obtained one seal, might possibly attempt to obtain the keys; he, therefore, being at that time in Anglesey, wrote to his clerk to beware not to give the Bishop the key of the office if he asked for it. The Bishop did ask for it; and was refused. -Upon the 7th of January, Mr. Grindley returned, and found that his office had been broken into.-He ascertained, as I shall prove, from the Bishop's own mouth, that the Bishop had given directions to break open the window of the office, to take the locks off the door, and put on other locks. -In this situation Mr. Grindley found himself, respecting an office, for the duties of which he was legally responsible; for he is, both in law and in fact, Deputy Registrar, and has been so from the year 1792, down to the present time, without any attempt to cast a slur on his character in the discharge of his duties.

Gentlemen, I come now to the principal facts; and I can assure you I will act in the spirit which I professed at the outset. I wish to state every thing candidly to you; I have nothing to hold back. I do not mean to say that upon every occasion, it is possible to justify persons in their transactions for moderation and for prudence; and yet I think, when you examine the transactions of Mr. Grindley, you will see, under all the circumstances, that they were neither immoderate nor imprudent.-Mr. Grindley's offer of resignation had been scoffed at, and rejected. He had been treated in such a way as to make it natural to suppose that he would be exposed as a culprit, in the discharge of his duty, to the whole community to which that duty appertains. He found, that it was essentially necessary for him to know in what state the muniments and archives were, which he alone had a right to the possession of. He found the means of entrance debarred, and, therefore, determined to get admission to the office; and, having got admission, he determined to maintain himself in the possession of it, as he had a full right to do.

In the morning of the 8th of January, Mr. Grindley went to the office, with the means of getting admittance into it.You will observe, that the first attempt to get possession of the office had been on the part of the Bishop.-You will always recollect, that the Bishop has no earthly right to the possession of the muniments of that office, as long as the Registrar properly discharges the duty of the office. He has no right to keep the Registrar out of his office, but the Registrar has a right to keep all mankind out of it, except those who come upon business, and except the Bishop when he comes in the discharge of his duty as Bishop of Bangor.-Mr.

Grindley imagined, from the violence that had taken place before, that is to say, from the violent breaking into the office originally, and from the offer of compromise on his part, and even of resignation, being wholly rejected, he imagined, and it was natural so to imagine, that force would be opposed to force, when he once got possession of his office; and therefore, undoubtedly, Mr. Grindley went provided, so as to secure himself against the possibility of that force depriving him of his office. Gentlemen, I insist, that when he was in possession of his office, he had a right so to do. All this will be proved-I say it will be proved: because I know Mr. Grindley, who is the first witness, is a person beyond the suspicion of not acting agreeable to his oath.-The oath is, "that he shall speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."-It has been uniformly expounded, that a person, who does not speak the whole truth in a court of justice, is as criminal as he who speaks a direct falsehood.-I feel myself bound in duty and in conscience, as an advocate, to state to you the whole truth; and Mr. Grindley is a man of that conscience, that he will speak the whole truth in the manner in which the thing happened. It will then be for you to judge, under all the circumstances; and I think that, whatever opinion you may form with regard to Mr. Grindley's rashness in his manner of getting possession of the office, and his determination to maintain possession of it, you will be convinced, that the Bishop and those indicted, were in fact guilty of a riot, for endeavouring to get possession of it, and coming and interrupting him in the manner I shall describe and prove.

Mr. Grindley went with pistols in his pocket; but it will be proved, these pistols were unloaded.-Now I can assure my friends (whatever gestures they may make) that I am not in the least afraid of this fact.-I say, his going with unloaded pistols, proves, that he had, in regard to getting possession of the office, no intent of offence whatever.-He took powder and shot, with which, when he got possession, he loaded his pistols-which proves that he was determined, being in peaceable possession of his office, to maintain that possession; and I contend, that the Deputy Registrar of the diocese, under the circumstances I state, had a right so to do.-I say, that every argument, every fact which applies to the case of a man's own house being his castle, applies to this case.-Mr. Grindley, after he had opened the outer door in the porch, in order to prevent any riot, and for the purpose of intimidation, threatened one of the persons who came from the Bishop's house to interrupt him, with an unloaded pistol;

for it will be proved, that the pistols were loaded at a subsequent time. After this first attempt to disturb him, there was a considerable interval; and during this interval Mr. Grindley got into the inner door. Mr. Grindley being thus in the office, the Bishop and various of his servants arrived.-The Bishop hollowed with a voice so loud (as will be proved to you) that Mr. Grindley did not know it; his passion was so vehement, that it was absolutely impossible to distinguish his voice. The moment Mr. Grindley knew it was the Bishop, he said he had no objection to the Bishop's being let in, and he desired his servants quietly and peaceably to retire to a farther corner of the room.-Mr. Grindley then came forward, and said, that whatever business was to be done, he was ready to do it; that he considered himself as the legal officer, and he was then in the quiet possession of his office; that, with regard to his Lordship, he was perfectly willing he should come into the office, but he begged that his Lordship's boisterous and tumultuous conduct might cease.-I really wish, rather that the witnesses should describe what passed afterwards, than that I should.-But instead of that tumultuous conduct ceasing, the Bishop approached first to Mr. Grindley, afterwards to his servants, with threatening gestures, and with threatening words, laying his hands upon them; and he was assisted by the four other persons indicted, who afterwards came into the office, whose actions and words were precisely of the same kind and description.

