government than ever Britain has enjoyed; and to establish there a system of law more just and simple in its principles, less intricate, dubious, and dilatory in its proceedings, more mild and equitable in its sanctions, more easy and more certain in its execution; wherein no man can err through ignorance of what concerns him, or want justice through poverty or weakness, or escape it by legal artifice, or civil privileges, or interposing power; wherein the rule of conduct shall not be hidden or disguised in the language of principles and customs that died with the barbarism which gave them birth; wherein hasty formulas shall not dissipate the reverence that is due to the tribunals and transactions of justice; wherein obsolete prescripts shall not pervert, nor entangle, nor impede the administration of it, nor in any instance expose it to derision or to disregard; wherein misrepresentation shall have no share in deciding upon right and truth; and under which no man shall grow great by the wages of chicanery, or thrive by the quarrels that are ruinous to his employers." This is ten times stronger than Mr. Paine; but who ever thought of prosecuting Mr. Cappe?* In various other instances you will find defects in our jurisprudence pointed out and lamented, and not seldom by persons called upon by their situations to deliver the law in the seat of magistracy: therefore, the author's general observation does not appear to be that species of attack upon the magistracy of the country, as to fall within the description of a libel. think more severe than those which are the subject of the attorney-general's animadversion. The passage in Mr. Paine runs thus: "With respect to the two Houses, of which the English parliament is composed, they appear to be effectually influenced into one, and, as a legislature, to have no temper of its own. The minister, whoever he at any time may be, touches it as with an opium wand, and it sleeps obedience. "But if we look at the distinct abilities of the two Houses, the difference will appear so great, as to show the inconsistency of placing power where there can be no certainty of the judgment to use it. Wretched as the state of representation is in England, it is manhood compared with what is called the House of Lords; and so little is this nicknamed House regarded, that the people scarcely inquire at any time what it is doing. It appears also to be most under influence, and the furthest removed from the general interest of the nation." The conclusion of the sentence, and which was meant by Paine as evidence of the previous assertion, the attorney-general has ommitted in the information, and in his speech; it is this: "In the debate on engaging in the Russian and Turkish war, the majority in the House of Peers in favour of it was upwards of ninety, when in the other House, which is more than double its numbers, the majority was sixty-three." The terms, however, in which Mr. Burke speaks of the House of Lords, are still more expressive. "It is something more than a century ago, since we voted that body useless. With respect to the two Houses of Parlia-They have now voted themselves so, and ment, I believe I shall be able to show you that the very person who introduced this controversy, and who certainly is considered by those who now administer the government, as a man usefully devoted to maintain the constitution of the country in the present crisis, has himself made remarks upon these assemblies, that upon comparison you will the whole hope of reformation is cast upon us," (speaking of the House of Commons). This sentiment Mr. Burke not only expressed in his place in parliament, where no man can call him to an account; but it has been since repeatedly printed amongst his works.-Indeed his opinion of BOTH THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, which I am about to read to you, was originally published as a separate pamphlet, and applied to the settled habitual abuses of these high assemblies. Remember, I do not use them as argumenta ad hominem, or ad invidiam against the author; for if I did, it could be no defence of Mr. Paine.-I use them as high authority; the work + having been the just foundation of substantial and lasting reputation.-Would to God that any part of it were capable of being denied or doubted! nected with another positive charter from Henry 1st, and that both the one and the other were nothing more than a reaffirmance of the still more ancient standing law of the kingdom. In the matter of fact, for the greater part, these authors appear to be in the right; perhaps not always: but if the lawyers mistake in some particulars, it proves my position still the more strongly; because it demonstrates the powerful prepossession towards antiquity, with which the minds of all "Against the being of parliament I am our lawyers and legislators, and of all the satisfied no designs have ever been enterpeople whom they wish to influence, have tained since the Revolution. Every one must been always filled; and the stationary po- perceive that it is strongly the interest of the licy of this kingdom in considering their court to have some second cause interposed most sacred rights and franchises as an in-between the ministers and the people.