is the state of the country
during last winter. _There was a spirit of sedition and
revolt going abroad._" "I leave it for you to judge whether
it was perfectly innocent or not in Mr. Muir ... to go about
... among _the lower classes of the people ... inducing them
to believe that a reform was absolutely necessary, to
preserve their safety and their liberty_, which, had it not
been for him, they never would have suspected to have been
in danger." "He ran a parallel between the French and
English Constitutions, and _talked of their respective
taxes_ ... and gave a preference to the French." "He has
brought many witnesses to prove his general good behavior,
and his recommending peaceable measures, and petitioning to
Parliament." "Mr. Muir might have known that _no attention
could be paid to such a rabble, what right had they to
representation_? He could have told them the _Parliament
would never listen to their petition_! How could they think
of it? A government in any country should be just like a
corporation; and in this country it is _made up of the
landed interest, which alone has a right to be
represented_."

Gentlemen, you might think this speech was made by the "Castle Garden
Committee," or at the Boston "Union Meeting" in 1850, but it comes
from the year 1793.

Of course the jury found him guilty: the judges sentenced him to
_transportation for fourteen years_! Lord Swinton quoted from the
Roman law, that the punishment for sedition was _crucifixion_, or
exposure _to be torn to pieces by wild beasts_, or transportation. "We
have chosen the _mildest of these punishments_." This sentence was
executed with great cruelty. But Mr. Pitt, then in the high places of
power, declared these punishments were dictated by a "sound
discretion."[137]

[Footnote 137: 23 St. Tr. 117; 30 Parl. Hist. 1486, for Adams' Speech
in Commons.]

For like offences several others underwent the same or similar
punishment. But these enormities were perpetrated by the government in
Scotland--where the Roman Law had early been introduced and had
accustomed the Semi-Saxons to forms of injustice foreign to the
ethnologic instinct and historic customs of the parent tribe. But
begun is half done. Emboldened by their success in punishing the
friends of Humanity in Scotland, the ministry proceeded to attempt the
same thing in England itself. Then