within this kingdom essentially depend. If the power of the House of Commons be degraded or enervated, no other can stand. We must be true to ourselves. We ought to animadvert upon any of our members who abuse the trust we place in them; we must support those who, without regard to consequences, perform their duty. "With regard to the matter which I am now submitting to your consideration, I must say for your committee of managers and for myself, that the Report was deliberately made, and does not, as I conceive, contain any very material error, nor any undue or indecent reflection upon any person or persons whatever. It does not accuse the judges of ignorance 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 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, nor have found them entered upon the journals of the House of Lords. It is very true, that we were and are extremely dissatisfied with those opinions, and the consequent determinations of the lords; and we do not think 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 maintain every thing of substance in that paper, I shall be ready to meet the proudest name for 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 public 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. |