Dean, two soldiers totally unconnected with the conspirators, and indifferent witnesses. Their testimony perfectly agreed with that of Windsor. If you, therefore, be lieve Emblyn and Windsor, there is an end of the question. You have also heard the high character given him by a man, on whom, to pronounce an eulogy, were to waste words; but you are to consider whether a change has not taken place since the period he speaks of. If you do not believe the witnesses, then he will stand exempted from the consequences of the charge imputed to him; but if you do believe them, as there is no question upon the law, so here will be none upon the act. Gentlemen, you will consider of your verdict.”

The jury withdrew for about half an hour when they returned, Mr. Knapp, having called them over by their respective names, to which they answered

He then said "How say you, Gentlemen, are you agreed in your verdict? Is Marcus Edward Despard guilty of the treason where with he stands charged, or not guilty?"

The foreman replied, "guilty; but we earnestly recommend him to mercy, on account of his former good character, and the services he has rendered his country."

Lord Ellenborough bowed.

After the verdict was given, there was a silent pause for a few moments; after which, the prisoner was ordered to be taken away, and the court was adjourned about three in the morning.

The prisoner, during the whole of the trial, appeared very composed; nor did he exhibit any marks of

agitation when the verdict was returned.

The court was uncommonly crowded, but the spectators behaved, the whole day, with great decorum and attention.*

Trial of Jean Peltier, for publishing in L'Ambigu, a Periodical Work, a Libel on Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic. Tried in the Court of King's Bench, Westminster, Feb. 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a Special Jury.

The information was filed by his majesty's attorney-general, ex of ficio, and stated, "That peace existed between N. Bonaparte and our lord the king; but that M. Peltier, intending to destroy the friendship so existing, and to despoil said Napoleon of his consular dignity, did devise, print, and publish, in the French language, to the tenor following," &c. which words, translated into English, will be found in the attorney-general's speech.

The attorney-general began by observing on the degree of curiosity which had crowded the court with an extraordinary audience. He should be very sorry if that curiosity was excited by any view it was supposed he might take of the words upon which he had founded the indictment: nothing of that kind was in his intention. He should go into a dry discussion; and the principles to which he should refer were obvious and simple. After passing a number of high encomiums on the counsel for defendant, he doubted whether it was in the power of that gentleman (Mr. Mackintosh)

Mackintosh) to gratify the curiosity so visible in the audience. For the points to be argued were nothing more than the fact of publication, and the intention and tendency of the same; and if it should occur to my learned friend, he continued, from the instruction of his client, that the legal proceedings of the first court of justice in this country shall be made the vehicle of slander, or means of aggravating that offence, and giving greater weight and extension to the libel I prosecute,-I think I should ill discharge my duty, if I did not press it to the consideration of the court in inflicting that punishment that where the proceedings of a court of justice were made the vehicle of that mischief they were intended to repress, the punishment inflicted should mark, not only to France, but to all the nations of Europe, and to the world, that a British court of justice will not, with impunity, allow its proceedings to become the means of such extended defamation. Gentlemen, I say so, because from this consideration I am much led to suppose that even the expectation that has been excited by my learned friend will be disappointed. But, to be sure, the disappointment or gratification of curiosity is no part of our business; our business is neither to satisfy nor disappoint curiosity; our business is to satisfy justice, and to take care, as far as we can, that the law shall not be disappointed. And with that view I am desirous of stating to you, not only what this present prosecution is, but what this prosecution is not. This is not the prosecution of a publication, which may be laying before the world an his

1

torical narration of events which may have taken place in a neighbouring country, where those events may, or may not, be accompanied with circumstances, with just reflections on the conduct and characters of the persons who may have been the actors in the different scenes. This is not a prosecution meaning to bring to punishment the author of a narration of historical truth, which should not be complained of when written in the spirit of history, though it may give pain to others-if it be written with an honest zeal, though even with some degree of freedom approaching to licentiousness. Nor is it a prosecution for a piece of flippancy, of insolence, or impudence, on those who are the subjects of it, and on which account it might be treated with contempt. But it is the case of a prosecution bringing into notice a publication, which, as it seems to me, must be considered originally, and from the first, as a libel and defamation-that has defamation for its sole object, or at least for its best object, and its general object. The farther object of it, I think I shall satisfy you, is to excite the subjects of that magistrate whom our country recognizes, and with whom our country is at peace, to excite the subjects of that country to rebel against their chief magistrate, de facto, and farther to excite them to his assassination and to his murder.

