XX. mane wishes, refer the influence this man has BOOK exerted upon his age to the standard of your feelings, and in his actions try if you can discover 1794. not the habit, but a few casual sallies of goodness." When such a man bore sway it cannot be a matter of wonder that the persecuted and oppressed should be ardently desirous to withdraw far beyond the sphere of his baleful influence; though this could not in the nature of things be effected without making great and mournful sacrifices. It is true that philosophy, though it cannot and ought not to destroy the finer feelings of human nature,-nay, though it adds to their force and fervor, affords consola-' tions in adversity, which, to gross and vulgar minds, must remain for ever unknown. "A wise man," says a celebrated writer, who was, at the time he penned these beautiful reflections, an exile from his native land, "looks upon himself as a citizen of the world; and when you ask him where his country lies, points, like Anaxagoras, with his finger to the heavens.-Let us march therefore intrepid wherever we are led by the course of human accidents. On what coast soever we are thrown by them we shall not find ourselves absolute strangers. with beings endowed with the same faculties, and subject to the same laws of nature. We shall see the same virtues and vices varied in a VOL. IX. We shall meet XX. BOOK thousand different modes. We shall feel the same revolution of the seasons, and the same sun 1794. and moon will guide the course of the year. The same azure vault, bespangled with stars, will be spread over our heads; and whilst our minds are occupied with high and philosophical contemplations, it imports us little what ground we may happen to tread upon BOLINGBROKE'S Letters on History, vol. ii. p. 246 * The language and sentiments of the bigots who pretend to candor are well described by the celebrated Wieland in his Tract on Liberty of Reasoning. "We wish not to tyrannize over consciences; you are at liberty to believe what you can: only get out from among us; lay down your offices; give up your incomes; quit your habitations; forsake your country; renounce your whole civil existence. Go and look out for a place in the sandy wilds of Africa, or in the desolated islands of the Southern Ocean, where you may philosophize and be hungry as much as you please." Although the general reception which Dr. Priestley met with in America was such as his high character so justly merited, he soon had occasion to see and feel that bigotry and malevolence were not confined to England. In a letter from Mr. Jefferson, dated January 18, 1800, that distinguished statesman and patriot thus expresses himself, "How deeply have I been chagrined at the persecutions which fanaticism and monarchy have excited against you even here. I regretted that your friend, before he had fixed a choice of position, did not visit the valleys on each side the Blue Ridge in Virginia.-You would have found there equal soil, the finest climate and most healthy on the earth, the homage of universal reverence and love, and the power of the country spread over you as a shield.”. govern XX. 1794. Scotland for The persons who in the month of May had BOOK been committed to prison, on the charge of a democratic conspiracy to overturn the ment, were kept in close confinement the whole Trials in of the summer. It also happened that two men, high-treason. Watt and Downie, on grounds totally different, were brought to trial in Scotland for high-treason early in September; and this incident might be regarded as the prologue to the fearful and bloody tragedy which it was in contemplation of the administration to perform in England; and their conviction might be supposed to have a powerful effect on the minds of the English juries. Watt was a spy employed by government, of a character infamously profligate, and he was instructed to enter himself as a member of the popular societies, in order to detect their secret machinations, and to give information against them whenever called upon. It appears from the trial that he deemed his services not suf ficiently rewarded by government, and that he went so far beyond his commission as to propose, in all appearance seriously, treasonable attempts, -such as seizing the castle of Edinburgh, the public bank, and the persons of the judges, &c. -to some of his associates, who positively refused to adopt any measures for the attainment of their purposes "which might disturb the public peace, or shed the blood of their country BOOK men." This informer, being himself informed XX. against, was apprehended and tried for this 1794. offence; and though he alleged with plausibility Pretended plot to assas king. that he had spoken and acted with no other view than to discover the secret purposes of those whose conduct he was ordered to observe, the proofs against him were such as to induce the jury to return without hesitation a verdict of guilty, and he was soon after executed;—this government spy being the only man convicted and punished for the crime he was employed to detect. The second delinquent, Downie, was a weak illiterate mechanic, who had been foolish and culpable enough to listen in stupid silence, and probably astonishment, to the wild suggestions of Watt, without any active concurrence whatever. The jury found him also guilty, although the offence could in any equitable construction amount to no more than misprision of treason; but they thought proper to recommend him to mercy, and he afterwards received a pardon from the king. While this matter still continued to agitate in sinate the some degree the public mind, another subject of alarm arose, and a dreadful rumor was on a sudden raised of a design to assassinate the king. The persons implicated in this charge were one Le Maitre, apprentice to a watchmaker in Denmark-street; William Higgins, apprentice to a chemist in Fleet-street; and a XX. 1794. man of the name of Smith, who kept a book- BOOK stall in the vicinity of Lincoln's-inn. Their accuser was one Upton, also an apprentice or journeyman to a watchmaker. The conspirators were apprehended, by a warrant from the duke of Portland, on the 27th of September, and underwent several examinations before the privycouncil. It was deposed by the informer, Upton, that an instrument was to have been constructed in the form of a walking-stick, inclosing by a secret device a brass tube, through which a poisoned dart was to have been blown, at some convenient opportunity, by the villain Le Maitre at his majesty; but when or where was not determined upon. This marvellous story, more fit for the Arabian tales than serious history, seemed for a time to be credited by the ministry, and the persons accused were committed for trial; but, after a long and severe imprisonment, the evidence against them was found so inconsistent, absurd, and incredible, that the whole affair fell into contempt, and the men were, without any trial, declared innocent of the charge, and set at liberty. treason. Under the first impression made by this ridi- Trials of Hardy, &c. culous fable, the special commission of Oyer and for highTerminer, issued for the trial of the state prisoners confined in the Tower of London on a charge of high-treason, was opened at the Sessions |