The Indictment was an Information filed by the Attorney General charging the Defendant with having composed and published a seditious Libel entitled “The Restorer of Society to its natural State.” After the Cause had been opened by the Lawyers for the Crown a Witness was called who bought the Book and the Passages specified in the Indictment were read after which the Defendant read the Defence which he had prepared. It contained nearly the whole of the Book with occasional Remarks as follows.

My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury I was so astonished at the second Report of the parliamentary Committee of Secrecy that I was half inclined to turn a serious defence into a Burlesque. But upon due Consideration I determined to let what I had prepared for that Purpose remain as it was; and if the Government will persuade the People that they are Spensoneans whether they are or no why should I make Objections? It is perhaps the most effectual Way to make them such.

Whether the said Report at such a Time was designed to affect my Trial or the Trial was designed to add Consequence to the Report or both [ 6 ] were to be auxiliary to each other I do not know, but I have good Grounds to apprehend there is a serious Design against my Liberty, for I am apparently prejudged already. There is Nothing in my Book which I am ashamed of and did not intend to avow, but I have Nothing to do with the Projects or Views of others. So I hope Gentlemen, as the Proverb says, You will let every Herring hang by his own neck.

I have all my Life thought that the State of Society was capable of much Amendment and hoped by the Progress of Reason aided by the Art of Printing that such a state of Justice and Felicity would at Length take Place in the Earth as in some Measure to answer the figurative Descriptions of the Millenium, New Jerusalem, or future golden Age.

I very early in Life laid down the Plan of such a happy State of Society and which the World knows I have been publishing in one Way or other for Six and Twenty Years. And what then? Are we never to expect a better State of Things than the present? Are we not allowed to amuse ourselves with distant Views of Happiness? Must we be debarred from the Pleasures of Imagination also? If in the present State of Things only we have Hope we are of all Creatures the most miserable. I have always been concurring with what I thought the Intention of the Deity in providing for a constant though slow Improvement in every Thing. And having put my Hand to the Plough I never looked back.

Having premised this much I shall now go on with my Defence as prepared previous to my Knowledge of the parliamentary Report.

I believe never Man came before a Court for a political Publication under greater Discouragement than I [ 7 ] now do, for notwithstanding any Insinuations of the said report I stand alone unconnected with any party, and except by a thinking few am looked on as a lunatic, so that I feelingly experience the justice of Mr. Pope's Observation, viz.

Truths would you teach or save a sinking Land
All fear none aid You and Few understand.

Even the professed Friends of Liberty keep aloof and would rather if they could consistently join in the Supression than the Support of my Opinions. My narrow Circumstances also which prevent me from having the Assistance of either Attorney or Counsel plainly indicate that I am no Tool of Party and that I can have Nothing in View but the Love of Truth and the Good of Mankind.

Besides Gentlemen here is another seeming Hardship that I should be tried by Men of property concerning a Work the sole Object of which is to new[?] modify Property in such a Manner that many of You Gentlemen may consider yourselves as highly concerned and interested in the Decision. Wherefore I ought to have a Jury composed of at least one Half Labourers who are my Equals and whose Cause I have espoused to defend me against the Prejudices of such Men of Property.

I have been advised by many to let Judgement go by Default as least irritating but I could not harbour a thought so injurious to the Honour of the Court. Besides I make no Doubt of assigning such convincing Reasons for all that I have advanced in this said indicted Publication that my Intensions shall not only appear upright but laudible:—All which desireable Advantages I should lose by foolishly cowardly pleading guilty. God forbid we should ever see Times wherein the modest Defence of [ 8 ] Innocence and good Intensions, especially when connected with the Cause of the whole Human Species, should be deemed irritating in a Court of Justice. And more especially when the Defendant is reduced to the Necessity of pleading for himself.

I stand here Gentlemen in a singular Case. Not as a mere Bookseller vending the Works of others or as a Hireling supporting the Views of any Faction, but as an original Legislator for having formed the most compact System of Society on the immoveable Basis of Nature and Justice, and which no Arguments can have Power against, as You will anon be convinced of.

