confidence alfo is, that he will at all I Lord George Gordon's Anfwer. GENTLEMEN, Have the livelieft fenfe of the divine mercy, by which I enjoy the happinefs of meeting you again, in such agreeable circumftances. Nothing can efface from my mind the obligations I owe you for your fteady friendship, and the laborious fervice you fo chearfully went through for my fake, when, by my fituation in prifon, I was unable to do any thing for my own fafety and protection. I am also exceeding fenfible of the humanity and zeal of all thofe who any way co-operated with your exertions in my behalf. I have great reafon to be thankful to God for the fupport he afforded me during my long confinement, and that he did not forfake me in the moft awful moment of my life. ings. Whoever were the authors or promoters of fuch infernal plots, I rejoice exceedingly, that the Proteftant Affociations are pure from the ftain. I highly value the favourable opinion you to obligingly entertain of me; and the engaging manner in which you take fuch an intereft in my welfare, is an additional tie upon me to purfue fuch a conduct as may not forfeit the esteem of any good man. Accept, Gentlemen, of my warmeft thanks for your affectionate congratulations. The good wishes you exprefs for my family and relations, to whofe tender fympathy I am fo much indebted, you may believe gives me particular pleasure. There needs nothing more than my own experience to give me the fulleft confi-. dence in your generous good-will. I feel the weight of gratitude you lay upon me and if any thing I have done, or fuffered, can be a pledge for my future life, I hope you will never have caufe to withdraw your regard, or repent of your kindness. G. GORDON. To Lord GEORGE GORDON. While your Lordfhip lay under an accufation of the moft ferious nature, this letter would have been improper. Now that you have obtained an acquittal, I may take the liberty of addreffing you. In the moment of exultation, you will not feel deeply hurt by the cautions of an anonymous individual; and it will not, perhaps, be a very ungrateful task to retrace that conduct which a verdict of your country has, in fome measure, exculpated, which your Lordship's followers, I am told, are proud to juftify. I mean not, however, invidiously to recal your paft actions, except where they naturally lead me to fear, and difpofe me to warn the future. Whatever the neceffities of a profecution, fuch as I have undergone, may have required from the conductors of it, I perfuade myself, that no one who knows me can fufpect I had any concern in thofe execrable doings with which it has been attempted to connect me. None can regret or abhor them more than I do. Had not the court very harfhly denied me the opportunity I trufted to, and which I was informed could not be refufed me, to fay a word for my life, I fhould, before that upright and manly jury in whofe hands it was, have called the great God to witnefs, that I was as in-relations. nocent as any of themselves of those difgraceful outrages; which from my very heart I deteft, and the idea of which fhocks my principles as well as my feel Do me the juftice to believe, that I have no perfonal animofity against you as a man. On the contrary, I know the eftimable parts of your private character, and feel a fatisfaction in the effects of your acquittal on your friends and Noble I plead, my Lord, for the public! that public, which, in times like the prefent, every honeft man is bound to guard, whether its danger arife from the violence of foreign, or the ne no-lefs dangerous attacks of domestic enemies. In their effects, it fignifies little whether thefe enemies intend the mifchiefs which they cause; nay, delufion is often more fatal than defign; attempts apparently hurtful to the community, can be fupported only by the villanous and the proflagate; exertions of deluded patriotifm gain a footing under honourable names, and make profelytes among the well-meaning ignorant, and the hoDeftly zealous. The propensity to be deceived is unhappily too common among the people. Of this your Lordship's influence over a confiderable body of them is a pretty ftrong inftance. When we review your public life, it immediately ftrikes us with furprife, that you should have been chofen for the station from which all your importance is derived, to wit, the head of the Proteftant people. From your family, however Noble and illuftrious, Proteftantifm (had Proteftantifm been converfant in genealogy) would not readily have looked for a patron; and Religion, did not her devotions abstract her from a knowledge of the world, would scarcely have fled for an asylum to Lord George Gordon. Your Lordship will give me leave to recal to your memory the beginning of that career which has turned out fo confpicuous at laft. Linked with oppofition in political principles, you laid hold of the difcontents which a few zealous and rigid Proteftants expreffed against the Roman Catholic bill, as an engine of attack against the minifter in the House of Commons. This attracted the notice of thofe affociations which the fears of fome ignorant and the defigns of fome turbu lent men had formed in various parts