and difguifed, but it is fometimes totally abforbed and fwallowed up, by his profeffional character. All orders of men have reverenced themselves as orders, and perhaps none more than the men of the Jaw. Sir Edward Coke, in his Infiitutes, frequently takes occafion to fet out the learning and importance of the lawyers: he calls them the figes of the parliament; the very life and foul of the King's council." Alfo in a fpeech made upon a call of ferjeants, he compares the caif to Minerva's helmet, who was the ·Goddefs of Counfel; and likewife fays, that "the four corners of their cap import fcience, experience, obfervation, "recordationt.

Sir John Fortefcue had expreffed himfelf before in the like magnificent terms, and difplayed with a kind of oftentation the great advantages of ftudying the law, as well as the awful dignity and pomp of its profeffors; and he "thinks it a great "and peculiar token of the Divine good"nefs,magna et quafi approbata benedi&tio "Dei, that from amongst the Judges and "their offspring have fprung more peers "of the realm, than from any other "order of men whatever: which," fays

he, " can never be afcribed to mere

"chance or fortune, that being nothing; "but ought to be attributed to the bleffing of God, who by his prophet had "declared, that the generation of the "upright shall be bl-fed §." From which pofition these two corollaries manifeftly arife: firft that exaltation to a peerage is a bluffing from heaven; and, fecondly, that this bleffing may be obtained by juftice and uprightnefs in the profeffion of the law. And if this honeft Chancellor's reafoning be good, we are led to think highly of our prefent chiefs in the Jaw; fince it is plain, that the practice of it is in our times, as it was heretofore, frequently the road to peerages and prefer

ment.

P. S. No true man of the prof fion was ever heard to speak with temper upon the noted cafe of Coke, a gentleman of Suffolk, and Woodburn, a labourer, who

+ Barrington on Anc. Stat. page 406, 3d. ed.c.

were indicted, in 1772, upon the famous Coventry A&t of 22 and 23 of Car. II.; Coke for hiring and abetting Woodburn, and Woodburn for the actual f-&t of thirting the nofe of Mr. Crifpe, Coke's brother-inlaw. The murder of Criffe was the thing intended; and he was left for dead, being terribly hacked and disfigured with an hedge bill: but he recovered. Now though by this ftatute, to. disfigure, with an intent to disfigure be felony, yet the targ intent is not fo: and Coke, who was a lawyer, had the skill and addrefs (I fav nothing of the modefty) to reft his defence upon this point, that "the affault was not committed with an intent to disfigure, but with an intent to murder ; " and therefore not within the stature."

66

The court however held, that if a man attacks another with fuch an inftrument as an hedge-bill, which cannot but endanger the disfiguring of him, and in fuch attack happens not to kill, but only to disfigure him, he may be indicted on this ftatute: and it shall be left to the Jury, whether it were not a defign to mur der by disfiguring, and confequently a malicious intent to ¿igure as well as to murder. Accordingly, the Jury found them guilty of fuch previous intent to disfigure, in order to effect their principal intent to murder; and they were both condemned and executedt.

ac

Now, though thefe delinquents were criminal enough, God knows, yet, cording to this ftatute, they were not condemnable; and the fame constructive violence, in the interpretation of laws, might often hang an honest man as well as a knave I am, therefore, here with the men of the profeffion, though for reasons probably different from theirs, and wish that they had been acquitted; for I think entirely with Fortefcue, that “ twen y "evil doers had better efcape death, than "one juft man be unjustly condemned:" mallem revera, fays the humane Chancellor, viginti facinorofos mortem pietate evadere, quam juftum unum injuste condemnari↑.

opinion, a queftion of infinite magnitude and importance; it led to confiderations of the most serious confequence, and perhaps might go the extretne length of effecting a change in the government of the country; it was in all regards neceflarv, therefore, that the difcuffion of fuch a subject hould come on before as full a Houfe as could poffioly be convened. The regular way of obtaining a full attendance, was by moving a Call of the Houfe, and as he meant to move a Call with a view to the procuring a full attendance, he hoped the Right Hon. Gentleman, with the fame candour that had prompted him to give fo ample and fair a notice of the queftion, connected with the Ordnance Elimates, would agree to separate that queftion from the other, and let it lie over for the conGderation of the Houfe after the Cail had operated effectually. He had no with, he declared, to delay the public bufinefs an hour, but was ready to vote the Ordnance Eftimates forthwith. All he afked was, that before a question of the magnitude of that, refpecting the Fortifications intended to be erected for the defence of the Dock Yards, was taken under confideration and decided upon, the Call might be allowed to take place, because in his mind it was due to their conftituents, and due to the nation, that they fhould have the fulleft opportunity of informing themfelves upon the fubject, before they paffed a vote that would authorize a fyftem of national de fence extremely novel and extremely expenfive. Mr. Vyner enlarged on the poffible effects of adopting fuch a fyftem, and concluded with moving, " that the House be called over to-morrow [Tuefdav] three weeks."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had on no occafion whatfoever, much lefs on one of fo important a nature as the Ordnance Eftimates, and the question of fortifications, with which it was united, the final feft objection to ufe every means whatever to enforce a complete attendance of the Houfe;, but he could by no means be fatisfied to poftpone that business for fo long, a time as the Hon. Gentlemax wifhed. It was difficult he said to account for the inconfiftence with which Gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe endeavoured, on all occafions to procraftinate and delay the bufinefs of the nation, after their complaining that the Houfe had not made fufficient progress. As to the term novel, which the Hon. Gentleman had applied to the bufinefs of the fortifications; he certainly could not mean to defcribe it as

fuch, with respect to the degree of notoricty and expectancy which it was attended with, for furely no object had ever come before Parliament with more preparation than it would do, having now been depending for three fellions, and a Board of Naval and Land officers having been appointed to examine and report the propriety of the meature. So that evidently the Houfe and the public must be fufficiently apprized of the nature and extent of the bufinefs, nor could there be any neceffity whatsoever for putting off the final confideration of it to a more diftant period than that already appointed. He could therefore only conclude, that the Motion of the Hon. Gentleman was calcula ed for delay, and therefore should oppole it

