authority, new modelled or repealed a regulation made CHA P. by the parliament of Great Britain ®. XIII. 1766. IN fome other provinces, the act was no better received; and, probably, the zeal of the military in Conduct of support of government, occafioned this difplay of other prorefentment in the affemblies. In Ducheffe county, vinces. being called in to affift the civil power, they were fired on by the mob, and compelled, in their own defence to wound fome of the affailants. In New Aug. 1766. York, fome foldiers attempting to cut down the tree of liberty, erected by the inhabitants as a token of triumph on the repeal of the stamp act, the populace refifted, and blood would have been fhed, had not the moderate difpofition of the commanding officer and magiftrates effected an amicable adjustment. Indies. WHILE thus, in America, a momentary concilia- Difafters tion produced no beneficial effects, the Weft India in the Weft iflands, where the inhabitants fympathized with the American colonists in refifting the ftamp act, were reduced to great distress by the formidable devastations 13th Aug. of a hurricane, which began at Martinique, and extended its ravages to feveral of the leeward islands. England. LORD CHATHAM's miniftry commenced under in- Scarcity of aufpicious circumftances. From an uninterrupted fucceffion of rain, the harveft failed in all parts of England; the price of bread was confiderably advanced; and as a fimilar fcarcity prevailed on the continent, great alarms were entertained, left by combinations of monopolifts, foreftallers, and regraters, and by an unlimited exportation for profit, the country should suffer the miseries of famine. In confequence of these apprehenfions, tumults were excited in many parts of the kingdom, which were not repreffed without the aid of the military. A proclamation was iffued against foreftallers and regraters, but that meafure not being deemed Andrews' Hiftory of the American War, vol. i. p. 78. f Almon's Collection of Papers, vol. i p. 101. Special commiffions were afterward iffued for the trial of the rioters, and fome of them paid for their indifcretion with their lives, though many received conditional, and fome free, pardons. S 3 fufficiently XIII. 1766. CHA P. fufficiently ftrong, and the city of London having reprefented to the throne that orders were received for the exportation of large quantities of wheat, while the company of bakers had applied to the city magistrates to prevent a diminution of the small stock of old corn left in the kingdom, the privy council prohibited the export, and laid an embargo on fhips preparing to fail with cargoes of grain. Lord Chatham was prevented by illness from attending the council, but, in writing, recommended the measure h. Embargo Jaid. Meeting of 1th Nov. THE fcarcity formed the principal topic of the King's parliament. fpeech, and was affigned as a reafon for convening the parliament early, to deliberate on a matter fo important, and particularly affecting the poor. "The urgency of the neceffity," the King obferved, called upon me, in the mean time, to exert my authority for the prefervation of the public fafety, againft a growing calamity, which could not admit of delay. I have therefore, by the advice of my privy council, laid an embargo on wheat and wheat-flour going out of the kingdom, until the advice of parliament could be taken." The King then recommended to make further provifions, if neceffary, with refpect to the dearnefs of corn, and mentioned, with regret, the fpirit of infurrection displayed in many parts of the kingdom. Indemnity Bill. THE addrefs was oppofed in both houses, and amendments moved, importing an intention to bring in a bill for indemnifying thofe who had advised the embargo. THE amendments were rejected; but the ministry having introduced a bill of indemnity in favour of the officers who had acted under the orders of council, feveral animated debates enfued, in which their conduct was feverely arraigned. The affumption of a prerogative to difpenfe with an exifting law, under any circumftances, or for any motive, was decried as unconftitutional and dangerous, and tending 1766. directly to establish an unqualified and unlimited cHAP. tyranny. Those who advised the measure were no XIII. lefs open to cenfure than the officers who carried it into execution; and therefore an amendment was moved, including the ministers in the operation of the bill. defended by Lord LORD CHATHAM alleged, in juftification of the Miniftry ministry, that the neceffity of the ftate, to which every confideration of a mere legal nature muft bend, Chatham. required the measure. The act itself, he contended, was wife and neceffary, and the prohibition a legal exercise of a legal prerogative. He fupported his opinions by reading fome paffages from Locke on Government. He maintained, that neither he nor his colleagues needed an indemnity; and declared it to be the right and duty of the crown to suspend the execution of a law, for the fafety of the people. Camden, LORD CAMDEN, in fupporting the fame opinion, By Lord argued ftrongly in vindication