to invalidate the pofitive charge made against him by four credible witneffes upon oath ?-Was it even infinuated to you, either by himself or his bail, that no felony was committed;

or that he was not the felon; that the ftolen goods were not found upon him;-or that he was only the receiver, not knowing them to be ftolen ?-Or, in fhort, did they attempt to produce any evidence of his infanity?-To all thefe questions, I anfwer for you, without the leaft fear of contradiction, pofitively, NO. From the moment he was arrested, he never entertained any hope of acquittal; therefore thonght of nothing but of obtaining bail, that he might have time to fettle his affairs, convey his fortune into another country, and spend the remainder of his life in comfort and affluence abroad. In this prudential fcheme of future happiness, the Lord Chief Justice of England moft readily and heartily concurred. At the fight of fo much virtue in diftrefs, your natural benevolence took the alarm. Such a man as Mr. Eyre, ftruggling with adverfity, muft always be an interefting fcene to Lord Mansfield. Or was it that liberal anxiety, by which your whole life has been diftinguished, to enlarge the liberty of the fubject?-My Lord, we did not want this new inftance of the liberality of your principles. We already knew what kind of fubjects they were, for whofe liberty you were anxious. At all events, the public are much indebted to you for fixing a price, at which felony may be committed with impunity. You bound a felon, notoriously worth thirty thousand pounds, in the fum of three hundred. With your natural turn to equity, and knowing, as you are, in the doctrine of precedents, you undoubtedly meant to settle the proportion between the fortune of the felon, and the fine, by which he may compound for his felony. The ratio now upon record, and tranfmitted to pofterity under the aufpices of Lord Mansfield, is exactly one to an hundred.-My Lord, without intending it, you have laid a cruel reftraint upon the genius of your countrymen. In the warmest indulgence of their paffions, they have an eye to the expence, and if their other virtues fail us, we have a refource in their œconomy.

By taking fo trifling a fecurity from John Eyre, you invited and manifeftly exhorted him to efcape. Although, in bailable cafes, it be ufual to take four fecurities, you left him in the cuftody of three Scotchmen, whom he might have eafily fatisfied for conniving at his retreat. That he did not make use of the opportunity you induftriously gave him neither juftifies your conduct, nor can it be any way accounted for, but by his exceffive and monftrous avarice. Any

other

other man, but this bofom-friend of three Scotchmen, would gladly have facrificed a few hundred pounds, rather than fubmit to the infamy of pleading guilty in open court. It is poffible indeed that he might have flattered himself, and not unreasonably, with the hopes of a pardon. That he would have been pardoned feems more than probable, if I had not directed the public attention to the leading ftep you took in favour of him. In the prefent gentle reign, we well know what use has been made of the lenity of the court and of the mercy of the crown. The Lord Chief Justice of England accepts of the hundredth part of the property of a felon taken in the fact, as a recognizance for his appearance. Your brother Smythe brow-beats a jury, and forces them to alter their verdict, by which they had found a Scotch ferjeant guilty of murder; and though the Kennedies were convicted of a moft deliberate and atrocious murder, they ftill had a claim to the royal mercy. They were faved by the chastity of their connexions. They had a fifter,-yet it was not her beauty, but the pliancy of her virtue that recommended her to the King.The holy author of our religion was feen in the company of finners; but it was his gracious purpose to convert them from their fins. Another man, who in the ceremonies of our faith might give leffons to the great enemy of it, upon different principles keeps much the fame company. He advertises for patients, collects all the diseases of the heart, and turns a royal palace into an hofpital for incurables.A man of honour has no ticket of admiffion at St. James's. They receive him, like a virgin at the Magdalen's ;—Go thou, and do likewife.

My charge against you is now made good, I fhall however be ready to aniwer or to fubmit to fair objections. If, whenever this matter fhall be agitated, you suffer the doors of the Houfe of Lords to be fhut, I now proteft, that I shall confider you as having made no reply. From that moment, in the opinion of the world, you will ftand felf-convicted. Whether your reply be quibbling and evasive, or liberal and in point, will be matter for the judgment of your peers ;-but if, when every poffible idea of difrefpect to that noble House, (in whose honour and juftice the nation implicitly confides) is here moft folemnly difclaimed, you should endeavour to represent this charge, as a contempt of their authority, and move their Lordships to cenfure the publisher of this paper, I then afirm that you fupport injustice by violence, that you are guilty of a heinous aggravation of your offence, and that you contribute

O 2

bute your utmoft influence to promote, on the part of the highest court of judicature, a pofitive denial of justice to the nation.

