Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850 — John Shaqi
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"It is also immaterial to this Case whether or not he had the
power to do all he intended. We need not talk of punishing
successful rebellion--it is unsuccessful rebellion that
comes under the cognisance of the law. I cannot restrain the
expression of some surprise at the course of argument that was
taken by the learned counsel who last addressed you. His course
of argument was this: when the prisoner was interrupted in
what he was doing, 'Look and see what he has done;' where he
has accomplished his purpose, 'Do not believe the witnesses.'
The party having been dispersed by the soldiers, the learned
gentleman says, 'see if they went to the post-office; see if
they went to the bridge; see if they went to other places'--he
knowing that they were stopped before they reached those
places; 'but as to marching there with arms to take the town,
that I dispose of by asking you not to believe the witnesses;
so that, as regards what was prevented, I ask you to see what
was done; and as regards what was done, I ask you to disbelieve
the witnesses, and there is an end of the charge.'"--(I. p. 75.)
This single paragraph annihilated a third of the case set up on behalf
of Frost; as did the following a second third:--
"They could not have raised these men with a view to relieve
the prisoners at the Westgate, because at the time they
collected on the mountain they had not been taken. But had
it any relation to Vincent? What is their intention? We have
been told again and again that Mr Frost must not be supposed
likely to do absurd things; that he is a man of the world and a
man of intelligence. What then, gentlemen, do you think of an
attempt to induce the Monmouthshire magistrates to relax the
prison discipline in favour of a person who has been convicted
of sedition, or seditious libel, or something of that sort, by
marching into Newport with ten thousand men armed? What do you
think of a man of the world resorting to that mode of inducing
the magistrates to relax in favour of a prisoner? Is Mr Frost
a man of intelligence? Is he a man of the world? Suppose he
had been the worst foe that Vincent ever had, suppose that he
had desired to procure additional restrictions to be put upon
him, and had wished that he should sustain the last hour of
the sentence which had been pronounced upon him, could he have
resorted to a more maliciously effective mode than by showing
that those who were connected with Vincent were persons so
little acquainted with their duty, so little obedient to the
law, so little to be depended upon for their peaceable conduct,
as that they would march at that hour of the night into a town,
alarming and frightening every body?"--(I. p. 79.)
Again:--
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