-The heritance." Reflections on the French Revolution. A late eminent and pious minister at York. Erskine's Speeches. * See New Parl. Hist. Vol. XXI. p. 70. + Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents, published in 1775, gentlemen of the House of Commons have an interest equally strong, in sustaining the part of that intermediate cause. However they may hire out the usufruct of their voices, they never will part with the fee and inheritance. Accordingly those who have been of the most known devotion to the will and pleasure of a court, have at the same time been most forward in asserting a high authority in the House of Commons. When they knew who were to use that authority, and how it was to be employed, they thought it never could be carried too far. It must be always the wish of an unconstitutional statesman, that a House of Commons, who are entirely dependent upon him, should have every right of the people dependent upon their pleasure. IT WAS SOON DISCOVERED THAT THE FORMS OF A FREE AND THE ENDS OF AN ARBITRARY GOVERN MENT, WERE THINGS NOT ALTOGETHER IN COMPATIBLE. "The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and far less odium, under the name of influence. An influence, which operated without noise and without violence, an influence which converted the very antagonist into the instrument of power, which contained in itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation; and which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally tended to augment,was an admirable substitute for a prerogative, that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had moulded into its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system; the interest of active men in the state is a foundation perpetual and infallible."* Mr. Burke, therefore, in page 66, speaking of the same court party, says: "Parliament was indeed the great object of all these politics, the end at which they aimed, as well as the INSTRUMENT by which they were to operate."+ And pursuing the subject in page 70, proceeds as follows: "They who will not conform their conduct to the public good, and cannot support it by the prerogative of the crown, have adopted a new plan. They have totally abandoned the shattered and old-fashioned fortress of prerogative, and made a lodgment in the stronghold of parliament itself. If they have any evil design to which there is no ordinary legal power commensurate, they bring it into parliament. In parliament the whole is executed from the beginning to the end. In parliament the power of obtaining their object is absolute; and the safety in the proceeding perfect; no rules to confine, no after reckonings to terrify. Parliament cannot with any great propriety punish others for things in which they them Burke's Works, vol.2. p. 229, ed. of 1808. + Ibid. p. 286. Thus the selves have been ACCOMPLICES. control of parliament upon the executory power is lost; because parliament is made to partake in every considerable act of government. Impeachment, that great guardian of the purity of the constitution, is in danger of being lost even to the idea of it."* "Until this time, the opinion of the people, through the power of an assembly, still in some sort popular, led to the greatest honours and emoluments in the gift of the crown. Now the principle is reversed; and the favour of the court is the only sure way of obtaining and holding those honours which ought to be IN THE DISPOSAL OF THE PEOPLE." Mr. Burke, in page 100, observes with great truth, that the mischiefs he complained of, did not at all arise from the monarchy, but from the parliament, and that it was the duty of the people to look to it. He says, "The distempers of monarchy were the great subjects of apprehension and redress, in the last century; in this, the distempers of parliament." Not the distempers of parliament in this year or the last, but in this century, i. e. its settled habitual distemper. "It is not in parliament alone that the remedy for parliamentary disorders can be completed: hardly indeed can it begin there. Until a confidence in government is re-established, the people ought to be excited to a more strict and detailed attention to the conduct of their representatives. Standards for judging more systematically upon their conduct ought to be settled in the meetings of counties and corporations. Frequent and correct lists of the voters in all important questions ought to be procured. "By such means something may be done. By such means it may appear who those are, that, by an indiscriminate support of all administrations, have totally banished all integ rity and confidence out of public proceedings; have confounded the best men with the worst; and weakened and dissolved, instead of strengthening and compacting, the general frame of government."‡ I wish it were possible to read the whole of this most important volume-but the consequences of these truths contained in it were all eloquently summed up by the author in his speech upon the reform of the household. "But what I confess was uppermost with me, what I bent the whole force of my mind to, was the reduction of that corrupt influence which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which leads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigour from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution."§ The same important truths were held out to the whole public, upon a still later occasion, by the person now at the head of his majesty's councils; and so high (as it appears) in the confidence of the nation.