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crifis, and fuch a fituation, to throw themselves into offices, for the fake of the falaries of them, without the power, will ever in any manner refift the hand that raifed them, and can difimifs them?-If it should be afked, how they came to be admitted without agreeing to thofe laft conditions which lord Temple refufed, the answer is obvious; they offered no ftipulations either on behalf of the public or themselves; and if they had, it would have been impoffible to take the very terms which had been so refused; that would have been too fignal a proof of the favourite's power; but as they were known to be mere worldly men, and would never go against their intereft, it was taken for granted they would a with lefs hoftility towards the favourite, than any other fet of men whatever. And has not the fact proved the fuppofition to have been rightly founded? Have they dared to difmifs his friends? On the contrary, is he not fill in the meridian of his power? And does not his influence continue in as full and ample a manner as at any other period fince his acceffion to power? And has it not been exerted, with as many indignities to the prefent administration, as ever it was to the laft? And have they either courage or virtue to oppofe him? We daily fee they have not. They are appearances only which, for certain reafons, have been changed; realities continue, and are meant ftill to continue.

King's Speech on opening the Seffion, glances at Troubles likely to arife in the American Colonies. Original Queftion concerning the legality of general Warrants revived in the House of Commons. Amendments to it carried. Previous

Queftion touching the Propriety of determining it in its new Form. New Arguments on the Occafion by both Parties. Previous Question paffes in the Negative.

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for their mutual benefit and fupport, it mentioned no amendment in any former regulations relating to that subject; but, on the contrary, a reliance on the firmnefs and wisdom of parliament, in promoting the proper refpect and obedience due to the laws, and the legislative authority of Great Britain; the bringing of which into question had been much better avoided, fince fuch a debate could have no iffue, but what must be highly prejudicial to the mother country, especially after an unquestioned exercise of such authority. Decided in the affirmative, it must tend to alienate the affections of the colonies; in the negative, to increase their prefumption; and left undecided, breed in them a complication of both thefe, evils.

But before another blow could be ftruck at the colonies, another was levelled at the miniftry. On Jan. 29th, 1765, the original queftion concerning the lega lity of general warrants, for apprehending and feizing the authors, printers and publifhers of feditious libels, together with their papers, was revived without any qualification, as to the former practice of fecretaries of ftate, and acquiefcence of the court of king's-bench, or rather of the parties fuing in that court for the benefit of the habeas corpus act, in the legality of fuch warrants. But, happily for the nation, befides the two parties, one of which feemed determined to fupport the miniftry at any rate, and the there ftill exifted a third, if it may be other, at any rate, to pull them down, called a party, who, wifely confidering, had ever been remifs in affairs of this nathat the ordinary courts of justice, if they ture, were now fo much the contrary, as

by no means to require any refolution of a houfe of commons to quicken them, got the original motion fo amended in the preceding feffion, as to occafion debates,

that ended in the difmiffion of it; and now, improving upon themfelves, had it altered to a fo much more indigestible form, as rendered it, in fome fort, neceffary to put the previous question, whe ther it should at all be debated; and, when that question came to be put, had weight enough to make it pafs in the negative. The previous question, in which the amendment, or rather alteration, is included, stood as follows:

"That, in the particular cafe of libels. Хуу

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it is proper and neceffary to fix, by a vote venting opprobrious scandals against his of the house only, what ought to be majesty's perfon, and that he had traducdeemed the law, in refpect to general war- ed both houfes of parliament; and the rants; and, for that purpose, at a time judges being ordered to give their opinion when the determination of the legality of whether this be treafon or no, they unafuch warrants, in the inftance of a moft nimously agreed, that, if the matters alfeditious and treasonable libel, is actually ledged in the charge were admitted to he depending before the courts of law,' for true, although alledged to be traiterously the houfe to declare that a general war- done, yet there was no treafon in it; rant, for apprehending the authors, prin- that, independent of this argument, and ters, or publishers, of a libel, together only allowing that feditioulnefs, nay treawith their papers, is not warranted by fonableness, is often but mere matter of law, and is an high violation of the liberty opinion, and murder a matter of fact, of the fubject." yet no coroner, till within a few years, .. The decifion, however, of this impor- even after the finding of a murder by the tant queftion was not carried without a joint opinion of twelve difinterelted pervery long and warm debate concerning the fons, a much more refpectable tribunal nature of trealon; the illegality of gene- than any two minilters of ftate, was ever ral warrants in any cafe; the actual pen- known to iffue a general warrant for apdency, before the ordinary courts of ju prehending the unknown perpetrators of tice, of a cafe fimilar to that upon which it; that, if the legiflature thought, that it was propofed the house should now pro- fuch libels, as minitters might think pronounce; and, in fine, the propriety of per to confider as feditious and treaionthe house's pronouncing, when it had it- able, required equal restraint, they would feif allowed the existence of that circum- certainly have provided for it; that, to ftance; and, as it was impoffible, that it prove it was not through any inattention hould hold out fo long upon the argu- (not that any inattention in the making pients which before fupported it, and the of laws can excufe any neglect in the midifference in the alteration was alone fuf- niftration of them) of the legislature, ficient to give room to new ones, many fuch provifion was omitted, at the paffing new ones were made ufe of. For, as of an act at the time of the revolution for there was no law, totidem verbis, to de- fufpending the habeas corpus act, by termine any of thefe points, recourfe was granting the king a power to fecure and had to the fpirit of the conftitution, detain fuch perfons as his majefty might Parliamentary refolutions were brought fufpect were confpiring against his perfon, againft parliamentary refolutions; judi- every fuch warrant for detaining and apcial decrees against judicial decrees; opi- prehending any fufpected perfon was to nions of able lawyers against the opinions be figned by fix members of the privy of others equally able; parities against council, and to be, befides, registered in parities; and all of them, refolutions, the council books, in order to make fuch decrees, opinions, parities, one promif- members aniwerable for every warrant cuously against another; the principal ar- they figned. guments made ufe of on this occafion both within and without doors were as follow.

It was urged, that, in the reign of king Charles the fecond, when, if the laws themselves were not fo favourable to the real dignity of the monarch, the minitters of them must be allowed to have been more liable to lean towards his interefts, and in an affair, in which the monarch's caufe was made a common caufe with that of both houfes of parliament, the ear of Briftol having exhibited a charge of treafon against the earl of Clarendon, and alledged, that the faid earl of Clarendon had endeavoured to alienate the affections of his majelty's lubjects, by

That, if fince that time, in order to prevent the growth of a moft alarming evil, the great number of rogues and vagabonds, it has been thought proper by the legislature, to direct and authorize general privy fearches for fuch peits of fociety, yet no perfon fufpected of being either can be committed, if he can procure a refponfible houfe-keeper to give fe curity for his future appearance; or be detained above fix days, if committed on fufpicion of felony, unleis fome accufation is, in the mean time, brought against him.

That, if general warrants defcribing the offence do not give officers in general

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a right to Teize the innocent, they throw in the way of meffengers, who are to be well paid for taking care of the offender's perfon, a temptation to enquire into the character and life of all perfons, and thus tend, in fome fhape, to convert thefe fubordinate minifters of justice into fo many fpies and informers; that fuch an enquiry, even when conducted in the difcreetelt manner, might injure the most virtuous in their reputation and fortune.

That, if a general warrant for feizing the authors, printers, and publishers of a Jibel, feditious and treasonable in the eye of a minifter, was liable to fo many objections, one for feizing their papers was till more fo, fince papers, though often dearer to a man than his heart's blood, and equally clofe, have neither eyes nor ears to perceive the injury done them, nor tongue to complain of it, and, of courfe, may be treated in a degree highly injurious to the owners before they can get into the hands of a minifter; and that, though a minifter may have lefs temptation to fatiate avarice by the garbling of fuch papers, he may have, what is a great 'deal worse, a much tronger to glut his revenge by combining or disjoining them, fo as to make of them engines capable of working the destruction of the most inno'cent perfons.

That even a particular warrant to feize feditious papers alone, without mentioning the titles of them, may prove highly detrimental, fince in that cafe all a man's 'papers must be indifcriminately examined, and fuch examination may bring things to light, which it may not concern the public to know, and which yet it may prove highly detrimental to the owner to have made public; that of this there had happened a moft flagrant inftance in the cafe of one of thofe perfons, the apprehenfion of whom and of his papers had originally given rife to this debate; fome letters of his, no way relative to the public, having tranfpired foon after the execution of the warrant against him and his papers.

