can only suppose it to have been suggested by the description CHAP. of the poet: 6 In the vaulted roof The tyrant sat, and through a secret channel Of sighs and groans, by cruelty extorted; Then on the victims wreak'd his murd'rous rage, "The annals of Britain do not furnish an instance in which the statute of Edward III., the statutum benedictum, as it is emphatically called, has not accomplished all that law can accomplish to protect the King and his Government; but the present bill wantonly creates new and undefined treasons, disorganises the system of our jurisprudence, and by sanctioning grievous and vexatious measures, will excite disaffection and engender discord."* CLXXXI. A. D. 1795.. Foolish prosecu and the Whigs, for a supposed breach of the privileges of the House of Commons. While this bill was pending, a controversy arose in which, Dec. 1795. I am sorry to say, Erskine and the Whig Opposition appeared to little advantage, nay, to speak the whole truth, most tion insti gated by inconsistently, grossly and flagrantly violated the principles of Erskine free discussion which they had been so loudly contending for. Mr. John Reeves, president of the "Society against Republicans and Levellers," a gentleman of some literary distinction, had published a somewhat silly, but a very harmless book, entitled, "Thoughts on the English Government," in which was to be found this passage: "The government of England is a monarchy; the monarchy is the ancient stock from which have sprung those goodly branches of the legislature, the Lords and Commons, that at the same time give ornament to the tree, and afford shelter to those who seek protection under it. But these are still branches, and derive their origin and their nutriment from their common parent; they may be lopped off, and the tree is a tree still;-shorn indeed of its honours, but not, like them, cast into the fire. The kingly government may go on in all its functions, without Lords or Commons; it has heretofore done so for years to *32 Parl. Hist. 470. A. D. 1796. 66 CHAP. gether, and in our times it does so during every recess of CLXXXI. Parliament; but without the King his Parliament is no more.' I blush while I relate that the defender of Stockdale, of Hardy, and of Horne Tooke, — while still meditating his purpose of rushing into the King's presence, to implore, upon his bended knees, that the royal assent should be withheld from a bill to fetter free inquiry into political subjects, zealously and effectually supported a resolution, that this book was a breach of the privileges of the House of Commons, and that the Attorney General should be directed to prosecute the author for a libel," saying, "What a glorious representative of the people of England would that House appear to be, if they passed by the pamphlet which had been read to them that night, in which they were represented as a mere council for the Crown, and that in this consisted their greatest utility, -that all the vigour they were supposed to have, as an emanation from the people, was a mere chimera. If they voted that this was no libel, the public would see that they did so because it was in favour of the Crown against the rights of the people; and he was quite sure, that if the Attorney General called for the verdict of a jury upon it, they will not require that time to deliberate upon it, which members opposite seemed to desire." Mr. Pitt and his colleagues very sensibly and laudably tried to keep the House out of the scrape into which they were rushing, and succeeded so far as to have the matter referred to a Committee of Privileges: but after two reports from the Committee, the motion for a prosecution, being supported by Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Grey, was carried, without a division. Accordingly, a criminal information was filed by the Attorney General, and brought to trial before Lord Kenyon when the jury, taking a much juster view of the subject than had been anticipated by the champion of the liberty of the press, after an hour's deliberation returned this verdict: "My Lord, we are of opinion that the pamphlet, which has been proved to have been written by John Reeves, Esq., is a very improper publication, but we think his motives not such as are alleged in the information, and therefore we find him May 20. 1796. CHAP. CLXXXI. A. D. 1796. 1796. Erskine down" in attempting to answer Pitt. NOT GUILTY.” * So end all such House of Commons' prosecutions!!! I hope that, as a punishment for this hallucination, Erskine was present when Plumer, who was counsel for the defence, spoke with much applause, and that he heard the shouts of rejoicing with which the verdict was received. † Whether ashamed to show himself in the House of Com- Dec. so. mons, the fact is, that the next time Erskine rose to take a part in debate, — notwithstanding all his experience and all "breaks his success, he "broke down" soon after he began to address the House. The occasion was rather a formidable one. After the rupture of the negotiation for peace with the French republic, Pitt, in one of the most splendid orations he ever delivered, took a comprehensive and masterly view of our foreign affairs, and moved an address to the King recommending a vigorous prosecution of the war. The defeated prosecutor for libel immediately followed, with the intention of answering him, and moving an amendment; but when he was observing that "France had formerly offered terms, the obtaining of which now would make the right