* He, not in the abstract, like the author before you, but upon the spur of the occasion, and in the teeth of what had been just declared in the House of Commons, came to, and acted upon resolutions which are contained in this book+-resolutions pointed to the purification of a parliament, dangerously corrupted into the very state described by Mr. Paine. Remember here, too, that I impute no censurable conduct to Mr. Pitt.-It was the most brilliant passage in his life, and I should have thought his life a better one, if he had continued uniform in the support of opinions, which it is said he has not changed, and which certainly have had nothing to change them. But at all events, I have a right to make use of the authority of his splendid talents and high situation, not merely to protect the defendant, but the public, by resisting the precedent, that what one man may do in England with approbation and glory, shall conduct another man to a pillory or a prison. The abuses pointed out by the man before you, led that right hon. gentleman to associate with many others of high rank, under the banners of the duke of Richmond, whose name stands at the head of the list, and to pass various public resolutions, concerning the absolute necessity of purifying the House of Commons; and we collect the plan from a preamble entered in the book: "Whereas the life, liberty, and property of every man is or may be affected by the law of the land in which he lives, and every man is bound to pay obedience to the same : And whereas, by the constitution of this kingdom, the right of making laws is vested in three estates, of King, Lords, and Commons, in parliament assembled, and the consent of all the three said estates, comprehending the whole community is necessary to make laws to bind the whole community; and whereas the House of Commons represents all the Commons of the realm, and the consent of the House of Commons binds the consent of all the Commons of the realm, and in all cases on which the legislature is competent to decide: "And whereas no man is, or can be actually represented who hath not a vote in the election of his representative: "And whereas it is the right of every commoner of this realm (infants, persons of insane mind, and criminals incapacitated by law, only excepted) to have a vote in the election of the representative who is to give his consent to the making of laws by which he is to be bound: "And whereas the number of persons who * Mr. Pitt. + Mr. Erskine took up a book. VOL. XXII., are suffered to vote for electing the mer bers of the House of Commons, do not at tius time amount to one-sixth part of the whole Commons of this realm, whereby far the greater part of the said Commons are deprived of their right to elect their representatives; and the consent of the majority of the whole community to the passing of laws, is given by persons whom they have not delegated for such purposes; and to which the said majority have not in fact consented by themselves or by their representatives: "And whereas the state of election of members of the House of Commons, hath in process of time so grossly deviated from its simple and natural principle of representation and equality, that in several places the members are returned by the property of one man; that the smallest boroughs send as many members as the largest counties, and that a majority of the representatives of the whole nation are chosen by a number of votes not exceeding twelve thousand." These, with many others, were published, not as abstract, speculative writings, but within a few days after the House of Commons had declared that no such rights existed, and that no alteration was necessary in the representation. It was then that they met at the Thatched House, and published their opinions and resolutions to the country at large.-Were any of them prosecuted for these proceedings? Certainly not (for they were legal proceedings). But I desire you, as men of honour and truth, to compare all this with Mr. Paine's expression of the minister's touching parlia ment with his opiate wand, and let equal justice be done that is all I ask-let all be punished, or none-do not let Mr. Paine be held out to the contempt of the public upon the score of his observations on parliament, while others are enjoying all the sweets which attend a supposed attachment to their country, who have not only expressed the same sentiments, but have reduced their opinions to practice. But now every man is to be cried down for. such opinions. I observed that my learned friend significantly raised his voice in naming Mr. Horne Tooke, as if to connect him with Paine, or Paine with him. This is exactly the same course of justice;-for after all he said nothing of Mr. Tooke.--What could he have said, but that he was a man of preeminent talents, and a subscriber with the great names I have read in proceedings which they have thought fit to desert? Gentlemen, let others hold their opinions, and change them at their pleasure; I shall ever maintain it to be the dearest privilege of the people of Great Britain to watch over every thing that affects their happiness, either in the system of their government, or in the practice; and that for this purpose THE PRESS MUST BE FREE.