volved
servitude and hard labour.[310] The assertion implies an incredible
ignorance in the man who had packed the juries and sought to get his
victims hanged. It may be regarded as a cunning and cowardly attempt to
shift part of the odium on to the Government. Certainly the prestige of
the Cabinet now fell to zero. Ministers were held responsible for
Braxfield's wanton vagaries, and were accused of luring English
democrats into the meshes of the Scottish law. This last charge is
absurd. As we have seen, the London police sought to stop Margarot,
Sinclair, and Gerrald from going to Edinburgh. It was their presence and
that of the Irishmen which gave to the Convention almost a national
character, and placed it in rivalry to Parliament. Their speeches were
by far the most provocative. Finally, as the letter quoted above shows,
the initiative in arresting the delegates was taken by Robert Dundas and
the Scottish Solicitor-General. On 11th December Henry Dundas wrote to
his nephew: "You get great credit here [London] for your attack on the
Convention."[311]

Far different was the comment of the London Corresponding Society. On
20th January 1794 that body convened a great meeting which passed
protests against the war, the expulsion of the British Convention, and
the arrest of delegates. It also resolved that the general committee
should sit permanently throughout the ensuing session. Further, that if
the Government attacked the liberties of the people in the ways
described above, the committee should call "a General Convention of the
People for taking such measures under their consideration."[312] Equally
threatening were the resolutions of the Constitutional Society of
London.[313] Pitt resolved to take up the gauntlet flung down by these
two powerful Societies. On 24th February 1794 Eaton, a publisher of
Newgate Street, was tried for publishing in his periodical pamphlet,
"Politics for the People: or Hogs-wash," a little parable with which
that witty lecturer, Thelwall, had delighted a debating society. He told
how a gamecock, resplendent with ermine-spotted breast, and crown or
cockscomb, lorded it greedily over all the fowls of the farmyard.[314]
The parallel to George III was sufficiently close to agitate the
official mind; but the jury gave an open verdict, which implied that the
King was not hinted at.

The next prosecution, that of Thomas Walker, of Manchester, and six
others broke down in a way highly discreditabl