indulged in a well-grounded hope, that I would have committed my case
to the keeping of the worthy _Counsellor Scarlett_, but that they
would have tried and convicted me and my friends of high treason, for
attending the peaceable meeting at Manchester; for which, as it was,
they could not even get me convicted of a conspiracy, though they had
packed a tractable Yorkshire Whig jury. But if they could have got me
to place a brief in the hands of the worthy and able WHIG SCARLETT, I
should have been tried for high treason, and the evidence of _Hulton,
Entwistle_, and _Andrew_, would have been so beautifully managed, that
I am quite sure a packed Yorkshire Whig jury, with the Halls, the
Chaytors, the Hultons, the Chadwicks, and the Oddys, at their head,
would, under the dexterous management of the worthy hermaphrodite
politician, Mr. Scarlett, have, and upon the self-same evidence, found
me guilty either of high treason, or of sheep stealing, whichever
might have best suited the purpose of the prosecutors. Under such
circumstances, had I left my life in the hands of Mr. Scarlett,
notwithstanding I should have subpoenaed, and had in attendance, _one
hundred and fifty witnesses_, to contradict all the perjury sworn by
the aforesaid _trio_, I should not have been surprised if Mr. Scarlett,
instead of calling them, had contented himself with calling, perhaps,
Parson Hay and Mr. Nadin to my character, under the pretence that,
twenty years before, they had known me a very loyal man in the Everly or
Marlborough troop of yeomanry cavalry.

The only witnesses called for poor Colonel Despard, were three complete
Government men; Lord Nelson, Sir Alured Clark, and Sir Evan Nepean,
Bart. Gracious God! only look at this! The counsel for the prisoner well
knew that these evidence to character were not worth a straw; for they
had not known any thing of Colonel Despard for many years past, and yet
these men were called, and others of the most vital importance were not