Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 16.pdf/296

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The Judicial History of Individual Liberty. As a matter of fact there was little to say, and the remaining prisoners vere speedily convicted. Under the rigid censorship of the press which was still in force a class of half-starved and fanatical Jacobin libelers pursued their vocation with the secrecy and cunning of

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His place was located by a messenger of the press, and a search disclosed some of the most frantic of Jacobin libels. The govern ment determined to make an example of Anderton, and he was brought to trial on a charge of treason (12 St. Tr. 1240). From the very brief report of the case it does not

Silt JOHN FENW1CK.

counterfeiters. Their scurrilous publications were disseminated by trusted agents in a hundred surreptitious ways. Some were sent out by the post; thousands were often scat tered broadcast at night on Fleet street; others were thrust under doorsteps or drop ped on the tables at coffee houses. To this ne farious class belonged William Anderton.

appear that any issue was made upon the scope of the charge. But there is grave doubt of the legality of his hasty and severe condemnation. Sir John Fenwick was the last person to suffer death in England by act of attainder (13 St. Tr. 538). His connection with the Assassination Plot had long been known,