The Life of William Lord Russell; with Some Account of the Times in Which He Lived Volume 1-2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1820 edition. Excerpt: ... chap. xix. trials of other persons for the plot.--enquiry intothe reality of the rye-house plot. Before concluding this work, it will be proper to give some account of those who were involved with Lord Russell in the accusation of conspiring against the King, and to offer some observations on the reality of the Rye-House plot. In November, Algernon Sydney was brought to trial. He was much more hardly used than Lord Russell had been; and the trial exhibits a strange and unnatural contrast between the violence, the injustice, and the brutality of the judge; and the calmness, the pointed reasoning, and the heroic fortitude of the prisoner. He was tried by a jury, many of whom were not freeholders. Jeffries, then Chief Justice, said the point had been decided on Lord Russell's trial, although, in that case, the trial had been in the city of London, and this was at the King's Bench. Rumsey and West were the first witnesses against him; and they swore that they knew nothing of the prisoner since the conspiracy began. They had heard that he was one of the council of six; and, what is most curious, West had heard this from Rumsey, and Rumsey had heard it from West. Lord Howard followed, adding many particulars to his former tale; but as he was the only direct witness, the evidence required by law was filled up with a manuscript-book, in Sydney's hand-writing, written some years before. Quotations, proving that he approved of the conspiracies against Nero, and against Caligula, were read as proofs of his having compassed the King's death. T