BOOK XV. The parliament met on the 9th of January 1770, and, on the motion for an address to the 1770. 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 alarming state of the nation called upon him-forced him to come forward once more, and to execute that duty which he owed to God, to his sovereign, and his country. The situation of foreign affairs, was, he said, critical; but what more immediately demanded their lordships' attention was, with grief he spoke it, the divisions and distractions which prevailed in every part of the empire. He lamented those unhappy measures which had alienated the colonies from the mother country, and which had driven them into excesses he could not justify. Such, however, was his partiality to America, that he was inclined to make allowance even for those excesses. The discontents of three millions of people deserved consideration-the foundation of those discontents ought to be removed. This was the true way of putting a stop to those combinations which the address styled 'unwarrantable,' and which he readily admitted to be alarming and dangerous. The discontents of the Americans, however, at the present crisis were XV. unimportant, in comparison of those which pre- BOOK vailed in this kingdom. It was an obligation incumbent upon that house to inquire into the 1770. causes of the notorious dissatisfaction expressed by the whole English nation, to state 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 meanest subjects stood upon the same foundation; it was therefore their highest interest, as well as their bounden duty, to watch over and protect the rights of the people. The liberty of the subject," said he, " is invaded, my lords, not only in our distant provinces, but at home. The people are loud in their complaints; they demand redress; and until the injuries they have received are redressed, 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 slavish tranquillity at the expence of a single iota of the constitution. Not being able to entertain the smallest doubt that the present universal discontent of the nation arises from the proceedings of the house of commons upon the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, I think that we ought in our address to state that matter to his majesty;" and BOOK with this design his lordship concluded his speech by moving the following amendment to XV. Lord Chat 1770. the address : "And for these great and essential ham's suc- purposes we will, with all convenient speed, take into our most serious consideration the the Middle-causes of the discontents which prevail in so cessive motions respecting sex election. many parts of your majesty's dominions, and particularly the late proceedings of the house of commons, touching the incapacity of John Wilkes, esq. expelled by that house, to be reelected a member to serve in this present parliament; thereby refusing, by a resolution of one branch of the legislature only, to the subject his common right, and depriving the electors of Middlesex of their free choice of a representative." The amendment was very powerfully opposed by lord Mansfield, who began with affirming, "that he had never delivered any opinion upon the legality of the proceedings of the house of commons on the Middlesex election, nor should he now. He had locked it up in his own breast, and it should die with him. He acknowledged the unhappy distracted state 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 house of parliament were," he asserted, "always attended XV. with bad effects: he had constantly opposed BOOK them, whenever he had opportunity, and in his judicial capacity thought himself bound never 1770. to pay the least regard to them. But he made a wide distinction between the general declarations of law, and the particular decisions which might be made by either house in their judicial capacity, upon a case coming regularly before them, and properly the subject of their jurisdiction: that, for his own part, whenever the statute law was silent, he knew not where to look for the law of parliament, or for a definition of the privileges of either house, except in the proceedings and decisions of each house respectively: that a question touching the seat of a member in the lower house, could only be determined by that house; there was no other court where it could be tried, nor to which there could be an appeal from their decision: that wherever a court of justice is supreme, and their sentence final, the determination of that court must be submitted to as the law of the land. He admitted that judges might be corrupt, and their sentences erroneous; but these were cases for which, in respect of supreme courts, the constitution had provided no remedy. If they wilfully determined wrong, it was iniquitous indeed, and in the highest degree detestable; but it was a crime of which no human tribunal could take BOOK cognizance. He avoided entering into the me XV. rits of the late decision of the house of commons, 1770. because it was a subject he was convinced their lordships had no right to discuss; but he affirmed, that the amendment proposed manifestly violated every form and usage of parliament, and was a gross attack upon the privileges of the house of commons: that there never was an instance of the lords inquiring into the proceedings of that house with respect to their own members, much less of their taking upon them to censure such proceedings, or of their advising the crown to take notice of them. If, indeed, it be the purpose of the amendment to provoke a quarrel with the house of commons, I confess," said his lordship, "it will have that effect certainly and immediately. The lower house will undoubtedly assert their privileges, and give you vote for vote. I leave it therefore to your lordships to consider the fatal effects which, in such a conjuncture as the present, may arise from an open breach between the two houses of parliament." Lord Chatham once more rose to complain, that the scope and design of the amendment proposed by him had been totally misrepresented. "The amendment contained a mere statement of facts, and censure was no farther implicated than as the facts themselves were il |