* Gentlemen of the jury, you are to confider that Mr. Savage is a very great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; that he wears very fine clothes, much • finer clothes than you or I, gentlemen of the 'jury; that he has abundance of money in his 'pocket, much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; but, gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard cafe, gentlemen of the jury, that Mr. Savage fhould therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of the jury?"

Mr. Savage hearing his defence thus mifrepresented, and the men who were to decide his fate incited againft him by invidious comparisons, refolutely afferted, that his caufe was not candidly explained, and began to recapitulate what he had before faid with regard to his condition, and the neceffity of endeavouring to escape the expences of imprisonment; but the judge having ordered him to be filent, and repeated hisorders without effect, commanded that he fhould be taken from the bar by force.

The jury then heard the opinion of the judge, that good characters were of no weight against pofitive evidence, though they might turn the fcale where it was doubtful; and that though, when two men attack each other, the death of either is only manslaughter; but where one is the aggreffor, as in the cafe before them, and,

in pursuance of his first attack, kills the other, the law fuppofes the action, however fudden, to be malicious. They then deliberated upon their verdict, and determined that Mr. Savage and Mr. Gregory were guilty of murder, and Mr. Merchant, who had no fword, only of manflaughter.

Thus ended this memorable trial, which lafted eight hours. Mr. Savage and Mr. Gregory were conducted back to prifon, where they were more closely confined, and loaded with irons of fifty pounds weight: four days afterwards they were fent back to the court to receive fentence; on which occafion Mr. Sayage made, as far as it could be retained in memory, the following fpeech.

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"It is now, my Lord, too late to offer any thing by way of defence or vindication; nor can we expect from your Lordships, in this 66 court, but the fentence which the law re"quires you, as judges, to pronounce against 66 men of our calamitous condition.-But we are alfo perfuaded, that as mere men, and out of this feat of rigorous justice, you are fufceptive of the tender paffions, and too humane, not to commiferate the unhappy "fituation of thofe, whom the law fometimes exacts - from you to pronounce No doubt you diftinguish between 66 offences,

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perhaps upon.

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offences, which arife out of premeditation, " and a difpofition habituated to vice or immo"rality, and tranfgreffions, which are the unhappy and unforeseen effects of cafual absence of reafon, and fudden impulfe of paffion: therefore hope you will contribute all you can to an extenfion of that mercy, which the "gentlemen of the jury have been pleased to

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we

fhew Mr. Merchant, who (allowing facts as ❝fworn against us by the evidence) has led us "into this our calamity. I hope this will not “be construed, as if we meant to reflect upon that gentleman, or remove any thing from us upon him, or that we repine the more at our fate, because he has no participation of it: "No, my Lord! For my part, I declare no"thing could more foften my grief, than to be "without any companion in fo great a misfor486 tune *."

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Mr. Savage had now no hopes of life, but from the mercy of the crown, which was very earneftly folicited by his friends, and which, with whatever difficulty the ftory may obtain belief, was obstructed only by his mother.

To prejudice the Queen against him, she made use of an incident, which was omitted in the order of time, that it might be mentioned

together with the purpose which it was made to ferve. Mr. Savage, when he had discovered his birth, had an inceffant defire to speak to his mother, who always avoided him in public, and refufed him admiffion into her house. One evening walking, as it was his custom, in the street that the inhabited, he saw the door of her house by accident open; he entered it, and, finding no perfon in the paffage to hinder him, went up ftairs to falute her. She discovered him before he could enter her chamber, alarmed the family with the most diftrefsful outcries, and when he had by her fcreams gathered them about her, ordered them to drive out of the houfe that villain, who had forced himself in upon her, and endeavoured to murder her. Savage, who had attempted with the most fubmiffive tendernefs to foften her rage, hearing her utter fo deteftable an accufation, thought it prudent to retire; and, I believe, never attempted afterwards to speak to her.

But, fhocked as he was with her falfhood and her cruelty, he imagined that the intended no other ufe of her lye, than to fet herself free from his embraces and folicitations, and was very far from fufpecting that fhe would treasure it in her memory, as an inftrument of future wickedness, or that he would endeavour for this fictitious affault to deprive him of his life.

But

But when the Queen was folici ed for his pardon, and informed of the fevere treatment which he had suffered from his judge, she anfwered, that, however unjuftifiable might be the manner of his trial, or whatever extenuation the action for which he was condemned might admit, fhe could not think that man a proper object of the King's mercy, who had been capable of entering his mother's house in the night, with an intent to murder her.

By whom this atrocious calumny had been tranfmitted to the Queen; whether fhe tha: invented had the front to relate it; whether fle found any one weak enough to credit it, or corrupt enough to concur with her in her hatefuldefign, I know not; but methods had been taken to perfuade the Queen fo ftrongly of the truth of it, that she for a long time refused to hear any of those who petitioned for his life.

Thus had Savage perished by the evidence of a bawd, a ftrumpet, and his mother, had not justice and compaffion procured him an advo cate of rank too great to be rejected unheard,, and of virtue too eminent to be heard without being believed. His merit and his calamities happened to reach the ear of the Countess of Hertford, who engaged in his fupport with all the tenderness that is excited by pity, and all · the zeal which is kindled by generofity, and, demanding an audience of the Queen, laid be-