BOOK aspiring views and deep designs, making, as it XIV. was affirmed, secret advances to the ex1760. minister, lord Rockingham, for the removal of

the duke of Grafton, with whom he had been for some time on terms by no means the most cordial. Disappointed, but not discouraged, at the rejection of his overtures, this versatile and restless genius soon turned his attention to a different and opposite quarter, still preserving, however, the appearances of friendship to the duke.

Tumulte on During the course of the preceding summer, the high riots and tumults had, in various parts of the provisions, kingdom, taken place in consequence of the

high price of provisions, and the magistrates were at length obliged to call in the military to the aid of the civil power. Many lives were lost, and a special commission was issued for the trial of the numerous rioters apprehended, who were nevertheless treated with every degree of lenity that the nature of the crime would perinit. Few examples were made, the sentence of the majority being mitigated to transportation, and many receiving a free pardon. The incessant rains which fell during the summer and harvest months, afforded, however, a very alarining prospect of increasing scarcity; and it was thought expedient in the autumn, when the extreme deficiency of the crop was

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fully ascertained, to issue, by virtue of the royal Book authority, an embargo on the exportation of corn, though as yet below the fixed and legal 1766.

standard *.

* A succession of wet and unfavorable seasons may sufficiently account for the extraordinary scarcity which prevailed at this particular period; but the grand and interesting problem yet remains to be solved: WHEREFORE is it, that the means of subsistence have been for thirty years past less easily attainable by the bulk of the people than at any former æra? -that while, on the one hand, our ears are soothed and delighted with those annual parliamentary prolusions, in which the prosperity of the nation is described in the most brilliant and glowing colors of eloquence, on the other our eyes are grieved and shocked at the display of wretchedness and misery which the habitations of the poor every where exhibit? Whence is it that the poors'-rates are so alarmingly increased, that the workhouses of the kingdom are crowded, and the vil lages deserted?-that the laborer is bereft of the comforts which once made his cottage the abode of contentment; his. family pining under the accumulated evils of cold, nakedness, and hunger? That this is an ideal picture, those who move in the gay and splendid circles of fashion would no doubt willingly affect to believe; but the evidence of facts is too strong to be resisted or weakened by a pompous parade of words; and, where such a state of things exists, to talk of the prosperity of the country is a gross abuse of language. Effects so fatal must no doubt originate in something radically wrong in the general system. Two causes obviously present themselves as jointly and powerfully co-operating to their production: 1. the enormous increase of the national debt, which is, in fact, only taxation of the poor householder for the benefit of the rich stockholder; and, 2. the vast and prodigious fortunes amassed

BOOK

When the parliament met at the usual season, XIV. it was found indispensably requisite to bring in a 1766 bill of indemnity, in order to prevent any prosedemnity for cutions, in the courts of law, of the officers of go on corn. the crown concerned in the execution of the act.

Bill of in

embar

But it was remarked, that, though this bill provided for the indemnity of the executors of the proclamation, it made no mention of the ADVISERS. The amendment proposed in consequence of this omission, occasioned some warm

by individuals, particularly by the oppressors and plunderers of the East, which have contributed more than is easily conceivable, to the rapid and astonishing increase of luxury, i. e. of the consumption of superfluities, which has an immediate and irresistible tendency to raise the price of the necessaries of life, while, by the excessive influx of wealth, the value of money is perpetually decreasing. Thus the blood we have so profusely shed in our successive wars, the treasures we have lavished, and the treasures WE have extorted, all combine to induce a state of political debility, languor, and decay, in which it may be truly affirmed, "that the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint." And as there is no prospect of a change of system, it must necessarily terminate in a catastrophe, which will be the more dreadful in proportion as it is procrastinated by artificial and temporary expedients. Postquam divitiæ honori esse cœperunt, et eas gloria imperium potentia sequebatur; hebescere virtus paupertas probro haberi, innocentia pro malevolentia duci cœpit. Igitur ex divitiis juventutem luxuria, atque avaritia cum superbia invasere."-Sall. in Bell. Jug.

1.

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1766.

altercation. The lords Chatham and Camden, BOOK in their too eager vindication of the late exer tion of prerogative, maintained, " that no indem nity was wanting for those who had advised the crown to adopt this wise and necessary measure." Citing the words of Locke, they asserted, "that it was ridiculous to suppose any state without the power of providing for the public safety in great emergencies." This power must in all societies be lodged somewhere, and in ours it is lodged in the king. This doctrine their lordships concurred in affirming to be by no means subversive of the security of the constitution, or contrary to the spirit of liberty, as it can only be reduced to practice on occasions of extreme necessity, when the parliament does not sit, and cannot be conveniently assembled. "At any rate, the evil cannot be very formidable, since, at worst (said lord Camden, in the unguarded warmth of debate), IT IS BUT A FORTY DAYS' TYRANNÝ; and there seems to be but little foundation for indemnifying those who have only neglected the letter, in order the better to preserve the spirit of the law."

In reply to these reasonings it was urged with great force by lord Mansfield, who distinguished himself in the debate, "that the law of England knew of no power of suspension in the preroga

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BOOK tive; that if the plea of necessity is once admitted, and the crown allowed to be the sole judge 1766. of that necessity, the power of the crown would be unlimited; for there is no case to which it might not be made to extend, and discretion would quickly degenerate into despotism. For this reason, the wisdom of the legislature has deprived the crown of all discretionary power over positive laws. Though parliaments are not immortal, their acts never sleep; they are not to be evaded by flying into a sanctuary-no, not even that of necessity. The Law is above the king, and he, as well as the subject, is as much bound by it during the recess as during the session of parliament; because no point of time or emergent circumstance can alter the constitution, or create a right not antecedently inherent. These only draw forth into action the power which before existed, but was quiescent. If the crown has a legal right to suspend or violate one law, it must have the same right to violate another, and another, till the whole system of our jurisprudence is overturned. A just regard to the safety of the sovereign, and to the LIBERTY of the SUBJECT, render it necessary for us to shut up every avenue to tyranny, that, as it has hitherto been, so it may continue to be, the distinguishing characteristic of our kings, that their