-It has always been so, and much evil has been corrected by it. If government finds itself annoyed by it, let it 2 H examine its own conduct, and it will find the cause,―let it amend it, and it will find the remedy. Gentlemen, I am no friend to sarcasms in the discussion of grave subjects, but you must take writers according to the view of the mind at the moment; Mr. Burke as often as any body indulges in it:-hear his reason in his speech on reform, for not taking away the salaries from lords who attend upon the British court "You would soon," said he, "have the court deserted by all the nobility of the kingdom. With the same view I will read to you the beginning of Harrington's Oceana: but it is impossible to name this well-known author without exposing to just contempt and ridicule the ignorant or profligate misrepresentations which are vomited forth upon the public, to bear down every man as desperately wicked, who in any age or country has countenanced a republic, for the mean purpose of prejudging this trial. [Mr. Erskine took up a book, and laid it down again without reading from it, saying something to the gentleman who sat near him, in a low voice, which the reporter did not hear.] Is this the way to support the English constitution?-Are these the means by which Englishmen are to be taught to cherish it ?--I say, if the man upon trial were stained with blood instead of ink,-if he were covered over with crimes of which human nature would start at the naming, the means employed against him would not be the less disgraceful. "Sir, the most serious mischiefs would follow from such a desertion. Kings are naturally lovers of low company. They are so elevated above the rest of mankind, that they must look upon all their subjects as on a level. They are rather apt to hate than to love their nobility, on account of the occasional resistance to their will, which will be made by their virtue, their petulance, or their pride. It must indeed be admitted, that many of the nobility are as perfectly willing to act the part of flatterers, tale-bearers, parasites, For this notable purpose then, Harrington, pimps, and buffoons, as any of the lowest and not above a week ago,* was handed out to us vilest of mankind can possibly be.-But they as a low, obscure wretch, involved in the are not properly qualified for this object of murder of the monarch, and the destruction their ambition. The want of a regular edu- of the monarchy, and as addressing his decation, and early habits, with some lurking spicable works at the shrine of an usurper.remains of their dignity, will never permit Yet this very Harrington, this low blackguard, them to become a match for an Italian eu- was descended (you may see his pedigree at nuch, a mountebank, a fiddler, a player, or the Herald's office for sixpence) from eight any regular practitioner of that tribe.-The dukes, three marquisses, seventy earls, twentyRoman emperors, almost from the beginning, seven viscounts, and thirty-six barons, sixteen threw themselves inro such hands; and the of whom were knights of the garter; a descent mischief increased every day, till the decline, which I think would save a man from disgrace and final ruin of the empire. It is therefore in any of the Circles of Germany.-But what of very great importance (provided the thing was he besides? A BLOOD-STAINED RUFFIAN? is not overdone), to contrive such an esta--O brutal ignorance of the history of the blishment as must, almost whether a prince will or not, bring into daily and hourly offices about his person, a great number of his first nobility; and it is rather an useful prejudice that gives them a pride in such a servitude. Though they are not much the better for a court, a court will be much the better for them. I have, therefore, not attempted to reform any of the othcers of honour about the king's person."* What is all this but saying that a king is na animal so incurably addicted to low company, as generally to bring on by it the ruin of nations; but nevertheless, he is to be kept as a necessary evil, and his propensities bridled by surrounding him with a parcel of miscreants still worse if possible, but better than those he would choose for himself. This, therefore, if taken by itself, would be a most abominable and libellous sarcasm on kings and nobility: but look at the whole speech, and you observe a great system of regulation; and no man, I believe, ever doubted Mr. Burke's attachment to monarchy. To judge, therefore, of any part of a writing, THE WHOLE MUST BE READ. See New Parl. Hist. Vol. XXI. pp. 53, 54. country! He was the most affectionate servant of Charles the 1st, from whom he never concealed his opinions; for it is observed by Wood, that the king greatly affected his company; but when they happened to talk of a commonwealth, he would scarcely endure it. "I know not," says Toland, "which most to commend; the king, for trusting an honest man, though a republican; or IIarrington, for owning his principles while he served a king.". But did his opinions affect his conduct?Let history again answer. He preserved his fidelity to his unhappy prince to the very last, after all his fawning courtiers had left him to his enraged subjects.