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NICHOLAS BAYARD. 519

mont, the aristocratic party, now in the minority, took meas-
ures to secure the new governor to their own interests, Nicho-
les Bayard who had been long imprisoned by Leisler, and was
instrumental in his death, procured addresses to be signed
to the king, to the parliament, and to Cornbury, in which
charges of bribery, of public plunder and oppression, were
preferred against the Heutenant governor, the chief justice,
and the assembly, and reflections were liberally cast upon
the memory of Lord Bellamont himself.

Now Bayard had procured a law to be made in 1691, when
Leisler and his friends were devoted to ruin, which pro-
vided, that whenever any person by any manner of ways, or
upon any pretense whatsoever, should endeavor, by force of
arms, or otherwise, to disturb the peace of government, he
should be deemed a traitor.

The party in power, taking advantage of this law and con-
seious that their authority and influence would soon be im-
paired, determined to bring Bayard to immediate trial,
before the arrival of the governor, so that he should not be
saved by that functionary, who, there was reason to believe,
would espouse his cause. Broughton, the attorney general,
gave a written opinion, that no crime had been committed,
but nevertheless a special court of Oyer and Terminer, con-
sisting of three justices, was immediately erected for the
trial of Bayard and one of his adherents. In vain he pe
titioned that his trial might be delayed until the regular term
of the Supreme Court. Five days was the utmost delay he
could obtain, and, on the nineteenth of February, 1702, the
court assembled to decide his fate.

Broughton, the Attorney General, refused to prosecute,
and was not present at the trial, which was conducted by
‘Weaver, the Solicitor General,

‘When the Grand Jury were called, the prisoner’s counsel
objected to some of them, for having declared ‘‘that if Bay-
ard’s neck was made of gold he should be hanged,” at the
same time boasting that they were of the jury; but the ob-

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