JUNIUS,

To the Right Honourable Lord CAMDEN. MY LORD,

Turn with pleasure, from that barren wafte, in which no falutary plant takes root, no verdure quickens, to a character fertile, as I willingly believe, in every great and good qualincation, 1 call upon you, in the name of the English nation, to stand forth in defence of the laws of your country, and to exert, in the caufe of truth and juftice, thofe great abilities, with which you were entrusted for the benefit of mankind. To afcertain the facts, fet forth in the preceding paper, it may be neceffary to call the perfons, mentioned in the mittimus, to the bar of the House of Lords. If a motion for that purpofe fhould be rejected, we fhall know what to think of Loid Mansfield's innocence. The legal argument is fubmitted to your Lordship's judgment. After the noble stand you made againft Lord Mansfield upon the question of libel, we did expect that you would not have suffered that matter to have remained undetermined. But it was faid that Lord Chief Juftice Wilmot had been prevailed upon to vouch for an opinion of the late Judge Yates, which was fupposed to make against you; and we admit of the excufe. When fuch deteftable arts are employed to prejudge a question of right, it might have been imprudent, at that time, to have brought it to a decifion. In the prefent inftance you will have no fuch oppofition to contend with. If there be a judge, or lawyer of any note in Westminster-hall, who fhall be daring enough to affirm that, according to the true intendment of the laws of England, a felon, taken with the maner, inflagranti delicto, is bailable; or that the difcretion of an English Judge is merely arbitrary, and not governed by rules of law,-I hould be glad to be acquainted with him. Whoever he be, I will take care that he fhall not give you much trouble. Your Lordship's character affures me that you will affume that principal part, which belongs to you, in fupporting the laws of England against a wicked Judge, who makes it the occupation of his life, to misinterpret and pervert them. If you decline this honourable office, I fear it will be said that, for fome months paft, you have kept too much company with the Duke of Grafton, When the conteft turns upon the interpretation

terpretation of the laws, you cannot, without a formal furrender of all your reputation, yield the poft of honour even to Lord Chatham. Confidering the fituation and abilities of Lord Mansfield, I do not fcruple to affirm, with the most solemn appeal to God for my fincerity, that in my judgment, he is the very worst and most dangerous man in the kingdom. Thus far I have done my duty in endeavouring to bring him to punishment. But mine is an inferior, minifterial office in the temple of juftice.-I have bound the victim, and dragged him to the altar.

JUNIUS.

To the worthy LIVERYMEN of the City of LONDON.

GENTLEMEN,

TH

Guildhall, Jan. 21, 1772.

HE dignity of the office, which your favour conferred upon me, forbids my engaging in a news-paper controverfy, begun in a most unbecoming manner, and carried on with little argument, but much indecent paffion, by fuch men as Mr. Robert Holloway, Mr. W. F. Jackson, and Mr. James Stephen. The grofs perfonal abufe, with which the prefs has fpawned for many weeks, I regarded with contempt; but the ftrong defire I feel at all times to give you the fulleft information of my public conduct, and of the faithful execution of thofe powers, with which I am entrusted, will not fuffer me any longer to remain filent, or to leave their calumnies unrefuted.

I am accused of violating the laws by permitting the bailiffs to apprehend perfons, for debt, and afterwards continuing them in prifon, by the authority of my office. The charge against me perfonally is highly aggravated by thefe men from the circumftance of my having formerly stood forth in defence of the perfonal rights of the fubje& against General Warrants, and the frightful picture of the cruel confinement of many objects, now languishing in prifon for debt by my abufe of power, thence receives a very deep and black colouring, and indeed from the contraft becomes the more ftriking and tragically alarming. The prefent complaint however is not an ingenious difcovery firft broached in my Sheriffalty, nor has the queftion of the unlawfulacfs of imprisonment for debt been started as a new matter of debate and uncertainty fince I was fworn into office. In No

vember,

vember, 1770, the merits of the cafe on the pe tition of thefe men were argued before the Judges of the Court of King's Bench. They were unanimous in the opinion, that the law of the land juftified imprisonment for debt, and then remanded to prifon a debtor, who was brought before them by Habeas Corpus on purpose to try this very queftion. At the fame time they pointed out to the unhappy prifoners the only poffible relief they could receive, an application to parliament for the alteration of the laws now actually in force refpecting debtors. I have not heard that any fuch application has yet been made, or that my predeceffors in office were ferved with actions for falfe imprisonment, because they obeyed the customary writs of a fuperior Court of Juftice. The question was long agitated, and in a variety of shapes, but that litigious mode of proceeding was deferred to the year of my Sheriffalty, by the fubtle contrivance of a wicked and vindictive Adminiftration. It was referved as a mark of vengeance against me, the devoted victim of their malice. I do not intend, Gentlemen, at your fair and impartial bar to avail myfelf of the plea, that if I had taken upon me to release all debtors in this city and county, imprisoned by the ancient procefs of law, I thould have been liable to innumerable actions for escapes, and to the payment of their respective debts. I defpife the cowardly meannefs of fuch a defence. I have never fhrunk from any danger in the fupport of the Jaws of my country. But I aver that upon a clofe examination of the ftatute law of this kingdom, the deliberate judgment of one of our fuperior courts of juftice, and the private opinion of the foundeft lawyers, whom I confulted, I thought it my duty to direct the ufual warrants to iffue in my name, as a minifterial officer of law. I could not think myself juftified, from a motive of compaffion, which in every cafe of diftrefs I feel, but in this had no right to indulge, if I had ventured to commit a manifeft injury against a great number of creditors, who were purfuing the accustomed courfe of actions at law for the recovery of their property. I was not to decide on the wisdom or equity of the law. My province was to obey, when it appeared clear and certain. My brother Sheriff, than whom Freedom has not a firmer friend, agreed with me in opinion of the law, as it now ftands, and of the duty of our office. The fentiments of the whole legiflative body on this fubject have been demonftrated from time to time by the frequent acts for the Relief of Infolvent Debtors, one of which paffed in this parliament. Although an infamous majority in the House of Commons robbed the

Free