of the jury, I am in this case of counsel for Mr. Tandy, the prisoner at the bar. I could have wished it had been the pleasure of the gentlemen who conduct this business on the part of the Crown to have gone on first: the subject itself is of a very novel nature in this country; but certainly it is the right of the Crown, and which the gentlemen have thought proper to follow, to call on the counsel for the prisoner to begin; and, therefore, it is my duty, my lords, to submit to you, and to explain, under the direction of the Court, to you, gentlemen of the jury, what the nature of the question is that you are sworn to try.

"An act of parliament was passed in this country, which began to be a law on the 6th of October, 1798; on that day it received the royal assent. By that law it is stated, that the prisoner at the bar had been guilty of acts of treason of many different kinds: and it enacted, that he should stand attainted of high treason except he should, on or before the first day of December following, surrender himself to one of the Judges of this Court, or to one of his Majesty's justices of the peace, for the purpose of becoming amenable to that law, from which he was supposed to have fled, in order to abide his trial for any crime that might be alleged against him.

"It was a law not passed for the purpose of absolutely pronouncing any judgment whatsoever against him, but for the purpose of compelling him to come in and take his trial: and nothing can show more strongly that that act of Parliament has not established anything touching the fact of the prisoner's guilt; because it would be absurd, in one and the same breath, to pronounce that he was guilty of high treason, and then call upon him to come in and abide his trial: and the title of the act speaks that it is an act not pronouncing sentence against the prisoner, but that it is an act in order to compel him to come forward.

tried, defended by Curran, and acquitted. In April 1801, he was again tried for "invading" Ireland, convicted, sentenced to be hanged, and was finally exchanged against a general officer taken by the French, and died there, soon after.-M.

"This act creates a Parliamentary attainder, not founded on the establishment of the prisoner's guilt of treason, but on his contumacious avoidance of trial, by standing out against a trial by law. I make this observation to you, gentlemen of the jury, in order that you may, in the first instance, discharge from your minds any actual belief of any criminality in the prisoner at the bar, and that for two reasons-first, because a well-founded conviction of his guilt, on the authority of this statute, might have some impression on the minds of men sitting in judgment on the prisoner; but for a more material reason I wish to put it from your minds, because his guilt or innocence has nothing to do with the issue you are sworn to try.

Gentlemen, the issue you are called to try is not the guilt or innocence of the prisoner; it is therefore necessary you should understand exactly what it is. The prisoner was called on to show cause why he should not suffer death, pursuant to the enacting clause of the statute; and he has put in a plea, in which he states, that before the time for surrender had expired, namely, on the 24th of November, 1798, seven days before the day that he had for surrendering had expired, he was, by the order of his Majesty, arrested, and made a prisoner in the town of Hamburgh; and that in consequence of such arrest, it became impossible for him to surrender himself and become amenable to justice within the time prescribed and the counsel for the crown have rested the case on the denial, in point of fact, of this allegation; and, therefore, the question, that you are to try is simplified to this-'I was arrested,' says the prisoner, 'whereby it became impossible for me to surrender' to which the counsel for the crown reply, 'You have not been arrested at the time alleged by you, whereby it became impossible for you to surrender.' This I conceive to be the issue, in point of fact, joined between the parties, and on which it is my duty to explain the evidence that will be offered.

"Mr. Tandy is a subject of this country, and had never been in it from the time this act of parliament passed, until he was brought

into it after his arrest on the 24th of November, 1798: on that day he was in the town of Hamburgh. He had seven days, in which time it was practicable for him to arrive in this country, and surrender himself, according to the requisitions of the act of attainder. Every thing that could be of value to man was at stake, and called on him to make that surrender. If he did not surrender, his life was forfeited-if he did not surrender, his fortune was confiscated-if he did not surrender, the blood of his family was corrupted; and he could leave them no inheritance, but the disgrace of having suffered as a traitor.

"Your common sense, gentlemen, will show you, that where a man is to forfeit his life unless he complies with the conditions of an act of parliament-your common sense, your common humanity must show you, that a man ought to be suffered to perform the conditions on which his life depends. It can require no argument to impress upon your mind, that to call on a man to surrender himself on pain of death, and by force to prevent him from surrendering, goes to an atrocity of oppression that no human mind can contemplate without horror.

