hey were a cluster of fpiritlefs difgraces apon government, that evidently wanted foul to fupport the maintenance even of legal authority. Reflection however is feldom the diftinguishing characteristic of the multitude; the people were therefore fired to an actual pitch of phrenzy; they every where declared a readiness to die for the fupport of their rights, though thefe rights had been in no fingle instance violated by their prefent rulers; and they Univerally prepared to refift the defpotifm of a miniftry, who fo far from withing to encroach upon the freedom of the public, were really unable to exact a necellary obedience to the laws. Thus fitu ated, defied by Mr. Wilkes's friends, and defpiled by his enemies, all their efforts to prevent that gentleman's election for Middlefex proved abortive, and he was cholen with a degree of acclamation, that poffibly never appeared at any period in any country.

The various measures relative to Mr. Wilkes's repeated expulfions and elections are too well known, and too recent in the memory of the public, to need a repetition. Suffice it, therefore, that the adminiftration, by pursuing their plan of hunting the popular prifoner with unceafing vehemence, hourly added to his weight, and by a determined refolution of punishing this formid ble enemy, conRantly injured themselves.

That this was undeniably the cafe, appeared immediately after their influence in favour of Colonel Luttrell, had fecu. red that gentleman's election for the coun ty of Middlefex: he was no fooner feated than they imagined their triumph over oppofition quite compleat; they now conceived that party had received a mortal wound, and trumpetted forth the greatnefs of their victory in strains of the loudeft exultation. Unhappily, however, for the friends of government, their exultation was but of very thort continuance: what was on y Mr. Wilkes's caufe before, notwithstanding the number of his fupporters, and their efforts to reprefent his caufe a public one on every former occafion, now became confidered as national, in reality. The majority of Middlefex freeholders being denied the man of their choice, an inftant alam ran through all the corporations of the kingdom; what happened in one place, people argued might speedily happen in all; a local in

fringement on the conftitution might be quickly rendered univerfal; the fame defpotifm, which had violated the rights of the fubject in the inftance under confideration, would violate their rights in a thousand, and therefore it became indifpenfably neceffary to relift the first attack: the privilege of election once loft, all must be loft, English liberty would be nothing more than a name, and with the appearance of the moft exalted independence we fhould actually be trod into the moft miferable flaves in the universe.

Such were the precepts every where eagerly inculcated, and every where greedily imbibed, of the adminiftration; it was in vain urged by the friends of government, that the Houfe of Commons had long been allowed a power of expelling their own members, and that unless the perfon expelled was to be excluded, the power of expulfion was wholly uselefs, and tended rather to expose the House of Commons to contempt, than to increafe its dignity, or importance. It was obferved, that the right claimed by the freeholders of Middlefex was no other than the right of doing wrong, that is, of fending a member to parliament who was certainly ineligible in the eye of reafon, however he might be deemed returnable in the judgment of the law. The friends of administration moreover observed, that if the Commons were obliged by the conftitution to receive all perfons elected by a majority of freeholders who were qualified by law, that the freeholders were in confcience obliged to choofe none but fuch as were abfolutely qualified in reafon: they allowed, indeed, that the conftitution had given them a liberty of entrusting the national welfare, wherever they thought fit; but then it was upon a fuppofition that they would never intrust it into improper hands. Had it been forefeen that a palpably injudicious ufe would be made of this privilege, the privilege would have hitherto been utterly unknown to the people; it was given them to serve the kingdom, not to injure it. "Our ancestors, faid the adminiftration, by no means defigned that infidels fhould be the defenders of religion, beggars the guardians of property, nor convicts the framers of our laws."

Thele arguments, however, though they had weight with many, were neverthelefs confidered by the majority of the

people,

people, as fo many artful gildings to the pill of oppreffion, and fo far from conciliating the minds of men to the meafures of government, they only ferved to inflame them beyond the poffibility of conception. The principal people in oppofition exerted themfelves in their various counties to increafe the popular prejudices. They vehemently declared, that the principles of our freedom were wholly fubverted; they fummoned the inferior freeholders, wherever they had influence, to petition against the proceedings of adminiftration; and prayed upon the whole for a diffolution of the parliament; declaring, that no good could be expected from a fet of men fo ignorant of, or fo perfidious to, the liberties of English.

men.

The petitioners, notwithstanding they would appear influenced wholly by motives of public good, and notwithstand ing they would feem to act fpontaneously from their own immediate fenfe of wrongs, nevertheless, manifested more averfion to the ministry, than regard for the welfare of the ftate, and in most places were applied to by the principal perfons of the oppofition, before they could be prevailed upon to express a difapprobation of the

government.

The body of the people however meant well, and deferved much more the pity, than the indignation of the confiderate: it was certainly an odd method of fhewing their love of order, to violate every principle of law; and a ftrange way of expreffing their deteftation of an arbitrary minifter, to tyrannize over their unhappy countrymen; but they were worked up by a thoufand different artifices to a ftate of downright phrenzy, and their madness, tho' it could not excufe, was

at leaft fufficient to extenuate their extravagancies.

