ally does govern at any particular time: ---One is the criterion by which we are to try the other, and we have an undoubted right to try it by that Randard; for according to thole fixed principles, our kings are as much fubfervient to the laws of the conftitution, as we are fubject to their government; and their conformity or non-conformity to the one, prescribes our measure of fubmiffion to the other. Allowing this diftinction, my Lord, I am bold enough to affirm that our conftitution is univerfally beloved, and our government univerfally defpifed; and when adminiftration is contemned by a free people, there is but a fhort step to anarchy. Contempt naturally degenerates into hatred--- Deteftation begets diffidence--Sufpicion engenders indignation --Rage breaks out in violent and fudden commotions and the confequences of popular tumult are too obvious to be mentioned too lamentable not to be dreaded --- and, I fear, too near a crifis to be avoided: Yet it is most devoutly to be wished that the peo -- -- ple will never be wanting in their refpect to the crown, fo much as to confound the caufe of the king with the cause of you, his minister. To conclude, my Lord. From the opinion I entertain of your fagacity, and from that attachment you have always fhewn to your own interest during the courfe of your adminiftration, I flatter myself if you have not honefty, you have at leaft fenfe enough to retire in time, before the measure of your iniquities be entirely filled by the ruin of your country.---From the favour of your prince, and from the humanity of the people, you may still expect impunity; but if not yet fatisfied with the wounds you have given the conftitution---if you are refolved to make it expire under your adminiftration, this unhappy kingdom may for a while groan under the fevere preffure of tyranny, but it will again revert to its first principles; while you are fure to entail mifery on your whole race, and indelible infamy on your memory. TULLIUS. The Subftance of a Confultation held by the Grand Lama and his Minifters. Grand Lama. WELL, my Lords, the Petition is at last arrived, and an elegant Piece of compofition it is. But, to do it juftice, what it wants in elegance, it makes up in i -e. However, my Lord Bloody-fcrawl, I followed your advice, and received it with the moft mortifying indifference. Harry Double-Tongue. There your Sublime Holiness acted like yourself. I have always admired that rigid inflexibility of feature, that dignified uprightnefs of posture, and that princely unpliability of limbs, which diftinguish your godfhip on all public occafions. I have feen you at your acceffion, when the foolish and ignorant multitude imagined, as is ufual at the commencement of every reign, that you would not, like the gods of Epicurus, live at your ease in the intermundia, minding nothing but the grofs pleasures of the table, the ener vating careffes of the fair, and the fulfome incenfe of flatterers; I fay, I have feen you then, at the public theatre, receive the loudeft and heartieft fhouts of acclamation, with the fame unaltered ferenity of countenance, with which you feem to harangue the merchants at the 'Change. Grand Lama. I have always ftudied to fupport my dignity, and infpire that reverential awe, which grovelling reptiles ought to entertain for beings of a fuperior nature. All. What a noble fentiment! The Thunderer never fpoke fuch a fentence: if your Sublimity had not adhered to this maxim, they might have treated you with the fame indignity, with which the croaking gentry honoured King Log. Grand Lama. Very juft; and therefore I must keep them at a due di ftance. But to the Petition Lord Bloody The Subfiance of a Confultation, &c. Bloody-feral reads it. We your Mightinefs's dutiful and loyal subjects Harry Double-tongue. Very dutiful and loyal indeed! to act thus in direct contradiction to the known and avowed fenfe of his Sublimity and his Divan; and withal exceedingly humble, to fet their face against his indefeasible right of doing what he pleases. Bloody-fcrawl reads. "Beg leave to lay before you fome of thofe intolerable grievances we fuffer from the worft of counsellors." The Horfe-whipped Duke. Infufferable infolence! These words fhall coft them dear. Bloody-fcrawl, do you write to Juftice What d'ye call 'um, him that we faved from the gallows, another warrant to M- e; and you, Lord Thank'em, prepare another letter of acknowledgment, from his Sublimity to the Third R -t. Bloody-fcrawl. "Namely, the attempts made to deftroy that conftitution, to the fpirit of which we owe the relation between your Mightinefs and us." All. Treafon! Treason! rank Treafon ! Jemmy Twitcher. Ay, rank treafon indeed a flagrant attack on his Sublimity's divine hereditary right. Bloody-fcrawl. "The invafion of our unalienable right of trial by Jury." Lord Jefferies. Why, they fly in the face of all court-law. We muft abfolutely file an information against thefe levellers, and get them attached. If every caufe must be tried by jury, it is in vain your Sublimity expects your courts of juftice, or whatever you please to call them, will be able to carry even your moft favourite points by dint of fophiftical arguments, and by endeavouring to perfuade the jury the affair is above their comprehenfion. Befides the arch-rebels,that are fheriffs elect, will pitch upon ftiff, unmanageable fellows, whofe low-born fouls will pretend to fenfe, honour and confcience, fo that it will be impracticable to pack a jury, as usual,or browbeat evidence, or pervert law with any profpe&t of fuccefs. For thefe reafons it is my opinion, that they thould be directly attached, and confined for life without trial, judge, or jury. Chanc-r Turncoat. Softly, foftly, Jefferies, don't you fee that neither the Grand Lama's Bench, nor all the prifons in the kingdom will be able to hold three quarters of the delinquents? Jefferies. Gad fo! brother Turncoat, you are right.