* Special Jury: John Campbell, John Lightfoot, Christopher Taddy, Robert Oliphant, Cornelias Donovan, Robert Rolleston, John Lubbock, Richard Tuckwell, William Porter, Thomas Bruce, Isaac Railton, Henry Evans. Counsel for the Crown: Sir Archibald Macdonald (Attorney-General), Solicitor- General, Mr. Bearcroft, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Wood, Mr. Per- cival. Counsel for the Defendant: The Hon. Thomas Erskine, Mr. Piggot, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. F. Vaughan. Solicitors: For the Crown, Messrs. Chamberlayne and White; for Defendant, Mr. Bonney. The "Painites" had probably little hope of acquittal. In Rickman's journal (manuscript) he says: "C. Lofft told me he knew a gentleman who tried for five or six years to be on the special juries, but could not, being known to be a liberty man. He says special juries are packed to all intents and purposes." The reason for gathering such powerful counsel for defence must have been to obtain from the trial some definitive adjudication on the legal liabilities of writers and printers, and at the same time to secure, through the authority of Erskine, an affirmation of their constitutional rights. Lord Loughborough and others vainly tried to dissuade Erskine from defending Paine. For himself, Paine had given up the case some time before, and had written from Paris, November 11th, to the Attorney-General, stating that, having been called to the Convention in France, he could not stay to contest the prosecution, as he wished.