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of professional duty, could engage in without incurring eternal disgrace, had they once dipped their hands in blood, they would most surely have gone on in the same sanguinary course till the whole land had become an ACELDAMA- a scene of carnage and desolation.

A miserably feeble attempt was made on the part of the crown lawyers to prove that the associations in question had armed themselves against the government; whereas, où examination, it appeared merely that a few pikes had been procured, to defend themselves, in case of necessity, against the attacks of the mob at Sheffield, and other populous places where they held their meetings. The corresponding Society had applied to Mr. Francis to present their petition to parliament in the course of the preceding year; and that gentleman proved in evidence, that upon this occasion Mr. Hardy, secretary to the association, had voluntarily offered to come forward and produce all the books and papers of the society, to evince that there was nothing seditious in their conduct, and that their object was purely a parliamentary reform. The trial was protracted to the unprecedented and monstrous length of seven days; and, the evidence being closed, the jury, after a short deliberation, brought in their unanimous verdict of NOT GUILTY-a verdict than which none ever pronounced in an English court of justice gave more exquisite satisfaction, or was more extensively important in its consequences. Notwithstanding the numerous errors, obliquities, and corruptions, which pervaded almost every part of the legislative and executive branches of government, it was perceived with transport that the fountain of criminal justice still retained all its original purity. The surrounding populace could not be prevented from attending citizen Hardy, whose conduct had been throughout firm and tranquil, and the counsellors Erskine and Gibbs, to their respective houses, amid the loudest acclamations of applause.

• After an interval of eleven days-no doubt days of chagrin and perplexity on the part of the ministry-was brought to the bar of this high court of justice the celebrated John Horne Tooke, formerly, and for many years a priest of the church of England-a man possessed of extraordinary intellectual talents, but of a peculiar kind, and blended with a considerable alloy of eccentricity. Of obscure and nameless origin, he suddenly appeared in the political world as an extravagant and erring spirit burst from its confine. He first distinguished himself as a violent partizan of Mr. Wilkes, at the time of the famous Middlesex contest-being then curate of Brentford, Such was the enthusiastic ardour of where the election was held. his patriotic zeal at this early period of his life, that, to preserve the liberties of his country inviolate, he publicly declared his readinees to dye his black coat red. He possessed no mean degree of learning and knowledge, and his powers of elocution and self-possession were very uncommon. His habitual influence over the wills and passions of those with whom he was connected indicated a mind of great energy. On some occasions he exhibited himself to the judicious part of the public as a sincere and enlightened champion of the liberties of the people, and on others as an artful and aspiring dema

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gogue. This singular man had the presumption, at the last general election, to offer himself as a candidate for the city of Westminsterpretending to be offended at the virtual compromise which had taken place between the court and country parties in the persons of lord Hood and Mr. Fox. On the eventual failure of his hopes (although he polled a very great number of votes) he presented a petition to the house of commons against the return, drawn in the most audacious terms of political invective and reproach, but containing also much indisputable and melancholy truth. This petition, being referred, in the usual mode, to a committee, was declared frivolous and vexatious; but by a wise policy, too frequently and fatally departed from in matters of higher moment, no farther notice whatever was taken of it by the house.