"But it seems that the prisoner at the bar was a man of too much consequence to the repose of all civilized nations; to the great moral system, I might almost say, to the great physical system of the universe, to be permitted to act in compliance with the statute that called upon him to surrender himself upon pain of death. The wisdom of the entire continent was called upon to exercise its mediation on this most momentous circumstance— the diplomatic wisdom of Germany was all put into action on the subject-the enlightened humanity of the north was called on to lend its aid. Gentlemen, you know as well as I the princely virtues, and the imperial qualifications, the consummate wisdom and sagacity of our stedfast friend and ally, the Emperor of all the Russias; you must feel the awe with which he ought to be mentioned his sacred person has become embodied in the criminal law of England, and it has become almost a misprision to deem

of him or speak of him but with reverence. I feel that reverence for him; and I deem of him and conceive him to be a constellation of all virtue-compared with whose radiance the Ursamajor twinkles only as the glow-worm. And, gentlemen, what was the result of the exercise of this combination of wisdom? That James Napper Tandy ought not to be got rid of in the ordinary way. They felt an honest and a proper indignation, that a little community like Hamburgh should embezzle that carcase which was the property of a mild and merciful Government: they felt a proper indignation that the senate of Hamburgh, under the present sublime system, should defraud the mercy of the Government of the blood of the prisoner, or cheat the gibbet of his bones, or deprive the good and loyal ravens of this country of his fleshand accordingly by an order issued to these miserable inhabitants of the town of Hamburgh, who were made to feel that common honesty and common humanity can only be sustained by a strength not to be resisted; they were obliged to break the ties of justice and hospitality-to trample on the privileges that every stranger claims; they were obliged to suffer the prisoner to be trampled on, and meanly, and cruelly, and pitiably to give up this unfortunate man to the disposal of those who could demand him at such a price.

"If a surrender, in fact, had been necessary on the part of the prisoner, certainly a very material object was achieved by arresting him because they thereby made it impossible for him to avail himself of the opportunity. They made it impossible for him to avail himself of the surrender, if the reflection of his mind led him to it. If a sense of the duty ho owed his family led him to a wish, or to an intention, of availing himself of the remaining time he had to surrender, they were determined he should not take advantage of it. He had been guilty of what the law deems a crime, that is, of flying from justice, though it does not go to the extent of working a corruption of blood: but by this act of power-by this act of tyrannic force, he was prevented from doing

that which every court of justice must intend he was willing to do: which the law intends he would have done-which the law gave him time to do—which the law supposes he might have done the last hour, as well as the first. He was on his passage to this country; that would not have taken up a third part of the time that had now elapsed-but by seizing on him in the manner he was arrested, it became impossible for him to surrender himself, or become amenable to justice.

But, gentlemen, the prisoner, when he was arrested, was treated in a manner that made it impossible for him to do any act that might have been considered as tantamount to a surrender. He was confined in a dungeon, little larger than a grave—he was loaded with irons-he was chained by an iron that communicated from his arm to his leg; and that so short, as to grind into his flesh. In such a state of restriction did he remain for fifteen days; in such a situation did he lie in a common vault; food was cut into shapeless lumps, and flung to him by his filthy attendants as he lay on the ground, as if he had been a beast; he had no bed to lie on; not even straw to coil himself up in, if he could have slept. In that situation he remained in a foreign country for fifteen days of his long imprisonment; and he is now called to show good cause why he should not suffer death, because he did not surrender himself and become amenable to the law. He was debarred all communication whatsoever; if he attempted to speak to the sentinels that guarded him, they could not understand him: he did make such kind of indications of his misery and his sufferings as could be conveyed by signs, but he made them in vain; and he is now called on to show good cause wherefore he did contumaciously and traitorously refuse to surrender himself, and become amenable to the law.

"Gentlemen of the jury, I am stating facts that happened in a foreign country; will you expect that I should produce witnesses to lay those abominable offences before you in evidence? It was not in the power of the prisoner at the bar to procure witnesses;