I think Gentlemen the Work itself displays all the Way through such undeniable Evidence of Disinterestedness and Philanthropy that I cannot do better than read the political Parts of it with some occasional Remarks which will not detain You long. And we shall begin at the Title Page.

Here Spence read out the whole text of the Restorer of Society, which was reprinted in this text together with additional comments. These comments have been added to the transcription of the first edition of the Restorer of Society to its Natural State [MIA]

Gentlemen though doubtless You are now sufficiently convinced of my upright Intensions in writing, and publishing this obnoxious Book yet as it is a [ 65 ]very serious Thing to be convicted of a Libel, and of course to go to Prison, I hope You will indulge me a little further in Defence of my philanthropic Intentions.

My Father used to make my Brothers and me read the Bible to him while working at his Business, and at the End of every Chapter encouraged us to give our Opinions on what we had just read. By these means I acquired an early Habit of reflecting on every Occurence which passed before me as well as on what I read. Advancing in Years and finding myself and Father's Family involved in continual difficulties and Embarassments, notwithstanding all our Economy and Industry, I could not help imputing all our Privations and Hardships, to the bad System of the World. I had admired that certain Degree of Justice and Equality to be seen in the Institutions of Moses, which nevertheless not coming up to my Notions of Justice, I framed a System which I liked better. A generous System that should suit all the Nations of the Earth. A System unhampered with the childish narrow-minded Divisions of Tribes and Families, and other Nurses of hereditary Pride. I was confirmed in my Proceedings by the delectable Descriptions of earthly Felicity set forth by the Prophets and Apostles, as coming on the Earth in the later Days. And I found also as I proceded that the Hopes of a future blessed State arising from pure Justice, was congenial to the Ideas of all Men. For religious People look for such a State ( 66 ) under the Notion of a Millenium, Philosophers in an Age of Reason, and Poets in a future Golden Age. Wherefore I was certain the Ground Work of such blessed Society must be quite different from any Thing I had hitherto heard of. For as I had found of the Jewish, so also I found of every other celebrated Establishment ancient or modern, that they had been but transitory, and soon shrunk away before encroaching Monopoly. I also perceived this was all owing to one and the same Cause, a Mixture of Injustice in their original Composition, which by empowering rich Men to purchase, and hold their Fellow-Creatures as Slaves and also by depriving many others even Freemen, of all Property in the Soil, such Fabrics were only deceitful, and with Respect to Liberty, were mere Castles in the Air. Thus was I more and more confirmed in the Necessity of a plan that should through impartial Justice, claim Permanence, and in every Respect be becoming such a State of the Millenium.

Thus Gentlemen You see there a Continuation of Ideas which we cannot prevent, and which leads us on from one Thing to another. Besides we often find Notions dart into our Minds, in a Manner so unexpectedly that if not allowed to be by Inspiration is very like it. Wherefore though Thoughts wicked and maliciously aiming at the detriment of Mankind, may if You will be said to be instigated by the Devil, yet surely a Plan arising from the Contemplation of Scripture and constructed on the purest Principles of ( 67 ) Justice, so as in Truth to be the Constitution of the future Golden age, ought to be imputed to a different Source.

Now Gentlemen is it my Fault that any Class of Men should be at Variance with every Picture of Human Happiness? Would it not be better to suppress the Bible than to suffer poor wretched Creatures to delude themselves at the Hazard of Imprisonment, with Hopes of Milleniums and New Jerusalems wherein there is to be no more Sorrow, nor Crying; of a New Heaven and a New Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness.—When Men shall beat their Swords into plough-shares, and their Spears into Pruning-hooks; when Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation, neither shall they learn War any more.—When they shall seat every Man under his Vine, and under his Fig-tree and none shall make them afraid. When Governors and People shall live in Peace and Amity.— When the Wolf shall lie down with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid; and the Calf and the young Lion, and the Fatling together, and a little Child (in Politics) shall lead them.—When the Earth shall yeald her Increase, and God, even our God, shall bless us. Yea, when there shall be showers of Blessings.—When the People shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth Children for Trouble. For they are the Seed of the blessed Jehovah, and their Offspring with them? I say again, would it not be better to suppress the Bible, than suffer us thus to be deluded by Golden Dreams only to our Hurt?