-O for dictatorial authority to decimate the wretches! However we must abfolutely get rid of juries they are the most troublefome inftitution to judges, and other great men, that would be above law, that ever was invented you will find them a heavier rod of iron over our backs, than the General Warrants you were forced to explode were over the people of Tartary. What do you advife to be done? Chan-r Turncoat. Whatever feemeth good to the Grand Lama: in him I live, breathe, and have my being; and will not you all fay, Amen? All. Amen. Bloody-ferawl. "All this they have done by corruption, and the embezzlement of the public treasure." Double-tongu. Mercy on us; How daring their expreffions are! Sure I am not betrayed by Mungo, nor any other of my rafcals. Do you think they can produce any proof of this charge? I am afraid we have fome Judas among us. If his Sublimity does not ftand by me, I fhall be exalted higher than Mordecai; they will think the bar of the Temple too low for my head: they will hardly be satisfied with fixing it on a monument. Sure there is a fatality attending our family; even thofe of the baftard line are not exempted Charles! 114 O Charles! Bloody-fcrawl. But muft the defaulter of unaccounted millions be refigned into their hands? Chan-r Turncoat. What! old Reynard? Bloody-ferawl. The fame. Chanr Turncoat. Heaven for bid! why the Fox would outreach us all: he would turn evidence, and hang above half the majority. No, no his Sublimity must be more refolute on that head than any other; elfe all the mysteries of state will be divulged: the law of parliament, and all the fchemes founded on it will fall to the ground, ground. And what is worse than all, All Agreed. Agreed. My LORD, my little Jew-phiz ply the grand engine of bribery and corruption, as ufual: do you, Jefferies, mind your informations and attachments: Bloody-fcrawl, do you make out Warrants for M- where and whenever they are wanted: do you, Thank'em, applaud in my name thofe, who put the warrants in execution; and you, Turncoat, do you prove all their exploits legal and conftitutional. LETTER to a Bp. JUNIUS BRUTUS. friends; if he will call them his friends, who are of a fpirit fo contrary to his. It is really a misfortune to a pious young clergyman to enter into an e- family; the religious fpirit he brought with him runs great hazard of being extinguished by the rubbish his good father-in-law will be haftening to heap upon him: rich benefices, prebends, deaneries, &c. are in his paternal eye only portions for his amiable daughters.--- Pudet hæc cpfrobria, &c. Thefe fcandals are too public to be concealed, too mischievous to pafs uncenfured; but it is to be feared too prevalent to be reformed. W That this foul ruft may be rubbed off from our Golden Candlesticks, and they fhine again in their native brightnefs, is the hearty with of, REVERIE WE E have been faved against wicked and corrupt King's by honest and uncorrupt Parliaments; against difhoneft and corrupt Parliaments, by the power of a good King prudently exerted; and we have been faved by a House of Lords when the Prince and Commons feemed determined to deprive us of our liberties. Quere. What fupernatural power muft step in at the prefent juncture? Rufinus, a native of Gaul, Minifter under Theodofius the Great, fell a facrifice to popular rage. The multitude My Lord, Your humble fervant, S. tore him into a thousand pieces; and though his death was violent, yet it was natural; for however wife men may condemn fuch extrajudicial punifhments, it is fometimes impoffible to restrain the fury of the people, when they find themfelves grievously oppreffed, and deprived of all other means of redress. Rapin fays, that Henry III. fuffered himself to be led blindfold by his minifters, who abused the eafinefs of his temper, and the weakness of his capacity, to Concerning the Right of Election, &c. to make their own fortunes, without the leaft regard to the liberties of the fubject, or the intereft of their mafter. Themistocles being defired at a feaft, to touch a lute, faid he could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great city. On the contrary, there may be found ftatefmen in thefe days, that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet are fo far from being able to make a fmall ftate great, that their gift lies another way; they can bring a flourishing eftate to ruin and decay. Kings and Bears often worry their keepers, is one of our English Proverbs; and the truth of it is confirmed by a thousand inftances in hiftory, and ought to be a warning to all bad minifers: Some of whom have been so fenfible of their danger, that they have ufed their mafters little better than Bears, keeping them almost constantly muzzled and tied up, till they grow very tame, and find it for their advantage to lead them about themfelves. A certain noble statefman (once a Letter concerning the A Great deal of ufelefs argument might have been faved, in the political conteft, which has arifen upon the expulfion of Mr. Wilkes, and the fubfequent appointment of Mr. Luttrell, if the question had been once ftated with precifion, to the fatisfaction of each party, and clearly underftood by them both. But in this, as in almost every other difpute, it ufually happens that much time is loft in referring to a multitude of cafes and precedents, which prove nothing to the purpofe; or in maintaining propofitions, which are either not difputed, or, whether they be admitted or denied, are entirely indifferent as to the matter in debate, until at laft the mind, perplext and confounded with the endless fubtleties of controverfy, lofes fight of the main question, and never arrives at truth. Both parties in the difpute are apt enough to practise these difhoneft artifices. The iman, who is confcious of the weak nefs of his caufe, is interested in conVOL. III. 25 great commoner) can neither be a good man, nor a virtuous citizen, or he would