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JACOB LEISLER. 516

and was seized and thrown into prison, together with his son-
in-law and several of his adherents.

The prisoners were immediately brought to trial before a
special court of oyer and terminer. Six of the inferior in-
surgents were convicted of high ‘treason, and were subse-
quently reprieved. Leisler and Milborne denied to the gov-
ernor the power to institute a tribunal for judging his
‘predecessor, and vainly appealed to the king, The trials pro-
ceeded before a tribunal, erected for the purpose of giving
the sanctions of the law to the determinations of power.
Joseph Dudley,® the chief justice, had been expelled from
Boston by the same general revolution to which Leisler owed
his elevation. How could the latter expect a favorable appre-
ciation of his conduet from a tribunal, erected by his enemies,
and occupied by an exasperated antagonist? Refusing to
plead to the charge against him, he was convicted by the
jury, and was condemned to death, with Milborne, as a rebel
and a traitor.

The governor hesitated to destroy the men, who first raised
the standard of William of Orange and protestantism. ‘‘Cer-
tainly never greater villains lived,’’ he wrote; but he ‘‘re-
solved to wait for the royal pleasure, if by any other means
than hanging he could keep the country quiet.’”? But the
enemies of Leisler were bent on his death. They invited
Sloughter to a feast, and, when hia reason was drowned in
his cups, he was prevailed on to sign the death warrant; be-
fore he recovered his senses, the prisoners were executed.

"Dooumy Joseru. 1650-1720.) Born in Massachusetts; judge
at the time of the revolution im 1689, when he was imprisoned, and
was cent to England with Andros; appointed Chief Justice of New
York, 1690; subsequently Lieatenant Goversor of the Isle of
Wight, and ‘a member of Parliament; returned to Boston in 1702,
as Governor of Massachusetts; no citizen of New England enjoyed
so many public honors and offiees; he was a learned man, and, in
private life was amiable, dignified, and elegant in his manners; his
conduct at the trial of Leisler is a blot on his character, and was
the ground of severe charges against him in England; died in Rox-
bury, Mass,

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