confol. reduced

PRICES OF STOCKS, &c. in JULY,

1771.

Sou. Sea. Olds. S. New S. S., 3 per C.3 per C. 3 per C. 3 per C. 4 per C. 14 per C.In. Bond. 14 per C. Long. Lottery Navy.

Stock

Ann.

Ann.

Prem.

Wind

1756. 1729

1758.

Ann.

Ticket

Weather
London
Fair

S. W.

Fair

30 Sunday

92

96

55

13 10

Fair

N. E.

Fair

225

871

88

88

96

54

13 II

225

861

88

154

86

873

88 1

963

51

13 13

O

E.

Fair

N. E.

Rain

155

87 급

96

13 10

O

W.

Sultry

216

86 3/

3.

89

96t

53

155

216

86 /

88 1

Cloudy

S. W.

Rain

AVERAGE PRICES of GRAIN, by the Standard WINCHESTER Bufhel. ||

Wheat Rye. Barley. Oats, | Barley. 3. d. 1. d.

Wheat Rye. Barley. Outs,

s. d.

d.

3. d.

3.

Beans.

3. d. 1. d.

N

O doctrine, Mr. Prefident, was ever yet broached in this kingdom, either fo dange rous, or fo ridiculous, as that which feriously infifts that the Houfe of Commons, because elected, is with out jurifdiction, and that the people, because the origin of all power, muft therefore be exempt from all obedience. The people make the laws, as well as the legislators; but will any advocate of licentioufnefs prefume to fay, because they are the fountain of authority, that they are of confequence difcharged from a fub miffion to legal inftitutions?-The law, fir, is as much the creature of their formation as this houfe; yet furely it will not be faid, that they are to tread it under foot, or to launch out into the barbarifms of their natural ftate, after folemnly forming a compact of civil fociety.

The only point therefore remaining to be difcuffed is, Whether the people at large, or this houfe, are the best judges of the public wel fare? for my own part, fir, I fhall not hefitate to pronounce pofitively in favour of the houfe. What acquaintance have the people at large with the arcana of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the refources of national ftrength, the abilities of minifters, or even with their own difpofitions? If we are to believe the very petitions which they have lately prefented to the throne, they are unequal to thofe powers which the conftitution has trufted to their hands. They baye the power of electing their re

July, 1771.

prefentatives; yet you fee they conftantly abufe this power, and appoint those as the guardians of their dearest rights, whom they accufe of confpiring against the interefts of their country. For thefe reafons I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is our duty to do what is proper, without confidering what may be agreeable: their bufinefs is to chufe us; it is our bufinefs to act conftitu tionally, and to maintain the indepen, dency of parliament; whether it is attacked by the people or by the crown, is a matter of little confequence; it is the attack, not the quarter it proceeds from, which we are to pu nifh; and if we are to be controuled in our neceffary jurifdiction, can it fignify much, whether faction intimidates us with a rabble; or the king furrounds us with his guards? If we are driven from the direct line of justice, by the threats of a mob, our existence is ufelefs in the community. The minority within doors, need only affault us by their myrmidons without, to gain their ends upon every occafion. Blows will then carry what their arguments cannot effect, and the people will be their own agents, though they elect us to represent them in parliament-What muit the confe quence be? Univerfal anarchy, Mr. Prefident. Therefore as we are chosen to defend order, I am for fending thofe magiftrates to the Tower who have attempted to deftroy it; I ftand up for the conftitution, not for the people; if the people attempt to invade the conftitution, they are enemies to the nation. Being therefore convinced that we are to do juftice, whether it is agreeable or difagreeable, I am for maintaining the independency of parliament, and will not be a rebel to

my

my king, to my country, or my own heart, for the loudet huzza of an inconfiderate multitude.

