 Returning the next morning , the counsel found a packed court ; owing to the involvement of Lord Sandwich and other significant political figures , the case had received a substantial amount of publicity , and thus an audience . Erskine , who without the interruptions would merely have made a short statement and " remained in obscurity " , had taken the adjournment as an opportunity to write a full speech . In it Erskine argued that Baillie , unlike others charged with libel , had merely been doing his duty ; he " was not a disappointed malicious informer , prying into official abuses ... not <unk> inquisitive into other men 's departments , but conscientiously correcting his own at the risk of his office " . After Mansfield cautioned him for growing heated on the subject of Sandwich , who was not before the court , Erskine replied by stating that Sandwich had " placed [ the plaintiffs ] in the front of the battle , in hopes to escape under their shelter ... I will drag him to light , who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity " . 