That, great as the mischiefs might be, with which general warrants for feizing the perfons and papers of thofe guilty of writing feditious and even treafondble libels must be attended to individuals, thofe attending general warrants against the printers and publishers of fuch libels, unless thefe libels carry fomething fedi

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tious or treafonable in the very title, or they have been legally declared tuch, mult be ftill greater to the public, fince in that cafe printers and publishers, to be fafe, muit read every thing that goes through their hands; and of courfe would print and publish very little; the confequence of which must be a fuppreffion of the prefs, an evil more prejudicial to the public than almoft any abuse of it can be; that fuch printers and publifhers cannot be confidered in as bad a light as talebearers, fince it is impoffible for a man to tell a thing without knowing what it is he tells, whereas no printer or publisher can be fuppofed to know what every thing is that he prints or publishes; and, notwithitanding, by the laws of fome of our wifelt Saxon monarchs, the tale bearer was to be kept in prifon, only till he gave up his author; for, that a printer or pub

her of an offenfive paper ought not to be feized, and detained till he gave up the writer, was not in the least pretended by thein.

That the cafes, if any, in which it might be proper to endeavour to fecure, by a general warrant, the perfons, and, by almost any warrant, the papers, of thofe concerned in the writing, printing and publifhing of feditious, and what a minifter might think proper to tile treasonable, libels, were fo few, that they might be justly ranked amongst thofe very uncommon events, against which the legislature has not thought proper to make vifion; because the providing against all any profuch uncommon events would fwell the law to an intolerable degree; that, befides, it was almoft impoffible to imagine any cafe, in which every evil, with which fuch practices could be attended, might not be feasonably enough remedied, and even prevented, by the prefentment of a grand jury; or, at worst, an information in the court of king's bench.

Such were the arguments now urged against minifters too freely attributing treafon to libels, and their granting general warrants for feizing the perfons and papers of the authors, printers and publifhers of feditious libels, and even fuch libels, as they might think proper to deem treasonable; and in both refpects they muft be allowed to have great weight, confidering how much more the fcale preponderates at prefent towards the fafety of the people than the grandeur of the prince.

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For there is great reason to think, that, in fome periods of English history, the im. putation not only of fedition, but even treafon, might have ftuck to the writings now ftigmatized as fuch by the ministers, whole friends accordingly did not fail to make use of them.

There is, faid they, in the ftatute called Weftminster, chap. 24. a law against teiling or publishing any falfe news or tales, whereby difcord, or occafion of difcord, or flander, might grow between the king and his people, or the great men of the realm; and the fo doing was reckoned fedition in the reign of that nursing mother of her people queen Elizabeth; and, as to the danger of hurting the reputation or fortune of innocent men, by encouraging an enquiry into the commitment of fome offences, there is frequent mention made in the English records of the king's fending orders to theriffs or other magiftrates to enquire into fome particu. lar fort of crime, then commonly committed within their district, and to feize and imprison the offenders; and, at the time of iffuing the general warrants that have given rife to this debate, what crime could be more common than that of telling or publishing falfe news and tales, whereby difcord, or occafion of difcord, or flander, might grow between the king and his people, and the great men of the realm?

That, in the cafe of offences not near fo grievous, it has been an immemorial cuftom to disturb the peace of a whole country by that folemn alarm called hue and cry, and thereby make it lawful for all inhabitants to stop, and all magiftrates to enquire into the character of, every ftranger, for the fake of finding out one fingle delinquent.

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That to question the legality of general warrants, would be impeaching the character of the highest and moit refpectable tribunal, next to the houfe of lords, in the whole realm; a tribunal, whofe judges for many years paft, that general warrants have been in ufe, have been allowed to be men of the foundest capacity and most unbyaffed integrity, fince it is not to be fuppofed, that they, who are always, even by the law, fuppofed to be of council for the prifoner, and cannot, therefore, but confider themselves as fuch, should overlook any flaw in an order to deprive a man of his liberty, though not taken no

tice of by the council of his own appointment; men, who have been not only fo attentive to the fpirit and letter of the law, as often to decide cafes on motives never urged by the council of either plaintiff or defendant, but fo watchful of the very fhadow of it, as fometimes to dif mifs caufes for want of a fcrupulous compliance with mere exterior forms.

That, befides, it could not but be fuppofed, that inany of the council employed on thefe occafions were lovers of liberty and very able lawyers, and that the filence of fuch men is, alone, of great weight, in the opinion of a chief justice, whofe capacity and integrity their adver faries themselves, they were fure, could not fufpect; an opinion, folemnly delivered from the bench, and in that cause too, which originally gave rise to the prefent debate. See p. 454.

