plumes, and lower those towering pretensions. I repeat it, no man that I ever knew is more calculated for the most dignified discharge of the grandest duties; but upon this occasion, he will recollect that though he came down with all his force, though his advance in column was magnificent and imposing, he has not disdained much of that skirmishing and petty warfare which rather bespeaks the partisan than suits with his higher character. Has he yet forgiven his client for putting him forward in the challenge of the array, that desperate experiment to represent to an irritated people, the government of the country as corrupting the administration of justice. Does he forget that he was for a moment imposed upon to believe, and employed to make the triers and the court believe that preposterous paradox, which common sense repudiates, and which nothing but metaphysics could sustain, that because Sir Charles Saxton had obtained a copy of the pannel after it was formed, he therefore of necessity was a party in the formation of it.-Does he forget the issue of that unjustifiable charge, and the solemn verdict of the triers upon it, when it appeared that no other advantage was obtained by the crown except an opportunity to prepare challenges to the jurors, by seeing

a copy of the pannel after it was formed; that upon further enquiry it appeared that there was in this, no superiority over the traverser, for that his own attorney had the very same advan tage, and that the crown might with equal jus tice and truth have challenged the array for having been framed by Mr. Kildhall, as Mr. Kirwan's counsel had challenged it, for having been framed by the crown solicitor. Does Mr. Burrowes forget or forgive the further aggression of his client, who after making him the dupe of this attempted imposition, put him forward on the following day to state a rash, audacious and intemperate affidavit, in which that unfortunate man had the presumption upon his oath to realledge that slanderous charge upon the subject of the panel, which upon the former evening had been refuted and condemned by the solemn verdict of the triers, and the reprobation of the court; and in which, a new slander was introduced aspersing the integrity, and defaming the character of the honorable foreman of that jury, and the other gentlemen impanelled with him; a slander consisting of a variety of charges, all of which Mr. Kirwan swore he had reason to believe, and expected to be able to prove, and all of which, upon investigation turned out to be utterly unfounded and insup

portable:-I mean not to assert, and I am most unwilling to believe, that Mr. Kirwan fabricated those base charges, or wished to impose them upon the court, knowing them to be false; on the contrary, I have no doubt that he was per suaded of their truth. It is the pitiable condition of faction to be credulous, there is something about it which distorts the judgment and perverts the mind; no man under its influence sees fairly or thinks directly; it is even less distinguished by its passion for misrepresentation, than by the voracious credulity with which it swallows every thing which is false. How otherwise can I account for it, that a man in the rank of a gentleman should desperately hazard the false and shameful assertions which fill that affidavit, which the court has declared ought not to pollute its files?

Another instance of the smaller game which Mr. Burrowes has not thought it beneath him to play upon this occasion, is the insidious offer of a special verdict, and the clamorous appeal to the counsel for the crown to put the law of the convention Act into a shape for decision by the dernier resort. My lords, this appeal could neither be intended for you, nor for the jury; it is calculated for the public, and in the face of the public will I expose it.

What is the meaning of calling for a special verdict, but to imply a doubt upon the law? What is the reason upon the former trial, before the law was announced by the unanimous court, while it was supposed to be in doubt, and while the opinion of one counsel conflicted with the opinion of another, that no such proposition was made? Why did not Mr. Burrowes then come forward, and why has he deferred this demand until the Court of King's Bench had pronounced a deliberate opinion upon a solemn argument? Does he expect that the King's Attorney General and myself will compromise our offices and betray the constitution of our country, by implying in a consent for a special verdict that the Court of King's Bench is not an authority upon the criminal law;-that we will sanction the presumptuous slanders of a factious press, which daily arraign the compétence and question the authority of the first legal tribunal in the land: he is much mistaken if he thinks so: I ask him again, why did he not offer this upon the trial of Dr. Sheridan? I will not suppose a reason unworthy of him, and of the former Jury-I will not suppose that he declined to make such a proposal from a confident expectation of a general verdict from that particular panel-I will

not be seduced, even by his example, into the insinuation of any thing unworthy against honorable men. I believe those gentlemen to have been as honorable and as worthy men as those whom I now address. I believe their verdict to have been found upon pure and conscientious motives-I respect them for not having presumed to wrest the law from the court, and for having assigned the insufficiency of the evidence as the cause of their verdict-whether they were right in such an opinion or not, it is not for me to determine ;-I cannot but respect those gentlemen, and I am sure that you respect them too, but their verdict, gentlemen of the Jury, though it may influence, must not govern you-you are sworn upon your oaths, not upon theirs you are to consult your judgments, not theirs-you are to lie down on your own pillows, and you are to answer to your God not upon their consciences but your own. I am satisfied that they are all honorable men; I know many of them to be so. I wish that Mr. Burrowes had done equal justice and shewn equal candor to the Jury whom I now address-I wish that he had not, by an unworthy sarcasm revived the refuted slanders of the challenge to the array and of Mr. Kirwan's affidavit--I wish that he had not told you, that he would not give you the trouble of deciding upon the facts, but

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