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

vice whatever.

stimp39o.4. _
conwpon carrimis
ice them.. NV it
And distinct allezationLin
son, or the disav
not denied that

not in this case. By law the deferulaUts had an un-
doubted • right to a Jury, not only of twelve men,
but of twenty-four good and lawful menu abler and
obliged by the law to serve, out of 4om a proper,
Jury might be formed. Of this numb., only foua
were forthcoming—of the rest, the law had• dealt'
fairly with the parties; it had done all, it could to
bring them here, but there was one, who was not
asked .to come at all. The neglect was then in.the
officer, whose duty it as to further the admini-

stration of justice ; but it was not the defendants who
ought to be prejudiced- by it. In a case in Easter.
Term, 1819, tried in the Exchequer, that of the
King v. Goodman, the position was affirmed that a
party had a right. to twenty-four able men to serve
upon in . person, in order that the defendant might
suggest all objections which would occur _to • him.
.many of which might have arisen after the service;
of the summons—many after he had come into Coast.
There shou'd be a rule of Court for striking A .new_
Thereswas also another objection as to /the
iime, of the day when.the summons was served. To
Afree at,two in the morning, in order to be in Court,
st ine,, wis a rigour unknown to the law. Thera
should.be always allowed a reasonable time to the
party tforprepare himself. In the city of London, if
a sabpdma be served in the morning, the person was
not required to give his attendauensbeitime day in
.any of the Courts at Westminster HA Thas had
been frequently ruled. Then how inuch stronger
Was the case here, where the party summoned lived
no less than 14 or 15 miles from town, was served,
with the'orderin the middle of the night, and' la-
boured at the same time under severe indisposition.
On all these grounds the -Learned Counsel said he
would challenge the array, but he would reduce the
challenjie to writing.
Mr. Serjeant VAUGUAN declined arguing in reply.
The CHIEF BARON.—I think the arguments used
go to stretch a point of form to too great rigour. If
them is anything in the objections, the defendants
will, of course, In another place, have the benefit of
them. At present nothing has been offered to shew
me that we ought not to go on with the trial; but I
must say, the Learned Counsel for the defendants
have made as much of their points as possible. Let
the challenge be quashed.
Mr..Hit.t. said, he bad another ground of objet-'
Lion, which was the urindifferency of the Master of
the Crown-office.

CHIEF BARON.--I will hear you if you choose to
proceed with your argument. .
Mr. HILL.—My Lord, I desire to be suffered to
argue this; I conceive it a strong ground, for I can
challenge a common Jury. Under such circarn-
stancescl submit that the emu of 'hewing that a spe-
cial one is not subject to the same challenge, lies with
the other side. In the case in Strange, oithe King v.
Johnson, a challenge was made to the Special Jury,
on account of the unindifferency of the r of the
Crown-office, and it was allowed. The same doc-
trine was laid down snore forcibly in a recent case,
in the King's Bench, the- Kin and Wooler, whore
the Master cif the Crown-office was declared to be a
Judicial, not a Ministerial Officer • and it was de-
clared that he should be perfectly indifferent between
the parties.
Mr. Wooler, for hinuel4 urged the same objection.
He stated, the conduct of the Master of the Crown-
office as reprehensible, as he painted it to be in his
own cast, which had ees first mentioned. At first,
this Officer contented hitoself _with using A discre-
tionary power of striking out what names he pleased,
but when a list of strangers was• presented to him,
men, whom he did not know, he boldly asserted his
right tp pack a Jury and make one of his own
choice. He (Mr. Wooler? loudly protested against
this gross violation of justice, which, under the pass-
port of forms of law, wounded all right; but he be-
lieved it was from his inability in urging this great
point, and because he had not entrusted- it to a Barns-
ter, that more attention was not paid him by the Court.
It was ruled, that the Master might use his discretion
in selecting names, bat there was nothing in. that
case half so gross as what was done 'here. The.
whole array contained but one hundred names, and
amongst whom were the Grand Jury of the county,
who, upon such slight evidence, found the Bill, and
the great majority of whom were either *sons in
place, or others looking for it. They were, in fact,
servants of .the Crown; and it was but natural the
Crown should have recourse to them, when it meant,
to assert what might be considered its right. He
asked, could such men as that Grand Jury be fit
persons to serve upon a Special Jury, in an issue be-
tween the Crown and the subject ?
__
CHIEF BARG/to-4r= the MitUre of your argu-.
meats,, I know you cannot be ignorant that I am not,
the person to whom you ought to address them. I
:cannot make an alteration lathe Jury. I am only
a Nisi Prigs Judge, and cannot alter what has bum
done in the Court of King's Bench.
Mr. Wooler.—My Lord, you are Judge here, and
may contronl.
COIEP &too:lr.—My duty, as Judge af t-Nisi Prim,
is limited and well defined. , ...I
Mr. Wooler.—l was using this as part of my mul
to chew the grounds upon which I .chat
et array. We are charged with a conspiracy
against the Government; I was preparing to skew
the conspiracy of the Gavel:num* egsliest us. if I
establish this conspiracy against us, mutely your
Lordship will make an order—

