amidft the univerfal and unbounded acclamations

of the people*.

*In the famous cafe of Bufhel, in the reign of Charles II, that great lawyer and magistrate Lord Chief Juftice Vaughan maintained at large, and with diftinguifhed ability, an opinion diametrically oppofite to the new-fangled doctrine of the Courts, as delivered by Lord Mansfield. "In fpecial verdicts," fays Lord Vaughan, "the Jury inform the naked facts, and the Court deliver the law; but upon all general issues the Jury find, not, as in a special verdict, the fact of every cafe by itself, leaving the law to the Court, but find for the plaintiff or defendant upon the iJue to be tried, wherein they refolve both LAW and FACT complicately, and not the fact by itfelf-fo as though they anfwer not fingly to the queflion, What is the law?" yet they determine the law in all cafes where iffue is joined and tried in the principal cafe, except where the verdict is fpecial." JUNIUS himself very justly remarks in his Letter to Lord Mansfield--" In other criminal profecutions the malice of the defign is confeffedly as much the fubject of confideration to a Jury as the certainty of the fact. If a different doctrine prevails in the cafe of libels, why fhould it not extend to all criminal cafes?-why not to capital offences? What good reafon can be affigned why the life of the fubject fhould be better protected than his liberty or property?" The uniform language of Lord Mansfield on this subject he profeffes to regard as evidence of a fettled plan to contract the legal power of Juries, and to draw questions infeparable from fact within the arbitrium of the Court. This inference, if not strictly juft, is at leaft plaufible; but when he fays of this diftinguished Nobleman, "that our language has no term of reproach, the mind no idea of deteftation, which has not been happily applied to him, and that he has paffed a whole life of deliberate iniquity," we are ftruck with indignant amazement at the enormity of the charges, and are compelled to acknowledge that they reflect infamy only on the accuser.

By

By an almoft total feceffion from business for two years, the health of Lord Chatham was in an unexpected degree reftored. His mind alfo was greatly calmed by the reconciliation which he had anxiously fought, and which had now taken place, with his neareft relative Lord Temple, whom he had ever loved and eftcemed, and whofe friendship he had in a tranfient moment of political elation rafhly and wantonly forfeited. This was an event which he had never ceased to lament. The fevere reflections of Lord Temple, he faid, he could endure; for he knew they proceeded from the warmth and openness of his nature, which was fuperior to all concealment and hypocrify. This was an opinion founded on long and intimate knowledge. He had on a former occafion ftyled him " a man whom he was proud to call his friend, and whose fidelity was as unfhaken as his virtue." From the period of this re-union to the end of their lives the moft cordial harmony fubfified between them; and Mr. Grenville alfo acceding to this reconciliation, the bond of fraternal amity was perfectly reftored. With his health, his intellectual faculties, fo long clouded and oppreffed, refumed their priftine force and vigor; and it is remarkable, that from this time to the termination of his life they fhone out with a brightnefs and luftre in no refpect inferior to that which they difplayed in the full meridian of his long and glorious career.

The

The Parliament met on the 9th of January, 1770; and, on the motion for an addrefs to the Throne, Lord Chatham arose, and declared" that, at his advanced period of life, bowing under the weight of his infirmities, he might perhaps have stood excused if he had continued in his retirement, and never taken part again in public affairs; but the alarıning ftate of the nation called upon him-forced him to come forward once more, and to execute that duty which he owed to Gop, to his Sovereign, and his Country. The fituation of foreign affairs was, he faid, critical; but what more immediately demanded their Lordships' attention was, with grief he fpoke it, the divifions and diftractions which prevailed in every part of the empire. He lamented thofe unhappy meafures which had alienated the Colonies from the Mother Country, and which had driven them into exceffes he could not juftify. Such, however, was his partiality to America, that he was inclined to make allowance even for thofe exceffes. The difcontents of three millions of people deferved confideration-the foundation of those discontents ought to be removed. This was the true way of putting a ftop to thofe combinations which the addrefs ftyled unwarrantable,' and which he readily admitted to be alarming and dangerous. The difcontents of the Americans, however, at the prefent crifis were unimportant, in comparison of thofe which prevailed in this king

dom.

that

doin. It was an obligation incumbent upon House to inquire into the causes of the notorious diffatisfaction expreffed by the whole English nation, to ftate those causes to their Sovereign, and then to give him their best advice in what manner he ought to act. The privileges of the greatest and of the meaneft fubjects ftood upon the fame foundation; it was therefore their higheft intereft, as well as their bounden duty, to watch over and protect the rights of the people. The liberty of the fubject," faid he, "is invaded, my Lords, not only in our diftant provinces, but at home. The people are loud in their complaints-they demand redress; and until the injuries they have received are redreffed, they will never return to a state of tranquillity nor ought they; for in my judgment, my Lords, and I speak it boldly, better were it for them to perish in a glorious contention for their rights, than to purchase a flavish tranquillity at the expence of a fingle iota of the Conftitution. Not being able to entertain the fmalleft doubt that the prefent univerfal difcontent of the nation arifes from the proceedings of the Houfe of Commons upon the expulfion of Mr. Wilkes, I think that we ought in our address to state that matter to his Majefty ;" and with this defign his Lordfhip concluded his speech by moving the following amendment to the address: "And for thefe great and effential purposes we will with all convenient speed take into our most VOL. I. ferious

ferious confideration the caufes of the difcontents which prevail in fo many parts of your Majesty's dominions, and particularly the late proceedings of the Houfe of Commons, touching the incapacity of John Wilkes, Efq. expelled by that House, to bé re-elected a Member to ferve in this prefent Parliament; thereby refufing, by a refolution of one branch of the Legislature only, to the subject his common right, and depriving the electors of Middlefex of their free choice of a reprefentative."

This amendment was very powerfully oppofed by Lord Mansfield, who began with affirming, "that he had never delivered any opinion upon the legality of the proceedings of the Houfe of Commons on the Middlefex election, nor fhould he now. He had locked it up in his own breaft, and it fhould die with him. He acknowledged the unhappy distracted ftate of the nation, but he was happy to affirm that he had in no degree contributed to it. Declarations of the law made by either Houfe of Parliament were," he afferted, "always attended with bad effects; he had conftantly opposed them, whenever he had opportunity, and in his judicial capacity thought himself bound never to pay the leaft regard to them. But he made a wide distinction between the general declarations of law, and the particular decifions which might be made by either House in their judicial capacity, upon a cafe coming regularly before them,