broughtagainst them. What more 
was required, by the law of the 
| Janda, toclear them of those accusa. 
tions that brought them into court ? 
was not this sufficient not only for 
their discharge, but to shield them 
from all malicious imputations? No 
‘atts of treason had beensubstantiated 
against them, ‘This being the main 
* intent and scope of their trial, and 
having entirely failed, what remain. 
ed for the candid parts of society, 
‘bat to acquiesce in the verdié of an 
unbiassed jury, and to acknowledge 
them, what they certainly were, af- 
“tersuch a decision, not guilty of the 
¢rime laid to their charge? The 
gtand jury, it was alleged, had 
found the bill against them; but 
‘upon what evidence? that of per- 
“sons suspected of being spies and in- 
formers, and whose occtpution it 
“Was to discover guilt in hope of a 
‘téward for their discovery. Were 
») these charaétcrs worthy of the least 
credit, either in private transactions 
or in a public court ? did it become 
“either ministers, or their partisans, 
‘to insist upon the weight of such 
' testimony ? Had they not been con- 
jfiited in open court? was it fair, 
| was it legal, to build on the reports 
“of such men, so weighty a measure 
| as the suspension, which was to af- 
| __ feet the public tranquillity, and the 
_ domestic quiet of a whole nation? 
_ for who. was safe, when once sus- 
_ Picions were deemed sufficient mo- 
|‘ tiyes to rob a man of his liberty ? 
| 
| 
_ These were not surmises, nor 
groundless insinuations ; every man 
| that had spirit enough to avow his 
| disapprobation of ministerial mea- 
_Bures, laid himself cpen ‘to the se- 
: Yerest treatment. Before a ‘trust of 
| “such magnitude as that which was 
| given to government, by the sus- 
—_—_——_ 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
[159 
pension of the habeas, could be as- 
sented to by the representatives of 
the people, they ought to be well 
persuaded, that it was indispensably 
required ; they ought also to have 
proofs of such necessity: without 
these they had no right to inchain 
their constituents at the foot ofa 
minister, subject toall those passions 
that are the natural concomitants of 
an exalted post, and whose native 
uprightness of disposition, however 
it might be asserted by his adhe. 
rents, ought by no means to com- 
mand implicit confidence. Warious 
societies had of late years been esta. 
blished throughout the nation, and 
obtained great popularity : it was 
usual, in the ministerial circles, to 
represent them as consisting chiefly 
of disaffeéiéd people. But these 
societies were the very life of liberty 
in a free country ? those only dis= 
approved of them, who were better 
friends to the agents of the execu. 
tive power, than to the freedom of 
the constitution; the existence of 
which depended on the avowal and 
circulation of free and manly ideas 
on political subjects. To oppose, or 
to depreciate these societies, wasa 
proof that ministers dreaded their 
investigating spirit. This alone 
shewed a consciousness of deserving 
censure ; but this was the strongest 
argument in favour of these societies, 
and how firmly they ought to be 
supported by a nation that valued 
its freedom. The incessant coma 
plaints of their seditious tendency 
proceeded solely from the mouths 
of notorfous tools of power. He 
was himself, Mr. Lambton said, a 
member of one of these societies, 
that of the friends to the people, 
and defied any unprejudiced man to 
tax their proceedings with the 
: least 