Cider Bsaos..-4 have before said, I mita**
no order.
Mr. Wooler.—Your ILordship aluOt veirmihilisay
that the circumstances were wok am yowl* pair.
self obliged to make an altendilisliis
Cuter Bason.—lf I were Isslisurielsilimpidlia
impeached. r ...A • i,•44:00
.Nlr-Wooler said, his 41 save Melly, stint,
end, though, after %what fries Cent, k saw
little hopes of success; yet smadd be persevere, sir,:
Skiff that if he was persacuted,it waiddaet be ia the
dark: He would sum. up his arlotaseuts by sapiag,.
that after the Illmairaf the Crammigiffice bad 'strut&
the Grand Jury otwenhe anap, them there remained
but 56 names out 4t aer chaose.44l. t His Map,'
th eforertould nut heiettaliect frottua lamer pumper

..• !,;1! 10. 0, .ry, •

..

,

,to

Were Only four Specials in attendanCe. &W.._
were purinto requisition, and out of a great number
of names, the following answered: - . .
John Bernard_ I Benjamin Hughes . M. Barmasf
John•Warbury James Littin - Jahn Denson.
Thomas Salt Bdw-Shuttleworth
V% hen the. book was 'handed to e forentan, pee-.
vious to being sworn, • • ..-7 ..--- _
.. Mr. Woksler, rising up, said," Will you give molester to at
you one-question?"
Cour BA son.—lf you state your question I will put it. - • 1
Mr. Woolen—Has the Gentleman ever given or expressed
any opisdon upon the Merits or demerits of this case?•
Cater Banos.--That, I think, be is not obliged to answer. '
The Juror, of his own accord, disclaimed having given any.
The same question was rut to the other Jurors ; but by eon-
nand of the Court ihey declined giving any answer.
Mr. Hughes, a;oletroass; was about to.be sworn;
Mr. Wooler.—Pray, Mr. Hughes, will you Indulge me In an'
answer to my gondola? . •
. PEICT Baum—Yes, !think as Mr. Hughes is not a Special'
'iron he-may answer.
'Mr. Woolen—Have you ever given any opinion upon the me-
an or,demerits of this case X.—Sunin—l hive nor..
'By Mr. Lawn.—What profession are you?
Char Datum—The Gen:lessan must not answerthatspandints
John Burman, the next Juror, was asked the aanatogisidsou;
but helitating to reply, .
-istaMpathr. Winery. said—l object to itielarymaa, on ileahiii4,,,lik, ,
.. Mr. Ca.aaxa to the Juror.-.-HaveyOt aid, atisaytinte,-*h6.
elanthese defendants were or.wece flotilualfY? • •
Mr: •.—Sir, that was not my question to the (3entleman.
' ' Stri- • I endeavoured to give the substance of it.
Mr. Winkr..—My words were intelliglble.enotigh. To in or-'
ainary ondirstanding they would have conveyed my meaning.
%fr. Cusses—Sir, you forget to whom you address this-
beetigee•
Mr. Wooien—lf I have spoken improperly, I am open to the'
arreetion of rho Learned Judge.
Mr. Cumin—NlT Lord shall decide.
The Juror disclaimed having given any opinion.
Mr. Lawns.-1)o you understand the question? .
Cur Baaosr.—Mr. Lewis, you must be more on your guard..
.1 anstiter the observations unhandsome, and improper. Mr.
Wookr's meaning was verrintelligible.
• After being interrogated in the same way, the{
.other Jurors were sworn, and the cause commenced.
Mr. BALGUY opened the pleadings. The indict-
ment
charged the defendants, George Edmunds,'
Charles Maddox, John Cartwright, .Thomas-Jona-
than Wooler, and William Greathead 'Lewis; with
being malicious, seditious, and evil-disposed persons,
and with unlawfully and maliciously desiring and
i
ntendin.g.to raise and .excite 'discontent and-.disaf-
fection in the minds of the king's subjects, atudin-
, tending .to move them to hatred and contempt 'ef
the Government and Constitution as by law etre-
blished, and of the Commons House of -Parliament
as by law established heretofore: to wit, on the.l2th
day of July, 1819, and on divers other.daya and
times, as well before as after, with force and artsis-at.
Illieminghain, unlawfully, maliciously, and-seditious-
