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"With regard to the matter which I am "now submitting to your consideration, I must say for your Committee of Managers and for

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myself, that the Report was deliberately made, "and does not, as I conceive, contain any very "material errour, nor any undue or indecent "reflection upon any person or persons what66 ever. It does not accuse the Judges of igno

rance or corruption. Whatever it says, it "does not say calumniously. That kind of language belongs to persons whose eloquence "entitles them to a free use of epithets. The "Report states, that the Judges had given their opinions secretly, contrary to the almost uninterrupted tenor of Parliamentary usage on "such occasions. It states, that the mode of

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giving the opinions was unprecedented and "contrary to the privileges of the House of "Commons. It states, that the Committee did "not know upon what rules and principles "the Judges had decided upon those cases, as they neither heard their opinions delivered,

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nor have found them entered upon the Jour"nals of the House of Lords. It is very true, "that we were and are extremely dissatisfied "with those opinions, and the consequent deter"minations of the Lords; and we do not think

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"such a mode of proceeding at all justified by "the most numerous and the best precedents. "None of these sentiments is the Committee, as "I conceive, (and I feel as little as any of "them) disposed to retract, or to soften in the "smallest degree.

"The Report speaks for itself. Whenever "an occasion shall be regularly given to main"tain every thing of substance in that paper, "I shall be ready to meet the proudest name for

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ability, learning, or rank, that this kingdom " contains, upon that subject. Do I say this "from any confidence in myself? Far from it. "It is from my confidence in our cause, and in "the ability, the learning, and the Constitutional "principles, which this House contains within "itself, and which I hope it will ever contain ; "and in the assistance which it will not fail to "afford to those, who with good intention do "their best to maintain the essential privileges "of the House, the ancient law of Parliament, "and the publick justice of this kingdom."

No Reply or Observation was made on the subject by any other Member, nor was any farther notice taken of it in the House of Lords.

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the publick Councils of this Kingdom, so long employed the greatest and most august of its Tribunals, now approaches to a close. The wreck and fragments of our Cause (which has been dashed to pieces upon rules by which your Lordships have thought fit to regulate its progress) await your final determination. Enough, however, of the matter is left to call for the most exemplary punishment, that any tribunal ever inflicted upon any criminal; and yet, my Lords, the Prisoner, by the plan of his defence, demands not only an escape, but a triumph. It is not enough for him to be acquitted, the Commons of Great Britain must be condemned; VOL. XV.

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and your Lordships must be the instruments of his glory, and of our disgrace. This is the issue upon which he has put this Cause, and the issue upon which we are obliged to take it now, and to provide for it hereafter.

My Lords, I confess, that at this critical moment I feel myself oppressed with an anxiety, that no words can adequately express. The effect of all our labours, the result of all our inquiries, is now to be ascertained. You, my Lords, are now to determine, not only whether all these labours have been vain and fruitless, but whether we have abused so long the publick patience of our country, and so long oppressed merit, instead of avenging crime. I confess I tremble, when I consider that your judgment is now going to be passed, not on the Culprit at your bar, but upon the House of Commons itself, and upon the publick justice of this Kingdom, as represented in this great Tribunal. It is not that Culprit who is upon trial, it is the House of Commons that is upon its trial, it is the House of Lords that is upon its trial, it is the British Nation that is upon its trial before all other nations, before the present generation, and before a long, long posterity.

My Lords, I should be ashamed, if at this moment I attempted to use any sort of rhetorical blandishments whatever. Such artifices would

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neither be suitable to the Body that I represent, to the Cause which I sustain, or to my own individual disposition upon such an occasion. My Lords, we know very well what these fallacious blandishments too frequently are. We know that they are used to captivate the benevolence of the Court, and to conciliate the affections of the Tribunal rather to the person than to the Cause. We know that they are used to stifle the remonstrances of conscience in the judge, and to reconcile it to the violation of his duty. likewise know, that they are too often used in great and important causes (and more particularly in causes like this) to reconcile the prosecutor to the powerful factions of a protected Criminal, and to the injury of those who have suffered by his crimes; thus inducing all parties to separate in a kind of good humour, as if they had nothing more than a verbal dispute to settle, or a slight quarrel over a table to compromise. All this may now be done at the expense of the persons whose cause we pretend to espouse. We may all part, my Lords, with the most perfect complacency, and entire good humour towards one another; while nations, whole suffering nations, are left to beat the empty air with cries of misery and anguish, and to cast forth to an offended heaven the imprecations of disappointment and despair.

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