it was proved that he was president of the meeting, and that he made his escape through the window, and that he was apprehended at last in Litchfield; and, above all, that a paper was found, which was supposed to have fallen from his hand, or his pocket, in his hurry or escape. This paper was now produced in court. The judge drew his spectacles over his nose, the barristers stood up and leaned across the table, and there was a general stretching of necks all over the court, and the counsel for the prosecution proceeded to call witnesses to prove the paper to be in the hand-writing of Mr. North.

"The first witness called was Dr. Mufflechops, rector of Truckleborough, who, after a considerable deal of difficulty, pushed his way up to the witness's box; forthwith the oath was administered, and the interrogation began. To the first question there was no immediate answer.

"Speak a little louder,' exclaimed the judge.

"Poor Dr. Mufflechops had not spoken at all, he was so terribly out of breath by the exertion he had used, that he could not articulate a word. Soon, however, he recovered from his fatigue, and answered the interrogation which demanded his name, profession, and place of abode. The mysterious paper was handed to him, and he was asked if he knew whose writing it was. To this he readily answered, that it was the writing of Mr. North, the prisoner. The examiner was satisfied; but Mr. Counsellor Babblethwaite was not: therefore, he rose, and began to question the reverend doctor more minutely. "Have you ever seen the prisoner write?'

"Frequently, very frequently, and I have received letters from

him.'

"Can you read writing?'

"Dr. Mufflechops was greatly offended at such an inquiry, and growing red with anger, indignantly replied, Do you doubt it?" "Counsellor Babblethwaite calmly replied, Don't be angry, Dr. Mufflechops, don't be angry-you will do better to answer my question, than to put yourself in a passion. I ask you a very plain question, can you read writing?'

"The doctor was more angry, and the counsellor was more delighted; and as no answer was given to the question, Mr. Babblethwaite proceeded.

"Don't hurry yourself; take your time; try to recollect, remember you are upon oath.'

"I do not come here to be insulted, sir,' replied the reddened doctor.

"The gravity of the judge interfered; You had better answer the question, though I must say it is rather superfluous.'

"The doctor bowed deference to a larger wig than his own, and said, in very distinct and emphatic tones, I can read writing.'

"The cross-examination proceeded. 'Are you much in the habit of reading other persons' writing, than your own?'

"Very much,' replied the doctor,' I frequently read other persons' writing.'

"Very frequently; aye, I suppose, about once a week?' "Quite as much as that-perhaps more.'

"You don't preach more than once a week, I presume?'.

"The doctor was angry again; but as the last expression was not uttered in the tone of interrogation, he did not make any reply. The paper was handed to him again, with a request that he would look at it once more.

"I am sure it is the writing of the prisoner at the bar,' said the doctor, and returned the paper to the cross-examiner. Mr. Babblethwaite handed it back, and said

"I will thank you to look at it once more, and to look at it more attentively, and try to recollect, whether you have not seen some writing by some other person very much like this. Let me request you to look very attentively at it.'

"The doctor took the paper again, and looked at it very closely; and while he was looking at it, he really began to have some doubts, as he has since said, whether he might not be mistaken as to the handwriting; aud the more he looked, the more he doubted; not that he would have had the slightest doubt or hesitation about the matter, had it not been urged upon him in such a questionable form. He had, however, sufficient self-possession, not to express the doubts which had been forced upon him by the cross-examiner's importunity. At this period, a note was handed from the prisoner to his counsel, and a smile was exchanged, and the cross-examination ceased, and the paper was admitted to be the writing of the prisoner. It was then read aloud, for the edification of the court and the company. It was as follows:

"Hints and outlines for my address to L. S.

"First to touch a little on the absurdity of the distinctions of rank, &c., on natural equality, and on the power of the mind. Then to say something that shall guard against the machinations of G. T., not to mention his name, or to make any very pointed allusions, for fear, &c. Not to say any thing that may not be shewn to C. S. Establishment

must of course be an after consideration. To say a word or two kindly and considerate for poor E. It will certainly be a change for her advantage. That is the greatest consideration.

"Mem. G. T. must be put aside. He flatters Burke most preposterously.'

"When this tremendous document was read, a general shudder ran through the court; the judge looked very grave, and some of the jury looked as if they were sitting on a barrel of gunpowder, expecting every minute to be blown up. Every body looked as if they thought that England had had a narrow escape from this most awful and appalling plot. The counsel for the prosecution brandished the paper most triumphantly, and his wife, who was in court, was now fully assured that she should soon be addressed as my lady.' In addressing the jury, the prosecuting counsel observed, that it would be an insult to their understandings to affect to explain the meaning of the paper.

