TRIAL OF JOHN HORNE TOOKE, FOR High Treafon, AT THE SESSIONS HOUSE IN THE OLD BAILEY, ON Monday the Seventeenth, Tuesday the Eighteenth, Wednef- V Q L. I, TAKEN IN SHORT-HAND, By JOSEPH GURNE r, LONDON: SOLD BY MARTHA GURNEY, BOOKSELLER, HOLBORN-HILL. 1795. Lord Chief Justice EYRE; Mr. Juftice GROSE; And others, his Majefty's Juftices, &c, Counsel for the Crown. Mr. LAW, Mr. GARROW, Mr. Wood, Mr. PERCIVAL. Solicitor JOSEPH WHITE, Efq; Solici- Counsel for the Prisoner affigned The Hon. THOMAS ERSKINE, Affiftant Counsel, Mr. DAMPIER, Mr. FELIX VAUGHAN, Solicitors. Meffrs, GEORGE and ROMAINE WILLIAM CLARKSON, of 10-18-51 mt B John Horne Tooke fet to the bar. MR. TOOKE. My Lord, I defire, as neceffary for the purpose of my defence, that I may quit the fituation in which I at present ftand, and be placed near to thofe Counsel which the Court have affigned to me for my affiftance in my defence. Lord Chief Justice Eyre. That is an indulgence which I have hardly ever known given to any perfon in your fituation. Mr. Tooke. I am perfectly aware that it is unusual, but I beg your Lordship to obferve, that every thing in the course of these proceedings is likewise unusual. I beg your Lordship to confider, that the proceedings upon the last trial will fill, as I am well informed by the fhort-hand writer, fixteen hundred clofe printed octavo pages. That trial lasted nine days, eight days trial, and one day between. The nature of the indictment is such, that it has been impoffible for me to guess what would come before your Lordship; it has been equally impoffible for me to inftruct my Counfel; they cannot know the passages of my life; and, from what I have feen of the last trial, the whole paffages of my life, and those which are not paffages of my life, but are only imputed to me, will be brought before you: how is it poffible for my Counsel to know those particular facts which are known only to myself? If ever there was a cafe where indulgence was fit to be granted it is this; yet your Lordship will forgive me for faying, that I claim it as my right by law, and do not ask it as an indulgence, Undoubtedly I mean to fhew no difrespect to any one at this time, when it is my intereft to conciliate all; but I cannot help faying, that if I were a Judge, that word indulgence should never iffue from my lips. My Lord, you have no indulgence to fhew; you are bound to be juft, and to be just is to do that which is ordered; what is not ordered I fhall not afk, and your Lordship cannot grant; but if you have any doubt that it is my right by law, to be placed in that fituation which is best adapted for me to make my defence, I fhall defire to encounter the learning and ability of the Attorney and Solicitor General. I claim to be placed by the fide of my Counfel, for the purpofe pose of making my defence; and I hope your Lordship will believe that, when I fay this, I am not fo foolish as to desire to give you, or any perfon in the Court, offence, when it is fo ftrongly my interest to please you all. My Lord, it is not for a small ftake that I ftand here-it is to deprive me of my life, to beggar my family, to make my name and memory infamous to all pofterity; fo deep a stake as that may very well overfet my understanding; it is very wellknown that the best gamesters, when the ftake is too deep for them, play the worft; I hope that will not be my cafe: and I hope and trust, if your Lordship permits me to fit near my Counsel, that I shall prevent a great waste of time to the Jury, your Lordship, and myfelf; for, I am certain, I fhall make it impoffible for the prosecutor to make any case against me that shall call upon me for my defence. I come here from a very close custody of a whole fummer, and a whole autumn; I have not, any more than your Lordship, many summers or many autumns to fpare; that custody has been attended with many degrading and many humiliating circumftances, and fome inhuman circumftances, at my age, and with my infirmities; it has, in fome measure, impaired the health and the strength of my body; I come to you but half a man; your Lordship will expect a whole defence, and I do not doubt but that I fhall give you a whole defence, provided you furnish me with the necessary means of doing it. Lord Chief Justice Eyre. Mr. Tooke, you have been furnifhed with that which the law confiders as the neceffary means to enable you to make your defence; you have had Counsel affigned to you; they have had, or might have had, access to you at all feasonable hours; that is what the law allows you. You have taught the Court not to use the word indulgence ; and you have pointed out to them their duty, that they are to give no indulgence. I am apprehenfive that it would be confidered as an extraordinary indulgence if the Court were now to do that which you ask, because that is not done to other prisoners, it was not done to another prifoner, who went immediately before you, who had the fame ftake that you have, nor is it done to all other prifoners B 3 |