now stood forward, to accuse a man of what must, in my opinion, render him infamous. Iwell knew that in every public act of my life since I came to this country, trifling as they were, I had been calumniated by him; but that was in his province of editor; he is now become the representative of the executive power-is he not?--I thought the station he now holds, would give him some pride, in stil some spark of honour into him, and that relinquishing that conduct and those proceedings which were calculated to procure a sale for his journal, in some corners of the city, he would consider himself bound to retura a jury which should be unsuspected. whose duty it is, and whose inclination he declared it to be, to listen with attention and deference to every thing which fell from the bench, has since repeated the same assertion. I certainly did suspect, that the person who has now been brought forward, was the man who had lodged the informations against me; but I hoped that my trial had been postponed by the prosecutor, from a knowledge of his character, and a wish to procure more credible testimony, as to the fact of the distribution. I had certainly every reason to suppose this had been the case, as I knew that several of my friends, men who belong to the old volunteer corps, and who probably were at that meeting, if there were any such assembly, had been summoned on this trial by the prosecutor. They attended in the Court, but were never called upon; perhaps I am wrong to mention this, but had they been called upon, I know the charge exhibited against me by Mr. Lyster would have fallen to the ground, I had been certain of an acquittal. examination had gone up to the grand jury, I believe it was on the last day of the term, or it was not motion day, or something of that kind, and there was no order of the Court made. Was it likely that he did not know of these declarations of the jurors? It is not probable. Before the recognizances were given up, while I was out on bail, the death of a near relation obliged me to go to England, where my attendance was necessary for the arrangement of my private affairs; I returned however at great inconvenience, and some pecu. As to the jury, my lord, I can conceive some niary loss, to attend this Court; yet, during of them to have been very honourable men, my absence, I was branded by this man as a and yet prejudiced, much prejudiced; I did fugitive; and here permit me to observe, that not conceive however, that any man would your lordship in your recapitulation of the have gone into that box, taking an oath to try events of this trial, omitted to mention the me impartially, yet having publicly declared motion made for me by my friend, Mr. Blenan enmity against me. It was certainly very nerhasset, that the examinations against me ingenious in one of the crown lawyers to sup- should be forthwith returned; day after day pose, that the jurors who used those expres- I had attended the Court; the little inquiry sions, might have thought at that time, that II could make informed me that no such had been guilty of murder, or some heinous crime, and had been disabused before the trial came on, but, without recurring to my general character, that suggestion, in my opinion, falls to the ground, for the conversation was on the subject of the volunteers; and it is for an address to the volunteers that I am now prosecuted; I certainly did wish for a revival of the volunteers, and I did attempt it: I thought they had already done honour to the nation, that they had been acknowledged honourable by the legislature; this I did attempt, if this be a crime. It has been said by one of my prosecutors, that it was not with the jurors, but with their verdict that I was discontented; I ask, what was my conduct when the verdict was delivered in? Did that prove a mere discontent against the verdict? No. I thought it a severe one, unfounded in evidence, but I called for the sentence of the Court; I was ready to abide by that sentence; and it was not until my return to Newgate, when I found my prison doors crowded with utter strangers to me, each recapitulating instances of declared partiality in the jurors, and further acts of infamy in the evidence, that I had thoughts of setting aside their verdict. As to the sheriff, and the circumstance of my not having made some application to the Court prior to my affidavit of the day before yesterday, and the question of when I became acquainted with his partiality, the fact is, that it was with the utmost reluctance I It had been suggested to me by some of my friends, when notice for this trial was served upon me, that I ought to attempt to put it off; but what would have been the consequence? Your lordship has said that I had called for, that I had provoked this trial, that I had complained it was not brought forward; it is true I did call for, I did provoke this trial; I have complained that it was not brought forward. I wished to be brought to trial, but I did wish also to be tried by an impartial jury, summoned by an impartial man; suck I thought the sheriff of that time to be, although I was not one of his acquaintance. The very words your lordship used, show why I did not put off my