e bands of
human society, are so detestable and dangerous, that no pretence of
retaliation can be pleaded as an apology or even an alleviation of the
crime incurred by them. On the contrary, the greater indignation the
king and his ministers felt, when formerly exposed to the perjuries
of abandoned men, the more reluctance should they now have discovered
against employing the same instruments of vengeance upon their
antagonists.

The first person on whom the ministers fell was one College, a London
joiner, who had become extremely noted for his zeal against Popery,
and was much connected with Shaftesbury and the leaders of the country
party: for as they relied much upon the populace, men of College's rank
and station were useful to them. College had been in Oxford armed with
sword and pistol during the sitting of the parliament; and this was made
the foundation of his crime. It was pretended that a conspiracy had been
entered into to seize the king's person, and detain him in confinement,
till he should make the concessions demanded of him. The sheriffs of
London were in strong opposition to the court; and it was not strange,
that the grand jury named by them rejected the bill against College.
The prisoner was therefore sent to Oxford, where the treason was said to
have been committed. Lord Norris, a courtier, was sheriff of the county;
and the inhabitants were in general devoted to the court party. A jury
was named, consisting entirely of royalists; and though they were men
of credit and character, yet such was the factious rage which prevailed,
that little justice could be expected by the prisoner. Some papers,
containing hints and directions for his defence, were taken from him,
as he was conducted to his trial; an iniquity which some pretended to
justify by alleging, that a like violence had been practised against
a prisoner daring the fury of the Popish plot. Such wild notes of
retaliation were at that time propagated by the court party.

The witnesses produced against College were Dugdale, Turberville,
Haynes, Smith; men who had before given evidence against the Catholics,
and whom the jury, for that very reason, regarded as the most perjured
villains. College, though beset with so many toils, and oppressed with
so many iniquities, defended himself with spirit, courage, capacity,
presence of mind; and he invalidated the evidence of the crown, by
convincing arguments and undoubted testimony: yet did the jury, afte