tion against him for it. I believe that his
idea by the word _Guilty_, was no other than declaring himself to be the
publisher, without any regard to the merits or demerits of the work; for
were it to be construed otherwise, it would amount to the absurdity of
converting a publisher into a Jury, and his confession into a verdict
upon the work itself. This would be the highest possible refinement upon
packing of Juries.

On the 21st of May, they commenced their prosecution against me, as the
author, by leaving a summons at my lodgings in town, to appear at the
Court of King's Bench on the 8th of June following; and on the same day,
(May 21,) _they issued also their Proclamation_. Thus the Court of St.
James and the Court of King's Bench, were playing into each other's
hands at the same instant of time, and the farce of Addresses brought up
the rear; and this mode of proceeding is called by the prostituted name
of Law. Such a thundering rapidity, after a ministerial dormancy of
almost eighteen months, can be attributed to no other cause than their
having gained information of the forwardness of the cheap Edition, and
the dread they felt at the progressive increase of political knowledge.

I was strongly advised by several gentlemen, as well those in the
practice of the law, as others, to prefer a bill of indictment
against the publisher of the Proclamation, as a publication tending to
influence, or rather to dictate the verdict of a Jury on the issue of a
matter then pending; but it appeared to me much better to avail myself
of the opportunity which such a precedent justified me in using, by
meeting the Proclamation and the Addressers on their own ground, and
publicly defending the Work which had been thus unwarrantably attacked
and traduced.--And conscious as I now am, that the Work entitled
Rights OF Man so far from being, as has been maliciously or erroneously
represented, a false, wicked, and seditious libel, is a work abounding
with unanswerable truths, with principles of the purest morality and
benevolence, and with arguments not to be controverted--Conscious, I
say, of these things, and having no object in view but the happiness
of mankind, I have now put the matter to the best proof in my power, by
giving to the public a cheap edition of the First and Second Parts of
that Work. Let every man read and judge for himself, not only of the
merits and demerits of the Work, but of the matters therein contained,
which re