of the kingdom; you felt the pleasures of that power and importance which this conferred; and affumed a character, for which, above all others perhaps, nature and education had unfitted you. Politi cal hypocrify is generally confidered as venial. You did not, I dare say, accufe yourself of difhonefty, while you prefided at meetings which had for their object that religion which you ridiculed in private, and that form of it which, from its precifenefs, was the moft diametrically oppofite to your natural gaiety of temper and levity of difpofition. I will do you the juftice to believe, that you deceived those good people without any ferious intention, and forefaw at that time Bothing further than the opportunity of a little vexation to a minifter. You had not then the smallest idea of the confpicuous ftation in which those meetings were to place yourself, or the giant mifchief they were to bring upon the public. In fome future ftages of your conduct, your Lordship muft forgive me if I entertain doubts of the innocence of your intentions. It required, methinks, lefs forefight than your Lordship's penetration will claim, to fufpect the probable confequence of fuch a number of men as your fummous had convocated in St George's fields going to the Houfe of Commons with their petition. — But, even allowing that it was not your original plan that fuch proceffion should take place, that it was contrary to your de fire that the petitioners actually marched to Weftminfter, I will try your Lordship by your conduct there after their arrival. You faw the fhameful outrages they had begun to commit; you faw the freedom and the dignity of parliament attacked and insulted in the most daring manner : When infolence and barbarism triumph'd, And swept away diftinction; low were laid The reverend crozier, and the holy mitre. You will tell us, it was not your mob who did this; that you had preached peace in the morning, and had no concern in the riots of the afternoon. But let me afk you, my Lord, did you be tray no marks of triumph and exultation at a scene the moft degrading to a Britifh Houfe of Commons that can be well imagined? When intreated to disperse thofe rioters, which they repeatedly declared you alone could do, did you use the power, which I will not fay you u furped, but which they certainly owned, to free the Houfe from that disgrace and infult it was fuffering? On the contrary, did you not state matters to them in fuch a manner as muft inevitably induce them to maintain the poft they had occupied? This conduct, my Lord, I will not call treason, for your jury have faid it was not; it was certainly fomething criminal against the public, whofe peace thofe rioters were wounding in the moft effential part. Crimes against the public, however, do not always ftrike us; the widenefs of the injury prevents the diftin&tnefs of it to our view; and this may fometimes be pleaded as an apology for him who commits them. But your Lordship gave us another crite rion to judge you by, which comes more home to the feelings of the individual. You marked out particular victims to that ruffian force which had befieged the parliament: "The member for Briftol is now fpeaking," &c. The atrocity of this fpeech needs not a comment; the feelings of the most uninftructed will pronounce, that if Mr Burke had fallen, it was murder. Yet you boaft, my Lord, of the purity of your intentions! Some of those who with well to your family have ftated an apology for all this. They fay, in the words of the Prince of Denmark, It was not Hamlet, 'twas his madness did it. And fober men, who cannot eafily conceive fuch excentricity as your Lord fhip's, are apt to admit the plea. But while fuch men are lamenting the mifchiefs of your diforder, your followers are extolling the wifdom and fpirit of your conduct; with thefe you poffefs the authority of reafon, while with thofe you are allowed the excufe of infanity. But the public, my Lord, muft not fuffer by either; it has a right to protect itself from the criminal machinations of the one, or the blind effects of the other. One might imagine, my Lord, that experience muft now have taught you caution. If the purity of your intentions had been fuch as you reprefent it, your concern for the unhappy confequences of your actions would have been in proportion. You could not, furely, form an idea for your defence, that did not recal to your memory the fhocking fcene, of which that defence could only ftate you as the innocent cause. You must have felt, one would naturally suppose, the keenest anguish at the remembrance of those calamities which the fatal month of June witneffed. Were you, my Lord, an unconcerned fpectator of the horrors of that night, when London was wrap ed in flames, quenched only in the blood of thofe wretches who had raised them? Did you feel nothing from the perufal of that miferable lift, whom the actions of that night had doomed to the gallows [42.417] - You must have felt, my Lord; but the feeling had left no lafting or falutary impreffion; elfe your behaviour at your trial had not exhibited a mixture of gaiety and infult. From that behaviour, what are we to augur for the future? What