[To be continued occafionally.]

A fair Trial of the important Queflion, or the Rights of Election afferted against the Doctrine and Incapacity by Expul fion or by Refolution; upon true Conftitutional Principles, the real Law of Parliament, the common Right of the Subject, and the Determination of the Houfe of Commons, &c.

termination of the house of commons, as might induce one to conclude, that the fubject was exhausted, yet whoever will take the pains to read this pamphlet, will find many things new, many things interefting, and the whole argument ftated and examined throughout, with a nicety and fkill fuperior to the productions of the ordinary clafs of writers, and which dif cover fo perfect a knowledge of the laws and conftitution of this country, as does honour to the great name to whom this mafterly piece is afcribed.

Take as a fpecimen, what the author has faid of the doctrine of incapacity by expulfion, or by refolution. First, fays he, in the penal incapacity, by implication arifing from expulfion, there is the Specific danger, that it muft, from the very nature of the thing, be liable to be made an occafional engine of tyranny to profcribe particular members of parliament and garble a house of commons. This danger cannot exist, if the law of the land is the certain and steady rule of incapacity, unless with fuch a house of commons, as can venture to fet the law at defiance, and laugh at the constitution itfelf. But fo long as expulfions themselves are arbitrary, the incapacity implied in them, must be so too. And nothing is more arbitrary than expulfion, because there is no law or rule defining or limiting the caufes of it. Such an incapacity can never be the inftrument of equal and indifferent juftice, and therefore must be an evil of a moft pernicious tendency, most repugnant to the fpirit of a free government, and adverfe to the genius of this conftitution. It is the glory of it, that men know the law by which they are to be judged; that by the law only the guilty are punifhed, as well as the inno cent protected; and that in every fituation juftice is administered by the golden and ftrait white wand, as lord Coke calls it, and does not bend to the uncertain and crooked cord of difcretion.

This implied incapacity is absolutely a pramunire, without ftatute and without parliament out of the protection of the judgment, which puts every member of law for the nobleft privilege, and dePrives the electors of England of their higheft franchife; for thefe are made to depend upon the mere pleasure of a majority of the houfe, which may be governed by their caprice, their malice, party

zeal,

zeal, oppofition of opinion and objects; add to these a design sometimes to fubvert the conftitution. It is the brilliancy of civil policy, and the luftre of a well-tempered conftitution, that there is a wife mixture of mutual checks to prevent thofe evils, to which the fubjects are expofed, where every thing is refolved into the mere will of governors. In England the judge checks the jury, the jury controuls the judge, and the law rules both. In that judicature by which expulfion is in flicted, there is no check at all, if incapacity is annexed to it. If expulfion is left without incapacity, the power of reelection is a check, because an excefs in the judicature would prove fruitless, if it was foolish or wicked; and the member who did not deserve to be expelled, would return in triumph over partiality and precipitance. * But to cut the matter hort, if this law of parliament incapacity, as it is called, be fo very reasonable and falutary, why grudge an act of parliament upon it to remove doubts, and to let every man know what he is liable to? It will not be acquiefced under, while it is nothing but the dictum of doctors and profeffors; the ravings of journalists and precedent men; the mandate, of a minifter, the progeny of an ordinance, or the brood of a refolution.

But fecondly, The other incapacity by refolution, which, though not penal, is as privative as the former in the way that fome gentlemen conftrue it; and is alfo dangerous in the highest degree, both in respect of the extent to which, according to the doctrine upon which it is built, it may go, and in respect of the power by The advocates which it is produced not been pleafed

to mark out any limits to this extraordinary power of difqualifying, or declaring ineligible, as they term it, by refolutions, nor indeed can I see how any limits can confift with their doctrine, of an abfolute and uncontroulable power in the house of commons, to make fuch difqualifying refolutions. If fuch an abfolute power of refolving incapacities is established, the old ordonance of the lords, for excluding lawyers, may again come into the writs for the fake of fome lawyer, who does not always chufe to be the tool of a court, or the flave of a minifter, or his minion, with an exception only of law. yers in the king's fervice. If there is a

troublesome alderman of London, whose fituation and disposition render it impoffible to take him off,-Refolve, that no magiftrate of the metropolis is eligible; and if pretence were neceffary, give for a reafon, that he is to attend the functions of his office. Does the commercial world furnish fturdy patriots, why not refolve that merchants cannot be chofen, who have an intereft always to oppose the laying on of duties? Is it inconvenient to hear the din of the colonies, refolve that no man born in America can fit in the houfe. Because the interefts of England and Ireland fometimes jar, exclude all who have eftates in Ireland, or are members of either houfe of parliament there. If a phyfician fhould be chofen illuftrious enough to be profcribed, as Dr. Lucas was in Ireland, where he is now the patriot reprefentative of the capital, nothing more is neceffary than a refolution that the medical faculty are incapable of being elected.

