mon law right had no reference to his own private opinion, for in that judgment he was necessarily governed by the prior one in the court of King's-bench, and was obliged to decree according thereto; but that he was satisfied there never did exist a common law right, and that the booksellers were not mistaken on that head: that the monopoly was supported among them by oppression and combination, and that there were none of their allegations, nor any part of the Bill, required further enquiry.

booksellers had robbed others of their property; for that printing was a lawful trade, and, without all manner of doubt, there fore they had a property in it; consequently thus to deprive printers of the subject on which they might lawfully exercise their trade, was robbing them of their property: that they had maintained this monopoly by most iniquitous oppressions, and exercised it to the disgrace of printing; that they were monopolists, and if the line of justice and equity were drawn, it would be, that those who had deprived others of their right for a series of years, should make compensation to all those they had injured by such conduct. His lordship said further, that if the Bill had stated what particular set of men had been injured, and what loss they had sustained, they might have had some favour shewn them; but in the present state they could have none. He concluded with hoping that their lordships would reject the Bill.

The question was put for putting off the second reading for two months, when the House divided, Contents 21, Not-contents 11. The Bill was therefore dropt. Lord Mansfield did not attend the House on the occasion.

Debate in the Lords on the Commons Amendments to the Quebec Government Bill.] June 17. The order of the day being read for taking into consideration the amendments made by the Commons to this Bill,

Lord Camden said, that they never could suppose a common law right, for that it was first supported by Star-chamber decrees; that when they obtained the Act of the 8th of queen Anne, they could not suppose it, for the advantage and security of that Act were far short of what the common law afforded them, had their claims been defensible on that ground; that on the expiration of the monopoly in 1731, they could not fall into such a mistake, for they applied to parliament for an extension of the monopoly in the years 1735, 6 and 7. That he really could not compliment those gentlemen who had espoused that opinion, by supposing that it was a case in the least doubtful, for that he had always considered it as the clearest and most obvious that could possibly be; that during his practice in the law, he always found the gentlemen of the profession universally against it. That it was asserted in the Bill, that it was a prevailing opinion that a common law right did exist; Lord Chatham rose and entered fully that if they meant that such an opinion pre- upon the subject of the Bill. He said it vailed among others than booksellers, he would involve a great country in a thouwould venture to say there were fifty to one sand difficulties, and in the worst of desagainst it; and with respect to booksellers, potism, and put the whole people under he had ground to say, that many London arbitrary power; that it was a most cruel, booksellers were not of that opinion; that oppressive, and odious measure, tearing all the country booksellers, and those of up justice and every good principle by Ireland, Scotland, and America, were the roots; that by abolishing the trial by against it : that he could not but think this jury, he supposed the framers of the Bill attempt an affront on the House, for that thought that mode of proceeding, together they having determined between the con- with the Habeas Corpus, mere moontending parties, that one of them had shine, whilst every true Englishman was usurped for forty years, the rights that did ready to lay down his life sooner than lose not belong to them; and that the other those two bulwarks of his personal securiparty had been injured and deprived of ty and property. The merely supposing their rights. That this present proceed that the Canadians would not be able to ing contradicted the whole of that prinei- feel the good effects of law and freedom, ple, and reversed the state of the parties: because they had been used to arbitrary that it treated the latter as thieves and pi- power, was an idea as ridiculous as false. rates, and the first as oppressed and in- He said the Bill established a despotic gojured, and deserving of having the posses-vernment in that country, to which the sion of others taken from them for their par- royal proclamation of 1763 promised the ticular emolument: that the monopolizing protection of the English laws. Here the

that all establishments by law are to be Protestant; which compact ought not to be altered, but by the consent of the col lective body of the people. He further maintained, that the dangerous innovations of this Bill were at variance with all the safe-guards and barriers against the return of Popery and of Popish influence, so wisely provided against by all the oaths of office and of trust from the constable up to the members of both Houses, and even to the sovereign in his coronation oath. He pathetically expressed his fears that it might shake the affections and confidence of his Majesty's Protestant subjects in England and Ireland; and finally lose the hearts of all his Majesty's American subjects. His lordship then said, that for these and other reasons, he gave his hearty negative to the Bill.