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"Indeed, gentlemen of the jury,' said he, there is no obscurity whatever in the matter. This paper, as you may see, was not designed for the public eye; it is not sufficiently disguised to pass for any thing else than what it really means. I cannot, indeed, enough admire the dexterity of my learned friend, who would endeavour to persuade a learned and reverend doctor out of his very senses. He certainly

shewed great ingenuity in that; but I fancy that he has a harder task before him, to bend this stubborn document to mean any thing, but the rankest and basest treason. For my part, I seriously acknowledge that I have not the slightest imagination of more than one possible meaning. What is the address to L. S.? clearly the London Society. I mean, gentlemen, the society for constitutional information, or some such seditious purposes. Then follows the usual commencement of all manner of seditious harangues, that deceptive, dangerous, and sophistical position, the natural equality of mankind. That G. T. means our Most Gracious Sovereign George the Third, cannot admit of a moment's doubt, or if there were a doubt, that is immediately removed by the language used at the end of this precious document. G. T. must be put aside.-Gentlemen of the jury, if this be not compassing the king's death, I really do not know what is; and, then, think of the meanness and baseness of blaming the royal taste, for admiring so great a genius, and so bright a luminary as Edmund Burke.' (The orator here looked round to see if Mr. Burke was in court.) 'But to return a hint is here thrown out of the prisoner's ambitious views. How deceitful is the human heart! He was flattering himself that his object was to rescue England from what he would call slavery; but do you not observe, that all this while, he has in view his own aggrandizement, and is obviously preparing to seize the sovereignty for himself; he is careful that no hint to that purpose shall reach the committee of public safety; for that is what is intended by the letters C. S. Establishment, he says, is an after consideration. Look, gentlemen of the jury, look at the malice and wickedness of these revolutionists; they seek to destroy all existing institutions, and leave it to accident to form an establishment from their ruins. And, then, look at their hypocrisy and affected sensibility! That man, gentlemen of the jury, that man, who is, by his machinations, designing the ruin of his country, affects to speak tenderly for poor E., poor England, he means, for he afterwards adds, that the change will be for her advantage; but he affects to pity his poor country, and pitiable indeed would be our state, if we fell under such a tyrant as this man would be, pitiable,' &c. &c.

"Thereupon the learned gentleman launched out into a wide ocean of overwhelming eloquence, drawing tears from the eyes of all present, except the judge, who was used to that kind of thing, and the jury, who did not understand it, and the counsellors, who did not believe in it, and the prisoners, who wondered what he could mean, and when he would leave off. When the speech was finished, the jurymen stared at one another, as if they sought in each other's looks an interpretation of their own thoughts.

"Mr. Babblethwaithe rose for the defence, and the jury were glad of it, for they had been almost frightened by the other's eloquence, and quite puzzled by his logic. To say the truth, several of them, who had heretofore had and entertained a very respectable and comfortable opinion of their own understandings, now began to question their own sagacity, and to fear that they were not quite such conjurors as they had formerly thought themselves. For till the learned barrister told them the meaning of the paper in court, they had not the slightest idea of its tendency; and even after they had been told, they won

dered how the learned gentleman should know. When indeed the paper was proved to be written by the prisoner North, and when it had been read, but not interpreted, their only feeling was, that North was guilty of writing what could not be understood, and that the other two prisoners were guilty of hearing long speeches about nobody knows what. And, in good truth, the jury were in some measure partakers of their guilt. But Mr. Babblethwaite is on his legs waiting to be heard, and the jury in hopes of having their difficulties resolved.

