BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 483
the Almighty Being to infuse into their mind a spirit of wisdom to enable
them to come to a just conclusion upon this cause, Chief Justice Eyre having
summed up the evidence, the jury then retired. After an absence of two
hours, they returned with a verdict of-not guilty.
On the acquittal of Mr. Hardy, he got into a hackney coach at the Old
Bailey, amidst most violent shouts of acclamation from a numerous multitude
which had been in waiting for several hours to know the issue of his trial.
They requested permission to take the horses from the coach, that they might
draw it themselves ; but he refused the proffered compliment, and ordered the
coachman to drive with the utmost speed, which he so effectually obeyed, that
the mob were not able to overtake him till he had reached the New Church in
the Strand, when they insisted on the horses being unyoked, and all dissuasion
to the contrary was in vain. Having thus obtained their desire, they drew him
along the Strand, Charing-Cross, Pall Mall, St. James’s Street, and, by a circuitous
route, brought him back to Lancaster-Court, in the Strand, to the
house of his brother. On alighting from the coach, he thanked them for the
honour they had done him, and entreated them peaceably to disperse, as the
best token of respect they could show to the laws of their country, to the wise
provisions of which he stood indebted for the power of being enabled then to
address them, They instantly obeyed. Mr. Hardy had been a shoemaker, but
latterly became unfortunate in business. For twelve years previons to his demise,
he had been in the receipt of a gratuity of S50 a year from Sir Francis Burdett,
which sum, on the death of Mr, Hardy, that gentleman generously continued to
allow his sister. The following notice of her death appeared in the Scotsman of
December 3, 1842 :--<A‘ t Falkirk, Mrs. Leishman, aged eighty-four, the sister
of the celebrated Thomas Hardy, who was tried at the Old Bailey forty-eight
years ago for high treason, and was acquitted, Upon the death of her brother,
Sir F. Burdett generously continued to allow her 550 a year, which sum he previously
paid for twelve years to Mr. Hardy’s use.” Mr. Hardy died in 1833,
and his remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, City Road, London, where a
monument, containing a suitable inscription, has been erected to his memory.
His funeral was attended by nearly five hundred friends, one of whom, Mr.
John Thelwall, delivered the funeral oration, which was printed in the London
papers at the time. This gentleman had likewise stood trial for the same
crime aa that of Hardy, but, being also found innocent] was acquitted.
361. FIELD-MARSHABL LUCHERt,h e illustrious Prussian general who, as
one of their suite, accompanied the Emperor Alexander of Russia and the
King of Prussia on their united visit to England in June 1814, when it is
understood this portrait was executed.