expectations can we form from him whofe actions have no guard in prudence, no cenfor in confcience ? Such men the law must restrain by fear, and correct by punishment. You have complained, my Lord, both by yourself and your counfel, of the cruelty of the proceedings against you; you would perfuade us of the malice and wickedness of those whom the crown has intrufted with the profecution of crimes against the ftate. Where was this complaint of rigour, when Juftice was obliged to bare her sword against thofe infatuated, men whom your caufe had (however innocently) led to deftruction? The public called for vengeance on their heads, and it was executed. Did it never look, do you imagine, to him who had let loofe this havock by his folly, or fostered it by his guilt? Inquiry was furely due to the wrongs of the community; if rank or ftation is to fhelter from fuch inquiry, there is an end of that liberty for which your advocates declaim; of that equal juftice to which it is the pride of every Britain to feel himself intitled. But the truth is, my Lord, that this is not the æra of perfecution, at least from government; the right of persecution has been confined to the people; your Lordfhip, and your partifans, can eafily recollect the most remarkable inftances of its exertion. The mildness, indeed the relaxation, of government, is what we have moft to complain of. On that were founded those difturbances which it was your Lordfhip's misfortune to fet a-foot; and from that they grew to the enormous height of tumult and devaftation, which good men ftill fhudder to recollect. But hope not, my Lord, for a fimilar opportunity of confequence to yourself, or disturbance to your country. The fears, if not the virtue, of your fellow-citizens, will call for an immediate check of fuch at tempts hereafter. Be advised then, my Lord, and tempt not again that danger from which you have just been extrica ted. Be contented with felicitating yourfelf on the efcape; or, if your admirers will ftyle it a victory, enjoy it in filence. You have already facrificed enough to the foffrages of a mob, or to resentment againft a minifter. I ftill think too well of you to believe, that your own confcience, when you have leifure to hear it impartially, will applaud your conduct : and as to that fame which ignorance or bigotry may now beftow, truft me, my Lord, it will be difgrace with posterity. Lond. Chron. Feb. 24. The The Trial of Lord GEORGE GORDON for High Treason. THE firft day of Michaelmas term, Nov. 6. 1780, Mr Erfkine, counfel for his Lordship, prayed leave of the court of king's-bench to file a petition of his Lordship, which fet forth, That the petitioner had been committed to the tower on a charge of high treason, on the 9th of June laft [42. 403.]; that three feffions of oyer and terminer had been fince held for the county of Middlefex, and no bill exhibited against him; therefore praying he might be brought to trial. The Attorney-General made no oppofition, and the court ordered the petition to be filed. The Attorney Ge. neral, Nov. 1o. prefented a bill of indictment against his Lordship to the grand jury which they returned, finding a 1. That as the Proteftant petition is presented, that it be recommended to every person who figned it, not to affemble before the two Houfes of Parliament on thofe days it is taken into confideration, and that they do not wear any mark or badge of distinction. 2. That on those days on which Lord George Gordon is tried, it be ftrongly recommended to all his Proteftant friends, that they neither wear nor carry any badge of diftinction, but that they fhew every mark of refpect to the legiflative authority of this kingdom. 3. That it appears his Lordfhip has food forth with an unfhaken confidence in defence of that very religion which the prefent family on the throne were called to these kingdoms to protect and defend. 4. That his Lordship has stood up with an unfhaken confidence in defence of that religion which was tranfmitted to us at the expence of the blood of our anceftors, and as being firmly perfuaded, that in whatever ftate or kingdom Popery was permitted to fet up her altars, religion and liberty would certainly become the facrifice. 5. That his Proteftant friends do not forget him in a fuffering moment, but will, on the day of trial, afford him the moft legal evidence, fo far as they have been witneffes of his Lordship's conduct. 63 6. That his Proteftant friends do not believe he was either the author of, or fomented, the late horrid riots, which now, to our joy, and that of all good Proteftants and loyal subjects, are happily fubfided. 