Had you ever any promise of reward from Mr. Pitt ?None but what I have mentioned.

Did you state to any one that you had ?—No.

Did you state to Mr. Nailor that you had ?—No.

Did you tell Nailor that you had told Mr. Pitt your debt was £600 ?—No, I would scorn it.

You would scorn either to come or to stay on any pecuniary motive ?—I would, and I call this the severest day to my feelings that I ever saw.

The address of Curran for the prisoner was a perfect philippic, brilliant in its language, withering in its denunciation of the whole prosecution. When he came to Cockayne's evidence he spoke thus:

"And let me ask who that witness is? A man stating that he comes from another country, armed with a pardon for treasons committed in Ireland, but not in England whence he comes. What were you never on a jury before? Did you ever hear of a man forfeiting his life on the unsupported evidence of a single witness, and he an accomplice by his own confession? What! his character made the subject of testimony and support! take his own vile evidence for his character. He was the foul traitor of his own client. What do you think now of his character? He was a spy upon his friend. He was the man that yielded to the tie of three oaths of allegiance, to watch the steps of his client for the bribe of government, with a pardon for the treasons he might commit; and he had impressed on his mind the conviction that he was liable to be executed as a traitor.-Was he aware of his

crime? his pardon speaks it. Was he aware of the turpitude of his character? he came with the cure, he brought his

witness in his pocket. To what? To do away an offence which he did not venture to deny; that he had incautiously sworn that which was false in fact, though the jury did not choose to give it the name of wilful and corrupt perjury. Gracious God! Is it then on the evidence of a man of this kind, with his pardon in his pocket, and his bribe-not yet in his pocket-that you can venture to convict the prisoner? He was to be taken care of. How so? Jackson owed him a debt. 'I was to do the honorable business of a spy and informer, and to be paid for it in the common way; it was common acreable work-treason and conspiracy; I was to be paid for it by the sheet.' Do you find men doing these things in common life?—I have now stated the circumstances by which, in my opinion, the credit of Cockayne ought to be reduced to nothing in your eyes. But I do not rest here. Papers were found in the chamber of Mr. Jackson-the door was open, and by the by that carelessness was not evidence of any conscious guilt-the papers were seized; that there were some belonging to Jackson is clear, because he expressed an anxiety about some that are confessed not to have any relation to the subject of this day's trial. I asked Cockayne if he had any papers in Jackson's room the night before he was arrested-he said not. I asked him if he had told any person that he had-he said not. Gentlemen, the only witness I shall call, will be one to show you that he has in that sworn falsely. And let me here make one observation to you, the strength and good sense of which has been repeated a hundred times, and, therefore, rests on better authority than mine. Where a witness swears glibly to a number of circumstances, where it is impossible to produce contradictory proof, and is found to fail in one, it shall over

throw all the others. And see how strongly the observation applies here he swore to a conversation with Jackson as to what he said and did, well knowing that Jackson could not be a witness to disprove that, unless the good sense of the jury should save his life, and enable him to become in his turn a prosecutor for the perjury. If on a point of this kind this man shall be found to have forsworn himself, it cannot occasion any other sentiment but this, that if you have felt yourselves disposed to give anything like credit to his evidence where he has sworn to facts which he must have known, it is the key-stone of the arch in his testimony, and if you can pluck it from its place, the remainder of the pile will fall in ruins about his head."

His conclusion was in the following words :

"I have before apologized to you for trespassing upon your patience, and I have again trespassed-let me not repeat it. I shall only take the liberty of reminding you, that if you have any doubt,—in a criminal case doubt should be acquittal,

that you are trying a case which, if tried in England, would preclude the jury from the possibility of finding a verdict of condemnation, it is for you to put it into the power of mankind to say, that that which should pass harmlessly over the head of a man in Great Britain shall blast him here;— whether life is more valuable in that country than in this, or whether a verdict may more easily be obtained here in a case tending to establish pains and penalties of this severe nature."

Mr. Ponsonby followed for the prisoner in a dignified tone and elaborate argument; but all proved in vain, for while Lord Clonmel was summing up, Jackson himself fatally interrupted the Judge, and endeavored to explain some mysterious passages contained in the letters sworn to, as his, by Cockayne.

In doing so, the unfortunate man inadvertently acknowledged those letters to be in his handwriting, thus admitting the very point on which hung his chance of life. The jury, it afterwards appeared, would have acquitted him but for that. As it was, they found him guilty.

A week after his conviction, on the 30th April, 1795, Jackson was brought up for sentence, when a scene ensued, equaling in wretchedness and horror anything that is to be found in the records of public justice. The prisoner had taken poison, and came dying into court. Curran was not yet in his place when Jackson appeared; but the poor creature beckoned to his other counsel, McNally, to approach him, and making an effort to squeeze the advocate's hand, with a damp and nerveless clutch, uttered in a whisper, and with a smile of mournful triumph, the last words of Pierre, in Venice Preserved, "We have deceived the Senate." Curran shortly after entered the court; he and the prisoner's other counsel having detected what they considered to be a legal informality in the proceedings, intended to make a motion in arrest of his judgment; but it would have been irregular to do so, until the counsel for the crown, who had not yet appeared, should first pray the judgment of the court upon him. During this interval, the violence of the prisoner's indisposition momentarily increased, and the Chief-Justice, Lord Clonmel, was speaking of remanding him, when the Attorney-General came in, and called upon the court to pronounce judgment of death upon him. Accordingly, "the Rev. William Jackson was set forward," and presented a spectacle equally shocking and affecting. His body was in a state of profuse perspiration; when his hat was removed, a dense steam was seen to ascend from his head and temples; minute and irregular movements of

convulsion were passing to and fro upon his countenance; his eyes were nearly closed, and, when at intervals they opened, discovered by the glare of death upon them, that the hour of dissolution was at hand. When called on to stand up before the court, he collected the remnant of his force to hold himself erect; but the attempt was tottering and imperfect: he stood rocking from side to side, with his arms, in the attitude of firmness, crossed over his breast, and his countenance strained by a last proud effort into an expression of elaborate composure. In this condition he faced all the anger of the offended law, and the more confounding gazes of the assembled crowd. The Clerk of the Crown now ordered him to hold up his right hand. The dying man disentangled it from the other, and held it up, but it instantly dropped again. Such was his state, when, in the solemn simplicity of judicial language, he was asked, "What he had now to say, why judgment of death and execution thereon should not be awarded against him, according to law ?" Upon this Mr. Curran rose, and addressed some arguments to the court in arrest of judgment. A legal discussion of considerable length ensued. The condition of Mr. Jackson was all this while becoming worse. Mr. Curran proposed that he should be remanded, as he was in a state of body that rendered any communication between him and his counsel impracticable. Lord Clonmel thought it lenity to the prisoner to dispose of the question as speedily as possible. The windows of the court were thrown open to relieve him, and the discussion was renewed; but the fatal group of death-tokens were now collecting fast around him; he was evidently in his last agony. At length, while Mr. Ponsonby, who followed Mr. Curran, was urging further reasons for arresting the judgment, their client sank in the dock.