ly, did combine, conspire, and confederate with each
other, and with divers other disaffected and illrdia-
posed persons, for the purposes above-mentioned, and
unlawfully to nominate, elect, and appoint a person to
be Representative of the inhabitants of Birmingham,
and to claim admission into the House of Commons
as aMember thereof,neithei they, the said defendant,
nor the said other conspirators, nor.the inhabitants:of
Birmingham,, being then lawfully authorised-to no
minate,elect, or iippoint any such Representative;
and that they, the defendants, and various other per-
sona, in pursuance of the said conspiracy, assembled
to the number of 20,000, for the purpose of hear-
ing divers scandalous, seditious, and inflammatory
speeches, resolutions, and writings, concerning the
Government and the House of Commons, uttered for.
the purposes aforesaid.
• The defendants, &c. so assembled, were charged
with having uttered speeches of the *above descrip-
tion, for the purposes already stated. And that the,
said conspirators in further pursuance, &c. - did with
a loud voice say, utter, and publish divers seditious,
malicious,' inflammatory matters and things, of and
concerning the Government and Constitution of this
realm, as by law established, and of and cttncern-
,' ing the Commons House of Parliament, as by. law
' established. .
And the said conspirator. did aid and assist in
causing
.and procuring one Sir Charles Wolseley,
Bart. to be then and there nominated and appointed
the Representative aforesaid, and to claim admission
into the House of Parliament, as a Member thereof,
. neither of the said conspirators being in any manner,
lawfully authorized so to do. .
The defendants pleaded Not Guilty. .
Mr. Serjeant VAUGBAX then rose to . address the
Jury. It was a pleasure, he .said, to him, to be at
leestkipermitted to address them on the part of thel
Crown, after so much of their time bad been already '
waited. The charge under which the present de-'
feedenct lay, was that of a seditious cttsspiracy, and
truly.. if.
...ocni- were to be estimated according to
the degree of danger which they inspired, this was a
Misdemeanour of the 4rst.lass. For what could be
Mere criminal in subjects, than by words or actions
to excite discontent and disaffliction in the People to-
wards -the Government; to,straign the integrity of
an important branch of the Legislature; to assert.
that the House of Commons was not the Represettta-
ainotthe People, and attempt a reform of its pro-
ceedings by outward.vialence.. and by their own au-
thority la. Although the whole -indictment furnished
special matter for consideration, yet the. Learned Ser.
jeant saido-there were cartel* parts of it, to 'which he d
wished to draw their, parxiculac attention.- These he
would swap 4091 h-sad. he was 6117, they would
100 easily disposed-of.: In ever) criminal inquiry, it
*slivery -desirable the, Jury shOuld have a right no-
tion of the charges- preferred, (heir nature, and extent
hlcrethe amou,at-of them was this:. That the defen-
dants had conspired to excite diwoment and disaffee.
tion tewardsahe Government, and that they hacrpro•
cured a Representative for Birmingham unlawfully,ii
and- without proper authority. That 'they had idso in-.
structed this Repretentative to force his way into the'
HousegCoMmons, and to use all his efforts .to bring
about atutge there. Now, to these acts, the objection
was I s; cunt, the defendants met without the
sal, mica** of the King's writ, andt hey were guilty
an icregaut and ptesumptuous usurpation of a
poWtr 9r leglsrationO for one branch could not alter
whet-hello= the work ofildl three. Without going'
back to .the trierrdetk pertitds of .our history, when,
the fin of his own motiotkcallcd uicu to Parliament,


