nly rash or indiscreet. Juries were
packed by bribed sheriffs, and purchased spies were brought in
evidence to swear away the liberty or the life of noble men. One of
the government witnesses was subsequently convicted of ten perjuries!
No man was safe who dared utter a serious word against George III. or
Mr. Pitt.

Here, Gentlemen, I shall mention two cases of great importance in
which the jury did their duty and turned the stream of ministerial and
judicial tyranny.

(1.) In 1794 in a bill suspending the Habeas Corpus, Parliament
declared "that a treacherous and detestable conspiracy had been formed
for subverting the existing laws and constitution, and for introducing
the system of anarchy and violence which had lately prevailed in
France." Soon after the grand-jury for Middlesex indicted twelve men
for high treason; they were members of some of the Societies mentioned
just now. "The overt act charged against them was, that they had
engaged _in a conspiracy to call a convention_, the object of which
was to bring about a revolution in the country," but it was not
alleged that there was any plot against the King's life, or any
preparation for force.[140] Thomas Hardy, a shoemaker, was first
brought to trial. The trial began October 28, 1794, just sixty years
before Mr. Curtis's grand-jury found a bill against me. Sir John
Scott, the attorney-general, in opening the Prosecution, made a
_speech nine hours' long_, attempting to construct treason out of
belonging to a society. All who belonged to it were to be considered
guilty of "compassing the death of our Lord the King." Chief Justice
Eyre, in addressing the grand-jury, referred to the act of Parliament
as _proof of a conspiracy_.[141] Mr. Erskine defended Hardy in a
speech which "will live forever." Seldom had English Liberty been in
such peril; never did English lawyers more manfully defend it. The
jury, a London jury, returned "NOT GUILTY."[142] Gentlemen, the report
of the trial occupies more than twelve hundred pages in this
volume,[143] and it shook the nation. The British juries for a long
time had slept on their post, and allowed the enemy to enter the camp
and murder its inmates. But the trial of Hardy woke up those heedless
sentinels, and Liberty was safe--in England, I mean.

[Footnote 140: 6 Campbell, 366.]

[Footnote 141: 34 George III. c. 54.]

[Footnote 142: 24 St. Tr. 199; Annual Register, 1794, p. 274; 31 Parl.
Hist. 1062, _et al._]

[Footnote