But Gentlemen, the Suppression of the Bible ( 68 ) alone will not be sufficient to reduce us again to a State of stupid Contentment, under bad Systems. For every History and Novel, present hardly any Thing else to our Imaginations, but deplorable Pictures of Crimes and Woe, flowing from the bad System of Society. Who then can wonder at People of good Hearts, endeavouring to find out a Remedy?

This bad System makes the Good bad, and the Bad worse. Perhaps even Judas would have been neither Thief nor Traitor, if there had been no Land to purchase, nor other Means to fix his Property. But that being the Case, he knew how to dispose of his Acquisitions, let them be ever so much. His mere daily Bread was by no Means satisfactory. He was a Treasurer and had it in his Power to fitch from the Public Stock, and did not neglect the Opportunity. This made him zealous to increase the Supplies for well he knew, that the More was put in the Public Purse, he could take the more out. Therefore he made a great Clamour about the Waste of Ointment. It might have been sold, said he, for Three hundred Pence and given to the Poor. Not that he cared for the Poor but because he was a Thief, and had the Bag, and bare what was therein. So we find that what with his Filchings while he was Treasurer, and with selling his Master at last into the Bargain, he was enabled to purchase an Estate justly entitled the Field of Blood!

Now Gentlemen, can I blamed for attempting ( 69 ) to put an End to such Work? It is purposely for the Sake of putting an End to such Judasism, and the Temptations that led thereto that I wrote my Book, and all my Books these Six and Twenty Years. For well I know we can have no Millenium nor Reign of Justice, while every Villain can thus consolidate and fix his ill-gotten Wealth. If therefore we do not wish such Characters to become our Legislators, our Magistrates, our Land-lords, and in short our Masters; we must shut the Door against them, in the Manner I have shown in this same Book.

Gentlemen, it is said, that the state of the D&md is doubly miserable by being within Sight of the Blessedness of Heaven, as instanced in Dives. Just so the Wretchedness of our Condition increases, in Proportion to the progress of Common-Sense, which shows so much Happiness to be within our Reach. What then shall be done with this dangerous Incendiary Common Sense? How shall we banish him from the World, that both the Oppressors and the Oppressedamay live in Peace? But I need not ask such Questions, if we consider for what I am brought here. For this is nothing but the Trial of Common Sense.

However little some People may think of Plans of Government, every Tradesman, Mariner, and Military Commander knows that a Plan is the very life and Soul of Business, and that the simpler the Plan is, if it embraces the whole Concerns intended so much more pleasantly and efectually Things go ( 70 ) on. But how Nations are to be conducted without Plans I leave to the Advocates of Confusion to explain.

Gentlemen this is a foolish Trial and every Body says so. Principles never lost anything by Trial, they rather gain by it. This Book is a Book of Principles and therefore cannot be affected, whatever becomes of me. It is like a two-edged Sword, dangerous to play with, for it will cut both Ways. It is like trying Trignometry or Multiplication Table: For as they cannot be overthrown, so neither can my Politics, nor my Intensions proved more criminal than the Inventures of those, or of any other Art or Science.

When I began to study I found every Thing erected on certain unalterable Principles. I found every Art and Science a perfect Whole. Nothing was in Anarchy but Language and Politics: but both of these I have reduced to Order: the One by a New Alphabet, and the other by a New Constitution. Yet strange! That for restoring Order and Justice I should here stand in Jeopardy of a Prison. If such Designs be deserving of such Reward, I am ready to go. If the World is not worthy of such Characters, then let us be buried alive.