trial. What would then have been said by that journal, which is perpetually stigmatizing my conduct, and villifying my private character? It would have repeated, what was said in another country, that I was "an infamous wretch, who had fled from the punishment that awaited me.t" But still those friends urged me to put off this that the British constitution was a represen sented by the House of Commons; that the Lords represented the territory, the property; and that the King represented the power of the state, the united force, the power of the whole, placed in his hands for the benefit of the whole. As a person, as a man, I know nothing of the king; I can know nothing of him, except as wielding the force of the nation, to be exercised for the benefit of the nation; and if ever that force should be misapplied, or abused, it then remains for the people to decide in what hands it ought to be placed. † * trial: the sheriff is your enemy-No-I have called for trial, I will trust to his oath of office:tative legislature, that the people were reprethough, as editor of a newspaper, he has acted thus, yet when bound by oath" to return panels of persons able and sufficient, and not suspected or procured, and to do justice impartially" (these are merely the words of the oath of a county sheriff), I hoped he would rise superior to his editorial capacity, aud act with justice. Nay even in my first afidavit, I did not throw out this imputation. As to the sub sheriff, I know him not, but I am informed that the sheriff himself returned the whole panel upon this occasion; contrary to the usual custom, as I am informed why this was so, I know not; I cannot dive into the breast of any man; God forbid I should be capable of diving into his. My lord, perhaps what I am going to observe may be improper, but I once thought that intention constituted guilt. I thought I heard from the bench, that my intention did not signify. Lord Clonmell. You have said nothing improper yet, Sir go on, you do not seem to recollect the idea perfectly. : Mr. Hamilton Rowan. It was not from your lordship. Mr. Justice Downes.-Certainly it is an opinion no judge could hold. Mr. Hamilton Rowan.-I have been mistaken then; it was something like it, it struck me so. As to the paper, it has been said to come from a Society of United Irishmen. One of my witnesses was asked was he an United Irishman. I have heard much of United Irishmen, much calumny here and elsewhere; I avow myself to be one, my name has appeared to several of their publications, I glory in the name. On entering that Society I took a test, by which I am bound to seek for the emancipation of every class of my fellowcitizens, and to procure (by spreading information, for that is the only mode a few men assembled in Back-lane can adopt) a reform in the representation of the people:* a reform, the necessity of which has been allowed even in parliament. These are our objects, objects which I am bound to pursue to their completion. As to the paper, I honour the head that conceived it, and I love the hand that penned it. Much stress has been laid upon the words Universal Emancipation and Representative Legislature, it may be owing to a want of logical precision in me, but I do not consider these words as carrying the meaning which has been imputed to them. I did imagine *It being the interest as well as the intention of the people to have a fair and equal representation, whoever brings it nearest to that, is an undoubted friend to and establisher of the government, and cannot miss the consent and approbation of the community Locke on Government, sect. 158. Orig. Ed. I really feel myself in an awkward situation, thus declaring my sentiments, seeing intentions different from those both of the author and myself are fixed upon that paper, for the distribution of which I am persecuted. From my situation however, having an independent fortune, easy in my cir umstances, and with a large family, insurrection of any sort would surely be the last thing I could wish for; I ask no favour, but I submit myself to the clemency and the justice of the Court, and I trust that whatever may be their sentence, I shall bear it with becoming fortitude. Lord Clonmell.-I have conferred with my But yet it is to be observed, that although oaths of allegiance and fealty are taken to him (the king), it is not to hiin, as supreme legislator, but as supreme executor of the law, made by a joint power of him with others; allegiance being nothing but an obedience according to law, which when he violates, he has no right to obedience, nor can claim it otherwise than as the public person vested with the power of the law, and so is to be considered as the image, phantom, or representative of the commonwealth, acted by the will of society, declared in its laws; and then he has no will, no power but that of the law. But when he quits this representation, this public will, and acts by his own private will, he degrades himself, and is but a single private person, without power, and without will, that has any right to obedience; the members owing no obedience but to the public will of the society.