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Arthur O'Connor, an Irishman of good family and fortune, who was on terms of friendship with many of the leaders of Opposition, both in England and Ireland, together with three other persons of less note, were tried by a special commission for a treasonable correspondence with the French Government. The case against O'Coigley being clearly established, he was convicted and hanged. O'Connor, the principal culprit, escaped through the failure of evidence. The inferior agents of this treasonable plot, which was planned in connection with the Irish rebellion in the year 1798, were acquitted.

It appears that, about this time, the Government, which had been hitherto content with small prey, entertained the idea of prosecuting the chiefs of the Opposition. When a king's lieutenant so far forgot himself as to propose for a toast Our Sovereign-the majesty of the people,' accompanied with language and allusions which could not be mistaken, the Government had no alternative but to dismiss him from his office. Nor could a Privy Councillor have much reason to complain of being dismissed from the Council Chamber of the Crown for a similar offence. But the Court party were not satisfied with this reparation; and the Government was urged to take further proceedings against the eminent persons who had so rashly echoed the jargon, if they had not actually abetted the purposes of the revolutionary faction. The friends of monarchy and order were at least consistent in desiring that the Norfolks and the Foxes should be brought under the subjection of the law as well as the Hardys and the Thelwalls. It was distinctly proposed that some proceeding should be taken against Fox, who, after his dismissal from the Privy Council, had deliberately repeated at the Whig Club the offence which had been so signally reproved. But though the indignation of the Tories was in a great measure justified, the minister himself might

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well pause before he ventured on so bold a step as the prosecution of his great rival. The result would probably be an acquittal; and an acquittal would be a triumph such as the revolutionary party had not yet attained. Reasoning in this manner, Pitt prudently determined to refrain from the attempt to put the law in motion against the leader of Opposition.*

Had Pitt persevered in his idea of sending his rival to the Tower, or expelling him the House of Commons, he would have found that assembly pliant to his purpose; and such was the temper of the times, that it is much to be doubted whether Fox would have found half the support and sympathy out of doors which a former generation had lavished upon Wilkes. State prosecutions no longer excited public interest; and persons were acquitted or convicted according to the evidence upon charges of treason or sedition, without becoming heroes or martyrs. Erskine exerted all his eloquence and skill, as counsel for the Crown, in prosecuting to conviction a poor bookseller who had sold The Age of Reason.' The great champion of the liberty of the press is said, indeed, about this time, to have made an overture to the minister. A few days before Fox's name was

* The record of this transaction, which has recently come to light, does not place Pitt's character in a pleasing point of view. Having made up his mind, that it was not expedient to prosecute the leader of the Opposition for an attempt to stir up sedition, Pitt was not ashamed to entertain a suggestion of a very different kind. He thought of having Fox reprimanded in his place, calculating on the certainty of his repeating the offence at the next meeting of the Whig Club, 'When'-to use Mr. Pitt's own words-'he (Fox) might be

sent to the Tower for the remainder of the session, which would assert the authority of the House as much as an explanation, and save the inconvenience of a Westminster contest.'-Pitt to Dundas, 5th of May, 1798.LORD STANHOPE's Life of Pitt. This idea of laying a trap for the most frank and careless of men, was more worthy of the low cunning of a policeman than the generous rivalry of public life.

LORD STANHOPE's Life of Pitt, vol. iii.

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struck out of the list of Privy Councillors, Sheridan went down to the House of Commons; and, on the occasion of a message from the Crown asking for fresh powers to suppress domestic treason, he delivered a speech so loyal and patriotic, as to call forth the applause of the great majority of the House, and high compliments from the minister himself. The minority, which had become so small since the commencement of the war, had suffered a sensible diminution during the present session; and, except on the Assessed Tax Bill, had never numbered more than fifteen. Yet the Duke of Bedford, who was considered the head of the Whig party, thought it worth while to rise in his place, and move an address to the Crown for the dismissal of His Majesty's ministers. This solemn mockery was supported by the Marquis of Lansdowne, in whose administration Pitt had first filled the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Whigs, however, were in proportion stronger in the Lords than in the Commons; for the Duke's motion found thirteen supporters in a House of one hundred and twenty-six members.

Changes in

The change which had taken place in the public feeling is not to be attributed to popular public opinion. caprice. The war, in its origin, was regarded with disfavour by many honest friends of liberty, as a war in which this country ought not to have engaged. It was a war in which we were allied with despots who, under pretence of vindicating the rights of a brother sovereign, were intent only on objects of rapacity and ambition. At the same time, the conduct of the Government seemed designed to bring the administration of affairs at home into harmony with that which obtained at Vienna and Berlin. Because freedom had been abused at Paris, the liberties of Englishmen were assailed. The press was put under restraint; legions of spies were let loose upon the country, and no man could speak his

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mind in safety, or even do the most harmless acts without fear of question. It is no wonder that the old English feeling was aroused, and that the State trials of 1794 were regarded with an intensity of interest which had not been equalled since the trial of the Bishops. The public safety at that time depended on the trial by jury, and men were satisfied that their liberties were safe, when it appeared that the great institution which had so often sustained them was still sound and unshaken. The Government had considered it necessary for the preservation of law and order, to institute these prosecutions. Had they been successful, thousands of foolish people would have thought the country was saved; but on the day that Hardy and his fellow-prisoners suffered at the gallows, hundreds of thousands of men who were no friends to French principles, but who loved the good old cause of English liberty, would have lost their confidence in the constitution. Happily the prosecutions failed, and from their failure was derived that security which, but for these trials, would not have been ascertained. Three years had wrought a change in public feeling. The French Revolution had become a gigantic military aggression on the independence of other nations; the insolence with which England had been repulsed when she almost sued for peace showed that nothing less than the humiliation of this country would content the overbearing Republic. The menace of invasion only was wanting to rally every Englishman in support of the Government, to suspend domestic strife, and to separate from the rest of the community the faction, whether of fanatics or traitors, who thought this a convenient season to agitate questions which would cause irreconcilable divisions. The idea that the war had been promoted by Pitt and the aristocracy, for the purpose of suppressing parliamentary reform and popular measures, no longer

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had possession of the intelligent and the well-informed. It was now pretty certain, that Pitt, at least, had been reluctantly forced into the war, and that he was sincerely desirous to bring it to a close. Meanwhile the nation felt a just pride in the exploits of that noble service which had ever been her protection against foreign foes, and the cause of her ascendency among the powers of the world. If the country could no longer find a General worthy to lead her soldiers, there was no falling off in the sister service, for the Hawkes and the Rodneys were succeeded by the St. Vincents and the Duncans ; and the rising fame of one consummate captain promised to eclipse the glory of the most renowned commanders. Thus it was that the public spirit and loyalty of the people mounted high; and the danger which, for a time, threatened the monarchy no longer alarmed the existing generation.