of thofe, who, on an obvious neceffity, had done an act which no existing law could be produced to juftify. The neceffity of a measure, he observed, renders it not only excufable, but legal and confequently, a judge, when the neceffity is proved, may without hefitation declare that act legal, which would be clearly illegal where fuch neceffity did not exift. The crown is the fole executive power, and is therefore intruited by the conftitution to take upon itself whatever the fafety of the state may require, during the recefs of parliament, which is at moft but a forty days tyranny. He concluded by obferving, that the power exercised on this occafion was fo moderate and beneficial, that Junius Brutus would not have hesitated to intrust it, even to the difcretion of a Nero. by Lords THESE arguments were combated by Lords Manf Oppofed field, Temple, and Lyttleton. They denied that any Mansfield, fufpending or difpenfing power was, or ought to be, Temple, vefted in the crown; on the contrary, during the recefs of parliament, the King himfelf was as much S 4 fubject and Lyt tleton XIII. 1766. CHA P. fubject to the law as any other individual, and could not alter or impede its courfe. The danger of fuch a prerogative had been frequently adverted to in parliament, and particularly in the bill of rights, the preamble of which expressly mentions the evils refulting to the kingdom from the practice adopted by James II. of affuming a power to difpenfe with, and fufpend, the execution of laws without the confent of parliament. Lord Chatham was accused of perverting the genuine fenfe of Locke in his quotation; and the effect of the paffage on which he founded his argument was forcibly contrafted with the use he had made of that author in the laft feffion. "The laft feffion of parliament," it was faid, "fet out with the wildest doctrines, extracted piece-meal from that fame Mr. Locke, in favour of liberty; of liberty run mad with notions extravagant, ridiculous, exploded, and, thank God! by the whole legislature condemned. This feffion begins with doctrines again extracted also piece-meal by the fame perfons, from the fame author, trumpeting forth a tone of tyranny more hateful and more dangerous, because more extenfive, than any promulgated in the worst reign of the worft of the Stuarts." That the act in queftion had for its object the good of the people, was denied to be a fufficient argument to prove no indemnity requifite. The wildeft bigot in the caufe of arbitrary power would not pretend that any prerogative could or ought to be exercifed but for the good of the people, and precedents were adduced to prove that fuch acts unquestionably founded on that motive, had, in former times, been the objects of parliamentary indemnity. An expreffion used by Lord Camden, that the right thus affumed could only amount to a forty days tyranny, was treated with great feverity. "Forty days tyranny!" one of the speakers exclaimed, "my Lords, tyranny is a harsh found. I deteft the very word, because I hate the thing. But are these words to come from a noble Lord, whofe glory it might and XIII. 1766 and ought to have been, to have rifen by steps that CHA P. liberty threw in his way, and to have been honoured as his country has honoured him, not for trampling her under foot, but for holding up her head. I have used my best endeavours to answer the argument which is the foundation of the distinction to which the forty days alludes, by argument founded in principles; I will now give the noble Lord one anfwer more, and it fhall be argumentum ad bominem. That noble Lord has, I believe, faid on other occafions, and he faid well, that the price of one hour's English liberty none could tell but an English jury; and juries, under the guidance of a certain noble Lord, have estimated it very high, in the cafe of the meaneft of the subjects, when oppreffed only by the fervants of the state. But forty days tyranny over the nation by the crown! - who can endure the thought? My Lords, lefs than forty days tyranny, fuch as this country has felt in fome times, would, I believe, bring your lordships together without a fummons, from your fick beds, riding even upon poft horfes, in hot weather, fafter than our great patriots themfelves to get a place or a penfion, or both; and, for aught I know, make the fubject of your confultations that appeal to heaven which has been spoken of. Yet establish a dispensing power, and you cannot be fure of either liberty or law for forty minutes.' ADVERTING to the defence which minifters offered for their conduct, it was faid: "The noble and learned Lord fpeaks of meritorious criminality as ftrange; and it would be fo. But meritorious illegality is not fo ftrange, or an action meritorious in itself, and happy in its effects, though against law. The merit confifts in running the risk of the law, for the public good; as in the inftance alluded to by the other noble and learned Lord on the cross bench, of the Roman General who fought against orders, and was rewarded for faving his country. On the other hand, if an act is authorized by law, there can be |