-Locke on Government, sect. 151. Orig. Edit. This doctrine of a power in the people of providing for their safety anew, by a new legislative, when their legislators have acted contrary to their trust by invading their property, is the best fence against rebellion, and the probablest means to hinder it.-Locke, sect. 226.When king Charles's deluded brother attempted to enslave the nation, he found it was beyond his power. The people both could and did resist him; and in conse quence of such resistance, obliged him to quit his enterprise and his throne together.Blackstone, public wrongs, B. 4. c. 33. §, 5.. Orig. Edit, Court will therefore be pronounced as is the practice in Westminster-hall, by the second judge of the Court. It shall be pronounced. by my brother Boyd. brethren upon what has fallen from you, confessedly in mitigation and with that view There are two facts which you seem to insist upon as new. If it made for you, that Mr. Blennerlasset made the motion you state I willingly adopt it. If I had known it in giving the history of this case, I should not haye omitted that or any thing else done in this Court. You mentioned that the informations should have been returned, they were returned into the crown-office. Mr. Rowan. My Lord, I meant they were not returned to the grand jury. Lord Clonmell.-The proceeding was not by way of bill of indictment, therefore what you desire could not have been adopted. The proceedings here were by information Ex-Officio, and when the informations were lodged in the crown office, which I am instructed to say, was the first day of Hilary Term, 1793, the first day the Court sat afterwards the information was filed and the other proceedings had. There is nothing else that has not been touched upon. As to the meaning of the libel, I owe justice to every man, and here and every where I have said that no inference can be drawn from any construction in your favour that was omitted. I think I shall be justified in saying that you were well and ably defended by your counsel. Nothing has fallen frour you that affected the minds of the Court in mitigation, to change the judgment which we have thought proper should be pronounced upon you. I shall not adopt any idea, or suffer any idea to arise in my mind, from what you last let fall from you, to increase that punishment. * The judgment of this * In the case of The King against Withers (3 T. R. 428) lord Kenyon ch. just. said "It is well settled that the conduct of a defendant subsequent to the time when he is found guilty, may be taken into consideration, either by way of aggravating or mitigating the punishment." Undoubtedly it is the settled practice, upon convictions for misdemeanors, to receive affidavits in mitigation and aggravation; and in such affidavits it is permitted to relate facts respecting the general character and conduct of the convict See Starkie on the law of slander and tibel ch 41. Holt on the law of libel, b. 3. ch. 6, and Mr. Christian's note to 4 Bl. Comm. 151. Yet it may seem that there is some objection to the admission of affidavits, which disclose other facts than those by which may be ascertained or explained the degree of the guilt of the particular offence before the Court (and qu. if this disclosure might not preferably be made, when it is practicable, by witnesses subject to crossexamintion upon the trial); for if the disclosure of facts unconnected with that particular offence induce the Court to mitigate the punishment which, without such disclosure, they would have adjudged to be merited by the offence; then it may seem to induce them to VOL. XXII. Mr. Justice Boyd. The sentence of the Court is That you, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, do pay to his majesty a fine of five hundred pounds, and be imprisoned for two years, to be computed from the 29th of Janu. ary, 1794, and until that fine be paid; and to find security for your good behaviour for seven years, yourself in the sum of two thousand pounds, and two sureties in one thousand pounds each. Of Mr. Hamilton Rowan's escape from prison, and of the proceedings connected therewith, which terminated in his receiving from his majesty a free pardon, the following particulars have been obligingly communicated to the Editor of this Work by Mr. Rowan himself, and are now first published. Dublin, December, 1816. When I had been in Newgate about four months, in consequence of my sentence, the reverend Mr. Jackson, an Englishman and an emissary from France, came to this country. He was accompanied by another person, to whom he had communicated the object of his mission, and who pretended to assist his views, but had in fact betrayed him to the minister, and accompanied him to Ireland as a spy. They were introduced to me in the gaol. We had several conferences; and at last a statemeut of the situation of this country was agreed upon and given to Jackson, in my hand-writing. Mr. Jackson's friend was employed by him to put this into the postoffice, directed to Hamburgh. He was seized in the act, and taken before the privy-council. Mr. Jackson was committed to prison. In the evening Mr. Jackson's friend came to my room, and requested I would procure him admission to Jackson; which I did, for at this time there was no suspicion of the friend nor of my being implicated with Jackson. In this interview he said, that in his examination he had acknowledged the letter to have been given to him by Jackson; said the privy council seemed to be much exasperated interfere with the royal prerogative of mercy : if it induce them to aggravate the punishment which they would otherwise have inflicted, then it may seem to induce them, under the appearance of punishing the convict for the offence of which he has been convicted, in fact to punish him for matter of which he has not been convicted, and for which he has not been tried. * See in this collection, post, his case for high treason, A. D. 1794, 1795. 