That, if a law, made at the revolution, in the reign of William III. who is univerfully allowed to have been as jealous of the prerogative of the crown as was confiftent with the fecurity of his newacquired poffeffion of it, required that warrants, granted during the fufpenfion of the habeas corpus act for the detaining or apprehending of fuch perfons as his majetty hould fufpect were confpiring againft his perfon or government, should be figned by fix of the privy council; the laft act paffed for the fame purpose required, that fuch warrants fhould be figned either by fix of the privy council, or one of the fecretaries of state, by which the high authority of that office, which fo many perfons affected to confider in a mean light, is, if not recognized, at least established, fince it is thereby made equal to that of fix members of the privy council; fix men, whofe perfons, next to thofe of the royal family, are held most facred, a bare attempt upon their lives being felony without benefit of the clergy.

That it must appear very extraordinary, if not ridiculous, that a house of commons, which had made no law for the relief of the most innocent perforts even in domeftic life, closely confined and cruelly treated in private mad-houfes, without any judicial proofs of infanity, and merely at the inftigation of perfons no way related to them, or only related to them enough to have an interest in their confinement and death, and could

overlook fo great an evil notwithstanding juftice could be expected without throw the flagrant proofs of its actual existence, ing fome powerful temptation in the way fhould now take fo much pains to declare of the plaintiff, as in cafes of ufury and illegal the comparatively moft mild de- fmuggling, it ought to be by an act of tention of fuppofed offenders against the the legislature, and not the determination public, by orders of perfons fo high in of any particular tribunal, whofe decifidignity, and in the confidence of the ons in fuch cafes must be confidered by ail prince, and even of the legislature, as ap- fober men as little lefs arbitrary and unpears by the above law to make the opi- conftitutional than those of a star-chamnion of one of them equal to that of fix ber. privy counsellors; men of fuch justice and humanity, that, in difmiffing the perfons confined in virtue of their warrants, they feldom or never failed to enquire of themfelves, if they had received the full benefit of the ample allowance made for their fupport, and feverely to refent any mifapplication of it.

What the friends of the miniftry might want in thefe arguments against the illegality of general warrants, &c. they made up, perhaps, in thofe for the propriety of Rating the question, as a question now depending before the ordinary courts of juftice in Weftminster hall. They re marked, that, if the proceedings there against the fecretaries of state met with any obftacle, it was entirely owing to the parties feeking redrefs; who, in an offence deemed even by the oppofite party to be of a public nature, chofe, from a principle of avarice, to be plaintiffs for themfelves, rather than profecutors for the public; and accordingly, had recourfe to a court eftablished for the diftribution of civil justice, merely because they faw that court give as damages to the plaintiffs, what, in a higher court eftabiifhed for the infliction of vindictive juftice, would have been exacted as a fine to the public, though they could not but know, that, in the court to which they applied, their proceedings were liable to be topped by privilege of peerage; that the giving of fuch heavy damages could not be deemed entirely the act of a jury independent of the bench, fince, on a motion to have fuch damages reduced as exorbitant, they were confirmed by the bench independent of a jury.

That, if any refolution was wanting, it feemed to be one for keeping diftinct thefe departments of juftice, and preventing any court's giving as damages to plaintiffs, what had ever been confidered as fines upon criminals; that, if this was to be done, the propriety of which they did not deny in many cafes, where no

As to the propriety of the houfe's coming to any refolution upon this affair, when ftated by the houfe itself as actually depending in the ordinary courts of justice, it was urged, that it was no more than what had been lately done in the cafe of Mr. Wilkes; when writings were voted libellous by the houfe, and he the author of them, and all without any proof upon oath, though at the very fame time that gentleman was under a profecution for them as libellous in the court of king'sbench; and confequently, both judges and jury might have been influenced by fuch refolution in their determinations concerning the nature of the offence and the perfon of the offender.

To this anfwer was made, that it was impoffible for the houfe not to come to fome refolution on that occafion, fince the perfon accufed was a member of it, and, by claiming privilege as fuch, could not but be conftrued to have voluntarily fubmitted to the jurifdiction of the house; that this, befides, was a particular cafe, in which the house acted more like an inqueft or grand jury, whofe decision was not to influence the petty jury, than as a court of juftice, whofe decifions were to be final and conclufive, and only claimed that jurifdiction over its own members, which fo many inferior bodies of men have been always allowed over theirs; whereas the propofed declaration againft the legality of general warrants is very general in its tendency; fo general as, in fome refpects, to be liable to the fame objections with the general warrants of fecretaries of ftate, merely as fuch.

Opportunity given the colonies to offer a compenfation for the ftamp duty, and to eftablish a precedent for their being confulted, before any tax was imposed upon them by parliament; rejected. Vote of laft feffion for the propriety of laying a Stamp duty upon them taken up again. Debates concerning the right of the Bri

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