The government, however, with its usual folly, treated him so severely that in a short time the public sympathy was all on his side.

A criminal information was filed in the King's Bench.

The defendant took his stand on the privileges of the peerage but on this point a decision was promptly given against him nor is it possible to deny that the decision, whether it were or were not according to the technical rules of English law, was in strict conformity with the great principles on which all laws ought to be framed.

Nothing was then left to him but to plead guilty.

The tribunal had, by successive dismissions, been reduced to such complete subjection, that the government which had instituted the prosecution was allowed to prescribe the punishment.