Star. — 1819-11-17 (London, England)

ATTORNEY-GZNYEAL moved the Judgment of the Court.  Mr. Justice In?, before whom the defendant was tried at the last Assizes for Cornwall, read his Report of the trial.  Mr. SwAnn, being asked if he had any affidavits? answered, " None." He then addressed the Court, and said, he had attended to the Report read by the Learned Judge, which he conceived to be correct.— When on his trial, he had been deprived of the legal assistance of a Gentleman he should have employed had he not then become an Officer of the Crown.— He then undertook his own defence, but was so much agitated, and, so much oppressed with the heat of the Court, that it overpowered him, and prevented his making that defence which would have saved him from the disgraceful situation in which he now stood. It might be said, why then was, he a second time undertaking his own cause ?—it was because, that as he had no affidavits to offer, there was little necessity fur Counsel; and the expensive contested elections he had stood, and the prosecution of the House of Commons, the former of which had cost him £7,000, and the latter £1,200, had rendered it inconvenient  for him to meet any additional expenses. He entertained a high sense of the magnitude of the offence of which he was convicted ; an offence which should meet with severe punisbment, as it tended to bring' into contempt the House of Commons.— He adverted to the fact, that he had been acquitted on all the charges brought against him, by a Committee of the House of Commons ; and that he would not then have been found guilty, had not the Solicitor to the Treasury gone down to Cornwall to collect evidence, and on that founded dm two counts on which he had been convicted. He did not wish to reflect on the late Attorney-General, whom every person must respect : but former AttorneyGenerals thought they had executed the duties imposed on them by the House of Commons,when they confined the prosecutions to the Minutes of the Committee.-He thought if their Lordships considered the charactei: of the evidence against him, they could not think it founded on truth. Was it likely, that a Candidate should go to an Elector, as he was said to have done to Peter Jenkins, and say, " If you will tell me your mind I will tell you mine ?" No! the truth was, when he went to this Wilkins, he was told that, as he had voted for him at four Elections, and received nothing, he had sworn to his wife not to vote again unless I would give up the note 1.._ The fact was, that, unwilling to loska voter, he had prevailed on Mr. Glasson not to put in force a debt against Wilkins. He said corruption had raged at Penrhyn fur more than a century; public breakfasts were given when the price of a plumper was twentyfour guineas; he had never given one of them breakfasts, but had maintained the honest independence of the town, and provided labour for them in the public' works with which he had been connected. If he had wished to be corrupt, he might for £5OO have always secured his election. For eighteen years, that he had been an active Member of Parliament, he had never broken bread at the expense of his; Country. Even the night before his trial, he could, for £4OO, have secured the very note which procured his convictica. Mr. Swann then stated, that as his connexions were in the West-Indies, he had written to the Attorney-General, to defer judgment until Spring ; but the Learned Gentleman refused, and immediately called. upon him to give security for his appearing for judgment. Officers had been sent to his house, who alarmed his family, rushed into his bed-room, and treated him as if he had been a felon: a traitor, a murderer. He then read a written testimonial of the services he had rendered the town.of Penrhyn and the County in general and declaring, their belief that he was not guilty of the charge which had been made against him by the persons who had so largely partaken of his bounty. This was signed by 150 respectable inhabitants. . The