Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham MenEdwards, Eliezer
History
Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men
Edwards, Eliezer
Birmingham (England)
profoundly speaks, in your Royal Proclamation, of those 'unlawful
assemblies' which are 'contrary to law.' Truisms, an please your Royal
Highness, are much better than falsehoods."
The number of the _Weekly Recorder_ for August 14th, 1819, contains a
long address to his "Fellow-townsmen," signed by George Edmonds. It
commences by stating that "the last week has been a very important one
in the annals of Warwickshire, and indeed of England.... Five of us,
Major Cartwright, Mr. Wooler, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Maddocks, and myself, have
had true bills found against us for a conspiracy to elect a Member of
Parliament, and at the next Assizes the indictment will be tried."
The grand jury brought in the "true bill" on Monday, August 9th. The
trial did not take place at the Assizes then being held, and the
indictment was afterwards removed by _certiorari_ into the Court of
King's Bench. It came on for trial at Warwick, on August 7th, 1820,
before the Lord Chief Baron Richards. When the special jury was called,
only four answered to their names. Mr. Barber was the foreman, and on
taking the book into his hands, one of the defendants asked him whether
he had "ever expressed any opinion as to the merits or demerits of this
case." The Judge interfered, and said that "as a _special_ juryman he
was not bound to answer the question." Eight names were then added from
the common jury list, and the trial proceeded. Denman was counsel for
Edmonds, and Matthew Davenport Hill for Major Cartwright. The others
defended themselves in person. The Judge summed up unfavourably, and
after twenty minutes' deliberation the jury gave a verdict of guilty
against all the defendants. Judgment, however, was deferred.
On May 28, 1821, the Attorney-General moved the judgment of the court.
The Lord Chief Justice Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, recapitulated
the arguments as to the legality of the jury, and held that no legal
challenge could have been made until a full jury appeared; and as in
this case the challenges had been made before the full jury had
assembled, there were no grounds for a new trial. Several motions in
arrest of judgment were subsequently made, but eventually Mr. Edmonds
was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the common gaol of the
county, and he was thereupon removed to Warwick, where, within the walls
of the gaol, he spent every minute of the period for which he had been
sentenced.
Upon his restoration to liberty, he published the following
characteristic advertisement in the Birmingham newspapers:
"George Edmonds begs to inform his _friends_, his _enemies_, and the
_public_, that on leaving Warwick Jail he recommenced his profession
of a schoolmaster; that by the zeal of his patrons he has succeeded
beyond his most sanguine expectations; that he has taken for a
period of seven years those extensive premises opposite Bond Street
Chapel, and that the school re-opened on Monday last.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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