To you, Gentlemen of my Jury, I present this small portion of the fruits of your integrity; which decided in my favour the Bill of Chancery filed against my life;'

And to my learned Counsel,

THE HON. THOMAS ERSKINE.

VICARY GIBBS, Esq.;.

And their Assistants,

HENRY DAMPIER, Esq.

FELIX VAUGHAN, Esq.

JOHN GURNEY, Esq.

2

[These three were challenged by the Attorney-General.]

The fears of my printer (which I cannot call unfounded, in the present degraded state of the press) do not permit me to expose (as ought to be done) the circumstances producing, preceding, accompanying, and following my strange trial of six days for High Treason; or to make any remarks on the important changes which have taken place in our criminal legal proceedings; and the consequent future (insecurity) of the lives of innocent English subjects.

[* Mr. Deodatus Bye.-ED.]

"De moy voyant n'estre faict aulcun prix digne d'œuvre, et considérant par tout ce très-noble royaulme ung chascun aujourd'huy soy instamment exercer et travailler, part à la fortification de sa patrie, et la deffendre part au repoulsement des ennemis, et les offendre-le tout en police tant belle, en ordonnance si mirificque, et à proufit, tant évident pour l'advenir. Par doncques n'estre adscript et en ranc mis des nostres en partie offensive, qui m'ont estimé trop imbecille et impotent: de l'aultre qui est deffensive n'estre employé aulcunement: ay imputé à honte plus que médiocre, estre veu spectateur ocieux de tant vaillans, diserts et chevalereux personaiges qui en veue et spectacle de toute Europe jouent ceste insigne Fable et Tragique-comedie, ne m'esvertuer de moymesme, et non y consommer ce rien mon tout, qui me restoit."-Rabelais, Prol. to 3rd book: edit. Du Chat. 1741.

"The better please, the worse despise, I aske no more.

Last line of the Epilogue to the Shepheards Calender.

EПЕA IITEPOENTA, &c.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

RIGHTS OF MAN.

F-BUT your Dialogue, and your Politics, and your bitter

Notes

H.-Cantantes, my dear Burdett, minus via lædit.

F.-Cantantes, if you please; but bawling out the Rights of Man, they say, is not singing.

H.-To the ears of man, what music sweeter than the Rights of man?

F.-Yes. Such music as the whistling of the wind before a tempest. You very well know what these gentlemen think of it. You cannot have forgotten

"Sir, Whenever I hear of the word RIGHTS, I have learned to consider it as preparatory to some desolating doctrine. It seems to me, to be productive of some wide spreading ruin, of some wasting desolation."-Canning's Speech.

And do you not remember the enthusiasm with which these sentiments were applauded by the House, and the splendid rewards which immediately followed this declaration? For no other earthly merit in the speaker that Edipus himself could have discovered.

H.-It is never to be forgotten. Pity their ignorance.
F-Punish their wickedness.

H.-We shall never, I believe, differ much in our actions,

1

[The persons of the dialogue: H. the author; F. Sir Francis Burdett, Bart.-ED.]

wishes or opinions. I too say with you-Punish the wickedness of those mercenaries who utter such atrocities: and do you, with me, pity the ignorance and folly of those regular governments who reward them: and who do not see that a claim of RIGHTS by their people, so far from treason or sedition, is the strongest avowal they can make of their subjection: and that nothing can more evidently shew the natural disposition of mankind to rational obedience, than their invariable use of this word RIGHT, and their perpetual application of it to all which they desire, and to every thing which they deem excellent.

F.-I see the wickedness more plainly than the folly; the consequence staring one in the face: for, certainly, if men can claim no RIGHTS, they cannot justly complain of any WRONGS.

H.-Most assuredly. But your last is almost an identical proposition; and you are not accustomed to make such. What do you mean by the words RIGHT and WRONG?

F.-What do I mean by those words? What

person means by them.

H.-And what is that?

F.-Nay, you know that as well as I do.

every other

H.-Yes. But not better: and therefore not at all.

F.-Must we always be seeking after the meaning of words? H.-Of important words we must, if we wish to avoid important error. The meaning of these words especially is of the greatest consequence to mankind; and seems to have been strangely neglected by those who have made the most use of them.

F.—The meaning of the word RIGHT?-Why-It is used so variously, as substantive, adjective, and adverb; and has such apparently different significations (I think they reckon between thirty and forty), that I should hardly imagine any one single explanation of the term would be applicable to all its uses. We say-A man's RIGHT.

A RIGHT Conduct.

A RIGHT reckoning.
A RIGHT line.

The RIGHT road.

To do RIGHT.

To be in the RIGHT.

To have the RIGHT on one's side.

The RIGHT hand.

RIGHT itself is an abstract idea: and, not referring to any sensible objects, the terms which are the representatives of abstract ideas are sometimes very difficult to define or explain.

H.-Oh! Then you are for returning again to your convenient abstract ideas; and so getting rid of the question.

F-No. I think it worth consideration. Let us see how Johnson handles it. He did not indeed acknowledge any RIGHTS of the people; but he was very clear concerning Ghosts and Witches, all the mysteries of divinity, and the sacred, indefeasible, inherent, hereditary RIGHTS of Monarchy. Let us see how he explains the term.

RIGHT
RIGHT-

RIGHT

No. He gives no explanation: -Except of RIGHT hand.
H.-How does he explain that?

F. He says, RIGHT hand means

"Not the Left."

H.-You must look then for LEFT hand. What says he there?

F.—He says—LEFT" sinistrous, Not right.”

H-Aye. So he tells us again that RIGHT is-" Not wrong," and WRONG is "Not right."

But seek no further for intelligence in that quarter; where nothing but fraud, and cant, and folly is to be found-mis

1 Johnson is as bold and profuse in assertion, as he is shy and sparing in explanation. He says that RIGHT means- "True." Again, that it means-" passing true judgment," and "passing a judgment according to the truth of things." Again, that it means- Happy." And again, that it means- 66 Perpendicular." And again, that it means—“ In a

great degree."

All false, absurd, and impossible. "Our lawyers give us equal satisfaction. Say they-" DROIT est, ou lun ad chose que fuit tolle d'auter per Tort; le challenge ou le claim de luy que doit aver ceo, est terme DROIT."

"RIGHT is, where one hath a thing that was taken from another wrongfully; the challenge or claim of him that ought to have it, is called RIGHT."-Termes de la Ley.

[See how Dr. Taylor sweats, in his chapter of LAW and RIGHT, in his Elements of Civil Law.

"Jus is an equivocal word, and stands for many senses according to