‘The King against Thomas Hardy, and others.
‘I am directed, by Mr Attorney-General, to inform you that it is his intention that you should be brought to the bar at the Old Bailey, on Monday morning next; and that a jury should then be sworn for your trial, but that he does not propose to give evidence against you upon this indictment.
Joseph White,
Solicitor for the Crown,
29th Nov. 1794.
‘To Thomas Holcroft,
one of the defendants in
the above indictment.’
On Monday, December 1st, Mr Bonney, Mr Kyd, Mr Joyce, and Mr Holcroft, were put to the bar; and in the language of the court, honourably acquitted. The other gentlemen bowed, and retired: Mr Holcroft attempted to speak, and the Chief Justice seemed at first willing that he should go on, though a thing not customary; but Mr Holcroft having intimated that he should detain the court nearly half an hour, he was immediately ordered to withdraw. Whether he was not wrong in expecting such a favour, and consequently in subjecting himself to a refusal, I will not here pretend to determine; but I confess it was a mistake, which men in general may safely blame, for it proceeded from motives which few persons are capable of feeling.
The chief circumstances which Mr Holcroft meant to have stated in the defence he had drawn up, were, that his prosecutors had proof, that, instead of being a traitor, a mover of war and rebellion, and a killer of kings, he was a man, whose principles and practice were the very reverse. That evidence to this effect had been given before the Privy Council; and that there was no evidence whatever that he was in any instance a disturber of the public peace. That in the Constitutional Society of which he was a member, and under pretence of which he had been indicted for high-treason, he was theoretically the adversary of all force whatever; and that practically he concurred with the members who were most desirous of promoting reform, in urging that it must be by the peaceable means of persuasion, by the conviction of the understanding, not by force of arms. The proofs which Mr Holcroft had of these particulars, were the evidence of Mr Sharp, the engraver, and Mr Symmonds. Mr Holcroft having written to Mr Sharp, desiring an account of his examination, received the following answer.