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L.H.J.
Liber No. 48
April 34
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In Answer to your Remark on the second Fact, adduced to shew
the Prevalence of a Popish Faction, I shall repeat what I before
told you, that those who interested themselves in the young Fellow's
Favour, were most of them Protestant-Gentlemen of the Neigh-
bourhood, which, I have heard, has been confirmed to you by a Mem-
ber of your own House: The Delinquent was a Youth; the Son
of a Gentleman who had been universally esteemed; 'twas said to
be his first Fault; whether he was made a useful Evidence against
Crawford, I never enquired, nor shall concern myself about it:
Let it suffice, that I was informed he could be an Evidence; and,
tho' the Youth might have imposed on his Friends, by telling them
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p. 245
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that he had been privy to a Roguery of that Villain's, when he had
not, or might, on the Trial, have pretended Ignorance to skreen
him, I do not conceive that either myself, or the Gentlemen who
applied to me in his Behalf, are accountable for such his Behaviour.
I must also beg Leave to repeat what I before observed on the
Case of that Woman, who is produced as the third Instance of Par-
tiality shewn to Persons of a different Persuasion from my own,
since my Administration: She was married to a very loose and
extravagant Man; her Husband had been brought up by, and de-
pended upon, an Uncle; the Wife went with a forged Letter of
Credit, signed with the Name of the Uncle, to M.r Roundell's Store,
and in Virtue of that Deceit, obtained Credit for some Goods. This
she did, as there was Reason to suppose, with the Privity or by the
Compulsion of a necessitous and base Husband: So, had the Prose-
cution been carried on, the simple Wife might possibly have been
punished, while the more guilty Husband escaped with Impunity
I have been since informed, that, if the Woman had been brought
to her Trial, she must, in all Probability, have been acquitted. But,
whatever might have been the Event of a Trial, I do not apprehend
that in granting a Noli Prosequi, I exercised any Power against
the true Spirit of a British Constitution; and I flatter myself you
will not widely differ from me in that Opinion, if you cooly consider
the Case, and not take into such Consideration the Woman's Relig-
ion. I have already told you, that when Application was made to me
in her Favour, I was a Stranger to her Religious Principles; and I
have been assured by the Gentlemen who spoke to me about her, that
they were also unacquainted therewith. M.r Roundell, I observe, has
suppressed some Truths; and, on some Account or other, has not,
by his Deposition, informed you of the whole Part that he acted, or
how far he was concerned, in having a Stop put to the Prosecution :
To supply such Defect in his, I send you another Deposition; from
which, and a Letter in M.r Ridout's Hands, which he will shew any
Gentlemen that will ask him, may be seen what Grounds I had for
what was heretofore said concerning M.r Roundell.
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