Gentlemen, one of the grounds of riot which you have to try, is this, That here was a person, legally entitled to the possession of his office illegally forced from that office; he had taken possession of this office, and remained in the quiet possession of it.-Now, whether he did so in a manner that a perfectly calm and unconcerned spectator may approve of, as an abstract case, I do not know; but I am addressing myself to persons who have human passions; I am addressing myself to Gentlemen, who know what human nature is; and I am sure, that in an outrage of this sort, committed after a voluntary offer of resignation, such as I have stated; after a conduct so peaceable and quiet, even a worm, if trod upon, would have turned again.-Mr. Grindley had got quietly into the possession of his office, and then, after a lapse of time, this office was again attacked in the riotous, tumultuous. and extroardinary manner which the witnesses will state, but which I forbear detailing, because, in the first place, it is unnecessary for your understanding the cause, and in the next place, it is painful for me to state it. This disturbance went

on a considerable time, and at last it ended only by persons, whose sex and character I have too great a respect for, to introduce them into the cause, more than just to say, that by the intervention of Mrs. Warren and two ladies, the Bishop was at last quieted from his passion, and withdrawn from the riot. There the business ended. Gentlemen, this is the case which you have to try; and I think I can venture to say, that if the facts are proved in the manner I have described, and I take upon me to say I have stated them most correctly, it is impossible for you not to find a verdict for the Prosecutor.

Gentlemen, it would be in vain, and an absurd thing in me, to detain you with any particular address to yourselves. I have the honour of knowing hardly any of you personally, although among the Jury there are some gentlemen whom I have had an opportunity of seeing in another scene in life, I know your characters, and I know that however you may feel yourselves bound to protect the ministers of our church, though I think this prosecution can have no effect upon any but the particular churchmen engaged in this transaction, that you will yet guard yourselves against deviating from those principles according to which you are bound to act, and that you will find according to the evidence.

Gentlemen, there is no principle implanted in the human mind, stronger than the sympathy which we feel for the situation and suffering of persons of high rank and condition: it is one of those principles that bind society together; and is most admirably infused into our nature, for the purposes of good government, and the well-being of civil order. But whatever the rank may be, that rank can never stand between a defendant and the proof of the fact, with a Jury of Englishmen. They know their duty too well: neither compassion, sympathy, nor any other principle, can possibly affect their minds. Consider what is the peculiar situation of these Defendants; reflect, that they are set apart by the laws of the land, and the regulations of the Christian religion, for the purpose of preaching the doctrines of Christ. Our law has been so peculiarly cautious with respect to their character, that even when it empowers the civil magistrate to quell a riot by calling to his assistance every other member of the community, it peculiarly excepts, with women and children, the clergy. I have brought before you persons of that description, who, instead of claiming an exemption from being called upon, have themselves been guilty of a riot; for which they are justly amenable to the laws of their country.

VOL. I.

74

After the examination of the witnesses, and the close of the Prosecutor's case, Mr. ERSKINE spoke as follows:

GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,

My Learned Friend, in opening the case on the part of the Prosecution, has, from personal kindness to me, adverted to some successful exertions in the duties of my profession, and particularly in this place. It is true, that I have been in the practice of the law for very many years, and more than once, upon memorable occasions, in this Court; yet, with all the experience which, in that long lapse of time, the most inattentive man may be supposed to have collected, I feel myself wholly at a loss in what manner to address you. I speak unaffectedly when I say, that I never felt myself in so complete a state of embarrassment in the course of my professional life; indeed, I hardly know how to collect my faculties at all, or in what fashion to deal with this most extraordinary subject. When my Learned Friend, Mr. Adam, spoke from himself, and from the emanations of as honourable a mind as ever was bestowed upon any of the human species, I know that he spoke the truth when he declared his wish to conduct the cause with all charity, and in the true spirit of Christianity. But his duties were scarcely compatible with his intentions; and we shall, therefore, have, in the sequel, to examine how much of his speech was his own candid address, proceeding from himself; and what part of it may be considered as arrows from the quiver of his CLIENT.-The cause of the Bishop of Bangor can suffer nothing from this tribute, which is equally due to friendship and to justice :on the contrary, I should have thought it material, at any rate, to advert to the advantage which Mr. Grindley might otherwise derive from being so represented.-I should have thought it right to guard you against blending the Client with the Counsel. It would have been my duty to warn you, not to confound the one with the other, lest, when you hear a liberal and ingenuous man, dealing, as he does, in humane