Locke's Essay on Government and many other eminent Works as well as the Bible have contributed to strengthen my Confindence in this my Millenial form of Government, and therefore such Books ought in Justice to stand or fall with mine. “Whether ( 71 ) we consider natural Reason”, (says Locke) which tells us that Men being once born have a right to their Preservation and consequently to Meat and Drink, and such other Things as Nature affords for their Subsistence, or Revelation, which gives us an Account of those Grants God made of the World to Adam and to Noah and his Sons, it is very clear that God as King David says Psalm 115, 16, has given the Earth to the Children of Men; given it to Mankind in COMMON. This Gentlemen is the Rights of Man! and upon this Rock of Nature have I built my Common-wealth, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

I am serious Gentlemen, and always was upon this Business, And moreover I solemnly avow, that what I have written and published has been done with as good a Conscience and as much Philanthropy as ever possessed the Heart of any Prophet, Apostle, or Philosopher that ever existed. And indeed I could neither have lived nor died in Peace, having such important Truths in my Bosom unpublished. My Works will sufficiently justify themselves. Then what ought I to be considered in this Business, but the unfeed Advocate of the disinherited Seed of Adam? For this Trial is in Fact not my Trial but the Trial of the Rights of the whole Species that are alive now, or ever shall live on the Face of the Earth, to the End of Time.—The Trial of the Rights of the Widow, and the Fatherless, the infant and the hoary head, the Blind and the Lame, the Dumb and all those who have no Helpers. ( 72 ) Therefore Gentlemen, there never was since the Creation of the World, a Trial of such Magnitude.

I would have written to the same Effect in any other Age, or Nation. I have no such narrow Views as an eye to one Country only. My Politics are for the World at large. And had I been learned, I would perhaps have wrote in Latin, which is an universal Language. But knowing but one Language, I am obliged like the Prophets and Great Men of Antiquity to write in my Mother-Tongue.

I formed my Plan Gentlemen out of Charity to the Rich, as well as the Poor. If we believe the best of the Rich, the Rich are in the more pitiable Case of the two; and far deeper in Crimes, and much more in danger of eternal Damnation. I could cite thousands of Passages to that purpose from the Scriptures, and other Works. They are depicted in almost every Book and Drama as exceedingly unhappy in every Respect, as if in all Things a Curse hung over them: Nay in their very Courtships and Marriages, by the arbitrary Interference of their hard-hearted ambitious Parents and Guardians. And where can there be greater Injustice, than in their Treating all the Children, but one in a Family, as illegitimate? Neither will any say that such Customs are at all favourable to Virtue. Therefore since the present System of Things, renders both Extremes unhappy and effects even the middling Classes with Ambition and Avarice, as well as it afflicts them with the Fears of falling into the ever yawning Gulf ( 73 ) of Poverty, I bring my friendly Constitution as a Days-man to lay his benevolent Hands upon them all saying Peace be unto You be happy.

Be not Gentlemen Arbiters of Oppression, remember the Fate of Joseph's House. He neglected the opportunity which God gave him of being the Friend of Human Nature, and of paying the Debt of Gratitude, which he owed to the good-hearted Egyptians, for all the Benefits they had so liberally bestowed on hum and his Kindred. Yes, if God sent him to save Life, he certainly did not send him to return Evil for Good through Partiality to the Insatiable Views of Tyranny, and to reduce a whole People to the most abject Bondage. However this he did. But Providence punished his and his Father's House, though he vainly thought he had exalted them for ever. The very Pit that he had dug for the poor Egyptians his own Posterity fell into; and another King arose who knew not Joseph. The whole Family of Jacob was trodden by Means of that very Power which this heaven-born Minister had given to the Crown. Therefore let no Man think of aggrandizing his Family at the Expence of the Public Welfare. Let them think of the Israelitish Brickmakers, and learn to promote the Happiness of their Fellow-Creatures, if they really wish well to their own Posterity.