Mr. Fox rofe to fupport Mr. Vyner's Motion. He faid, he was fomewhat furprized at the refiance made to it on the part of the Right Hon. Gentleman, becaufe, in his opinion, it was perfectly. eafy fo to arrange the matter as to lofe no time in regard to the neceffary difpatch of the publick bufinefs, and at the fame time to accommodate the wifhes of the Hon. Gentleman who had made the Motion, and of all who, thought with him, as he had no doubt a great many did, that the queftion whether the fortifications of the dock-yards fhould be adopted or not, was a queftion of most serious importance. The Right Hon. Gentleman had in his fpeech on a former occasion, declared that thofe who were adverse to the propofed fyftem of fortification, would naturally vote, that the fum to be granted to the Ordnance for the estimates of the year fhould be 250,000l. inftead of 300,000l. The cafe being fo, what difficulty could the Hon. Gent. have to their voting at once next Monday, that 250,000l. be granted for the Ordnance, and leaving it to be understood, that when a fit opportunity for a full and fair difcuffion of the Fortification queftion offered, if it was then determined that the Fortification fyftem should be proceded in, that an additional 50,000l. fhould be voted for the Eftimates of the Ordnance? This would settle the point at once, and not check the necellary dispatch of business; but taking the cafe another way, why not postpone the whole confideration if it were true, that the one question was infeparably implicated and involved in the other? This was but the month of February, and the Ordnance Estimates food at prefent for Monday next; was it poffible for any fort

of

of inconvenience to arife, if the confider ation of thefe Estimates and the vote of the money were to be delayed for a fingle fortnight? Mr. Fox declared it appeared to him to be abfurd and fallacious to maintain that any inconveniency whatever would arife from fo trifling a delay; and when the infinite importance of the vote they were to be called upon to give was duly confidered, he hardly believed, their was a man in the kingdom to be found, who would not hold himself obliged to the Houfe for its deliberation, and think they did their duty beft, by not rafhly and precipitately agreeing to a vote that was to entail on future Parliaments and on future conftituents an expence, the size and extent of which he believed no man living would take upon himself to define and defcribe. He reminded the Houfe of the extreme and wide difference between the vote in queftion, and all other votes. They were not to be called on to vote a ftated fum, and by that vote to close the account; but they were to begin a series of votes that might entail upon the nation, and upon pofterity an endless fyftem of charge and an unlimitted extent of expence. If a fyftem fo far new, that few had made up their minds upon it, and upon which for one he had not made up his mind, was to be adopted blindly and precipitately, what infinite mifchiefs might not enfue to the country? Several of thofe mifchiefs the Hon. Gentleman who made the motion had glanced at, and, as it was undoubtedly poffible, that such might be the confequence, why would not the Right Hon. Gentleman meet the Motion fairly; and, as the Hon. Gentleman who made it, had candidly coupled it with the mention of the exprefs purpose for which he made it, why refift a propofal fo perfectly reasonable, in refpect to a fubject especially, on all hands allowed to be of the first importance?

Mr. Martin faid, he had a great refpect for the noble Duke at the Head of the Ordnance, and was inclined to think well of him on many accounts, but he believed it would be extremely difficult for that noble perfon to perfuade him to change his mind, or to bring him to the opinion that fuch a fyftem of fortification as that propofed was actually neceffary. Perhaps, when the matter came to be discussed, he fhould hear as an answer to the objections that might be stated against the plan, that although we had hitherto relied on our mary for the defence of our dock-yards, that at present our navy compared with

the naval force of the other powers of Europe was not fufficiently fuperior to be trufted to folely. In that cafe, he should think it would be wifer to vote the 50,000l. in queftion towards encreafing and ftrengthening our navy, then towards commencing the fyftem of fortification propofed. With regard to the Call, Mr. Mar in faid, he certainly fhould vote for the Motion, but if it fhould be carried, he hoped it would be effectually enforced, becaufe Calls of the Houfe as generally executed, were in his mind the greatest farces imaginable.

Mr. Vyner role again, and declared he would not have made the motion had it not been his fincere opinion that the mat. ter was of the first moment, and that it could not be too deliberately confidered. He hoped, therefore, that the motion would be agreed to, and that the right hon. gentleman would confent to poftpone the question of fortification till the call was made. He faid, nothing upon earth, but a fenfe of his duty to his conftituents, and the nation fhould have induced him to make the motion, or propofe the delay. He had not the honour to be known to the noble Duke at this time at the head of the Ordnance Board; but if the noble Lord who had preceded him in office, to whom he was well known, and had lived with in terms of intimacy all his life, had propofed the plan in queftion, he thould have acted exactly in the fame manner.

The queftion was at length put, and the Houfe divided.

WESTMINSTER ELECTION.

As foon as the Houfe was refumed, Mr. Fox rofe in his place to make his election for Westminster. Mr. Fox ftated, that those who had on fo many occafions infinuated opinions, that he had not the fair and legal majority of votes for Weftminfter, and had affected to doubt of his being fuffered to remain its reprefentative in the prefent parliament, had no longer any right to maintain fuch opinions, or to maintain any doubts whatever on thofe points, because the perfons to whom he alluded, having abandoned the caufe, of which they had been proud to avow themfelves the champions, it was demonstrable that they knew all along, that they food upon rotten ground, and that it was impoffible for them to make good their infinuations before that tribunal legally confti

A a 2

ruted