On this trial of Mr. Tooke, it appeared, to the general surprize, that this gentleman, supposed so vehemently democratic, had been a remarkably guarded and temperate advocate of reform that he very rarely attended the meetings of the societies-and had even incurred their suspicion and dislike on this account. He had frequently declared his attachment to the house of peers as an useful and neces sary branch of the constitution; and he had uniformly reprobated the duke of Richmond's plan of universal suffrage. In a conversation with major Cartwright on the subject of reform, Mr. Tooke had made use of the following familiar but expressive illustration:"You would go to Windsor, but I should choose to stop at Houn slow."-The most extraordinary circumstance attending this trial was the examination of the duke of Richmond and Mr. Pitt, who were subpoena'd as witnesses by Mr. Tooke. The former was interrogated merely as to the authenticity of his famous letter to colonel Sharman, in order to shew that, as to the matter of re'form, the corresponding and constitutional societies did not extend their ideas farther than one of his majesty's cabinet-ministers; and the latter to prove that the mode of conducting the business was similar to that adopted by Mr. Pitt and the reformers of 1780. On this occasion the unparalleled meanness and baseness of Mr. Pitt's disposition displayed itself in the most conspicuous manner. To a variety of very material questions relative to the Westminster convention in that and the following years he was speechless, being seized with a total waut of recollection. With great difficulty, however, he at length was brought to recollect a meeting at the Thatched-House Tavern, in May 1782. Mr. Tooke asked him what that meeting was but a convention of delegates from different great towns and counties, sent by committees of those towns and counties of England? He said he did not recollect how that meeting was composed. -Mr. Tooke then asked whether he did not recollect that it had been objected in the house of commons, respecting the petition actu ally presented, that it came from persons in a delegated capacity? He said he had no recollection of any such thing. Mr. Sheridan, being immediately afterwards examined, gave a perfectly clear and accurate account of the proceedings of that æra. He had met Mr. Tooke in 1780 at a convention, or meeting of delegates, from dif ferent parts, who were to consider the best means of procuring a parliamentary

parliamentary reform, and to act for those who deputed them. He was himself a delegate for Westminster. The matter, he said, was notorious. Mr. Sheridan enumerated the places where these meet-' ings were held-mentioning, in particular, Guildhall, the ThatchedHouse Tavern, and the duke of Richmond's at Privy-Garden. Here Mr. Pitt begged leave to correct his evidence, and confessed that he was present at some meetings in Privy Garden, where there were delegates from different counties;-i. e. he confessed that he was himself chargeable with the very same act for which, now he had abandoned the cause of parliamentary reform, he was engaged in a most profligate and murderous attempt to exterminate those by the sword of justice who still adhered to it under all difficulties and discouragements.-The jury retired for a few minutes previous to their returning a verdict of NOT GUILTY. An involuntary burst of acclamation filled the court, which was instantly re-echoed by the populace without, who, as on the former occasion, escorted the counsel to their chambers.

A feeble attempt was made to prosecute this infamous business by proceeding to the trial of John Thelwall-a man whose general character was to the last degree contemptible, but against whom nothing was proved excepting some intemperate expressions at the famous popular meeting at Chalk-Farm, and in his lecture-room, which were supported only by the testimomy of the spies, Lynam and Taylor, whose evidence was afterwards rendered nugatory, or worse, by that of two other witnesses. The jury, without hesitation, brought in a verdict of NOT GUILTY.

The conduct of the cabinet ministers in this extraordinary bu siness, their mode of investigating the transactions of the associations in question, and of securing the requisite evidence of the seve ral witnesses for the crown in these successive trials-was such as fully to justify the memorable observation of Dr. Swift, who says, "that those diligent enquiries into remote and problematical guilt, with a new power of enforcing them by chains and dungeons person whose face a minister thinks fit to dislike, are not only opposite to that maxim which declareth it better that ten guilty men should escape than one innocent suffer, but likewise leave a gate wide open to the whole tribe of informers, the most accursed, prostitute, and abandoned race that God ever permitted to plague mankind."

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Considering the state of parties in the kingdom at this time, the acquittal of these persons excited a much more general sensation of satisfaction than might previously have been expected. The truth is, that the selfish as well as the generous feelings were interested on this occasion; and, in the course of his pleadings, Mr. Erskine very happily quoted a remark of the celebrated Dr. Johnson on the acquittal of Lord George Gordon :-"I am glad he was not convicted of this constructive treason; for, though I hate him, I love my country, and I love myself." Of all the wicked inventions of lawyers, the doctrine of constructive treason, by which unwary people may be convicted of a capital offence while unconscious of the violation of any law, is perhaps the worst. But Mr. Erskine, on REV. JAN. 1802.