Gentlemen, the Consequence of a Verdict against me this Day, will be that no Man must any more propose aught for the Public Good. No not even a new Tax! It is really a curious Trial Gentlemen. What is this Plan of mine but a Law unpassed. Every Bill brought into Parliament is only a ( 74 ) Theory till assented to by the Legislature. But perhaps it may be said, that such as I, a Labourer, have no Right to think of, or propose New Laws. Then let it be so. Let us know the full Extent of our Debasement. We know that all Persons are now accounted of, only according to the Property they are connected with: And so are Servants and Dogs. We know likewise that Property is the Nation, as Burke says. Which is saying that Property is the Public, and that the Public is Property: And all things are ordered accordingly. For the Laws are made by Property, and for Property. Men then are out of the the Question except as Appendages of this same Property. For if even a Legislator lose his Property, he immediately loses his Power of Legislating and descends to the insignificant Class that I am of, while all his former Consequence is transferred to his Successor along with the said Property.

What shall we say then? Shall it be unlawful for Parishes to have Property? Or shall it be unlawful to say that they ought?—But Parishes have Property: And may they not have more? Perhaps some may already have as much as I wish them to have, that is, the whole of their Territory, And if so what will be the Consequence?

This proposed Law of mine Gentlemen, is no more a Libel on former Laws and Customs, than other proposed Laws, for their Preambles always begin with several Whereases to show that there is something amiss, and requires Amendment. Then follows, For Remedy whereof be it enacted, so and so, and so forth. Now I might have put my Plan into the Form of an Act of Parliament ( 75 ) if that would have been more safe. Besides, surely a New Law may be offered for Discussion, though it should like mine, bar an injurious Aspect to some particular Class of Men? Every New Law effects Somebody, yet who ever thought of inditing the proposer of a Libel, especially if it manifests and upright Intention. Now my Book is nothing but a New Bill which I propose, and which as said before might be drawn up in the Form of an Act of Parliament, showing in the Preamble such and such Evils, to exist, and then, For Remedy whereof, express what I would have done.

Dr. Priestly is so much to the Purpose on the Liberty of the Press, that I cannot help quoting a Few Lines.

Highly as we thing of the Wisdom of our Ancestors, we justly think ourselves of the present Age wiser and if we be not blinded by the Prejudice of Education, must see that we can in many Respects improve upon the Institutions that have been transmitted to us.

In short it seems to have been the Intension of Divine Providence, that Mankind should be as far as possible self-taught; that we should attain to every Thing excellent and useful as the Result of our own Experience and Observation; that our Judgements should be formed by the Appearances which are presented to them, and our Hearts instructed by their own Feelings. But by the unnatural System of rigid unalterable Establishments, we put it out of our Power to instruct ourselves, or to derive any Advantage from the Lights we acquire from Experience and Observation, and thereby as ( 76 ) far as in our Power, we counteract the kind Intentions of the Deity in the Constitution of the World and in providing for a State of constant though slow Improvement in every Thing.

Were any more Laws restraining the Liberty of the Press in Force, it is impossible to say how far they might be construed to extend. Those already in being are more than are requisite, and inconsistent with the Interest of Truth. Were they to extend further every Author would lie at the Mercy of the Minister of State, who might condemn indisciminately upon some Pretence or other, every Work that gave them Umbrage. Under such Circumstances might fall some of the greatest and noblest Productions of the Human Mind, if such Works could be produced in such Circumstances. For if Men of Genius knew they could not publish the Discoveries they made, they would not give free Scope to their Faculties, in making and pursuing those Discoveries. It is the Thought of Publication and the Prospect of Fame, which is generally the great Incentive to Men of Genius, to exert their Faculties in attempting the untrodden Paths of Speculation. In these unhappy Circumstances, Writers would entertain a Dread of every New Subject. No Man could safly indulge himself in any Thing bold enterprising and out of the vulgar Road; and in all Publications we should see a Timidity incompatible with the Spirit of Discourse. If any towering genius should arise in those unfavourable Circumstances, a Newton in the Natural World; or a Locke, a Hutchinson, a Clark, or a Harley in the moral, the only effectual Method to prevent their diffusing a Spirit of Enterprise or ( 77 ) Innovation, which is natural to such great Souls, could be no other than that which Tarquin so significantly expressed by taking off the Heads of all those Poppies which overlooked the Rest. Such Men could not but be dangerous and give Umbrage in a Country where it was the Maxim of the Government that every Thing of Importance should for ever remain unalterably fixed.