7. That his Lordship's Proteftant friends fympathize with him under his prefent bonds and imprisonment. Nothing but the confcioufnefs of his own innocence, and his fuffering in fo good a caufe, can fupport him while fhut out from human fociety, and confined in a horrid prifon, where scarce any rays of comfort are per mitted to enter: and though the evidence against him may feem to sparkle with the fhadow of truth, yet they hope, through the wife difpofer of all human events, that they will disappear as the ftars do at the rifing of the fun; and that he will foon quit the horrid abode of a prifon, and fhine forth like the fun from behind a dark cloud with redoubled lu ftre. By order of the Chair, L. K. Secretary.” On Wednesday, Jan. 24. at half paft nine in the morning, Lord George was brought from the tower to the bar of the court of king's-bench, and his indictment was read to him. To which he pleaded, Not guilty. - The AttorneyGeneral moved, That the prisoner fhould be again brought to the bar of that court on Monday, Feb. 5. then to be put on his trial. Which being made a rule of court, the prisoner was remanded back to the tower under the cuftody of the Lieutenant-Governor. Lord George was attended into court by his brothers, the Duke of Gordon and Lord William, the Earl of Aboyne, Lord Haddo, Col. Woodford, Mr Dingwall, Mr Erskine his counfel, Mr Albany Wallis his folicitor, and feveral other refpectable friends. The trial came on accordingly in the morning of Monday, Feb. 5. The judges were, William Earl of Mansfield, Lord [To be begun in our next.] THE HE CROWN is of pure gold, enriched with many precious ftones, diamonds, pearls, and curious enamel. lings. It is compofed of a broad circle or fillet which goes round the head, adorned with twenty-two large precious ftones. Above the great circle there is a small one, formed with twenty points, adorned with the like number of diamonds and fapphires alternately; and the points are topped with great pearls. The upper circle is elevated or heightened with ten croffes florée, each adorned in the centre with a great diamond, betwixt four great pearls, placed in the crofs one and one; and thefe croffes florée are interchanged with ten high fleurs de lis, all alternately with the great pearls below, which top the points of the fecond fmall circle. From the upper circle proceed four arches adorned with enamelled figures, which meet and clofe at the top, furmounted with a mond of gold, enamelled blue femée, or powdered with ftars croffed and enamelled, with a large cross patée, adorned in the extremities with great pearls, and cantoned with other four in the angles. The tiar or bonnet of the crown was of pur. ple velvet; but in 1685 it got a cap of crimfon velvet, adorned with four plates of gold, and on each of them a great pearl, and the bonnet is turned up with ermine. Upon the lowest circle, immediately above the ermine, there are eight fmall holes, two and two, on the four quarters of the crown, which were for lacing or tying thereto diamonds or precious ftones. The crown is nine inches broad in diameter, twenty-feven inches about, and in height, from the under circle to the top of the crofs patée, fix inches and a half. of a hexagon form, with three buttons or knots. Betwixt the first button and the fecond is the handle, of an hexagon form, furling in the middle, and plain. Betwixt the fecond button and the third there are three fides engraven. From the third button to the capital, the three fides under the ftatues are plain; and on the other three are antic engravings. Upon the top of the ftalk is an antic capital of leaves imboffed, the abacus whereof arifes round the prolonged ftem, furrounded with three ftatues. Between every two ftatues arises a rullion in form of a dolphin. Above thefe rullions and ftatues ftands another hexagon button, with oak leaves under every corner; and above it a cryftal globe. The whole fceptre is in length thirty-four inches. The SCEPTRE. Its stem or stalk, which is filver double overgilt, is two feet long, The SWORD is in length five feet. The handle and pommel are of filver overgilt, in length fifteen inches. The pommel is round, and somewhat flat on the two fides. The traverfe or cross of the fword, which is of filver overgilt, is in length feventeen inches and a half : its form is like two dolphins, their heads joining, and their tails ending in acorns. The fhell is hanging down towards the point of the fword, formed like an efcalop flourished, or rather like a green oak leaf. On the blade of the fword are indented with gold thefe letters, JuLIUS II. P. The fcabbard is of crimfon velvet, covered with filver, gilded, and wrought in philagram work into branches of the oak-tree leaves and acorns. [For a more particular defcription of the regalia of Scotland, the manner of depofiting them in the castle of Edinburgh, March 26. 1 707, and the inftrument taken on that occafion, fee Scots Magazine for 1758, vol. 20, p. 298.] An account of the Sword and Helmet of the immortal King ROBERT BRUCE. THE Sword and Helmet are of feel; and original proprietor. But none can claim a greater hero for its ancient proprietor than this fword justly does; nor is the history of them fo much to be depended on: for tho there be no written documents to inftruct this fword and helmet's having been prefented, as above mentioned, tó Sir Robert Bruce; yet the above account has the fanction of the univerfal tradition of the family, and of the country around; many of whom go once ayear to Clackmannan caftle to fee thefe curiofities; as do alfo many other perfons; all of whom are treated with the greateft civility.- King Robert was crowned, at Scone, March 27. 1306, and he died June 7, 1329. |