just five months. On 19 December 1769, Junius wrote a letter attacking the King, and incensed at this, the government ordered several people to be arrested and tried for seditious libel, including Woodfall for publishing the letters, John Almon for selling them, and John Miller for republishing them. Almon's case was heard at Westminster Hall by Mansfield and a jury on 2 June 1770. He was found guilty, although it is unclear in what fashion he was punished, if at all. Woodfall was tried on 13 June 1770, by Mansfield and a jury. While Mansfield believed that the language used was libellous, the jury disagreed, and held that he was "guilty of printing and publishing only", and innocent of seditious libel. Miller was tried on 13 July 1770, and after six hours of discussion, the jury found him innocent. As a result of these two trials, it became clear that no jury would convict a printer for printing these letters, leaving Junius free to continue publishing them. On 14 November 1770, a letter by Junius directed at Mansfield was published by the Public Advertiser and the London Evening Post, a newspaper run by John Miller. In it, Junius attacked Mansfield, first for being Scottish, then for being a lapsed Jacobite, and finally for attempting to suppress the freedom of the press. In a response to Junius' letter dated 16 November 1770, Mansfield made the following threat: "Sir, if in future you indulge the ill-founded asperity of your Pen, [you] may be called to answer for your Conduct, in a way that may cause you to regret that ever you was born, or, at least, that Nature has given you Abilities, which, if guided by Discretion, would have made you as much a Blessing, as you are now a Curse to Mankind." Although the Attorney General, William de Grey, advised that the publishers should again be prosecuted, Mansfield disagreed, saying that if they failed to respond to Junius, he would become bored and stop writing. Mansfield was evidently correct, because other than a letter printed on 5 October 1771, Junius ceased to write at the beginning of 1772. Somersett's Case Mansfield is best known for his judgment in Somersett's Case on the legality of keeping slaves in England. The English had been involved in the slave trade since 1553, and by 1768, ships registered in Liverpool, Bristol and London carried more