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 The Judicial History of Individual Liberty. pressed in language at least strong had been received by Parliament, the defendants were convicted (33 St. Tr. i). The same fate al most befell Neil Douglas, a Universalist preacher, who sought to enliven his pul pit deliverances with political exhortations. Spies who had been sent to observe him re ported that he had drawn a seditious parallel

537

St. Tr. 101). Three years later Hardie and others were convicted of treason by a violent stretch of the law of treason (i St. Tr., N. S. 609). In all these cases the defense was ably conducted by Francis Jeffrey. The notorious "Bottle Conspiracy" of 1822 illustrated the condition of affairs in Ireland (i St. Tr. N. S.). The expectations

LORD WELLESLEY.

between the afflicted king and Nebuchad nezzar, King of Babylon, and between the prince regent and King Belshazzar. It was made plain by the evidence that the crown witnesses had failed to comprehend the strong dialect and fervid delivery of the ec centric preacher, and he was acquitted (33

which had been aroused by the appointment in 1821 of Wellesley and Plunkett—both ad vocates of Catholic emancipation—were not realized. Irritation between Catholics- and Protestants broke out anew, which, amid the prevailing distress and starvation, soon led .to turbulence. It was while this feeling pre