soner laughed in his
face, and told him he had been tried once, and got ten years, but he
wouldn't mind being tried again if the judge would make it five.

But George Edmonds had a higher claim to grateful recollection than
could be based upon mere forensic skill or professional duty. His
it was to help to apply the first impulse to the movement which
eventually broke down the strong bulwarks of territorial oligarchy.
His it was to wear the political martyr's crown; his to beard a
profligate Court, and a despotic, tyrannical, and corrupt Government;
his to win, or to help to win, far nobler victories than were ever
gained by Marlborough or Wellington: victories of which we reap the
benefits now, in liberty of thought and speech, in an unfettered
Press, in an incorrupt Parliament, in wiser laws, and in unshackled
commerce. His manly voice never counselled aught but obedience; but
it was never silent until it had assisted to ensure for his
fellow-countrymen, that the laws he taught them to obey were just and
impartial, and were equitably administered.

When Mr. Edmonds was a mere child, the great Revolution in France gave
the English advocates of freedom hopes that the "appointed time" would
soon arrive. The obstinacy of the King, which had already caused the
loss of America, once more made itself manifest, and crushed these
hopes. War was declared against France in 1793, and (with the
exception of a period of thirteen months, from March, 1802, to April,
1803, and a few months in 1814-15) raged until the Battle of Waterloo,
in June, 1815. Daring the whole of this long period the hopes of
English freedom lay dormant. With the return of external peace came
fresh visions of internal reformation. Major Cartwright, Sir Francis
Burdett, and other advanced politicians formed themselves into a
society, which, in memory of one of England's most worthy sons, they
named the Hampden Club. They advocated annual Parliaments, universal
suffrage, and vote by ballot. Provincial reformers adopted their
creed. George Edmonds, then some 27 years old, took up the cause with
great zeal, and advocated it with much eloquence and fervour. Cobbett,
by his writings, and Hunt, by his speeches, aided the movement.
The Tory party was alarmed, and Lord Liverpool's Government was so
exasperated, that a crusade against the popular cause was resolved on.

Meanwhile, the Hampden Club counselled their Birmingham friends to bring
matters to an issue, by e