not, all this while, have kept quiet, nor meddled neither way, when civil difcord has raged, and when his fellow citizens are divided into ftrong and powerful factions among themselves; that instead of a little felfifh cunning, in thinking it a wifer part to lie by till the ftorm is blown over, he ought to use his utmost endeavours to calm thefe tumults, and be an active mediator to reconcile differences; that he fhould bend all his faculties to fet thofe right who are pursuing measures deftructive of the public good, and to perfuade them to facrifice to their country's fafety, resentments of every kind whatever : not forgetting, that Solon, the Athenian, made a law which branded with infamy those who in times of civil fedition, flood neuter; thefe are fuch men as are half honeft, which my Lord Rochefter fays, is being very great kna-ves. Right of Election, &c. cealing it; and on the other fide it is not uncommon to fee a good cause mangled by advocates, who do not know the real strength of it. I fhould be glad to know, for inftance, to what purpose, in the present cafe, fo many precedents have been produced to prove, that the house of commons have a right to expell one of their own members; that it belongs to them to judge of the validity of elections; --- or that the law of Parliament is part of the law of the land. After all these propofitions are admitted, Mr. Luttrell's right to his feat will continue to be just as difputable as it was before. Not one of them is at prefent in agitation. Let it be admitted that the houfe of commons were authorised to expel Mr. Wilkes ; -- that they are the proper court to judge of elections; --- and that the law of parliament is binding upon the people. Still it remains to be enquired, whether the house, by their refolution in favour of Mr. Luttrell, D have have or have not truly declared that law. To facilitate this inquiry, I would have the question cleared of all foreign or indifferent matter. The following ftate of it will probably be thought a fair one by both parties; and then I imagine there is no gentleman in this country, who will not be capable of forming a judicious and true opinion upon it. I take the quetion to be strictly this: "Whether or no it be the known established "faw of parliament, that the expul"fion of a member of the house of commons, of itself, creates in him "fuch an incapacity to be re-elected, that, at a fubfequent election, any "votes given to him are null and "void; and that any other candidate, "who, except the perfon expelled, has the greatest number of votes, ought to be the fitting member." To prove that the affirmative is the law of parliament, I apprehend it is not sufficient for the prefent Houfe of Commons to declare it to be fo. We may shut our eyes indeed to the dan gerous confequences of fuffering one branch of the legiflature to declare new laws, without argument or example, and it may perhaps be prudent enough to fubmit to authority; but a mere affertion will never convince much lefs will it be thought reafonable to prove the right by the fact itfelf. The miniftry have not yet pretended to fuch a tyranny over our minds. To fupport the affirmative fairly, it will either be neceflary to produce fome ftatute, in which that politive provifion fhall have been made, that specific difability clearly created, and the contequences of it declared; or if there be no fuch ftatute, the cuftom of parliament must then be referred to, and fome cafe or cafes, ftrictly in point, must be produced, with the decifion of the court upon them.; for I readily admit that the cuftom of parliament, once clearly proved, is equally binding with the common and ftatute law. The confideration of what may be reasonable or unreasonable, makes no part of this question. We are en Guiring what the law is, not what it ought to be. Reafon may be applied to fhew the impropriety or expedience of a law, but we must have either ftatute or precedent to prove the existence of it. At the fame time I do not mean to admit that the late refolution of the House of Commons is defenfible on general principles of reafon, any more than in law. This is not the hinge on which the debate turns. Suppofing, therefore, that I have laid down an accurate fate of the question, I will venture to affirm, rft, That there is no ftatute exifting, by which that specific difability, which we speak of, is created. If there be, let it be produced. The argument will then be at an end. adly, That there is no precedent in all the proceedings of the Houfe of Commons, which comes entirely honre to the prefent cafe, viz. where an expelled member has been returned "again, and another candidate, with inferior number of votes, has "been declared the fitting member." If there be fuch a precedent, let it be given to us plainly, and I am fure it will have more weight than all the cunning arguments, which have been drawn from inferences and probabilities. in The ministry, in that laborious pamphlet, which I prefume contains the whole ftrength of the party, have declared "That Mr. Walpole's wis "the first and only instance, "which the electors of any county or "borough had returned a person ex"pelled to ferve in the fame parlia "ment." It is not poffible to conceive a cafe more exactly in point. Mr. Walpole was expelled; and having a majority of votes at the next election, was returned again. The friends of Mr. Taylor, a candidate fet up by the miniftry, petitioned the. Houfe, that he might be the fitting member. Thus far the circumftantes tally exactly, except that our Houfe of Commons faved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of petitioning. The point of law however was the fame. It came regularly before the House, and it was their bufinefs to determine upon it. They did determine it, for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly elected. If it be faid that they meant this refo lution as matter of favour and indul |