time Thurlow, whom I introduced to you a little while ago, was
Attorney-General, looking for further promotion from the Tory
Government of Lord North. Mansfield was Chief Justice, a man of great
ability, who has done so much to reform the English law, but whose
hostility to America was only surpassed by the hatred which he bore to
all freedom of speech and the rights of the Jury. The Government was
eager to crush the liberty of the American Colonies. But this was a
difficult matter, for in England itself there was a powerful party
friendly to America, who took our side in the struggle for liberty.
The city of London, however, was hostile to us, wishing to destroy our
merchants and manufacturers, who disturbed the monopoly of that
commercial metropolis. The government thought it necessary to punish
any man who ventured to oppose their tyranny and sympathize with
America. Accordingly it was determined that Mr. Horne should be
brought to trial. But as public opinion, stimulated by Erskine, Camden
and others, favored the rights of the Jury, it seems to have been
thought dangerous to trust the case to a Grand-Jury. Perhaps the Judge
had no brother-in-law to put on it, or the Attorney-General--though
famous also for his profanity,--doubted that any _swearing_ of his
would insure a bill; nay, perhaps he did not venture to "bet ten
dollars that I will get an indictment against him." Be that as it may,
the Attorney-General dispensed with the services of the Grand-Jury and
filed an information _ex officio_ against Mr. Horne, therein styling
him a "wicked, malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person;"
charging him, by that advertisement, with "wickedly, maliciously, and
seditiously intending, designing, and venturing to stir up and excite
discontents and sedition;" "to cause it to be believed that divers of
his Majesty's innocent and deserving subjects had been inhumanly
murdered by ... his Majesty's troops; and unlawfully and wickedly to
encourage his Majesty's subjects in the said Province of Massachusetts
to resist and oppose his Majesty's Government." He said the
advertisement was "a false, wicked, malicious, scandalous, and
seditious libel;" "full of ribaldry, Billingsgate, scurrility,
balderdash, and impudence;" "wicked is a term too high for this
advertisement;" "its impudence disarmed its wickedness." In short, Mr.
Horne was accused of "resisting an officer," obstructing the execution
of the "process" whereby the America