THE WHOLE PROCEEDINGS ON THE TRIAL OF INDICTMENT AGAINST THOMAS WALKER OF MANCHESTER, MERCHANT, SAMUEL JACKSON, JAMES CHEETHAM, OLIVER PEARSAL, BENJAMIN BOOTH, AND JOSEPH COLLIER; FOR A CONSPIRACY TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT,; AND TO AID AND ASSIST THE FRENCH (BEING THE KING'S ENEMIES) IN CASE THEY SHOULD INVADE THIS KINGDOM, TRIED AT THE ASSIZES AT LANCASTER. APRIL 2, 1794, BEFORE THE HON. MR. JUSTICE HEATH, ONE OF THE JUDGES OF HIS MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. TAKEN IN SHORT- HAND bY...
Philadelphia: Samuel Harrison Smith, 1794. First American Edition. 8vo, pp. xii, 13-104, xix (1 blank), 4. Bound with the front blank leaf in later home made wraps, with 4 pages of advertising in the rear. Untrimmed, some toning, but a very good copy. Evans 27076. II Harv. Law Cat. 1218. IV DAB 47. Not in McCoy. Item #57441
Cheetham, Walker, and other members of the Constitutional Society of Manchester, were arrested in July 1793 for conspiracy to overthrow the government. Cheetham was charged with saying "Damn the King. I wish he was in the New Bailey Prison." Much of the case was based substantially on membership in the anti-crown Constitutional Society. Defendants were charged with reading the works of Tom Paine. The prosecution's case rested heavily on the testimony of Thomas Dunn who, Walker says in an introductory advertisement, was induced by bribery to perjure himself. The case is famous for Lord Erskine's cross-examination discrediting the Crown's main witness, and for his jury address. The charges failed.
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