abond; a man of notoriously bad character, who
was, while at St. Omers, the butt and laughing stock of the whole college?
Such secrets are not usually revealed to any but tried men, and the
Jesuits were the last of all conspirators to bestow their confidence
rashly. Yet here was a conspiracy whose disclosure would have brought a
certain and speedy death to every one engaged in it, known we know not to
how many hundreds, and many of these too found in the lowest ranks of the
populace. The manner of its execution is of a piece with all the rest.
First, two men were employed to kill the king. For two years they could
find no opportunity to do it. Then four Irish ruffians were employed. Who
they were, or what became of them, no one knew. Then the physician of the
queen was hired to poison him. To this horrible plan of assassination,
were consenting not only the highest dignitaries of the Romish church, but
some of the noblest peers of England and of France. But we have neither
time nor patience to proceed farther with such miserable fabrications. We
say then that the judges never could have believed in the existence of
such a Plot, and that the prisoners tried before them were immolated upon
the altar of their own personal popularity. Rather than resist the current
of popular feeling, and dare to award justice and uphold the supremacy of
impartial law, they chose to swim with the tide, and sacrifice men whom
they knew in their hearts to be innocent. It is this that adds tenfold
guilt to the brutality of their conduct. We cannot forget that they were
dishonest in their very cruelty; that they insulted their victims,
browbeat the witnesses, trampled on judicial forms to gain the favor of an
infuriated mob, whose madness they laughed at and derided.

At the commencement of the trial, Coleman thus alluded to the law of
England, forbidding counsel to prisoners accused of criminal offences, and
to the prejudice that then prevailed against those of his religion: 'I
hope, my lord, if there be any point of law that I am not skilled in, that
your lordships will be pleased not to take the advantage over me. Another
thing seems most dreadful, that is, the violent prejudice that seems to be
against every man in England that is confessed to be a Roman Catholic. It
is possible that a Roman Catholic may be very innocent of these crimes. If
one of those innocent Roman Catholics should come to this bar, he lies
under such disadvantages already