4 G against me, and had asked him whether the statement was not in my hand-writing? which he had answered by saying he had never seen me write; that his examination was not legal evidence, as he had refused to sign it; and that he was determined to return immediately to England; but that at any rate it was necessary to have two witnesses to convict of high treason; and if we adhered to one another we should be safe. I asked him whether Jackson's situation would be rendered worse, in case I could make my escape. He said No; but he feared the thing would be impossible. I left him with his friend, and never have seen him since. The next morning I set about my scheme, and got it accomplished at twelve that night. It would be a waste of paper and your time here to recount the various deceptions practised on the under gaoler, which induced him to accompany me to my own house, where a rope being slung ready out of a two pair of stairs window, enabled me to descend into the garden, and to take a horse out of the stable, and meet a friend who should conduct me to a place of refuge. When the gaoler became impatient and forced into my wife's room, she made him every offer if he would conceal himself and go to America, not raising a pursuit, but permitting it to be supposed that he had accompanied me in my flight, which he absolutely refused, swearing he would soon see me hanged. I was taken to the house of a gentleman named Sweetman, since dead. It was soon found that the most probable means of escaping from this country would be by a small pleasure boat of Mr. Sweetman's; but she was neither sea-worthy, nor equipped for a channel cruize; and a farther question was, who would risk themselves with me, who were not in the same danger? Mr. Sweetman however did not despair, and was successful. He procured three sailors of the vicinity of Buldoyle, where his house was, about four miles from Dublin, to whom he promised they should be well paid, if they would take a gentleman to France in his boat; and they consented. Two of them, the most trusty, had been in the smuggling trade, and knew the coasts of both countries. The next day was occupied in procuring provisions, charts, &c. &c. In the evening when Mr. Sweetman returned, the three men came to him and showed him proclamations, which had been distributed during his absence, and which offered in different sums from the government, the city, and the gaoler, nearly 2,000l. for my apprehension. They said, "It is Mr. Hamilton Rowan we are to take to France;" without hesitation he answered it was; they as instantly replied, "Never mind it. By Jesus we will land him safe!" We sailed with a fair wind, which however in the night got a head, and blew hard. As we could not keep the sea, we returned to our old moorings under Howth. The next day the wind was again fair, and, after some other occurrences, on the third day I landed at Roscoff, on the coast of Bretagne, under the fortified town of St. Paul de Leon. I remained an eventful year in France, and sailed from Havre, passing as an American, to Philadelphia. My departure from France being known, the earl of Clare gave Mrs. H. R. an assurance, that although the prosecution against me must proceed with the utmost rigour, yet he would use his influence to procure a restoration of the estates to the family, eight children, and herself. All the forms of law were gone through, except the appointment of an agent for the crown. This consoling information was renewed by lord Clare in 1799, with a passport from the British government, for me to meet my family in Denmark, and a farther promise of procuring me a pardon when there should be a peace with France. Lord Clare died between the time of the signature of the preliminaries, and that of the definitive peace of 1803, and I was left without a patron. Mr. Thomas Steele, whose schoolfellow and fellow collegian I had been, having heard these declarations, was induced by a mutual friend to adopt my cause, and he followed it up with a zeal I can never forget. When the French armies were approaching Hamburgh, where I then resided with my family, he procured for me a promise of a pardon, if I would accept of it on the condition of never setting my foot in Ireland without the permission of the Irish government, which was to be expressed in the body of the pardon, under a large penalty. I accepted of the terms with thankfulness, and embarked for England. Mr. Steele procured the instrument to be immediately drawn up and laid before the chancellor, to receive the great seal. The chancellor refused to put the seal to such an instrument; and it was above a year after, during which time it was found that the pardon must be under the great seal of Ireland, where the treason was committed, that he gave as a reason for his refusal, that it would have put it in my power, on the payment of the penal sum, to have gone to Ire land whenever I pleased. I then petitioned the Irish government, stating the circumstances of the case, and i received an unconditional pardon. But the same condition of not residing or going to Ireland, without the permission of the Irish government, was implied. In the summer 1805, I appeared in the court of King's-bench here, and pleaded my pardon.