Drutus Draco having ended his fpeech, Lacius Pertinax (Col. B-e) delivered himself to the following effect;

Mr. Prefident, Sir,

SINCE I had the honour, I fhould fay the dishonour, of fitting in this houfe, I have been witnefs to many frange, many intamous tranfactions; but, fince I could call my felf a member of the British fenate, never was my indignatia roufed with fuch an abominable propofal, as that which now difgraces even this affem. bly. A reprefentative of the first city in the empire, or perhaps in the world, is to be treated as a state criminal, for fupporting the general rights of the nation, and the peculiar privileges of his fellow-citizens. It has been proved to a demonitration, that your claim of privilege was meant as a bulwark only against the encroach ment of the crown, and not as a check upon your constituents. It has been clearly fhewn that you have act ed contrary to Magna Charta, and that the magiftrates accufed have adhered to the law of the land. Nor is this all. You have been convicted of invading the peculiar franchifes of the city, and of trampling on nume rous ftatutes made in its favour, while the objects of your impotent malice have only acted according to the dictates of confcience, and the religion of their oath.-You will punish them, because they would not, for the purpoles of your tyranny, betray their truft, and be guilty of perjury. What can be your intention in fuch an attack upon all honour and virtue? Do you mean to bring all men to a level with yourfelves, and to extirpate all honesty and independence? Perhan you imagine that a vote will fet the the whole controverfy? Alas! you are not aware that the manner in which your vote is procured, remains a fecret to no man. Liften--for, if you are not totally callous, if your confciences are not feared, I will peak daggers to your fouis, and wake you to all the hells of guilty recollection Guilt, as the poet jully obferves, is the fource of forrow-- truft me there

fore your triumph fhall not be a pleafing one--I will follow you with whips and flings, through every maze of your unexampled turpitude, and plant eternal thorns beneath the rofe of minifterial approbation. Answer me; Whence did this motion take its rife? Where was the fcheme concerted? Did it originate in this house? Is it the legitimate off pring of this af fembly? No; it is the abortion of five wretched clerks, who, though a dif grace to this houfe, have the manage ment, let me correct myfelf, the mif management, of all national affairs. Thele pitiful drudges brought the Treafury into the fcheme; the Treafury influenced the Junto of Carletone house; Carleton-houfe fet all the administration in mction; and the adminiitration gave life and vigour to the machines that compofe the majority. Thus are you played off like puppets for the entertainment of the magician that acts behind the curtain. Do you not blush at fuch infamy? Do not your cheeks burn with confcious fhame at being mere walking plants, perfect oxen in a ftall, fed by the hand of your maf ter, and forced to draw in his yoke? By Heaven, I had rather not be, than drag fuch a heavy, fuch a galling, fuch a deteftable chain. There are, indeed, thofe of whofe commands I fhould be proud, because their fervice is perfect freedom. The inftructions of your conftituents you should be always ready to obey. But you have inverted the maxim of the Gofpel, and made the fervant greater than his mafter. You, who are only deputies or factors, have ufurped a power not only fuperior to that of your creators, but deftructive of the very rights by which they exist as freemen, and by which you yourselves exit as reprefentatives. In the gulf of your privileges you have fwallowed up the birthright of the people, who are ultimately paramount to all the three branches of the legiflature. Had you been as tenacious of your duty as of your interct, you would have fift provided for the fafety of the people's rights, and then entered into the di cuftion of your own privileges. It is the privilege of the people to be tried by the law of the land, and to fee

the course of justice free and uninterrupted. Both, you have flagrantly vislated, and opened a door for anarchy and confufion. But where is the wonder that you act in this arbitrary manner, when you would not allow mention to be made of the traiterous member, who declared, in the face of day, that he hoped to fee his majefty 23 abfolute and defpotic as the king of Pruffia; and that he had bought his conflituents, and made of their intructions an ufe not fit to be named! Had you been true reprefentatives, you would have immediately dropped every other fubject, and blushed to determine any national affair, till you had removed from among you fuch an abomination to all honour and honefty. But you love to protect fuch culprits, becaufe of fuch is your kingdom com pofel; and by fuch you hope to enflave the people. Such are ready made infruments to your hand, and require like Nero, no spur but their own profigacy, to tear open the maternal bowels of their country; yet how can you imagine, that the people will tamely fubmit to injuries received from men of your ftamp? How can you conceive that Britons will endure an act of tyranny, as alarming as any praftifed by the defpot of France? Louis the well-beloved erafes the acts of his parliaments; and our beloved House of Commons erafes the legal proceedings of our courts of record. The violence of Charles the First, when he entered this houfe in perfon, and feized the five members, was not a matter of fuch pernicious example! You have struck at the very root of all law and justice, and endeavoured, at one blow, with Caligula, to decolate the conftitution.

