INTRODUCTION. DEATH OF QUEEN CAROLINE.-CONDUCT OF THE WHEN the late Queen Caroline, yielding to the altogether unexampled course of persecution in every form under which she had suffered, was stricken with a mortal sickness, the immediate consequence of mental distress, parties were variously affected by the intelligence that her life was in danger. The people universally and with but little distinction of party or of sect, were thrown into a state of the most painful anxiety, and waited in suspense the arrival of the tidings which were to confirm or to dissipate the prevailing gloom. After a passing interval of better prospects, all hope was soon banished by information that she was given over; and the news of her decease, which happened on the 7th of August 1821, followed immediately after. In all the places where the event was made known, and where no undue influence or superior authority was exerted to suppress the public feelings, the utmost concern was manifested, not unaccompanied with indignation at the author of those wrongs which had led to this sorrowful event. Among the more ordinary, and therefore, if displayed, the more unimportant manifestations of concern, was that of tolling the bells in cathedrals and churches, the constant mark of respect paid to all the royal family, even the most insignificant and the least popular,-a ceremony so much of course that nothing could give it any importance except the rudeness or the servility which might obstruct its being performed. Accordingly, the tribute of respect had almost universally been paid, and had excited no comment any where. It was reserved for the heads of the Durham Cathedral to form an exception, the only exception of any importance, to the general course of conduct pursued upon this mournful occasion. They would not suffer the bells of that venerable edifice to be tolled in the wonted manner. It might have been thought that even had it been decent for churchmen to take part in such a controversy, and during the Queen's life to side with the oppressors against the injured party, the event which removed the latter from all worldly concerns, would have allayed also the animosity of her clerical antagonists; and that, though they had refused her the benefit of their prayers while living, they would not make themselves the solitary exception among Chapters and other Collegiate bodies, to the regular course of paying an accustomed mark of respect to the consort of the sovereign, now only known to them as one whose death had made his Majesty a widower, and enabled him to gratify his desires without violating his own conjugal duties. These reverend personages, however, thought otherwise; they forbade their bells to toll; and the consequence was some remarks in the Durham Chronicle, a provincial paper long distinguished for its steady though temperate support of liberal opinions, both on civil and on ecclesiastical subjects. These remarks were as follows, and they were published on the 10th of August, while the event was fresh in the recollection of all, and the feeling had not subsided which it was calculated to excite. "So far as we have been able to judge from the accounts in the public papers, a mark of respect to her late Majesty has been almost universally paid throughout the kingdom, when the painful tidings of her decease were received by tolling the bells of the Cathedrals and Churches. But there is one exception to this very creditable fact which demands especial notice. In this episcopal city, containing six churches independently of the cathedral, not a single bell announced the departure of the magnanimous spirit of the most injured of Queens, the most persecuted of women. Thus the brutal enmity of those who embittered her mortal existence pursues her in her shroud. “We know not whether any actual orders were issued to prevent this customary sign of mourning; but the omission plainly indicates the kind of spirit which predominates among our clergy. Yet these men profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, to walk in his footsteps, to teach his precepts, to inculcate his spirit, to promote harmony, charity, and Christian love! Out Out upon such hypocrisy ! such hypocrisy! It is such conduct which renders the very name of our established clergy odious till it stinks in the nostrils; that makes our churches look like deserted sepulchres, rather than temples of the living God; that raises up conventicles in every corner, and increases the brood of wild fanatics and enthusiasts; that causes our beneficed dignitaries to be regarded as usurpers of their possessions; that deprives them of all pastoral influence and respect; that in short has left them no support or prop the attachment or veneration of the people. Sensible of the decline of their spiritual and moral influence, they cling to temporal power, and lose in their officiousness in political matters, even the semblance of the character of ministers of religion. It is impossible that such a system can last. It is at war with the spirit of the age, as well as with justice and reason, and the beetles who crawl about amidst its holes and crevices, act as if they were striving to provoke and accelerate the blow which, sooner or later, will inevitably crush the whole fabric and level it with the dust." In the Court of King's Bench, Mr. Scarlett, then Attorney-General for the County Palatine, obtained on the 14th November a Rule to shew cause why a Criminal Information should not be filed against John Ambrose Williams, as the reputed publisher of this paragraph, who indeed never denied that he was also its author. The first of the following speeches is the argument of Mr. Brougham, who with the late learned, able, and most excellent John Bonham Carter, (Member for Portsmouth, and son-in-law of William Smith,) was of counsel for the Defendant. The Rule was, not without hesitation on the part of the Court, made absolute, there being indeed, no similar instance of a Rule so granted, where the party applying did not deny upon oath the matters charged against him in the alleged libel. It was not very easy to support by precedents a prosecution in this form, instituted for a libel against a body so little defined as "the Clergy of Durham;" still less such a body as the Information afterwards filed words them, "the Clergy residing in and near the city of Durham;" there being no means of ascertaining what distance this included, and consequently who the parties libelled really were. But it was a novelty still greater and more alarming to receive as prosecutors by Criminal Information a party who, under the shelter of this vagueness, made no affidavit of the falsehood of the charge, and thus escaped the performance of that condition under which all other parties are laid by the Rule of the court when they apply for its extraordinary interposition, instead of proceeding by Indictment. The Rule being thus made absolute, the Information was filed, and went down to trial at the next summer assizes for the County Palatine, where it excited extraordinary interest from the parties, the subject, and the spirit of political animosity prevailing between the College and a large portion of the community. The cause was tried before Mr. Baron Wood, and the speech in Mr. Williams's defence forms the second and the principal of those connected with this extraordinary proceeding. The jury were enclosed for above five hours, and returned a verdict which restricted the libel, and again raised one of the questions on the record, which had been argued in shewing cause against the Rule. The verdict was, Guilty of publishing a libel against the clergy residing in and near the city of Durham and the suburbs thereof." 66 The defendant, accordingly, next Michaelmas term, moved in arrest of judgment, and also for a new trial, when the third of these speeches was delivered-viz., the argument on that motion. The result was, that Mr. Brougham obtained a Rule to shew cause, but the matter stood over, the prosecutors never shewing any cause, and consequently no judgment was ever pronounced, either upon the Rule or upon the defendant,-who thus |