this man calls the Bill of Wrongs and Insults, without disparagement to him, for I believe him to be a just and wise prince, of great natural faculties. Here it was that he saw, and could alone learn how the regal government of a free people was conducted, and that under a Prince of the House of Brunswick.

Gentlemen, having stated thus much to you, I will now, for want of suitable expressions (for mine are very feeble), borrow from another; I certainly have formed an opinion upon this subject precisely similar; to deliver it in plain words would exhaust the utmost of my powers, but I will borrow the words of a very able writer, who has most properly, for fear some ill impression should be made by this book on the weaker part of mankind in America, given an answer to this book of Mr. Paine. That distinguished gentleman, I have reason to believe, though not the chief magistrate in that country, is the second in the executive government of it; that is, he is second in the exercise of the regal part of the government of that country. He takes care to confute accurately what Mr. Paine says with respect to America; but, borrowing his words, I beg to be understood, that this is my opinion of the work before you, and which I humbly offer for your consideration and adoption. He says, "His intention

266

appears evidently to be, to convince the people of "Great Britain, that they have neither liberty nor a "constitution; that their only possible means to "produce those blessings to themselves, is to topple

2

"down headlong their present government, and "follow implicitly the example of the French."

Gentlemen, the next passage, which I beg to be understood as mine (I wish I could express it as well myself), is this:-" Mr. Paine, in reply, cuts the "Gordian knot at once, declares the Parliament of "1688 to have been downright usurpers, censures "them for having unwisely sent to Holland for a King, denies the existence of a British constitution, and invites the people of England to over"turn their present government, and to erect ano"ther upon the broad basis of national sovereignty "and government by representation. As Mr. Paine "has departed altogether from the principles of the "Revolution, and has torn up by the roots all rea"soning from the British constitution, by the denial "of its existence, it becomes necessary to examine "his work upon the grounds which he has chosen "to assume. If we judge of the production from "its apparent tendency, we may call it an address "to the English nation, attempting to prove that "they have a right to form a new constitution; "that it is expedient for them immediately to exer"cise that right, and that in the formation of this "constitution they can do no better than to imitate "the model set before them by the French National "Assembly. However immethodical his production " is, I believe the whole of its argumentative part be referred to these three points: if the sub "ject were to affect-only the British nation, we

may

"might leave them to reason and act for them"selves; but these are concerns equally important "to all mankind; and the citizens of America are "called upon, from high authority (he alludes to a "gentleman in a high situation in that country, who "has published an opinion of this book), to rally "round the standard of this champion of revolu "tions. I shall, therefore, now proceed to examine "the reasons ;" and so he goes on.

Gentlemen, I would adopt, with your permission, a few more words from this publication :-" When "Mr. Paine invited the people of England to de66 stroy their present government, and form another "constitution, he should have given them sober rea"soning, and not flippant witticisms." Whether that is or is not the case, what I have read to you today will enable you to judge. "He should have explained to them the nature of the grievances

by which they are oppressed, and demonstrated "the impossibility of reforming the government in "its present organization. He should have pointed "out some possible method for them to act, in their original character, without a total dissolution of civil society among them; he should have proved what great advantages they would reap as a nation from such a revolution, without dis"guising the great dangers and formidable difficul"ties with which it must be attended." for the passages themselves, and this interpretation, which I humbly submit to your consideration.

So much

The next matter upon which I shall proceed is the

evidence which I propose to adduce, and that evidence will go to show, not only the fact of this man's being the writer of this book, by his own repeated admission, and by letters under his own hand, but will likewise go directly to show what is his intent in such publication, which appears I think most clearly; and over and above that I shall produce to you a letter, which this man was pleased to address to myself, in which letter he avows himself in so many words the author, and I shall prove it to be his hand-writing; and further than that, there is matter in that letter, apparently showing the intention with which that book was written, namely, to vilify this constitution, and to injure this country irretrievably.

Two letters I shall be under the necessity of reading to you, in which he has stated himself the author. The one is a letter to a person of the name of Jordan, in which he expresses himself in this

manner :

"For

"February 16, 1792" (that was the day on which the book was published): your satisfaction "and my own I send you the inclosed, though I "do not apprehend there will be any occasion to use it if in case there should, you will im

mediately send a line for me, under cover, to Mr. "Johnson, St. Paul's Churchyard, who will for"ward it to me, upon which I shall come and an"swer personally for the work; send also for Mr. "Horne Tooke."

"T. P."

The letter inclosed was this; addressed to the same man, Jordan, the bookseller:-" Sir, should

66

any person, under the sanction of any kind of "authority, inquire of you respecting the author "and publisher of the Rights of Man, you will "please to mention me as the author and publisher "of that work, and show to such person this letter. "I will, as soon as I am acquainted with it, appear " and answer for the work personally."

Gentlemen, with respect to his letter written to me, it is in these terms.

Mr. Erskine. My Lord, the Attorney General states a letter in the hand-writing of Mr. Paine, which establishes that he is the author. I desire to know whether he means to read a letter which may be the subject of a substantive and distinct prosecution; I do not mean to dispute the publication, or even to give him the trouble of proving the letters which he has just stated; whether the Attorney General will think it consistent with the situation in which he is placed, at this moment, to read a letter written at a time long subsequent to the publication, containing, as I understand (if I am mistaken in that, I withdraw my objection), but containing dis tinct, clear, and unequivocal libellous matter, and which I, in my address to the Jury, if I am not deceived in what I have heard, shall admit to be upon every principle of the English law a libel. Therefore, if that should turn out to be the case, will your Lordship suffer the mind of the Jury to be en