In  the  court  where  we  are  now  met,  Crom-
well twice  sent  a  satirist  on  his  tyranny  to
be  convicted  and  punished  as  a  libeller,  and
in  this  court, — ^almost  in  sight  of  the  scaffold
streaming  with  the  blood  of  his  Sovereign, —
within  hearing  of  the  clash  of  his  bayonets
which  drove  out  Parliaments  with  scora  and
contumely, — a  jury  twice  rescued  the  intrepid


satirist*  from  his  fanes,  and  sent  out  with
defeat  and  disgrace  the  Usurper's  Attorney-
General  from  what  he  had  the  impudence  to
call  his  court !  Even  then,  Gentlemen,  when
all  law  and  lit>erty  were  trampled  under  the
feet  of  a  military  banditti, — when  those  great
crimes  were  perpetrated  in  a  high  place  and
with  a  high  hand  against  those  who  were  the
objects  of  public  veneration,  which  more
than  any  thing  else  upon  earth  overwhelm
the  m^uils  of  men. break  their  spirits,  and
confound  their  moral  sentiments,  obliterate
the  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong  in
their  understanding,  and  teach  the  multitude
to  feel  no  longer  any  reverence  for  that  jus-
tice which  they  thus  see  triumphantly  drag-
ged at  the  chariot  wheels  of  a  t}'rant,— even
then,  when  this  unhappy  country,  triumphant
indeed  abroad,  but  enslaved  at  home,  had  no
prospect  but  that  of  a  long  succession  of
tyrants  "wadinc  through  slaughter  to  a
throne  " — even  then,  I  say,  wTien  all  seemed
lost,  tne  unconquerable  spirit  of  English
liberty  survived  in  the  hearts  of  English
jurors. That  spirit  is,  I  trust  in  God,  not
extinct :  and  if  any  modern  tyrant  were,  ia
the  plenitude  of  his  insolence,  to  hope  to
overawe  an  English  jury,  I  trust  and  I  believe
that  they  would  tell  him  : — "  Our  ancestore
braved  the  bayonets  of  Cromwell ; — we  bid
defiance  to  yours. Contempsi  Catilin»  gla-
dios ;— non  pertiraescara  tuos !"

What  could  be  such  a  tyrant's  means  of
overawing  a  jur}-  ?  As  long  as  their  country
exists,  they  are  girt  round  with  impenetrable
armoiir. Till  the  destruction  of  their  country,
no  danger  can  fall  upon  them  for  the  per-
formance of  their  duty. And  I  do  trust  that
there  is  no  Englit'hman  so  uns^orthy  of  life
as  to  desire  to  outlive  England. 