Ossian Collection > Scottish eccentrics

24 SCOTTISH ECCENTRICS
to intercede for them and prevent their being banished to
Botany Bay; the other for a libel upon the Queen of
France and the French ambassador. Erskine on this occa-
sion was employed on the other side. Lord George de-
fended himself, on the score of being too poor to employ
counsel. "The Newgate petition, evidently his Lordship's
production, was a mere farrago of absurdity, treason, and
blasphemy, reflecting on the laws, railing at the Crown
officers, and condemning his Majesty by large quotations
from the book of Moses." Lord George was found guilty.
"Upon the second charge, the gist of which was a design
to create a misunderstanding between the two courts of
France and England, he was also found guilty. His speech
on this last occasion was so extravagant, and contained
expressions so indecorous, that the Attorney-General told
him 'he was a disgrace to the name of Briton'," but
judges and lawyers even to-day are easily moved to such
comments on matters which traverse their personal
political prejudices and notions of propriety.
The writer I have been drawing upon in most of the
quotations in this essay was distinctly hostile to Lord
George, and accordingly his admission that "the sentence
upon him was severe enough" is a sufficiently significant
understatement. It was, as a matter of fact, nakedly
revengeful and out of all proportion to the crimes of
which he had been found guilty. On the first verdict he
was sentenced to two years' imprisonment; on the second
to a further imprisonment of three years, at the expiry of
which he was to pay a fine of £500, find two securities in
£2500 each for his good behaviour for fourteen years, and
himself be bound in a recognisance of £10,000. Between
the verdict and the passing of the sentence Lord George
escaped to Holland, but he was not allowed to remain
there long. Repatriated to England, he arrived at Harwich
in the latter end of July, and went thence to Birmingham,
where he lay low till December. He had in the meantime
become a convert to the Jewish faith and was rigidly
performing its prescribed rites and duties. Then the