ed forthwith to bring
the bodies of his charges, together with the causes of detention,
before the Lord Chief Justice of England. Mr Batcheldor obeyed the
command in both particulars; the judges of the Court of Queen's Bench
met; counsel argued and re-argued the matter before them, but in
vain--the prisoners were left in the governor's care, in which they
remained, as if no effort had been made to remove then from his
custody. All, however, was not yet over; for, as though labouring
under a strange delusion, four of the prisoners actually made oath
that they had never been arraigned, tried, convicted, or sentenced at
all, either in Canada or elsewhere! Upon this four more writs of
_habeas corpus_ issued, commanding the unhappy Mr Batcheldor to bring
the four deluded convicts before the Barons of the Exchequer. This was
done; arguments, both old and new, were heard with exemplary patience
and attention; the play was played over again; but the Barons were
equally inexorable with the Court of Queen's Bench, and the four
prisoners, after much consideration, were again remanded to the
custody of the governor of the jail, and, together with their eight
fellow-prisoners, were, in course of time, duly conveyed to the place
of their original destination.

The next of these cases, in chronological order, is that of the
Monmouthshire riots in 1839. This case, also, might tend to
corroborate the opinion, that the service of the state, in legal
matters, is attended with much difficulty and embarrassment. It will,
however, be seen upon examination of the facts of the case, that the
difficulty which then arose, proceeded solely from the lenity and
indulgence shown to the prisoners by the crown. On New-Year's day
1840, John Frost and others, were brought to trial, on a charge of
high treason, before a special commission at Monmouth. The proceedings
were interrupted by an objection taken by the prisoners' counsel, that
the terms of a statute, which requires that a list of witnesses should
be delivered to the prisoners _at the same time_ with a copy of the
indictment, had not been complied with. The indictment had, in fact,
been delivered five days before the list of witnesses. This had been
done in merciful consideration to the prisoners, in order that they
might be put in possession of the charge, to be brought against them,
as early as it was in the power of the crown to give them the
information, and probably before it was _possible