on." Eight names were then added from
the common jury list, and the trial proceeded. Denman was counsel for
Edmonds, and Matthew Davenport Hill for Major Cartwright. The others
defended themselves in person. The Judge summed up unfavourably, and
after twenty minutes' deliberation the jury gave a verdict of guilty
against all the defendants. Judgment, however, was deferred.

On May 28, 1821, the Attorney-General moved the judgment of the court.
The Lord Chief Justice Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, recapitulated
the arguments as to the legality of the jury, and held that no legal
challenge could have been made until a full jury appeared; and as in
this case the challenges had been made before the full jury had
assembled, there were no grounds for a new trial. Several motions in
arrest of judgment were subsequently made, but eventually Mr. Edmonds
was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the common gaol of the
county, and he was thereupon removed to Warwick, where, within the walls
of the gaol, he spent every minute of the period for which he had been
sentenced.

Upon his restoration to liberty, he published the following
characteristic advertisement in the Birmingham newspapers:

"George Edmonds begs to inform his _friends_, his _enemies_, and the
_public_, that on leaving Warwick Jail he recommenced his profession
of a schoolmaster; that by the zeal of his patrons he has succeeded
beyond his most sanguine expectations; that he has taken for a
period of seven years those extensive premises opposite Bond Street
Chapel, and that the school re-opened on Monday last.

"The public are respectfully referred by G.E. to his _enemies_ as
the judges of his capacity to _instruct_ and _correct_.... To his
_enemies_--if it be possible that he can have any--G.E. offers the
most entire absolution for their sins against the _best of men_,
on the following most reasonable terms: That they henceforth
zealously trumpet forth his merits; and on his part he agrees to
receive their children at his academy, as hostages for the
performance of these conditions. _Quid rides?_

"Bond Street, July 2, 1823."

Mr. Edmonds's trial, so far from impeding the popular cause, gave it a
forward impetus. It was contended that the jury had been improperly
impanelled; and Mr. Peel, afterwards Sir Robert, was compelled to admit
in the House of Commons that such was the case, as the pane