Gentlemen, that being the general object and character, which I ascribe to the publication I prosecute, I have to state to you, more particularly, that it is charged by this prosecution as having been published with the intention of traducing and defaming Napoleon Bonaparte; who is stated, as he is known to be, the

first

first consul and chief magistrate of France; between whom and this country, at the time of the publication, there was, and continues to be, peace and amity. That it was published with the intention of bringing him into hatred and contempt, not only with the subjects of this country, but with the subjects of his own; and for the purpose of exciting the subjects of that country to rebel against him, and to remove him from the situation of power which he held; and farther, that it was published with the intention of exciting to his assassination and his death, and likewise with the intention of disturbing and interrupting that peace which exists between that country and this. With this intention it is charged to have been published; with this tendency it is characterized as having been published. The offence here charged to have been committed by the defendant is this, that his publication is a direct incitement and exhortation to the people of the French republic to rise up in arms against their first consul and chief magistrate, to arrest the power from the hands, in which, de facto, it is placed, and to take away the life of the man who presides over them.

Is it possible we can have any difficulty in supporting this proposition, that such a publication is an offence against the laws of this country?”

The case of lord George Gordon, for a libel on the queen of France, and that of John Vint, for a libel against the emperor of Russia, are exactly in point: the defendants were both found guilty.

Gentlemen, I shall now call your attention a little more particularly to the libel itself, which is the sub

ject of prosecution. And I do not think it material to go over all the circumstances stated in the libel. My learned friend, by his opening of the pleadings, has rendered that unnecessary. Attending to the nature of it, and of its object and general tendency, it is proper I should tell you that there are two of these compositions, which I charge as being direct exhortations to the assassination of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. They are contained in the first number of the Ambigu. The publication is called The Ambigu, or atrocious and amusing Varieties. It has on its frontispiece a sphynx, with a great variety of Egyptian emblematical figures, the meaning of which may not be very easy to discover, or material to enquire after. But there is a circumstance, that marks this publication, namely, the head of the sphynx, with a crown on it. It is a head, which I cannot pretend to say, never having seen Bonaparte himself, but only from the different pictures of him, one cannot fail, at the first blush, to suppose it was intended as the portrait of the first consul. Whether it is like him or not, I do not know, nor is it material. It is sufficient it was intended to be so. It is like the pictures, and the representations which the English have sold as being likenesses of Bonaparte, and therefore the head of the sphynx, in the frontispiece, points pretty clearly to the first consul. It begins, like most other publications, with a prospectus, and the close of it I shall just bring to your knowledge. He says, he will add but one word more, and that he will so manage all the materials which he may employ in the edifice he is about to erect, to

the

the glory of Bonaparte; that he will take care they shall be worthy of the temple.

Now I think, looking at the picture at the head of the prospectus, and also taking the close of the prospectus, there can be no doubt that the object of this publication was Bonaparte, and the whole object and tendency of it to vilify him in the eyes of Europe and of the world. Gentlemen, there are two of these numbers that have been made the subject of prosecution; these are the first and the third. I shall direct your attention first to that, which is to be found in the third number of the Ambigu. That, gentlemen has for its title, in the Ambigu itself, the harangue of Lepidus against Sylla parodied, and is addressed to the people of France. It begins with stating the mildness of character and probity of the people, and expresses an apprehension that they, from their habits, would rather wish to live quietly under despotism than to vindicate their just rights and liberties, and avenge themselves on their oppressor. The sentiments contained in this part of the publication, lead them directly to revenge themselves. They are sentiments that would naturally lead them to act in their defence. I shall not read the whole of this speech, but leave it to my learned friend to detail. I shall only point out particular passages, which seem to me clearly to indicate the intention of the writer. After having stated the names of a great number of old families in France, and expressed his astonishment that such persons should have made a sacrifice of their own liberty, he goes on to say-" They chuse rather to hurt their fellow-citizens than

