l solitude of the Opposition benches, during the greater part of
the minister's political life, was the most unequivocal and striking
evidence ever given to ministerial supremacy.

The services of the attorney-general were in another less wide, but not
less important province. On the Continent, the conspirators against the
state would have been thrown into dungeon for life, or shot. In France,
the idol of the revolutionist of all countries, they would heave been
carried before a mob tribunal, their names simply asked, their sentences
pronounced, and their bodies headless within the first half hour. In
England, they had the benefit of the law in all its sincerity, the
assistance of the most distinguished counsel, the judgment of the most
impartial tribunal, and the incalculable advantage of a trial by men of
their own condition, feelings, and passions. On the 28th of October, at
the Old Bailey, commenced the trial of Hardy, one of the secretaries of
the chief treasonable society. The bill brought in by the grand jury had
included twelve. The charges were those of "compassing the death of the
king, and the subversion of the government." Hardy was a shoemaker, a
man of low attainments, but active, and strongly republican. His
activity had made him secretary to the London Corresponding Society, and
by its direction a member of a similar body, named the Society for
Constitutional Information. The direct object of all those societies was
the same--to summon a national convention, which must, of course,
supersede Parliament. As those societies grew more mature, instead of
becoming more rational they exhibited more savage ferocity. Placards
were distributed in the form of a playbill, announcing, "For the Benefit
of John Bull, La Guillotine," or, "George's Head in a Basket." The airs
of their meetings were Ca Ira and the Marseillaise. Attempts were made
to corrupt the army. It was openly declared in their harangues, that it
was "impossible to do any thing without some bloodshed, and that Pitt's
and the King's heads would be upon Temple Bar." The sentiment was
general, but at the conclusion of the especial harangue in which this
atrocious language was first used, the whole meeting rose up, and shook
hands with the madman by whom it was uttered.

The attorney-general's speech on this occasion was masterly; English
jurisprudence had never before witnessed so striking a combination of
refined knowledge with clear arrangement and una