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ADVERTISEMENT.

HE three following chapters (except fome small alterations and additions) have already been given to the public in A Letter to Mr. DUNNING in the year 1778: which, though published, was not written on the spur of the occafion. The fubftance of that Letter, and of all that I have farther to communicate on the fubject of Language, has been amongst the loose papers in my closet now upwards of thirty years; and would probably have remained there fome years longer, and have been finally configned with myfelf to oblivion, if I had not been made the miserable victim of Two Prepofitions and a Conjunction.

The officiating Priests indeed * were themselves of rank: and eminence fufficient to dignify and grace my fall. But

*

Attorney General Thurlow-fince Chancellor and a Peer.

Solicitor General Wedderburne-fince Chancellor and a Peer.
Earl Mansfield, Chief Juftice..

Mr. Buller-fince a Judge.

Wr. Wallace-fince Attorney General..

Mr. Mansfield-fince Solicitor General.

Mr. Bearcroft-fince Chief Juftice of Chefter..

that the Conjunction THAT, and the Prepofitions of and CONCERNING (words which have hitherto been held to have NO meaning) fhould be made the abject instruments of my civil extinction, (for fuch was the intention, and fuch has been the confequence of my profecution); appeared to me to make my exit from civil life as degrading as if I had been brained by a lady's fan. For mankind in general are not fufficiently aware that words without meaning, or of equivocal meaning, are the everlasting engines of fraud and injuftice: and that the grimgribber of WestminsterHall is a more fertile, and a much more formidable, fource of imposture than the abracadabra of magicians.

Upon a motion made by me in arreft of judgment in the court of King's-Bench in the year 1777, the Chief Justice adjourned the decision: and instead of arguments on the merits of my objection, (which however by a fidewind were falfely represented by him as merely literal flaws *) defired that Precedents might be brought by the Attorney General on a future day. None were however adduced, but by the Chief Juftice himself; who indeed

* Lord Mansfield,

"If the Defendant has a legal advantage from a Literal flaw, God forbid that he fhould not have the benefit of it."

Proceedings in K. B. The King against Horne. produced

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produced two. (Thereby depriving me of the opportunity of combating the Precedents and their application, which I should have had if they had been produced by the Attorney General *. And on the strength of these two Precedents alone, (forgetting his own description and distinction of the crime to the Jury) he decided against me t.

* Lord Mansfield

"I fancy the Attorney General was furprized with the objection."

I fay,

†The Attorney General, in his reply, faid to the Jury, "Let us a little "fee what is the nature of the obfervations he makes. In the first place, " that I left it exceedingly short: and the objection to my having left it "fhort, was fimply this; that I had stated no more to you but this, that of "imputing to the conduct of the King's troops the crime of murder. Now I stated it, as imputed to the troops, ORDERED as they were upon the "" PUBLIC SERVICE."

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Lord Mansfield to the Jury

"Read the paper. What is it? Why it is this; that our beloved Ame"rican Fellow-fubjects—in REBELLION against the ftate-not beloved fo as "to be abetted in their REBELLION." Again," What is the employment

they (the troops) are ORDERED upon? Why then what are they who gave "the ORDERS? Draw the conclufion." Again,-" The unhappy resistance " to the LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY of this kingdom by many of our Fellow"fubjects in America: the LEGISLATURE of this kingdom have avowed "that the Americans REBELLED: Troops are EMPLOYED upon this ground. "The cafe is here between a juft Government and REBELLIOUS fubjects.”. Again,-" You will read this paper; you will judge whether it is not denying the Government and Legislative authority of England.” And again, —“ If you are of opinion that they were all murdered (like the cafes of " undoubted

I fay, on the strength of these two precedents alone. For the grofs perverfion and mifapplication of the technical term de bene esse, was merely pour eblouir, to introduce the proceedings on the trial, and to divert the attention from the only point in question-the fufficiency of the charge in the Record. And I cannot believe that any man breathing (except Lord Mansfield) either in the profeffion or out of it, will think it an argument against the validity of my objection; that it was brought forward only by myself, and had not been alleged before by the learned Counsel for the Printers. This however I can truly tell his lordship; that the most learned of them all, (abfit invidia) Mr. Dunning, was not

"undoubted murders, of Glenco, and twenty other maffacres that might be named) why then you may form a different conclufion."

And again" If fome foldiers, Without authority, had got in a drunken fray, and murder had enfued, and that this paper could relate to that, it "would be quite a different thing from the charge in the information : "BECAUSE it is charged as a feditious Libel tending to difquiet the minds of "the People." See the Trial.

A man must be not only well practifed, but even backneyed in our Courts of Juftice to difcover the above defcription of my crime in the Prepofitions, OF and CONCERNING. Be that as it may: It is evident that the Attorney General and the Chief Juftice did not expect the Jury to be fo enlightened; and therefore (when I had no longer a right to open my lips) they defcribed a crime to them in that plain language which I ftill contend I had a right to expect in the Information; BECAUSE " A feditious Libel tending to dif "quiet the minds of the people,"-has been determined to be mere paper and packtbread, and no part of the Charge.

aware of the objection when I first mentioned it to him; that he would not believe the information could be fo defective in all its Counts, till I produced to him an Office Copy when to his aftonifhment he found it so, he felt no jealoufy that the objection had been miffed by himself; but declared it to be infuperable and fatal: and bad me rest affured, that whatever might be Lord Mansfield's wishes, and his courage on fuch occafions, he would not dare to overrule the objection. And when after the close of the first day, I hinted to him my fufpicions of Lord Mansfield's intentions by the "God forbid ;" and by the perverted and mifapplied "De bene esse," in order to mix the proceedings on the trial with the question of record; he smiled at it, as merely a method which his lordship took of letting the matter down gently, and breaking the abruptness of his fall.

Strange as it may appear! One of those Precedents was was merely imagined by the Chief Justice, but never really existed. And the other (through ignorance of the meaning of the Conjunction THAT) had never been truly underftood; neither by the Counsel who originally took the exception, nor perhaps by the Judges who made the decision, nor by the Reporter of it, nor by the present Chief Justice who quoted and misapplied it.

Mr.