to gaol for a crime of which he was unconscious,
and imposes a file v. hich he never can p.ay