In short, if this refolution law be the law of parliament, there is not, fo far as I can fee, one clafs of men, one order or profeffion, who are for an inftant, protected by the law of the land, or the conftitution, against a refolution, rendering them ineligible, if fome unlucky man belonging to them, shall ever happen to be of importance enough to call forth this feather'd arrow to get rid of him.

Y.

Parliamentary Proceedings in Regard to the Bill for Quartering his Majesty's Forces in America, with Governor Pownall's Speech in the Debate.

Mr. Faller having of pay, 17672 the 15th the committee of the whole House, to whom it was referred, to confider of the feveral papers which had been presented to the Houfe in that feffion of parliament, relating to the North American colonies

several refolutions, importing, That it appeared to the committee, that the House of Reprefentatives of his Majefty's province of New-York, have, in'direct difobedience of the authority of the legiflature of Great Britain, refused to make provifion for fupplying with neceffaries his Majesty's troops, in fuch manner as is required by an act of parliament, made in the 5th year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, An act to amend

' and

and render more effectual, in his Ma'jesty's dominions in America, an Act pafled in this prefent feffions of parliament, intituled, An act for punishing mutiny and defertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters."

Also that it appeared to the committee, that an act of Alfembly hath been paffed in faid province, for furnishing the barracks in the cities of New-York and Albany, with fire-wood and candles, and other neceffaries therein mentioned, for his Majefty's forces, inconfiftent with the provifions, and in oppofition to the directions of the faid act of parliament.

Alfo, that it is the opinion of the committee, that until provifion fhall have been made by the faid Affembly, for furwishing the King's troops, with all the neceffaries required by the faid act of parliament, the governor, council, and affembly, be refpectively reftrained and prohibited from paffing or affenting to any act of Affembly, for any other purpofe whatever ;-and in confequence of thefe refolutions, a motion being made, that a bill be brought in upon the last of the faid refolutions, Governor Pownall fpoke as follows:

Mr. SPEAKER,

Having borne fo great a fhare in the fervice in North America, I hope it will not be thought improper, that I take fome share in the prefent debate. When matters are brought under confideration, the facts and circumftances of which can. not be fuppofed to be fully known to this Houfe, it becomes the duty of those whofe fervice and station has rendered them duly cognizant of fuch circumstances and facts, to bear their teftimony of the ftate of things, and to give their op nion of the ftate of the bufinefs alfo.- However clear and diftin&ly thefe matters may lie in my own mind, in the strongest form of conviction, yet, being unaccustomed to fpeak in public, I am afraid I fhall be unable fo to difpofe and explain them, as to exhibit that fame diftinctness, and to convey that same conviction to others. This being the first time I have prefumed to speak in this Houfe, I feel that kind of awe in the prefence of it, which every one must feel, who compares the little importance of his own fentiments, with the experience, the knowledge, and the wifdom of fo great an affembly;-fo

that, inftead of finding myself master of my own fentiments and opinion, I feel as if I had arifen only to experience my own infufficiency. But the indulgence of the Houfe gives me encouragement, that they are willing to hear and receive what I ca fay on this fubject. And indeed, it is not only from the fituation in general in which I ftood, and the relation which I have borne to the bufinefs of America, which feems to render it proper that I fhould not give a filent vote upon this occafion-but the particular manner in which I have been concerned in this particular bufinefs, does fpecially call upon me to give my opinion on the matter now under debate.

As the prefent measure, now under confideration, is the propofal of a bill for enforcing an act of parliament, directing and regulating the quartering his Majefty's troops in North America, this matter will be beft explained, by a plain narrative of the rife of that act, and by comparing it with the circumstances and nature of the fervice, which it was meant to provide for; and also by comparing it with that province law, which it took (tho' mistaken) for its model, on this occafion.

It may be remembered, that the Com. mander in Chief of the King's forces in North America, applied to government to furnish him with fufficient powers, whereby he might quarter the King's troops; and ideas of the neceffity of quartering in private houses were fuggefted by fome. A bill was formed on thefe ideas, and brought into this Houfe.

A measure so exceptionable and so alarming, muft neceffarily meet with oppofition in this House.-There was an opposition made to it.-This oppofition gave occafion to the minister of that day to recollect himself.

I had heard accidentally of the ftate of this business, and thinking (as I did) the measure dangerous, and knowing that it was not neceffary, I took the liberty to give this my opinion of it to that minif ter, and fuggested a measure by which this bufinefs might have been done, and by which every thing, fo contrary and difcordant to the conftitution, might be avoided. I acquainted him, that there had paffed, in the province of the Maflachufet's-bay, whilft I was governor there, An Act for providing quarters for the

'King's