ancery, orders of court
surreptitiously and illegally obtained, and every other invention was
made use of to bar and prevent a fair and honest trial by a jury. The
usurper himself, and his agents, at the same time that they formed
divers conspiracies against his life, in vain endeavoured to detach
Mr. M-- from the orphan's cause, by innumerable artifices, insinuating,
cajoling, and misrepresenting, with surprising dexterity and
perseverance.

"His protector, far from being satisfied with their reasons, was not
only deaf to their remonstrances, but, believing him in danger from
their repeated efforts, had him privately conveyed into the country;
where an unhappy accident, which he hath ever since sincerely regretted,
furnished his adversary with a colourable pretext to cut him off in the
beginning of his career.

"A man happening to lose his life by the accidental discharge of a piece
that chanced to be in a young gentleman's hands, the account of this
misfortune no sooner reached the ears of his uncle, than he expressed
the most immoderate joy at having found so good a handle for destroying
him, under colour of law. He immediately constituted himself prosecutor,
set his emissaries at work to secure a coroner's inquest suited to his
cruel purposes; set out for the place in person, to take care that the
prisoner should not escape; insulted him in jail, in the most inhuman
manner; employed a whole army of attorneys and agents, to spirit up and
carry on a most virulent prosecution; practised all the unfair methods
that could be invented, in order that the unhappy gentleman should be
transported to Newgate, from the healthy prison to which he was at first
committed; endeavoured to inveigle him into destructive confessions;
and, not to mention other more infamous arts employed in the affair of
evidence, attempted to surprise him upon his trial in the absence of
his witnesses and counsel, contrary to a previous agreement with the
prosecutor's own attorney. Nay, he even appeared in person upon the
bench at the trial, in order to intimidate the evidence, and browbeat
the unfortunate prisoner at the bar, and expended above a thousand
pounds in that prosecution. In spite of all his wicked efforts, however,
which were defeated by the spirit and indefatigable industry of Mr.
M--, the young gentleman was honourably acquitted, to the evident
satisfaction of all the impartial; the misfortune, that gave a handle
for that unnatural pro