-I returned immediately after to England, according to promise. Shortly after, my father died; and I applied to lord Castlereagh to procure me permission to pass a few months on my f mily estate, to regulate my affairs. He was so good as to make the application, but before lord Hardwicke's answer arrived, a change of ministry took place; and I then most gracious pardon. Having then obtained liberty to speak, Mr. Rowan addressed the Court nearly in these words: applied for a permission to reside in Ireland, which was granted; and I have lived here ever since, most sincerely anxious to promote peace, harmony, and submission to the laws and constitution of Britain. The Proceedings which took place in the ter. July 1st, 1805. When last I had the honour of appearing before this tribunal, I told your lordships, I knew his majesty only by his wielding the force of the country; since that period, during my legal incapacity and absence beyond seas, my wife and children have not only dition to those favours, I am now indebted to been unmolested, but protected; and, in adthe royal mercy for my life. I will neither, my lords, insist upon the rectitude of my intentions, nor the extent of my gratitude, lest my conduct should be attributed to base and unworthy motives; but I hope my future life will evince the sincerity of those feelings with which I am impressed, by such unmerited proofs of his majesty's beneficence. To which address the Chief Justice [Downes] replied: In the court of King's-bench, Dublin, Mr. Hamilton Rowan was brought up by writ of Habeas Corpus; and the record of his outlawry being read, the clerk of the crown, as is usual in such cases, asked the prisoner what he had to say, why judgment of death and execution should not be awarded against Mr. Rowan; From the sentiments you him?-Mr. Rowan said, that he was instruct-have expressed, I have not a doubt but you ed by his counsel to say, that the outlawry will prove, by your future conduct, that his contained errors in fact. The attorney-gene- majesty's pardon has not been bestowed on ral confessed errors in the outlawry, which an unworthy object. was reversed. Being put to plead to the indictment, Mr. Rowan pleaded his majesty's Mr. Rowan then bowed to the Court and withdrew. XLVII. Ann. Reg. 402. 585. Proceedings against DANIEL HOLT, for publishing a Seditious Libel, intituled, "An Address to the Addressers," and for publishing another Seditious Libel, intituled, "An Address to the Tradesmen, Mechanics, Labourers, and other Inhabitants of the Town of Newark, on a Parliamentary Reform :" 33 & 34 GEORGE III. A. D. 1793. [The following account of this case is extracted from a pamphlet published in the year 1794 by the defendant under the title of "A Vindication of the conduct and principles of the Printer of the Newark Herald: an Appeal to the justice of the people of England, on the result of the two recent and extraordinary prosecutions for libels. With an Appendix. By Daniel Holt, printer of the Newark Herald."] merely in the regular routine of my business; culate it in particular, more than other new no proof being brought of my intention to cirpublications of any description whatever. One of the witnesses (Mr. S. Hunter) produced on the part of the prosecution, proved, that in a conversation* he had with me on the *This conversation is thus represented by Mr. Holt in another part of his pamphlet: Soon after the institution of the "Newark tion," a member of the committee called on Association, for the support of the constitume as a friend, and acquainted me, that the association had it in contemplation to inform IN the month of July last [1793] the assizes against all those who published writings of a were held at Nottingham, where, as a matter seditious tendency; and requested me to of course, my two prosecutions came on for take out of my shop window, several publitrial, and, as another matter of course too, cations which he apprehended they in their before a special jury. The information for wisdom might deem either seditions or imelling the "Address to the Addressers," was proper. Knowing that I had no publications first tried. In the course of this trial, it in-exposed for sale, that were then pronounced contestibly appeared, that this pamphlet was either libellous or seditious, by the laws of published by me long before it was proved to my country; and warmed at the bare suppobe a libel in any court of judicature, and soldsition that I should be thought capable of sel |