Privy Council. That, this patriot would be produced before them.
That, his position and attitude were, on the whole, sublime. That,
he had been the prisoner’s friend, but, at once in an auspicious
and an evil hour detecting his infamy, had resolved to immolate
the traitor he could no longer cherish in his bosom, on the sacred
altar of his country. That, if statues were decreed in Britain, as in
ancient Greece and Rome, to public benefactors, this shining
citizen would assuredly have had one. That, as they were not so
decreed, he probably would not have one. That, Virtue, as had
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been observed by the poets (in many passages which he well knew
the jury would have, word for word, at the tips of their tongues;
whereat the jury’s countenances displayed a guilty consciousness
that they knew nothing about the passages), was in a manner
contagious; more especially the bright virtue known as patriotism,
or love of country. That, the lofty example of this immaculate and
unimpeachable witness for the Crown to refer to whom however
unworthily was an honour, had communicated itself to the
prisoner’s servant, and had engendered in him a holy
determination to examine his master’s table-drawers and pockets,
and secrete his papers. That, he (Mr. Attorney-General) was
prepared to hear some disparagement attem