Speeches Of Thomas Lord Erskine In Two Volumes PDF Download

Excerpt from Speeches of Thomas Lord Erskine, Vol. 2 of 2: Reprinted From the Five Volume Octavo, Edition of 1810; With Memoir of His Life Never, perhaps, were any persons accused of high treason (certainly not since the government became settled at the Revolution) exposed to such great difficulties in making their defence. It will be seen by the following speeches, and by the indictment prefixed to them, that the prisoners were charged with compassing and imagining the death of the King, the overt act being a conspiracy, which, though masked under the pretence Of procuring by legal means a reform in the Commons House of Parliament, had for its real Object the subversion by rebellious force Of the whole frame of the constitution of the country. In support Of this indictment it will be seen by the following speeches that the evidence for the Crown was divided into two distinct branches, viz., to establish, first, that such a conspiracy existed, and, secondly, to prove that the prisoners were parties to it. This course Of proceeding had been sanctioned by the Opinions of the judges upon other trials, but the adoption of it upon this occasion, however legal, undoubtedly exposed the prisoners to great peril of prejudgment, because almost the whole of the evidence given by the Crown against them had been collected by both Houses Of Parliament just before the trial, and printed by their authority and a statute* had even been passed, declaring that the treacherous con spiracy, which constituted the first and very important branch of the evidence, did in fact exist within the kingdom. We say a very important branch Of the evidence, because undoubtedly if the jury had considered that the evidence supported the truth of the preamble to the Act Of Parliament, the prisoners must have been in a manner without a defence. Authority was also given to detain, without bail, persons already in custody, on suspicion of being engaged in the above conspiracy, or who should be thereafter committed on that account. With regard to this Act of Parliament, it is impossible, on the one hand, to deny the constitutional competency Of Parliament to declare the existence of a dangerous and extended conspiracy, endangering not only the safety, but the very existence of the state. On the other hand, the persons who may become Obnoxious to suspicion, and be subjected to a public prosecution in consequence Of such a legislative proceeding, come to a trial under seemingly insurmountable disadvantages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.