After explaining more fully the distinct species of treason which applied to the present case, Mr. Anstruther said that he trusted that if he could prove any design whereby the king’s life was put in jeopardy, that would be considered an overt act. He should now state the facts, upon which these principles of law were to be founded. The present conspiracy was not that of a few inconsiderable individuals; it had risen indeed from small beginnings, from meetings for pretended reforms. It had been fostered by seditious correspondence, the distribution of libellous writings, and had at last risen to a height, which, but for the vigilance of the administration, might have deluged the country, from one end to the other, with blood. The proceedings of these societies, calling, or rather miscalling, themselves Friends of the People, were well known: their first intention was apparently to obtain reform; but this not answering their purpose, they proceeded to greater lengths. He meant to detail the general plans and designs formed among the seditious, and then to state how far the prisoners were implicated in them.
The first dawning of this daring plan was in a letter from Hardy, secretary to the London Corresponding Society; to Skirving, the secretary to the Friends of the People in Scotland. He wrote that, as their petitions had been unsuccessful, they must use separate and more effectual measures; and Skirving answered, and admitted the necessity of more effectual measures, and said that he foresaw the downfall of this government. Here also was the first notice of a Convention; a measure which it was no wonder they were fond of, when they saw its effects in a neighbouring kingdom (France). They meant not to petition Parliament, but to proceed in their own plan, and to supersede the existing government of the country: and, in that case, the king’s life was put in danger.
Soon after, a Convention, a body unknown to the laws of this country, met; and in this there would have been little harm, had their views been peaceable; but their objects were avowedly unconstitutional, for their intention was to carry on their plans by force, and thus virtually to lay aside the prerogative of the king. This convention met, using all the terms and regulations adopted by the convention of another country. They meant not to apply to Parliament; for whenever that was mentioned, they proceeded to the order of the day. They resolved to oppose every act of Parliament which they deemed contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, and were determined to sit, until compelled to rise by a force superior to their own.
The Convention, indeed, was dispersed by the spirited conduct of a magistrate, (Provost Elder,) but another Convention was attempted to be called, who were to frame their own laws, and to be independent of the Legislature; or, as they said, independent of their plunderers, enemies, and oppressors, meaning the King, Lords, and Commons: their resolutions would prove that they meant to create a government of their own, to do away the authority of what they called hereditary senators, and packed majorities; all which proved the intention of putting the king’s life in danger.
But what, it might be said, was all this to the prisoner at the bar? who, surprising as it might appear, about two years before wrote letters to Mr. Secretary Dundas, offering to give information as to certain designs of the Friends of the People. Those letters were answered by that honourable gentleman with that propriety which had ever marked his public conduct. The prisoner then corresponded with the Lord Advocate, but since September 1793, this correspondence had ceased. Previous to that period, the prisoner was not a member of the Society of Friends of the People, nor of the British Convention; but his accession since to its measures, and the calling of another Convention, could be substantiated. A Committee of Correspondence, of which the prisoner was a member, was instituted by a new Convention, whose object it was to carry into effect the views of the last British Convention, and to elect delegates to a new one. Mr. Watt attended this committee, and coincided in its measures, which were expressly to supersede the Legislature. The prisoner had moved for a Committee of Union; and another was appointed, called the Committee of Ways and Means; of both which he was a member. This last was a Secret Committee, kept no minutes, was permanent, and empowered to collect money to support “the great cause.” Mr. Downie was appointed treasurer, and it was to be the medium through which all instructions and directions were to be given to all friends of the people throughout the kingdom, and was to procure information of the number of those that would spare no exertions to support the great cause. They corresponded with Hardy respecting the calling of a new Convention, which was to follow up the purposes of the old one; and, as the prisoner was present, he was in this way coupled with the British Convention.
Their next attempt was to debauch the minds of the soldiers, and to excite them to mutiny; for which purpose a paper was printed, and circulated among a regiment of Fencibles then at Dalkeith. This paper, which was evidently seditious, was brought home to the prisoner, for the types from which it was printed were found in his house, and a copy traced from him into the hands of a soldier.
The next charge to be brought against the prisoner, and the committee of which he was a member, was a distinct and deliberate plan to overturn the existing government of the country. The plan proposed was this:—A fire was to be raised near the Excise-office (Edinburgh), which would require the attendance of the soldiers in the Castle, who were to be met there by a body of the friends of the people; another party of whom were to issue from the West Bow, to confine the soldiers between two fires, and cut off their retreat; the Castle was next to be attempted; the judges (particularly the Lord Justice Clerk) were to be seized; and all the public banks were to be secured. A proclamation was then to be issued, ordering all the farmers to bring in their grain to market as usual; and enjoining all country gentlemen to keep within their houses, or three miles from them, under penalty of death. Then an address was to be sent to his majesty, commanding him to put an end to the war, change the ministers, or take the consequences. Such was the plan of the Committee of Ways and Means, as proposed by the prisoner.
Previous to this, it should have been mentioned that all the friends of the people were to be armed; for which purpose, one Fairley was despatched round the country to levy contributions, and disperse seditious pamphlets; for which he received particular instructions from the prisoner. Reports were spread through the same channel that the Goldsmiths’ Hall Association were arming, and that it was necessary for the friends of the people to arm also, for they would be butchered either by them or the French. It was proved that the prisoner gave orders to Robert Orrock to make four thousand pikes; and also to one Brown for the same purpose. These were to be used for completing the great plan; and Fairley’s mission was to inform the country of these intended proceedings. Another representative body was also formed, called “collectors of sense and money,” who were to have the distribution of the pikes, and to command the different parties.
Mr. Anstruther then recapitulated shortly the different heads, and concluded an elaborate and most clear and distinct pleading of more than two hours and a half, by requesting the jury to lay no farther stress on what he had said than it should be proved, as it was meant merely as a clue to the evidence which should be brought before them. Witnesses were then called who spoke to the facts alluded to by the learned counsel, and who proved to the fullest extent the charge made against the prisoner.
The evidence for the Crown being closed,