My Opinions Gentlemen on this Subject have not been taken up lightly or lately. I first of all formed them into a Lecture which I read in the Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne in the Year 1775, which I immediately printed, and have been continually publishing them in one Shape or other every since, and I do not perceive yet, notwithstanding the Parliamentary Report, any harm they have done to Mankind to Merit this Usage. I have likewise been in the constant Habit of discussing them with all Degrees of People, from members of Parliament and Dignitaries of the Church, down to the Labouring Classes, and however Interest might make us appear of different Opinions, yet no Man ever imputed to me any evil Intention. Indeed he must be wilfully blind that does not perceive my Plan to be the most favourable to every Virtue, and the best preventative against every Species of Vice, and of Course would be productive of the greatest portion of Happiness. All the Objections ever made to it, after due Investigation are that it is impracticable; but that I have nothing to do with. It is enough for an Individual that he propose the Public Good, and if the Public will not practice it afterwords he is guiltless. But I think Gentlemen instead of ( 78 ) prosecuting People for proposing Plans of Human Happiness, those rather should be prosecuted, that keep such Things back, after being persuaded of their Utility. But that is a Crime never was imputable to me.

I shall now read a Passage or two from Harrington's Works as being to my Purpose. The first is from his Examination by Lord Lauderdale; &c. when confined in the Tower.

Harrington. My Lord in the Preamble, You charged me with being eminent in Principles contrary to the King's Government, and the Laws of this Nation. Some my Lord have aggravated this saying, that, I being a Private Man, have been so mad as to meddle with Politics; what had a private Man to do with Government? My Lord there is not any Public Person, nor any Magistrate that has written in the Politics worth a Button. All that have been excellent in this Way, have been Private Men my Lord as myself. There is Plato, there is Aristotle, there is Livy, there is Machiavel. My Lord I can sum up Aristotle's Politics in very few Words; he says there is a barbarous Monarchy (such a one where the People have no Voices in making the Laws): he says there is the heroic Monarchy [such a one where the People have their Votes in making the Laws]; and then he says there is the Democracy; and affirms that a Man cannot be said to have Liberty but in a Democracy only.

My Lord Lauderdale who thus far had been very attentive, at this showed some Impatience. Harrington. I say Aristotle says so; I have not said so much. And under what Prince was it? Was it not under Alexander the greatest Prince then in the World? ( 79 ) I beseech You my Lord, did Alexander hang up Aristotle, did he molest him? Livy for a Commonwealth is one of the fullest Authors: did not he write under Augustus Caesar? Did Caesar hang up Livy, did he molest him? Machiavel what a Commonwealth's Man was he? but he wrote under the Medici when they were Princes in Florence, did they hang up Machiavel, or did they molest him? I have done no otherwise that as the greatest Politicians the King will do no otherwise than as the greatest Princes the King will do no otherwise than as the greatest Princes. But my Lord these Authors had not that to say for themselves, that I have, I did not write under a Prince, I wrote under a Usurper, Oliver. He having Started up into the Throne his Officers [as pretending to be for a Common-wealth] kept a murmuring at which he told them, that he knew not what they meant, nor themselves; but let any of them show him what they meant by a Common-wealth, (or that there was any such Thing) they should see that he sought not himself but to make good the Cause. Upon this some sober Men came to me, and told me, if any Man in England could show what a Common-wealth was it was myself. Upon this Persuasion I wrote, and after I had written, Oliver never answered his Officers as he had done before therefore I wrote not against the King's Government. And for the Law, if the Law could have punished me Oliver had done it; therefore my Writing was not obnoxious to the Law. After Oliver the Parliament said that they were a Common-wealth, I said they were not and proved it; insomuch that the Parliament accounted me a Cavalier, and one that had no other Design in my Writing, than to bring in the ( 80 ) King, and now the King first of any Man makes me a Round Head.

