Lancaster, thirty-five;[1] at Devizes, twelve. At Welshpool thirty-one Llanidloes rioters were tried, the sentences ranging from fifteen years' transportation to merely binding over to keep the peace.[2] At Chester Higgins, MacDouall, and Richardson were brought before the Grand Jury, which returned true bills for various charges. Only occasionally did the Chartists make any attempts to put a stop to the course of prosecution. A policeman who was to be a witness against Stephens was half-murdered in Ashton,[3] whilst the Loughborough magistrates were compelled to release two prominent Chartists because their followers terrorised all likely witnesses.[4] Generally speaking, the prosecutions went on unhindered. The Convention busied itself with a Defence Fund, and local subscriptions were set on foot for the purpose of procuring legal aid. This appeal met with no great response. The enthusiasts still preferred to devote their savings to the purchase of arms, whilst the others were unwilling to spend theirs on such worthless rogues as, for example, Brown, the Birmingham delegate, who, before his arrest was conspicuous for his absurd violence, and afterwards begged and prayed the Convention "not to let him be sacrificed."[5]
Two trials at this time provoked more than ordinary interest: those of Stephens at Chester, and Lovett and Collins at Warwick. Stephens defended himself in a speech lasting five hours. It was a very bad defence. In spite of the fact that he had been arrested for attending an exceedingly riotous Chartist meeting, he devoted his speech to a long denunciation of Carlile, Paine, Bentham, and Radicalism generally. He denounced the prosecuting counsel, the Attorney-General, in set terms, and declared that he had been a victim of persecution. Stephens cut a really bad figure, and with his trial and imprisonment he disappeared from the Chartist world, except for one brief reappearance in opposition to his former colleagues, at Nottingham in 1842. He was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in Knutsford Gaol, but was transferred to Chester Castle, where he was handsomely treated.
Very different was Lovett's defence. He was charged with publishing a false, scandalous, and inflammatory libel. Lovett admitted the libel and the publication, but pleaded
