"for it is against their rights, and not against me, "that a verdict or sentence can operate, if it can

operate at all. Be then so candid as to tell the “Jury (if you choose to continue the process) whom "it is you are prosecuting, and on whom it is that "the verdict is to fall.".

Gentlemen, I certainly will comply with this request. I am prosecuting both him and his work and if I succeed in this prosecution, he shall never return to this country otherwise than in vinculis, for I will outlaw him.

"But I have other reasons than those I have "mentioned for writing you this letter; and how

ever you may choose to interpret them, they pro"ceed from a good heart. The time, Sir, is be

coming too serious to play with Court prosecu “tions, and sport with national rights. The terrible "examples that have taken place here upon men "who, less than a year ago, thought themselves as "secure as any prosecuting Judge, Jury, or Attor 66 ney General, can now do in England, ought to "have some weight with men in your situation."

Now, Gentlemen, I do not think that Mr. Paine judges very well of mankind—I do not think that it is a fair conclusion of Mr. Paine, that men such as you and myself, who are quietly living in obedience to the laws of the land which they inhabit, exercising their several functions peaceably, and I hope with a moderate share of reputation: I do not

conceive that men called upon to think, and in the habit of reflection, are the most likely men to be immediately thrown off the hinges by menaces and threats; and I doubt whether men exercising public functions, as you and I do in the face of our country, could have the courage to run away. All I can tell Mr. Paine is this-if any of his assassins are here in London, and there is some ground to suppose they may be, or the assassins of those with whom he is connected; if they are here, I tell them, that I do in my conscience think, that for a man to die of doing his duty, is just as good a thing as dying of a raging fever, or under the tortures of the stone. Let him not think, that not to be an incendiary is to be a coward.

He says "That the government of England is as ແ great, if not the greatest perfection of fraud and corruption, that ever took place since govern→ "ments began, is what you cannot be a stranger "to; unless the constant habit of seeing it has "blinded your sense." Upon my word, Gentlemen, I am stone blind. I am not sorry for it." But though you may not choose to see it, the people "are seeing it very fast, and the progress is beyond "what you may choose to believe, or that reason "can make any other man believe, that the capa"city of such a man as Mr. Guelph, or any of his profligate sons, is necessary to the government of

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Now, Gentlemen, with respect to this passage, I have this to say, it is contemptuous, scandalous, false, cruel.-Why, Gentlemen, is Mr. Paine, in addition to the political doctrines that he is teaching us in this country; is he to teach us the morality and religion of IMPLACABILITY? Is he to teach human creatures, whose moments of existence depend upon the permission of a Being, merciful, long suffering, and of great goodness, that those youthful errors. from which even royalty is not exempted, are to be treasured up in a vindictive memory, and are to receive sentence of irremissible sin at HIS hands? Are they all to be confounded in these slanderous terms, shocking for British ears to hear, and I am sure distressing to their hearts? He is a barbarian, who could use such profligate expressions uncalled for by any thing which could be the object of his letter addressed to me. If giving me pain was his object, he has that hellish gratification. Would this man destroy that great auxiliary of all human laws and constitutions" to judge of others as we would be judged "ourselves?"-This is the bill of wrongs and insults of the Christian religion. I presume it is considered as that bill of wrongs and insults, in the heart of that man who can have the barbarity to use those expressions, and address them to me in a way by which I could not but receive them.

Gentlemen, there is not perhaps in 'the world a more beneficial analogy, nor a finer rule to judge by

in public matters, than by assimilating them to what passes in domestic life. A family is a small kingdom, a kingdom is a large family. Suppose this to have happened in private life, judge of the good heart of this man, who thrusts into my hands, the grateful servant of a kind and beneficent master, and that too through the unavoidable trick of the common post, slander upon that master, and slander upon his whole offspring. Lay your hands upon your hearts, and tell me what is your verdict with respect to his heart.I see it!

Gentlemen, he has the audacity to say, "I speak to you as one man ought to speak to another." Does he speak to me of those august Personages as one man ought to speak to another? Had he spoken those words to me personally, I will not answer for it, whether I should not have forgot the duties of my office, and the dignity of my station, by being hurried into a violation of that peace, the breach of which I am compelled to punish in others. He says, " And I know also, that I speak, what other "people are beginning to think.-That you cannot "obtain a verdict (and if you do, it will signify no"thing) without packing a Jury, and we both know "that such tricks are practised, is what I have very good reason to believe."-Mentiris impudentissime.-Gentlemen, I know of no such practice; I know, indeed, that no such practice exists, nor can exist; I know the very contrary of this to be

true; and I know too that this letter, containing this dangerous falsehood, was destined for future publication; that I have no doubt, of, and therefore I dwell thus long upon it..

"I have gone into coffee-houses, and places where I was unknown, on purpose to learn the currency of opinion." Whether the sense of this nation is to be had in some pot-houses and coffeehouses in this town of his own choosing, is a matter I leave to your judgment. "And I never yet "saw any company of twelve men that condemned "the book; but I have often found a greater num"ber than twelve approving it; and this. I think is "a fair way of collecting the natural currency of "opinion. Do not then, Sir, be the instrument of "drawing twelve men into a situation that may be "injurious to them afterwards."-Injurious to them afterwards!—those words speak for themselves. He proceeds thus:

"I do not speak this from policy," (what then?) "but from" (Gentlemen, I will give you a hundred guesses)" BENEVOLENCE! But if you choose to go

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you

on with the process, I make it my request that would read this letter in Court, after which "the Judge and the Jury may do as they please. "As I do not consider myself the object of the pro"secution, neither can I be affected by the issue one

way or the other. I shall, though a foreigner in your country, subscribe as much money as any