304 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



he arrived there, the three defend- 

 ants were sitting as magistrates ; 

 they ordered him to be confined in 

 the cage, a kind of prison ; he was 

 there about one hour and a half, 

 when two constables came and 

 handcuffed him, and told him they 

 were ordered by the defendants to 

 put him on board the tender ; he 

 told them he had never been at sea, 

 and remonstrated with them, but in 

 vain. He begged of them not to 

 handcuff him, as he would go 

 quietly with them. They told him 

 they must, as they were ordered 

 by the magistrates ; but they would 

 take them off when they got to a 

 distance, so as the defendants would 

 not know that they had dared to 

 show so much humanity. They 

 put him into a postchaise, and 

 drove to Oxford-street, where they 

 got a hackney-coach, and brought 

 him to the Tower, and put him on 

 board the Enterprize tender for 

 the receiving of impressed men, 

 where he was kept for seven days, 

 without a bed to lie on ; it was not 

 until the 20th that he could procure 

 pen, ink, and paper, to write to 

 his friends the situation he was 

 placed in : on the 22nd he was sent 

 to the Nore, on board the admiral's 

 ship. The plaintiff's two friends, 

 who had accompanied him to Ux- 

 bridge, went before his lordship on 

 the 22nd of October, and made 

 oath of these facts, and his lordship 

 granted a habeas corpus to the ad- 

 miralty, which was not answered 

 immediately, but the plaintiff was 

 put on shore at the Nore on the 

 12th of November, and had to find 

 his way back to Hounslow the best 

 way he could. He, Mv.- Park, 

 would admit every thing that the 

 defendant's counsel could wish ; 

 his client might have been insolent, 



might have treated the magistrates 

 (the defendants) with disrespect; 

 but nothing could justify their con- 

 duct, to take away the liberty of a 

 subject, perhaps for ever, to satisfy 

 their own choler and spleen ; the 

 plaintiff was an hour and a half in 

 the cage, they had time to reflect; 

 his friends offered to pay any fine ; 

 they offered to give security in 5001. 

 for his appearance when or where 

 they wished, but to no purpose. He 

 had certainly committed an unlaw- 

 ful act, by sitting on his cart, but 

 the penalty was only 10s. and in 

 case of inability of paying it, ten 

 days fonfinement in the House of 

 Correction. It could not be sup- 

 posed that the defendants were ig- 

 norant that they were doing an un- 

 lawful act ; but, even if they were, 

 it was no answer to this action, they 

 were not ignorant that they were 

 doing a cruel and tyrannical act : 

 men whose duty it was to protect 

 every species of his majesty's sub- 

 jects, the poor as well as the rich ; 

 men who were chosen to admi- 

 nister justice, and support the laws 

 oftheir country, to become traitors, 

 and trample both law and justice 

 under their feet ! he would not 

 mention humanity, afraid the de- 

 fendants might start at the sound, 

 as they never could have known 

 what it was before. There were no 

 damages too great for them to pay. 

 What might have been the conse- 

 quences ? A young man tenderly 

 reared, put on board a prison-ship, 

 kept there several nights and days, 

 without a bed to lie on, in the cold 

 month of November, might not 

 his death have been the result, and 

 would it be doubted that ihe de- 

 fendants would have been obliged 

 to answer for such an event ? The 

 only question for the jury to consi- 

 der 