honourable gentleman be worshipped as a God," he became confused, and after a pause sat down. Fox instantly rushed in to the rescue, thus beginning: "Sorry, indeed, am I on account of my honourable and learned friend, whose indisposition has suddenly compelled him to resume his seat; sorry for the sake of the House, whose information, from the train of argument he had adopted, has been thus unpleasantly interrupted, and sorry for the cause which would have had such an advocate-sorry for the sake of England, which Ministers, by their imprudent councils and infatuated policy, seem determined to push to the last verge of ruin, that I am thus so unexpectedly called upon to address the House. I feel it, however, incumbent on me to step forward, knowing that my opinion on the subject entirely coincides with that of my honourable and learned friend *32 Parl. Hist. 610. 620. 634. 680. † Quivedo, the Spanish poet, says that the punishment of fiddlers in hell will be to stand by and listen while other fiddlers play. CLXXXI. A. D. 1796. CHAP. but lamenting that the arguments on this momentous question must considerably suffer from the want of that ability with which he would have enforced them." He then went on so as to make Erskine's failure soon forgotten, and once more to divide the opinion of impartial judges whether the palm of oratory should be awarded to him or to his adversary.* Erskine secedes from the House of Commons. His pamphlet "On the Conse quences of * For several years afterwards, Erskine very rarely spoke, or even attended the House. The policy which he condemned was not only triumphant in Parliament, but was approved by the great bulk of the nation; and he said that he saved himself for more auspicious times. He joined Fox and the other principal Whig leaders in their ill-judged secession from Parliament. In this interval he published a pamphlet, entitled "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the present War Causes and with France," which was so popular, that it was said to have run through thirty-seven editions. However, I cannot say the War." that it adds much to his permanent fame. It contains some forcible passages, but it deals in common-places, and the style is careless. Having received some gentle hints on this subject from his friend Dr. Parr, he replied: "I cannot say how much I thank you for remarking the negligence with which it cannot but be filled. I wonder it is not nonsense from beginning to end, for I wrote it amidst constant interruption, great part of it in open court, during the trial of causes. Fifteen thousand copies have been sold in England, besides editions printed at Dublin and Edinburgh, where the sale has been unusual." The most amusing part of it is the history of the Prime Minister, as connected with parliamentary reform, which thus begins: "Towards the close of the American war, Mr. Pitt (a boy almost) saw the corrupt condition of Parliament, from the defect of the representation of the people, with the eyes of a mature statesman: the eagle eyes of his father had seen it before him, and the thunder of his eloquence had made it tremble. Lord Chatham had detected and exposed the rank corruption of the House of * 32 Parl. Hist. 1464. CLXXXI. Commons, as the sole cause of that fatal quarrel, and left it CHAP. as a legacy to his son to avenge and to correct them. The youthful exertions of Mr. Pitt were worthy of the delegation. A. D. 1797. From my acquaintance with him, both before and after his first entrance into public life, I have no doubt of his perfect sincerity in the cause he then undertook; and the maturity of his judgment, even at that time, with which I was well acquainted, secures his conduct from the rashness of unthinking youth." He then traces him to his fall from virtue, and the degradation he reached when he became the accuser of his old friends. This made Pitt very indignant, and he several times alluded to the pamphlet with bitter scorn. May 26. 1797. His expo sure of the inconsis Pitt. Erskine's next appearance in the House, was in seconding Mr. Grey's annual motion for a reform in Parliament. He now, in a very long speech, reiterated all his former arguments, and thus again showed his enmity to the Premier: "The tency of right honourable gentleman, not contented with apostatising from the principles which he once professed, has resisted them in a spirit and language of the loftiest pride and arrogance. In his humiliation and disgrace unfortunately this once mighty nation has also been humbled and disgraced. The cause of reform was to be, at all events, put down, and all who main.. tained it were to be stigmatised, persecuted, and oppressed. Here is the clue to every measure of Government, from the hour of the right honourable gentleman's apostasy to the present. But the insolence with which the hopeful changes of the rising world were denounced within these walls is an awful lesson to mankind. It has taught that there is an arm fighting against the oppressors of freedom, stronger than any arm of flesh, and that the great progressions of the world, in spite of the confederacies of power, and the conspiracies of corruption, move on with a steady pace, and arrive in the end at a happy and glorious consummation." Pitt followed, but on this occasion his sarcasms were dulled by the sense of his own inconsistency, and he made but a feeble opposition to the motion, ― objecting to the argument of imprescriptible right by which it had been supported, and relying upon the inflamed |