matter of right: to argue, therefore, that because the King's Park is at times considerately opened for the comfort and convenience of the public, that the public have a right to shut their benefactor, or his servants acting in execution of his orders, either up in it, or out of it, is to be guilty of the rankest ingratitude, or obnoxious to the imputation of the most incurable stupidity.

A Jury, too, that shall examine and cross-examine the witnesses on each side of the question, with the obvious. and undeniable desire to criminate, has forfeited its legitimate character, if not its legal existence as a Jury. It has violated the obligations of its oath, and usurped the functions of the advocate, to perform them with all the zeal of the partizan.

This, you will perceive, is a description far from coming up to the truth,

A

of the illegally disgraceful conduct of the Jury which, but for a little leaven of common sense and invincible rectitude, would have converted the institution from an object of veneration into an object that had excited inexpressible uneasiness and universal alarm...

In passing, I would just remark, that an irresolution in our Courts to punish contempt, has done much to foster that unwarrantable defiance of their authority which has of late formed the distinctive feature of personal defence. That the contagion has spread, is testified by the audacious conduct adopted on the de fence of the late Queen; then an advo çate in office had the illimitable assur ance, the outrageous presumption, to make the experiment of biassing a verdict to emanate from the whole body of our Nobility in Parliament assembled, and at the time uniting the exercise of the legislative with that of the judicial

functions, by holding out to it threats of annihilation; by fulminating, with papal impertinence, banns of excommunication against all who should be contumacious enough to convict a state culprit, because that culprit was his client.

This, however, you will join me in declaring, was not so expanded an outrage as the deliberate attack in Parliament, a session or two since, upon the King's prerogative of Prorogation. That prerogative is an essential of the Constitution: were it once wrested from the Crown, the balance of the Constitution would be utterly and irrevocably destroyed. The third estate of the. Realm would become the centre of attraction, and thither, without a centrifugal check, would the whole power of the Empire gravitate. Feeling itself omnipotent, this branch of the Legislature would labour to render itself ever

lasting; till its unnatural endeavours, expediting the decomposition of the social fabric, would find a violent end in the general catastrophe.

The above-mentioned attempts, both abortive and successful, support me in the protestation with which I set out, of the pernicious exorbitance of the popular demands of the present day. This exor bitance will be still further exposed in the few words which I wish to address to you on the state of the representation. Previous to entering on this topic, it may be well to quote the following judicious remarks:--

"I am convinced that some apparent defects are equally useful in the natural and intellectual world; and that it is necessary that there should be a mixture of abuse and imperfection in the institus tions which men frame, as that there should be a portion of impurity in the

air which we breathe. Foreign and do mestic quarrels, disturbance and disease, are universally supposed to be among the most melancholy incidents which occur in the tragic farce of our existence. Yet, without war, what becomes of our soldiers? If there were no diseases, our physicians would be undone if the litigious spirit of the people were extinguished, our lawyers must wear their insignia for nothing,--without fees, without dignity, and without employment. If there were no political dissentions, what stop would there be to the despotism of men in power, or what theme for the speeches of men in opposition? And lastly, if there had never arisen any disputes about religion, we should not have been blessed with the mighty labours of the Fathers of the Church."

We have long ascertained that Property is the only legitimate basis