to reclaim their most sacred rights"

he asks them, "Wherefore have we fought against Prussia, Austria, Italy, England, and the whole of Germany and Russia, if it be not to preserve our liberty, and our properties, and to the end that we might obey no one, but the laws alone? And now this tiger, who dares to call himself the founder, or the regenerator of France, enjoys the fruit of your labours as spoil taken from the enemy. This man, sole master in the midst of those who surround him, has ordained lists of proscription, and put in execution banishment without sentence, by means of which there are punishments for the French who have not yet seen the light. Proscribed families give birth out of France to children oppressed before they are born; their misery has commenced before their life. His wickedness increases every day: in spite of the security he enjoys, he enters into new passions; and, as to you, far from daring to reclaim your liberty, the fear of aggravating your slavery freezes you, and you are subjected to the deepest terror."

Having roused their passions by this address, he says on: ❝ You must act, citizens, you must march, you must oppose what is passing, if you wish that he should not seize upon all that you have. Above all, no delays, no useless wishes; reckon only upon yourselves, unless, indeed, you have the stupidity to suppose, that he will wantonly expose himself to danger by abdicating, through weariness, or shame of tyranny, that which he holds by force of crimes."

Gentlemen, we are not considering what it is he holds. He is de facto

facto the chief magistrate, or first consul of France. He has been recognized by us in that character, and in that character we made peace with him. Is it possible then that such a publication can be innocent or inoffensive?

He then goes on to state- But he is advanced to such a point, that he looks no more towards glory, but to his own security, and that he esteems nothing honourable, but what conduces to the preservation of his power. It is thus that he has organized a company of Mamelukes, as they are called, composed of Greeks, Maltese, Arabians, and Copts; a collection of foreign banditti, whose name and dress recalling the mad and disastrous Egyptian expedition, serve to cover him with shame; but who, not speaking our language, nor having any point of contact with the army, will always be the satellites of the tyrant, his mutes, his cut throats, and his hangmen. That tranquillity then, and that leisure adorned with liberty, which many good men prefer to an honourable resistance, exist not. Frenchmen, it is at this moment that you must resolve to serve or to command, to receive terror or to inspire it. Are we not reduced to extremity? What human institution can stop the tyrant?"

He states, that the laws, justice, the finances, the administration, the sovereigns of Europe; in fine, the liberty and the life of the citizens, are all in the power of one man. You see, at every moment, arbitrary arrests, judges punished for having acquitted citizens, individuals put to death after having been already acquitted by a lawful sentence, and sentences of death ex

torted from judges by threats. Remains there for men, who would deserve that name, any thing else to do, but to avenge their wrongs, or to perish with glory?"-And then, detailing a great number of other circumstances, which reflect on the character and credit of the first consul; he concludes with this indig nant piece of irony. "If you would enjoy peace and concord, approve of all the revolutions, and all the murders that have taken place in the republic; sanction the laws that have been imposed on you; receive tranquillity with slavery, and shew to posterity, by your example, that a man may make himself master of the Roman people, by causing them to spill their own blood. As for me, if I have ever sought to be any thing, it is in order to defend the liberty, and the dignity of the people, and the sacred rights that our fathers have left us. I have never sought to make a disgraceful fortune, and I have preferred the storms of a liberty, difficult of attainment, to the deadly tranquillity of slavery. If you are of my opinion, Frenchmen, present yourselves; and after having invoked the assistance of the gods, name Camille your consul, and your chief in the bold enterprize of the recovery of your li berty."

Gentlemen, having read these passages to you, let me ask you, whether I characterize this publication too strongly, when I describe it to be not only a gross libel against the chief magistrate of France, but a direct exhortation to that country to rebel against him? That is the character I ascribe to this publication.

With regard to the other two publica