truth of which my learned friend himself will, I am sure, not bring into question; but as I wish the whole conduct of my Clients to stand fairly before you, and not to rest merely upon positive swearing destructive of opposite testimony; and as I wish the evidence I mean to bring before you, and the falsehood of that which it opposes, to be clearly understood; I will state to you how it has happened that this strange prosecution has come before you.

The town of Manchester has been long extremely divided in religious and civil opinions; and while I wish to vindicate those whom I represent in this place, I desire not to inflame differences which I hope in a short season will be forgotten; I am desirous, on the contrary, that every thing which proceeds from me may be the means of conciliating rather than exasperating dissensions which have already produced much mischief, and which perhaps, but for the lesson of to-day, might have produced much more.

Gentlemen, you all know that there have been for centuries past in this country various sects of Christians worshipping God in different forms, and holding a diversity of religious opinions; and that the law has for a long season deprived numerous classes, even of His Majesty's Protestant subjects, of privileges which it confers upon the rest of the public, setting as it were a mark upon them, and keeping them below the level of the community, by shutting them out from offices of trust and confidence in the country.Whether these laws be wise

or unwise, whether they ought to be continued or abolished, are questions for the Legislature, and not for us; but thus much I am warranted in saying, that it is the undoubted privilege of every man or class of men in England, to petition Parliament for the removal of any system or law, which either actually does aggrieve, or which is thought to be a grievance.-Impressed with the sense of this inherent privilege, this very Constitutional Society, which is supposed by my learned friend the Attorney General to have started up on the breaking out of the war with France, for the purpose of destroying the constitution-this very society owed its birth to the assertion of this indisputable birthright of Englishmen, which the authors of this prosecution most rashly thought proper to stigmatize and resist. It is well known that in 1790 the Dissenters in the different parts of the kingdom were solicitous to bring before Parliament their application to put an end for ever to all divisions upon religious subjects, and to make us all, what I look forward yet to see, one harmonious body, living like one family together. It is also well remembered with what zeal and eloquence that great question was managed in the House of Commons by Mr. Fox, and the large majority with which the repeal of the Test Acts was rejected; it seems therefore strange that the period of this rejection should be considered as an æra either of danger to the church or of religious triumph to Christians; nevertheless, a large body of gentlemen and others

at Manchester, whose motives I am far from wishing to scrutinize or condemn, considered this very wish of the Dissenters as injurious to their rights, and as dangerous to the church and state;-they published advertisements expressive of these sentiments, and the rejection of the bill in the Commons produced a society styled the Church and King Club, which met for the first time to celebrate what they called the glorious decision of the House of Commons in rejecting the prayer of their dissenting brethren.

Gentlemen, it is not for me to say, that it was unjust or impolitic in Parliament to reject the application; but surely I may without offence suggest, that it was hardly a fit subject of triumph, that a great number of fellow-subjects, amounting, I believe, to more than a million in this country, had miscarried in an object which they thought beneficial, and which they had a most unquestionable right to submit to the government under which they lived; yet for this cause alone (France and every other topic of controversy being yet unborn) the Church and King were held forth to be in danger; a society was instituted for their protection, and an uniform appointed with the church of Manchester upon the button.

Gentlemen, without calling for any censure upon this proceeding, but leaving it to every man's own reflection, is it to be wondered at or condemned, that those who thought more largely and liberally on subjects of freedom both civil and religious, but who

found themselves persecuted for sentiments and conduct the most avowedly legal and constitutional, should associate for the support of their rights and privileges as Englishmen, and assemble to consider how they might best obtain a more adequate representation of the people of Great Britain in Parliament?

Gentlemen, this society continued with these objects in view until the issuing of the proclamation against Republicans and Levellers, calling upon the magistrates to exert themselves throughout the kingdom to avert some danger with which, it seems, our rulers thought this kingdom was likely to be visited. Of this danger, or the probability of it, either generally or at Manchester in particular, my learned friend has given no evidence from any quarter but that of Mr. Dunn ;-he has not proved that there has been in any one part of the kingdom any thing which could lead Government to apprehend that meetings existed for the purposes pointed at ;-but that is out of the question;-Government had a right to think for itself, and to issue the proclamation.-The publi cans however (as it appears upon the cross-examination of the witness), probably directed by the magistrates, thought fit to shut up their houses opened by immemorial law to all the King's subjects, and to refuse admission to all the gentlemen and tradesmen of the town who did not associate under the banners of this Church and King club.-This illegal proceeding was accompanied with an advertisement contain

ing a vehement libel against all those persons, who, under the protection of the laws, thought themselves as much at liberty to consider their various privileges, as others were to maintain the establishment of the church. Upon this occasion Mr. Walker honourably stood forth, and opened his house to this Con stitutional Society at a time when they must otherwise have been in the streets by a combination of the publicans to reject them. Now, Gentlemen, I put it to you as men of honour, whether it can be justly attributed to Mr. Walker as seditious, that he opened his house to a society of gentlemen and tradesmen, whose good principles he was acquainted with, who had been wantonly opposed by this Church and King club, whose privileges they had never invaded or questioned, and against whom, in this day of trial, there is no man to be found who can come forward to impeach any thing they have done, or a syllable they have uttered. Vehement as the desire most apparently has been, to bring this gentleman and his associates, as they are called, to justice, yet not one magistrate, no man of property or figure in this town or its neighbourhood,-no person having the King's authority in the county, has appeared to prove one fact or circumstance from whence even the vaguest suspicion could arise, that any thing criminal had been intended or transacted; →no constable, who had ever been sent to guard, lest the peace might be broken, or to make inquiries for its preservation; not a paper seized throughout