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this momentous occasion, spoke like a man inspired, and at once redeemed the honor of his profession, and established the safety of his country. Had the men arraigned upon such an accusation, supported by such evidence, been capitally convicted, and the sentence been carried into execution, it would most unquestionably have been an horrible murder, perpetrated in the forms and under the pretext of law. But the very supposition is a libel upon the glorious insti tution of JURIES.'

In no part of his work does Mr. Belsham speak with more animation, than in the opposition which he expresses to the principles of the sedition and treason bills; and no where does his warmth appear more justifiable. He denies the necessity of these measures, and maintains their utter incompatibility with the true and immemorial rights of the people. This portion of the history will be read with sincere pleasure by every true constitutionalist; - as will the pages in which the writer recounts the splendid naval victories obtained in the course of this war by the noble Admirals, Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, Nelson, &c.-The detail of the circumstances attending the stoppage of payment in specie, at the Bank is also curious and interesting; though it is deformed by a mixture of coarse invective against the Prime Minister, whose misconduct is stated to have produced the necessity for so alarming a measure.

We shall now take leave of these volumes; expressing the hope that Mr. Belsham, in the continuation of his history, will preserve those recommendations to public favour which his productions have formerly established, and that he will moderate the expressions of his censure on individuals, however pernicious their measures may be in his estimation.

The writer of this History has been at much pains to ascertain the intrinsic validity of the charge against these societies; not whether there was legal evidence of their intention when assembled in convention such as had already been actually and harmlessly held both in Ireland and England-to usurp the powers of government; for it is clear as the noon day sun there was not; but whether any such secret design really existed in any individuals, not proveable by the established rules of evidence. But even of this he has not been able to discover the slightest ground of suspicion or shadow of presumption: on the contrary, all circumstances concur to the forming of an opposite conclusion; though at a subsequent period, inflamed by the spirit of revenge, some of the members of these associations may, with too much probability, be supposed to have engaged in machinations highly dangerous and criminal.'

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ART.XVI. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1801. Part I.

[Article concluded from the Rev. for November.]

MEDICAL and ANATOMICAL PAPERS, &c.

THE
HE Croonian Lecture. On the Irritability of Nerves. By
Everard Home, Esq. F. R.S.-In the operation of divid-
ing the Median nerve, which supplies the thumb and fore-
finger, for the purpose of relieving an uncommon nervous
affection, Mr. Home observed that the divided extremities of
the nerve retracted themselves, though they had been completely
detached from the surrounding cellular membrane. To ascer-
tain the fact more completely, experiments were made, by
dividing the phrenic nerves of horses (immediately after they
were slaughtered,) in the chest : in which instances, the retrac
tion of the nerve was clearly distinguished. A similar experi-
ment on the nerves in the extremities of rabbits was equally
successful.-Mr. Home's conclusions from these facts are

1. That the nerves of an animal in health are capable of retracting themselves when divided; and that this effect is entirely independent of the parts by which they are surrounded.

2. That this contraction takes place in the nervous fibres themselves; and is independent of the brain, from which they originate, and of the muscles and other parts in which they terminate.

3. That the contracted nerve exhibits to the eye, an appearance of contraction in its fibres, not to be seen when it is in a relaxed state.'

The action of the electric fluid was not found to affect the retractive power of the nerves.

When a nerve is divided, with a curative intention, Mr. Home is of opinion that, if the wound of the integuments does not heal by the first intention,-inflammation, supervening on the divided extremity of the nerve, may produce exactly the Fer. same symptoms as the original disease.

The Bakerian Lecture. On the Mechanism of the Eye. By Thomas Young, M. D.-This paper is intended as a supplement to the author's Observations on Vision, which were read to the Society in the year 1793, and of which we gave an account in M. R. vol. xiv. N. S. p.71. Many important additions to the former memoir are here made; with the correction of some errors into which Dr. Young acknowleges that he had fallen. Though he cannot satisfy all our inquiries respecting the eye, he has thrown some light on this most wonderful organ of vision; and his readers must applaud his philosophical perseverance. The subject is discussed with much minuteness,

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