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SOLD BY M. GURNEY, BOOKSELLER, HOLBORN-HILL.

1803.

[Entered at Stationers' Hall.]

G. Woodfall, Printer, Paternoster-row.

THE

TRIAL

OF

EDWARD MARCUS DESPARD, ESQUIRE.

FOR

HIGH TREASON.

On the 3d of January, 1803, a Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer, issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great-Britain and Ireland, to enquire of certain High Treasons, and Misprisions of Treason, committed within the County of Surry, and a Special Commission of Gaol Delivery, as to all Persons who were, or should be in custody for such Offences, on or before the 25th of March following.

On the 21st of January, the Special Commissions were
opened at the Session-House at Newington,
PRESENT,

The Right Hon. Lord ELLENBOROUGH, Lord Chief
Justice of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench;
The Hon. Sir ALEXANDER THOMSON, Knt, one of the
Barons of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer;

The Hon. Sir SIMON LE BLANC, Knt. one of the
Justices of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench;
And the Hon. Sir ALAN CHAMBRE, Knt. one of the
Justices of his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas.

The Sheriff delivered in the Pannel of the Grand Jury, which was called over, when the following Gentlemen were sworn,

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4

THE GRAND JURY.

The Right Hon. George William

Evelyn Leslie, commonly called Lord Leslie.

The Right Hon. Thomas Onslow, commonly called Viscount Cranley.

The Right Hon. William Russel,
commonly called Lord Wil-
liam Russell.

The Hon. Chappel Norton.
Sir Mark Parsons, Bart.
Sir John Frederick, Bart.
Sir George Glynn, Bart,
Sir Thomas Turton, Bart.
Sir Robert Burnett, Knt.

Robert Hankey, Esq.
James Trotter, Esq.
Joseph Alcock, Esq.

John Pooley Kensington, Esq.
Joseph Bradney, Esq.
Henry Thornton, Esq.
Henry Peters, Esq.
Thomas Page, Esq.
John Whitmore, Esq.
Thomas Langley, Esq.
William Borradale, Esq.
Thomas Gaitskell, Esq.
Richard Wyatt, Esq.
John Webb Weston, Esq.

LORD ELLENBOROUGH,

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

We are assembled on this occasion, under the authority of his Majesty's Commission, issued for the trial of certain persons, charged with all, or some of the offences therein specified. Those offences are high treasons, and misprisions of high treason; offences against an Act made in the thirty-sixth year of his Majesty's reign, "for the safety and preservation of his Majesty's person and government, against treasonable and seditious practices and attempts;" and against another Act made in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, "for the better prevention and punishment of attempts to seduce persons serving in his majesty's forces by sea or land, from their duty and allegiance to his Majesty, or to incite them to mutiny or disobedience;" and lastly, against another Act also made in the same thirty-seventh year, "for more effectually preventing the administering or taking of unlawful oaths."

Many of these, you will observe, are of that species of offence, which, from its peculiarly malignant effect upon the peace, happiness, and security of the

realm, and from its direct and immediate tendency to subvert and destroy the foundations of all government and legitimate authority, have at all times been justly placed in the highest class and order of crimes, which is known to the law of England. By this description, I shall of course be understood to mean the crime of high treason, committed against the person and royal authority of the sovereign. Another of the offences which is by the same Commission, immediately subjected to your cognizance, and against which the above mentioned Statute of the thirty-seventh of George III. is particularly directed, is an offence, second only in degree, and inferior only in magnitude and enormity, to the crime of high treason itself, and of which indeed it forms, in some cases, and most probably will be found to do so in the present, a very material part and member; I mean the crime of "seducing persons serving in his Majesty's forces by sea or land, from their duty and allegiance to his Majesty."

The law of this land, from the earliest period at which it is known to us, has, with an anxiety in a considerable degree proportioned, but at present, from various causes, hardly adequate, to their supreme value and importance, watched over, and protected the life and personal safety of the sovereign. It has considered, in his instance, the mischievous workings and imaginations of the mind, the malignant purposes of the heart, when directed towards his destruction, and manifested so to be by any act plainly done in prosecution of such purpose, and conducing to its execution, as equally criminal in their nature, and has rendered them equally penal in all their consequences, with the actual perpetration of the atrocious deed itself, which is the object of such imagination and purpose.

To investigate and ascertain the existence of such a purpose in the mind of the person charged therewith, and the nature and tendency of the acts done by him in the supposed prosecution of such purpose, and which acts are, in high treason, denominated "overt acts," is at all times, the weighty care and duty of a

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