certain that by the Constitution as now esta-
'shed; this-Was A gross halation of the prerogative,
I.an assumption of legislative power. Altliote.'a
"ing, in early times, could call persons together
'ornament, yet even he in the present day could
„take that alteration •in the Con‘titution
defendants, in their persons and by their own iiu-
aority;attempted. The King could not issue nee
writs, that is, he could not give the elective franchi.e
toa placewhieb had it not bcfore—his incapacity se
to do was declared by Act of Parliament. When di;
country effected •the -Union with Scotland, the Act
.of Parliament which sanctioned it declared, -that
whilst England should have 513 Members in t:.e
House of Commons, Scotland was to have 45.
Therefore any increase of the number, or an; eltera-
tic.' in it, would be a violation of that solemn talcs
to which every branch of the Legislature Wai eledgcd
By•conse_quence the King had virtually abdicated.
and formally parted with his power of ir.creasinn the
-Members. of the representative Legislature.
power then rested only in the three branches of' the
Legislature together, unconstitutional in the hands cf
any one. So much-for the objects of the censpirKcy,
but as to the conspiracy itself, or the means ethic
were used to carry these objects into -effect, it had
always been looked upon with a particularly odious
and jealous eye by the law; so jealous, d 7 olat
Even where the purposes were legal, the Cons ituorm
bath ever set its face against combinations. But lac
much more obnoxious must they be, when not atly.
were their objects illegal, but the :Leans of carrying
them into execution so very unconstitutional ? Th:s
was not the place to go into any idle discussions
upon Parliamentary Reform. Whether it would he
advisable to extend the elective franchise more wide:,
or to unmake some alterations-which time and Cir-
cumstances had made in our Constitution, was not
now the question. The only consideration was, a•hc-
ther the 'defendants had taken the proper steps to ac-
complish these objects? It had been already seen that
such a power was vested only in the three brandies of
the Legislature, and it followed, the more each iedi-
vidual signalized himself in arrogating to himself that
privilege, thegreater was his guilt in the eyeei the law,
.HavinganadetheSeprefattiryobservationsalieLearned
Serjeant said he wasnaw come to-the facts of the car-,
and he would endeavour tostate•them simply, and.
as they applied to each aaf the .defendants. It was
known to every. Gentleman on the Jury, that about
the time its question, ,and.- for u-coosiderable Ferind
preceding, greet distressavaslek in the mantilactur-
Jog tlistrtcts. Ther werro.perhapo, ' also aware, that
theae.distresees were irritated and fomented humans
9f Robli;.llleetings, and "-by the-efforts of some dis-
*limed men, wheee.care it-was to infuse into the
nixie of thePublic,..the notion Met. all their miifur.
Atoms were owing to the miscondiect of the Governer%
tug( the baseecrtruption. of..the House of -Commons.
Oral all aides napainowere spared to inculcate thoe
falsehtaitis,.aind continued acts of people served
le-sheiiv at Whoa.,sluors -they laid the blame of dis-
treaseud-which .were entirely 'the Offspring of circum-
statues.. ,Action is-not far removed from conviction,
aod_thegreatobject-Was to Mahethentshew by over:
4cts.RfAustragetire:sento-whieta the- -people had of the
~perity, of the-Commons House of Pat nutmeat. Like
4oule Attire. of its. wealthy-and restless neighbours,
AirmiqglabihasithoulisfOrtone to be visited by etch
I:Pena-she hkcl described. -in every part of that oleo
Jant,towo there were persons to be found svhtise bush
ameasitwas to revile the Constitution, and"awae par-
ticularly the House of Commous. Frans such bests-
wittles arose-the Meeting, for assisting at which the de-
