starving manufacturers in your streets, that you do not also see the advocate of their sufferings. That you do not see his honest and manly figure, with uncovered head soliciting for their relief, searching the frozen heart of charity for every string that can be touched by compassion, and urging the force of every argument and every motive, save that which his modesty suppresses: the authority of his own generous example. Or if you see him not there, you may trace his steps to the private abode of disease, and famine, and despair; the messenger of Heaven, bearing with him food and medicine, and consolation. Are these the materials, of which anarchy and publick rapine are to be formed? Is this the man, on whom to fasten the abominable charge of goading on a frantick populace to mutiny and bloodshed? Is this the man likely to apostatize from every principle that can bind him to the state, his birth, his property, his education, his character, and his children? Let me tell you, gentlemen of the jury, if you agree with his prosecutors, in thinking that there ought to be a sacrifice of such a man, on such an occasion, and upon the credit of such evidence, you are to convict him. Never did you, never can you give a sentence, consigning any man to publick punishment with less danger to his person or to his fame: for where could the hireling be found to fling contumely or ingratitude at his head, whose private distress he had not laboured to alleviate, or whose publick condition he had not laboured to improve.

I cannot, however, avoid adverting to a circumstance that distinguishes the case of Mr. Rowan, from that of a late sacrifice in a neighbouring kingdom.*

The severer law of that country, it seems, and happy for them that it should, enables them to remove from their sight the victim of their infatuation. The more merciful spirit of our law deprives you of that consolation. His sufferings must remain for ever

*Alluding to the banishment of Muir, Palmer, &c.

before your eyes, a continual call upon your shame and your remorse. But those sufferings will do more; they will not rest satisfied with your unavailing contrition, they will challenge the great and paramount inquest of society. The man will be weighed against the charge, the witness and the sentence; and impartial justice will demand, why has an Irish jury done this deed? The moment he ceases to be regarded as a criminal, he becomes of necessity an accuser. And, let me ask you, what can your most zealous defenders be prepared to answer to such a charge? When your sentence shall have sent him forth to that stage which guilt alone can render infamous, let me tell you, he will not be like a little statue upon a mighty pedestal, diminishing by elevation. But he will stand a striking and imposing object upon a monument, which, if it does not, and it cannot, record the atrocity of his crime, must record the atrocity of his conviction. And upon this subject, credit me when I say, that I am still more anxious for you, than I can possibly be for him. I cannot but feel the peculiarity of your situation. Not the jury of his own choice, which the law of England allows, but which ours refuses; collected in that box by a person, certainly no friend to Mr. Rowan; certainly not very deeply interested in giving him a very impartial jury. Feeling this, as I am persuaded you do, you cannot be surprised, however you may be distressed at the mournful presage, with which an anxious publick is led to fear the worst from your possible determination. But I will not, for the justice and honour of our common country, suffer my mind to be born away by such melancholy anticipation. I will not relinquish the confidence, that this day will be the period of his sufferings. And however merciless he has been hitherto pursued, that your verdict will send him home to the arms of his family and the wishes of his country. But if, which Heaven forbid, it hath still been unfortunately determined, that because he has not bent to power and authority, because, he would not bow down before

the golden calf and worship it, he is to be bound and and cast into the furnace; I do trust in God, that there is a redeeming spirit in the constitution, which will be seen to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and to preserve him unhurt by the conflagration.*

*After Mr. Curran had concluded, there was another universal burst of applause through the court and hall, for some minutes, which was again silenced by the interference of Lord Clonmel.

MR. PITT'S SPEECH

ON REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY 17, 1792.

THE house having resolved itself into a committee

of the whole, to consider so much of his majesty's speech, on the opening of the session, as related to the publick revenue and expenditure, and these parts being read, Mr. Pitt, then chancellor of the exchequer arose, and delivered the following speech, which, with singular precision and luminous order reviews the finances of the country, and unfolds the hidden sources of its wealth and prosperity.

It belonged to his genius to mould the roughest materials into symmetry and proportion, and to smooth the deformities of every subject it touched. Into the dead carcase of a budget, which was always before his time loathsome and repulsive to the house, his eloquence infused so much animation and grace as to render it attractive. The present speech of this exalted statesman is one of the happiest examples of publick speaking; where the minute details of business are blended with the ornaments of imagi nation, and the fascinations of style.