illustrious order of which the accused happens to be, but with the direct design of clearing your justice and impartiality before the world. 3 For I have brought upon his trial, one, whose conduct has been such, that in passing a just sentence upon him, you will have an opportunity of re-establishing the credit of such trials; of recovering whatever may be lost of the favour of the Roman people; and of satisfying foreign states and kingdoms in alliance with, or tributary to us. I demand justice of you, Fathers, upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppressor of Asia Minor and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights and privileges of the Romans, the scourge and curse of Sicily. If that sentence is passed upon him which his crimes deserve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and sacred in the eyes of the public. But if his great riches should bias you in his favour, I shall still gain one point, which is to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this case was not a criminal nor a prosecutor, but justice and adequate punishment.

66. Exordium of Erskine's Defence of the Dean of St. Asaph.

NARRATIVE Manner:

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'Surprise, Indignation, with Surprise, Argument rising into Vehemence, 5 Earnestness with Ardour; relaxes into Narration, but rises again into earnestness and ardour occasionally mingled with an expression of 'Disdain, and of 8 Determination.

Gentlemen of the Jury,

My learned friend having informed the Court, that he means to call no other witnesses to support the prosecution, you are now in possession of the whole of the evidence; 1and on this evidence the prosecutor has ventured to charge my reverend client, the Dean of Saint Asaph, with a seditious purpose to excite disloyalty and disaffection to the person of the king, and an armed rebellion against the state and constitution of his country.

Gentlemen, the only difficulty I shall feel in resisting this false and malevolent accusation, is, to repress my feelings, excited by its folly and injustice, within those bounds which leave the faculties their natural and unclouded operations; 3 for I solemnly declare to you, that if he had been indicted for a libeller of our holy religion, only for publishing that the world was made by its almighty Author, my astonishment could not

have been greater than to see this little book presented to a grand jury of English subjects, as a libel upon the government of England. Every sentence contained in it, if the interpretation of words is to be settled not according to fancy, but by the common rules of language, is to be found in the brightest pages of English literature, and in the most sacred volumes of English law; if any one sentiment from the beginning to the end of it be seditious or libellous, the Bill of Rights was a seditious libel; the Revolution was a wicked rebellion; the existing government is a traitorous conspiracy against the hereditary monarchy of England; and our gracious sovereign, whose title I am persuaded we are all of us prepared to defend with our blood, is a usurper of the crowns of these kingdoms.

5 Gentlemen, in thus declaring my opinion, I place it as my own opinion in front of my address to you, and I wish you not to mistake for the mere zeal of professional duty the energies of truth and freedom. For although in ordinary cases, the advocate and the private man ought in sound discretion to be kept asunder, yet there are occasions where such separation would be treachery and meanness. In a case where the dearest rights of society are to be supported by resisting a prosecution of which the party accused is but a mere name; where the whole community is to be wounded through the sides

of that party; and where the conviction of the individual will be the subversion or surrender of public privileges; the advocate has a more extensive charge. The duty of the patriot citizen then mingles itself with his obligation to his client, and he disgraces himself, dishonours his profession, and betrays his country, if he does not step forth in his genuine character, and vindicate the rights of his fellow citizens which are attacked through the medium of the man he is defending. Gentlemen, I do not shrink from that responsibility upon this occasion, but desire to be considered the fellow criminal of the defendant, if, by your verdict, he shall be found a criminal.

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67. An Exhortation concerning the Worship of God, and the Practice of Holiness.

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5 Affection, 6

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ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER:

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Affectionate warmth, Awe, Affectionate warmth, Reproving, Awe, Reproving, • Satisfaction and Delight, 11 10 Encouraging,

Threatening,

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Reproving, Encouraging, 13 Warning, 14 Delight, with an occasional tone of 15 Reproof, 16 Awe mingled with delight.

It is our duty to love God as our Father, to reverence him as our Lord, to honour him as our Benefactor, and to fear him as our Judge: in each character must he be worshipped. 'What man of sound piety does not love the author of his soul? or who will dare to set him at nought,

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who is the ruler of all things, and whose power shall last throughout eternity? As our Father, he produced us into the light which we enjoy : through him we live; through him we took possession of our worldly abode. As our God, he nourishes, he sustains us by means inexhaustible; we dwell in his house; we are members of his family; and although less obedient, less attentive than becomes us, and the everduring kindnesses of our Father and our Lord require; yet are we permitted to seek his indulgence by our belief and worship, by rejecting the vile pursuits and mean rewards of this world, and meditating on those which are eternal and divine. That we may accomplish this end, we must obey, we must worship, and love God; forasmuch as He is the cause of all things, and the rule of all virtue, and the fountain of all good. What indeed is greater than God in power, or higher in understanding, or clearer in brightness? And as he created us for wisdom. and justice, we are inexcusable, if, by renouncing Him who gives us life and feeling, by being subservient to earthly vanities, and by cleaving to the pursuit of temporal blessings, we fall from innocence and piety. He is not a happy man whom the deadly pleasures of vice, whom opulence, the encourager of sensual desires, whom empty ambition, whom perishable honours, allure: entangled by these, and enslaved to the body, the human soul is con

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