fendants were now.to answer, It was on the Sd of July
that the Clem ofthe Peace had notice of the Meeting.
and almost 'immediately after a Secret Meeting was
held, where the Resolutions to be proposed were di-
gested and arranged, and to which the defendants
now on the Record werelhe only persons pricy
It would be found in the evidence, that Major Carta
wright arrived at Birmingham on the 10thn and the
same day took lodgings. He was immediately
waited upon by the defendants, who called that day,
Saturday, and again on Sunday—the Meeting was
fixed for Monday. Everything had been arranged
between these persons the very day previous to the
Meeting. It was, of course, impossible to let the
Jury into the ,cabinet secrets of these men, but the*
overt subsequent acts furnished a strong' probability
that the Resolutions which were proposed next (147
were all arranged and digested that .day at the
Major's. They were therefore closeted together,
and acting together before the-Meeting 4. And, what
was more, they had two flags, the inscriptions on
which-would be found, entirely 4A unison with their
avowed., political feelings. - 'They wet* necessarily
such asaeerned most likely to.excite disaffection and
disco/Matti towards the Government; one was ".Major
Cartwright and the Bill of Itigtiti% And Liberty. --
Thia was a bill.which.was afarveurjte with thosewho
called themselves Radicals ; the other side had th:
remarkable wards " The Sovereignty of the People.'
Indeed, it eras no. Matter of surprise that they 'heath,
have enlisted. ender such a banner, for they were
aboUt to exercise an act of the highest Sovereignty.
.oneWhich.the. Constitution done dto the King him-
tailt,-oothing less .than. to .altet.the Constitution of
the Realm, and givo,u; a new Reuse of Costumes.
The language they used was entirely of the same cha-
racter; the despotic hlajesty. of *the people was as-
serted; the House of Commons.Waspainted as-having
betrayed its trust; and the-people, fto whosilanitis it
was returned,. were called upon.tcatweeeisintheir .20-
vernignty without reserve. As.to the other flag, one
inscription was, " Sir Charhes Wolseley and no Cora
Laws." He- did not mean to say anything of Se
Charles %Volseley, who was a Baronet of good fa-
mily in
to do;
him at premat be.had
nothing to do; but if necessary, he could connect him
with the Meeting. This was the Gentlemen- whom
they chose for their Legislatorial Attorney. On the
Other. side of the flag was, t, Jonathan Thomas
Wooler, and the Liberty of the Preis." There was
110 greater blessing or curse in afrie country than a
'free Press. Let it keep 'Within bounds, and it was
the best safeguard of our liberties ; but to What put-
:poses had it not been prostituted in the present day?
Through it disaffection, • rebellienn• and discontent
spread abroad the son' of „their inatieece; it was
the vehicle for "irreligion, the organ -ef private ma-
lice, and the engine to the hands of the Democrat.
Long might the Liberty of. the Press be. preserved;
and he sincerely hoped* never to see it shackled;
but' every upright man shauld depilate the _uses
%%Melt had Ludy, ie some.hands, been made of it

•
to was
. The ShetifVof comae, did norserve absmaller oneLbut by leavir.g ouf a im-sitictea,
. ,cottite,„, hitateibeAtiffaeliannal withouyigetilVA. cPa4. !shell
arrarss ; • oat' sartnarao one affected .to clled,byintering hi pretest Ite'aVtat glimppypeosiip. and an
What answer vas that•to•tjle positiVe eeditink tho_challeage to the Jury if writiag. • thekKit
Ilezationsin the affidavit of Mr. Pei,. . The•C.:ittee Halos over-rnled.the objection, and to PAT.]
avowal of M. Peech himself? It was desireekhe trial to proleed. % • • not m
tt Mr. Peech had had summonses, but TlxV.lnrors Were then again called, but still, there the dcl
rs _ _1 _r_ t . _ .•_ 6 _ __t_l_ "!?_. --... •therritv