Lord Lauderdale. These Things are out of Doors; if ye be no Plotter, the King does not reflect upon your Writings.

The next Passage Gentlemen for Harrington's Works is as follows.

One that has written Considerations upon Oceana, speaks the Prologue in this Manner; “I beseech You Gentlemen are we not the Writers of Politics somewhat a ridiculous sort of People? Is it not a fine Piece of Folly for Private Men sitting in their Cabinets to rack their Brains about Models of Government? Certainly our Labours make a very pleasant Recreation, for those great Personages who sitting at the Helm of Affairs, have by their large Experience, not only acquired the Art of Ruling, but have attained also to the Comprehension of the Nature and Foundation of Government.” In which egregious Compliment the Considerer, has lost his considering Cap.

It was in the Time of Alexander the greatest Prince and Commander of his Age, that Aristotle, with scarce inferior Applause and equal Fame, being a Private Man, wrote that excellent piece of Prudence in his Cabinet, which is called his Politics going upon far other Principles than those of Alexander's Government which it has long outlived. The like did Titus Livius in the Time of Augustus, Sir Thomas More, in the Time of Henry the Eighth, and Machiavel, when Italy was under Princes that afforded him not the Air. These Works nevertheless, are all of the most esteemed and applauded in this Kind nor ( 81 ) have I found any Man whose like Endeavours have been persecuted since Plato by Dionysius. I study not without great Examples, nor out of my Calling, either Arms, or this Art being the proper Trade of a Gentleman. A Man may be entrusted with a ship and a good Pilot too, yet not understand how to make Sea-charts. To say that a Man may not write of Government, except he be a Magistrate, is as absurd as to say that a Man may not meake a Sea-chart unless he be a Pilot. It is known that Cristopher Columbus made a Chart in his Cabinet, that found out the Indies. The Magistrate that was good at his Steerage never took it ill of him that brought him a Chart, and if Flatterers being the worst sort of Crows did not pick out the eyes of the living, the Ship of Government at this Day throughout Christendom had not struck so often as she has done. To treat of Affairs says Machiavel which as to the Conduct of them appertain to others may be thought a great Boldness but if I commit Errors in Writing, these may be known without Danger, whereas if they commit Errors in acting such come not otherwise to be known than in the Ruin of the Common-wealth.

I shall now conclude, with the Opinion of Lord Loughborough on the Liberty of the Press.

Every Man [says he] may publish at his Discretion his Opinions concerning Forms and Systems of Government. If they be wise and enlightening the World will gain by them, if they be weak and absurd they will be laughed at and forgotten, and if they be bona fide, they cannot be criminal however erroneous.

This Gentlemen is my Defence.

When the Defendant had concluded, Lord Kenyon observed, that if any Man could entertain a Doubt in this Case all the Arguments he could use, would not make it more clear. The Jury immediately found the Defendant guilty. The Attorney General then moved that he should be ( 82 ) ordered into Custody till brough up for Judgement, and he was committed to Newgate.

On the 13th of June, he was brought to Westminster Hall for judgement, when he made a second Defence as follows, the four Judges being present.

My Lords,
If I did not conceive your Lordships who preside in this Court to be by your Situations, the most independent Men in the Nation, I should be discouraged from making any further Attempt at a Defence. For what I have already said has been so misconstrued, misrepresented, and disguised both by the Attorney General, and the News Writers that except from your Lordships, I despair of any Chance to Candour or Fair-dealing.