—He stayed with him while a prisoner in the Isle of Wight;-came up by stealth to follow the fortunes of his monarch and master;-even hid himself in the boot of the coach when he was conveyed to Windsor;-and ending as he began, fell into his arms and fainted on the scaffold. A pamphlet had been published just before, putting T. Paine and Harrington on the same footing-as obscure blackguards. Editor of Erskine's Speeches. After Charles's death, the Oceana was written, and, as if it were written from justice and affection to his memory: for it breathes the same noble and spirited regard, and asserts that it was not CHARLES that brought on the destruction of the monarchy, but the feeble and ill-constituted nature of monarchy itself. again, entering the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined to become great and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I sec, in my mind, a noble and puissant nation rousing herself, like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the But the book was a flattery to Cromwell.- full mid-day beam; purging and unscaling Once more and finally let history decide.- her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of The Oceana was seized by the usurper as a heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of libel, and the way it was recovered is remark- timorous and flocking birds, with those also able. I mention it to show that Cromwell that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed was a wise man in himself, and knew on at what she means, and in their envious gabwhat governments must stand for their sup-ble would prognosticate a year of sects and port. schisms." " Harrington waited on the protector's daughter to beg for his book, which her father had taken, and on entering her apartment, snatched up her child and ran away.On her following him with surprise and terror, he turned to her and said, "I know what you feel as a mother, feel then for ME; your father has got my child:" meaning the Oceana. The Oceana was afterwards restored on her petition: Cromwell answering with the sagacity of a sound politician, "Let him have his book; if my government is made to stand, it has nothing to fear from PAPER SHOT."-He said true.-No GOOD government will ever be battered by paper shot. Montesquieu says, that" in a free nation, it matters not whether individuals reason well or ill; it is sufficient that they do reason.-Truth arises from the collision, and from hence springs liberty, which is a security from the effect of reasoning." The attorney-general has read extracts from Mr. Adams's answer to this book.-Let others write answers to it, like Mr. Adams; I am not insisting upon the infallibility of Mr. Paine's doctrines; if they are erroneous, let them be answered, and truth will spring from the collision. Milton wisely says, that a disposition in a nation to this species of controversy, is no proof of sedition or degeneracy, but quite the reverse. [I omitted to cite the passage with the others.] In speaking of this subject, he rises into that inexpressibly sublime style of writing, wholly peculiar to himself. He was indeed no plagiary from any thing human; he looked up for light and expression, as he himself wonderfully describes it, by devout prayer to that great Being, who is the source of all utterance and knowledge; and who sendeth out his seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases.-" When the cheerfulness of the people," says this mighty poet, " is so sprightly up, as that it has not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us not degenerated nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption, to outlive these pangs, and wax young Gentlemen, what Milton only saw in his mighty imagination, I see in fact; what he expected, but which never came to pass, I see now fulfilling: methinks I see this noble and puissant nation, not degenerated and drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the wrinkled skin of corruption to put on again the vigor of her youth.-And it is, because others as well as myself see this, that we have all this uproar :-France and its constitution are the mere pretences. It is, because Britons begin to recollect the inheritance of their own constitution, left them by their ancestors :-it is, because they are awakened to the corruptions which have fallen upon its most valuable parts, that forsooth the nation is in danger of being destroyed by a single pamphlet.-I have marked the course of this alarm: it began with the renovation of those exertions for the public, which the alarmists themselves had originated and deserted; and they became louder and louder when they saw them avowed and supported by my admirable friend Mr. Fox; the most eminently honest and enlightened statesman, that history brings us acquainted with: a man whom to name is to honour, but whom in attempting adequately to describe, I must fly to Mr. Burke, my constant refuge when eloquence is necessary :-a man who, to relieve the sufferings of the most distant nation, "put to hazard his ease, his security, his interest, his power, even his darling popularity for the benefit of a people whom he had never seen."+ How much more then for the inhabitants of his native country!-yet this is the man who has been censured and disavowed in the manner we have lately seen. Gentlemen, I have but a few more words to trouble you with: I take my leave of you with declaring, that all this freedom which I have been endeavouring to assert, is no more than the ancient freedom which belongs to our own inbred constitution: I have not asked you to acquit Thomas Paine upon any new Areopagitica. See Milton's Prose Works, by Birch, vol. 1, p. 168, 4to edit. of 1753. + Speech on the motion for going into a committee on Mr. Fox's India Bill. New Parl, Hist. Vol. XXIII, p. 1384. |