"Gentlemen of the jury!'-Babblethwaite speaks; Gentlemen of the jury! my client is very seriously accused, and very feebly defended. Feebly defended in one point of view, but powerfully, and I trust, effectually, in another point. Feebly defended, so far as the wit of his advocate is concerned, but powerfully so far as his own innocence reaches. The learned gentleman who has addressed you on the subject of this terrible paper-by the way, I dare say, you did not think it terrible, till you heard its interpretation-the learned gentleman, I say, who has addressed you on the subject of this paper, expressed himself at a loss to conjecture what interpretátion I could put upon it. He pretended to take it for granted that it could have but one meaning; he knew better: that was merely a professional trick; and if you have been much accustomed to sit as jurors, you must of course be up to it. I am sure you will not be taken in by any such legerdemain. Gentlemen of the jury, I would seriously ask you, what has been proved against the prisoner North? Think what has been proved; don't be frightened out of your wits, and fancy that, because my learned friend is very eloquent, my client deserves to be hanged; but only think what has been proved. Why two facts, which are neither treasonable, nor seditious, nor immoral. The first is, getting out of the window, which, by the way, is not so bad as getting in at a window; gentlemen of the jury, there is no law against getting out of window. The fact, however, that my client did get out of window is proved: that point I must concede, and leave him to take its consequences. The next fact proved is, that this paper was written by him; and what then? where is the harm of writing a memorandum about nobody knows what? I say, about nobody knows what; for I am very sure that you do not know the meaning of it, and I am not quite sure that the writer himself knows. Look at the paper, see how carelessly it is written; there, take it into your hands, it won't bite, there's no guillotine in it to cut off your heads. Look at that paper now, and try for a moment to forget that you have heard any thing said about its meaning, and then endeavour to guess what it is intended to signify. Do you think it is likely to set the kingdom together by the ears? Do you think it will repeal the act of Settlement? Do you think it will unrobe justice, or unfrock divinity? Does the court at St. James's tremble at a few capital letters picked up out of a gentleman's pocket, as he slipped out of the window of the Pig's Foot and Pie Crust, in Shoelane, Fleet-street? Gentlemen of the jury, my learned friend expressed himself at a loss to conjecture what solution I could give of this paper; he seemed to you to be convinced that a solution could not be given, and he professed himself prepared to be surprised, if any explanation should be attempted. Now, I will surprise him much more, by

offering no attempt at an explanation or solution. I will leave it to speak for itself. I will not gratify my learned friend, by interpreting my client's memorandum-book; I will not indulge curiosity with a piece of private history. The paper, I contend, proves nothing; and I therefore do assert and defy contradiction, that nothing whatever is proved against my client, more than the simple fact, that he did most certainly get out at window-a fact, for which the law has not yet made provision; and I earnestly and heartily hope, that my client will not be punished by an ex post facto law: indeed I am sure he will not. Gentlemen of the jury, I did intend to be very eloquent and pathetic; but my learned friend has given you quite enough of that sort of thing; and I hope and trust, that your verdict will teach my learned friend that plain matter of fact has more weight in a court of judicature, than quirks, quibbles, conundrums, and the pathetics.'

"The gentlemen of the jury were now more perplexed than before, They had taken it for granted, that there must be something seditious and treasonable in the paper: and yet when they heard it, and when they saw it, they could not discern where the mischief lay. One learned gentleman had, indeed, expounded it; but they could not make the interpretation fit; and when they were in hopes that another learned barrister would give a better interpretation, he bluntly said, that he would give none at all. There was one more chance for them, in the summing up. To this they gave all their attention. While the learned judge was speaking, they looked with all their eyes, and listened with pricked ears and open mouths, and endeavoured to look wise, and knowing; but it would not do; they could make neither head nor tail of the business.

"The judge told them nothing but what they heard before, and recapitulated the evidence, and laid down the law, and told them to dismiss from their minds all that they had heard before they came into court; but they could not for their lives forget what they had heard, nor could they make out the meaning of what they were hearing. Then they listened, all in vain, to a variety of nice and minute distinctions, and when at last it was left to them to decide, whether the prisoners at the bar were guilty or not guilty, one of the twelve discerning men called out, with great simplicity and modesty, We will leave it to your lordship.' Whereat the rest of the jury blushed most deeply and his lordship, as if not liking the trouble of making a decision in so delicate a case, declined the task, and recommended the wiseacres to retire, if they could not otherwise make up their minds. To this recommendation they yielded, and when they had retired, and laid their heads together for about half an hour, they returned, and gave in a verdict of Not Guilty, for the prisoners John Nokes and Thomas Styles, and they found the prisoner North guilty of getting out of window.' They were indebted to Mr. Babblethwaite for this refinement and distinction. The judge kept his countenance most miraculously, and very condescendingly informed them, that the indictment did not charge the prisoner with getting out of window, and that such an act was no transgression of any known law, written or unwritten. Immediately, therefore, on receiving this valuable piece of information, and considering that they could not discern any thing else against him, they gave a verdict of Not Guilty."