I am held up to the Public as a Fool or a Mad-man, representing Private Property both real and personal as an intolerable Grievance, and which in every Parish throughout the Kingdom I would have to belong to the Inhabitants of the Parish. Whereas I am for giving only the Land to the Parishes. And again that I likened myself to Moses, the Prophets, Apostles, &c. than which nothing can be more foolish and libellous, if such a Person as I can be libelled. For your Lordships know that I only said That I wrote what I did with as good a Conscience, and as much Philanthropy as any Prophet, Apostle, or Philosopher that ever existed, and which I make no Doubt that your Lordships believe to be true.

I know the Public Opinion differs greatly concerning how they would have me treated. The greater Part think it would be best to treat me and my Opinions with Contempt, as has been hitherto done with so much Success, and this Manner is particularly practised by the most professed Champions of Liberty. And it is only the inconsiderate and hot-headed that thirst after Vengeance and violent modes of Dealing.

I think your Lordships must find yourselves in no ( 83 ) small Dilemma in this Affair. For by your Decision You have the timorous People of Property to satisfy, and at the same Time the Honour of yourselves and the Nation, and even of the Age to take care of. For You know my Lords there is such a Thing as History, and consequently Posterity that take Cognisance of such Matters as these, which violent People pay no regard to. So my Lords, though I do not love Imprisonment nor indeed ought, especially in the poor friendless State I am in, yet I reckon myself entirely out of the Question.

My Lords if I am punished, that no more Theories of Government may be written, I believe it will be without Cause, for there does not seem to be Room for another. The only Vacuum that remained, I have filled up. But as original and radical Legislators, have arisen so very seldom to disturb the World, and as observed before, there does not seem any more Room, let not pusillanimous Fears be a Spur to any Decision that will not be readily justified by impartial Posterity.

Perhaps my Lords I have entertained too high an Opinion of Human Nature, for I do not find Mankind very grateful Clients. I have very small Encouragement indeed to rush into a Prison on various Accounts. For in the first Place the People without, treat me either with Neglect, or with the Contempt due to a Lunatic, for it is only the Government that wishes me to appear as of Consequence, and the People within treat me as bad, or worse than the most notorious Felon among them. And what with redeeming and ransoming my Toes from being pulled off with a string while in Bed, and paying heavy and manifold Fees, there is no getting through the various Impositions. Indeed before a poor Man is sent to Prison, he or somebody for him, ought to have a Few Nights Licence on the Highway, to furnish him with Money for the multifarious Occasions he ( 84 ) will have. Honesty can not be expected to do it, especially in these Times.

[Here he made an Apology for Mr. Kirby, as these Things were unknown to him because it was dangerous to complain, for Nobody could conceive what dreadful Work went on among such Ruffians but those who have had the Misfortune to be locked up with them.]

Thus my Lords, one Robber calls loudly for another, and this being too much the Case through the whole System of Society no Wonder Mankind are so much depraved.

Now my Lords it is only the Hope I entertain of a good System working a Reformation in the Manners of the Human Race that reconciles me to my thankless Task, even though it has brought me before this Tribunal.

Wherefore I hope your Lordships will deign to look upon me rather as a Fellow-labourer than a Culprit. For while You are employed in only striking off the Heads of this monstrous Hydra of Corruption, as fast as they Sprout I strike at the Body with the View of wholly destroying it. So to whatever your Lordships shall doom me to, in so laudable a Cause I shall cheerfully submit.

[The Judges after hearing this second Defence consulted together, and remanded him back to Prison till that Day sennight, when we was again brought up and sentenced to suffer One Year's Confinement in the Gaol of Salop, and to pay a Fine of Twenty Pounds.]

FINIS

N.B. This curious Book is not printed for Sale, but only for a Present of Respect to the worthy People, who contributed to the Relief of Mr. Spence.

Note further. A copy of the Indictment would have been included, but for the Expence, which may yet be done when Circumstances will permit.