noble lord read part of the proclamation, and then entered fully on the council and power vested in the governors, the whole mode of which, he said, was tyrannical and despotic he was likewise very particular on the bad consequences that would attend the great extension of that province, that the whole of the Bill appeared to him to be destructive of that liberty which ought to be the ground-work of every constitution: ten thousand objections, he was confident, might be made to the Bill, but the extinction of the mode of trial abovementioned, was a very alarming circumstance, and he would pronounce him a bold man who proposed such a plan.-When his lordship came to the religious part of the Bill, he directed his discourse to the bench of bishops, telling them that as by the Bill the Catholic religion was made the established religion of that vast continent, it was impossible they could be silent on the occasion. He called the Bill a child of inordinate power, and desired and asked if any of that bench would hold it out for baptism; he touched again upon the unlimited power of the governor, in appointing all the members, and who might be made up of Roman Catholics only. He also took notice of an amendment which had been made in the House of Commons, which was a new clause, repealing so much of the Act of Reformation of the 1st of Elizabeth as relates to the oath of supremacy, and substituting a common oath of allegiance in its place. This Act of Elizabeth, he said, had always been looked upon as one that the legislature had no more right to repeal, than the Great Charter, or the Bill of Rights.

Lord Dartmouth said a few words in favour of the Bill.

Lord Lyttelton began by observing, that whatever fell from that noble earl, fell with such weight as to make the deepest impression on those who heard him that from the solemn opposition he had given to that clause of the Bill, which excused the Canadians from the oath of supremacy, and imposed an oath of allegiance in the 100m of it, he was induced to give his reasons why he differed from lord Chatham; that so far from thinking with the noble lord last named, that no man who was a Protestant in his heart could give his consent to the passing of that clause, he affirmed that no true Protestant could refuse it his hearty concurrence, because the doctrinal principles of our holy religion, drawn from that pure and excellent His lordship stated, with great force, source the Gospel of our Saviour, breathed many objections to the clause giving to forth a spirit of moderation, candour, and the French Canadians so advantageous a universal toleration to all religions that part of the fisheries of cod on the Labra- were not incompatible with the precepts dor coast, to the great prejudice of the of morality, and the general welfare and English fishermen on the banks of New-happiness of mankind. That to oblige foundland; considering the said fisheries of Labrador as a nursery of French Canadian seamen, to man, in case of a French war, any squadrons of France in those seas. He exposed the train of fatal mischiefs attending the establishment of Popery and arbitrary power in that vast and fertile region now annexed to the government of Quebec, and capable of containing (if fully peopled) not less than 30 millions of souls. He deduced the whole series of laws from the supremacy first revindicated under Henry the 8th down to this day, as fundamentals constituting a clear compact

Catholics to deny the supremacy of the Pope, was to compel them forcibly to abjure their religion, and in reality to commence a persecution against them; that opposition always grew and strengthened under the scythe of persecution, and that fanaticism was never formidable till it was oppressed. He said that the Canadians had, ever since the conquest of that country, behaved like good and peaceable subjects, that therefore they were justly entitled to a beneficial code of civil policy, and to a free exercise of their religion. That though he had the greatest reve

"I have nothing to recommend to you, "I have long seen, with concern, a but that you would carry into your redangerous spirit of resistance to my go- spective counties the same affectionate atvernment, and to the execution of the tachment to my person and government, laws, prevailing in the province of Mas- and the same zeal for the maintenance of sachuset's Bay in New England. It pro- the public welfare, which have distinceeded at length to such an extremity as guished all your proceedings in this to render your immediate interposition in- session of parliament." dispensably necessary; and you have accordingly made provision, as well for the suppression of the present disorders, as for the prevention of the like in future. The temper and firmness with which you have conducted yourselves in this important business, and the general concurrence

END OF VOL. XVII.

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