28 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



were the property of the executors j 



and farther insisted, that, as the de- 

 ceased had, by his wiD, bequeathed 

 his body to them, no execution 

 would hold good against %he corpse. 

 Thebaihff, after atteridiug to many 

 literary and persuasive arguments, 

 and having discussed the matter as 

 fully as the time and place would 

 admit of, was very propeily con-» 

 vinced that the spirit of the law 

 meant a living and not a dead body, 

 and accordingly marched off with- 

 out insisting farther on the legality 

 of his capture, This, it is presum- 

 ed, is the first and only instance of 

 the kind that has happened since 

 the arrest of the degd body of a 

 sheriff of London, not many years 

 iince. 



Among the vast number of pcrr 

 sonsliberated from the Kiug's-bench 

 prison, a now almost uninhabited 

 place of confinement, under the late 

 insolvent act, was a farmer, who 

 had remained therein custody eleven 

 years, for the costs of an action, in 

 which he sailed, for having killed 

 a hare on his own grounds, 



3d. Edinburgh. On Wednesday 

 came on, before the court of oyer 

 and terminer in this ciiy, the trial 

 of Mr Robert Walt for high trea- 

 son. The particulars of the charge 

 were, that he belonged to certain 

 committees of the Friends of the 

 People in Scotland, called the com- 

 mittee of union, and the committee 

 ofways and means, whose professed 

 aim was, in conjunction with cer- 

 tain societies in England, to form, 

 at a certain lime and place not spe- 

 cified, a convention of persons, 

 v/hose avowed aim was to usurp the 

 powers of governn.entj to compel 

 the k'ng and parliament by force to 

 make laws, altering the mode and 

 duration of parllamentj and thereby 



to subvert the constitution ; with 

 having, to effect this purpose, caused 

 certain pikts and battle-axes to be 

 fabricated ; with having formed a 

 design to sci;e the castle, the bank, 

 the judge-, gcc. and with having 

 attempii'd. to seduce the soldiery 

 from their allegiance, by causing a 

 njimber of printed handbills, ad- 

 dressed to a regiment of fencibles, 

 toh.. distributed at Dalkeith. After 

 evidence had been adduced in sup- 

 port cf the facts, Mr. William Er- 

 skinc, counsel for the prisoner, said, 

 that he would rest his defence on 

 V.ie correspondence carried on be- 

 tween the right hon. Henry Dundas, 

 the lord-:idvocate, and the prisoner, 

 by which it would appear, that he 

 had attended the meetings of the 

 Friends of the people with no other 

 view than to give information of 

 their proceedings. A- letter from 

 the prisonertoMr. secretaryDundas 

 was read, which stated, that, as he 

 did not approve of the dangerous 

 principles which then prevailed in 

 Scotland, and was a friend to the 

 constitution, he thought it his duty 

 to communicate to him, as a good 

 subject, what information he could a 

 procure of the proceedings of those 

 who styled themselves Friends of 

 the People. From an acquaintance 

 with several of the leading men 

 among them, he flattered himself he 

 had this in his power ; and he then 

 went on to mention some of the 

 names of those leading men in Perth, 

 Dundee, and Edinburgh. It con- 

 cluded with enjoining secrecy. To 

 this letter an answer was returned, 

 which was also read. It acknow- 

 ledged the receipt of Watt's letter, 

 and, after expressing a hope that 

 things were not so bad as ne had 

 represented, desired him to go on, 

 and he might depend upon his com- 

 niuniQations 



