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ciples of pecuniary corruption, upon which the Prisoner proceeded; one of these displays his passive corruption in receiving bribes, and the other his active corruption, in which he has endeavoured to defend his passive corruption, by forming a most formidable faction both abroad and at home. There is hardly any one act of the Prisoner's corruption, in which there is not presumptive violence; nor any acts of his violence, in which there are not presumptive proofs of corruption. These practices are so intimately blended with each other, that we thought the distribution which we have adopted would best bring before you the spirit and genius of his government; and we were convinced, that if upon these four great heads of charge, your Lordships should not find him guilty, nothing could be added to them which would persuade you so to do.

In this way and in this state, the matter now comes before your Lordships. I need not tread over the ground, which has been trod with such extraordinary abilities by my brother managers; of whom I shall say nothing more, than that the Cause has been supported by abilities equal to it; and, my Lords, no abilities are beyoud it. As to the part which I have sustained in this procedure, a sense of my own abilities, weighed with the importance of the Cause, would have

made

made me desirous of being left out of it; but I had a duty to perform which superseded every personal consideration, and that duty was obedience to the House, of which I have the honour of being a member. This is all the apology I

shall make. We are the Commons of Great Britain, and therefore cannot make apologies. I can make none for my obedience; they want none for their commands. They gave me this office, not from any confidence in my ability, but from a confidence in the abilities of those who were to assist me, and from a confidence in my zeal,-a quality, my Lords, which often times supplies the want of great abilities.

In considering what relates to the Prisoner and to his defence, I find the whole resolves itself into four heads. First, his demeanour and his defence in general: secondly, the principles of his defence: thirdly, the means of that defence; and, fourthly, the testimonies which he brings forward to fortify those means, to support those principles, and to justify that de

meanour.

As to his demeanour, my Lords, I will venture to say, that if we fully examine the conduct of all prisoners brought before this high Tribunal, from the time that the Duke of Suffolk appeared before it, down to the time of the appearance of my Lord Macclesfield; if

we

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we fully examine the conduct of prisoners in every station of life, from my Lord Bacon down to the smugglers who were impeached in the reign of King William, I say my Lords, that we shall not, in the whole history of Parliamentary trials, find any thing similar to the demeanour of the Prisoner at your bar. What could have encouraged that demeanour, your Lordships will, when you reflect seriously upon this matter, consider. God forbid that the authority either of the prosecutor or of the judge should dishearten the Prisoner so as to circumscribe the means or enervate the vigour of his defence. God forbid that such a thing should even appear to be desired by any body in any British tribunal. But my Lords, there is a behaviour which broadly displays a want of sense, a want of feeling, a want of decorum; a behaviour which indicates an habitual depravity of mind, that has no sentiments of propriety, no feeling for the relations of life, no conformity to the circumstances of human affairs. This behaviour does not indicate the spirit of injured innocence, but the audacity of hardened, habitual, shameless guilt; affording legitimate grounds for inferring a very defective education, very evil society, or very vicious habits of life. There is, my Lords, a nobleness in modesty; while insolence is always base and servile.

servile. A man who is under the accusation of his country is under a very great misfortune. His innocence indeed may at length shine out like the sun, yet for a moment it is under a cloud; his honour is in abeyance; his estimation is suspended; and he stands as it were a doubtful person in the eyes of all human society. In that situation, not a timid, not an abject, but undoubtedly a modest behaviour, would become a person even of the most exalted dignity, and of the firmest fortitude.

The Romans (who were a people that understood the decorum of life as well as we do), considered a person accused to stand in such a doubtful situation, that from the moment of accusation he assumed either a mourning, or some squalid garb, although, by the nature of their constitution, accusations were brought forward by one of their lowest magistrates. The spirit of that decent usage has continued from the time of the Romans till this very day. No man was ever brought before your Lordships, that did not carry the outward as well as inward demeanour of modesty, of fear, of apprehension, of a sense of his situation, of a sense of our accusation, and a sense of your Lordships' dignity.

These, however, are but outward things; they are, as Hamlet says, "things which a man may

play."

play." But, my Lords, this Prisoner has gone a great deal further than being merely deficient in decent humility. Instead of defending himself, he has, with a degree of insolence unparalleled in the history of pride and guilt, cast out a recriminatory accusation upon the House of Commons. Instead of considering himself as a person already under the condemnation of his Country, and uncertain whether or not that condemnation shall receive the sanction of your verdict, he ranks himself with the suffering heroes of antiquity. Joining with them, he accuses us, the Representatives of his Country, of the blackest ingratitude, of the basest motives, of the most abominable oppression, not only of an innocent, but of a most meritorious individual, who, in your, and in our service, has sacrificed his health, his fortune, and even suffered his fame and character to be called in question, from one end of the world to the other. This, I say, he charges upon the Commons of Great Britain; and he charges it before the Court of Peers of the same Kingdom. Had I not heard this language from the Prisoner, and afterwards from his counsel, I must confess I could hardly have believed that any man could so comport himself at your Lordships bar.

After stating in his defence the wonderful things he did for us, he says, "I maintained

"the

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