The confequence is natural. After having affumed an arbitrary dominion over truth and justice, you iflue or ders, warrants, and proclamations, against every opponent, and fend prifoners to your Baftile, all thofe who have the courage and virtue to defend the expiring freedom of their country. But it is in vain that you hope by fear and terror to extinguish every fpark of the ancient fire of this idle. The more' facrifices, the more martyrs you make, the more numerous the ions of liberty will become. They will multiply like the hydra's head,

and hurl vengeance on your devoted heads. Let others act as they will, while I have a tongue or an arm, they fhall be free. And that I may not be a witnefs of this monftrous proceed ing I will leave the houte; nor do I doubt but every independent, every honeft man, every friend to England, will follow me. Thefe walls are unholy, they are baleful, they are deadly, while a profti ute majority, holds the bolt of parliamentary omnipotence, and hurl, its vengeance only upon the virtuous. To yourselves therefore I confign you.-Enjoy your own pandemonium-"When vice prevails and impious men bear fway, [tion." The poft of honour is a private staSuch were the principal fpeeches on the ever-memorable debate for the imprifonment of the city magiftrates, which was carried in the affirmative by a very great majority. (See our Chronologer for March.) Were we to give the numberiefs fpeeches of altercation that paffed in the course of the various fubdivided questions, which like fo many ftreams branched out from the main one for the commitment, we should trefpafs on the reader's patience without adding to his information. We cannot, however, clofe this particular head, without introducing what was urged by Caius Collatinus (Sir W. M.) on the amended motion for a flighter punishment than the Tower, becaufe contrary to the generality who spoke on either fide, he was heard with approbation not only by the minority, but by the miniftry; who, if the aldermen had given them an opportunity by a submiffion, were feemingly ready to adopt his advice:

Mr Prefident, Sir,

I find myself under much difficulty: either to agree to this amendment, or diffent from it; for by agreeing to a cenfure, I may feem to adopt an opinion of guilt, which I can have no right to entertain. Did I even think the magiftrates guilty, I durft not condemn them unheard. As a judge, I am bound to think the man whom I try innocent, till he has been fairly heard, and till his guilt refults out of conviction. It is fpeaking too well of this proceeding, to fay, that they were not allowed council. We have indeed

feem

feen the faces of council at the bar; but clogged with a condition that gagged them from fpeaking what was neceffary for their clients defence. It is is an aggravation of injuftice to commit it under a colour of equity, and an infidious affectation of juftice. The honourable gentleman must therefore pardon me, if I cannot vote for his amendment as a measure of kindnefs to the aldermen; for if you, Mr. Prefident, are ordered to reprimand them, we all know your ability to do it to fome purpose. Nor can human nature be expofed to a more humiliating state, or to fharper feelings, than by fubmitting to fuch a reprimand as you will give. But in going to the Tower, there is nothing to afflict them; on the contrary, they will carry in their own bofoms the blef fings of a good confcience, and be followed by the general applaufe of their fellow-citizens, whilft we their judges and profecutors will be purfued by the curfes of the people, fcorned by those who hate, and pitied by thofe who think moderately of us. But if there was no reafon for this amendment, I should think, fir, the feelings of gentlemen would incline them to adopt it, merely to get rid of a matter, of which we are all fo heartily weary. I confent to it for the fake of peace, even at the expence of juftice. With this view to peace, I have oppofed every part of this unfortunate bufinefs, in every stage. They who now differ, may live to applaud me

for it.

I fee that many gentlemen of the highest rank and character, fome of whom, by their doubts, gave a fanction, and others who added vigour and impulfe to this profecution, are now withdrawn. Several gentlemen, who uniformly oppofed this meafure, have quitted the houfe, with many bitter expreflions of the indignation which they felt. With what temper and opinion I may ever return to this unpleafant feat I know not; but I will not leave it, as long as there is a twig to catch at, by which I can hope to keep the peace of this unfortunate country. I will not avoid doing what I can, because I cannot do what I would; nor run away from the combat because the victory does no incline to my fide.

It is natural for men to complain of what they hear from the report of others; but it is what they fee and feel that provokes them to action. Here then lies the difference betwixt commitment and reprimand. The people without doors will only bear the one, they will fee the other; and every hour of the imprisonment will add fresh difcontent to their minds, and raife fome new fpirit of commotion.

We have now fat many hours paft midnight-day-light is advancing upon us-let not the fun rife upon our difagreements but let us close this difagreeable scene under the cover of that darkness which fuits it, and under the thelter of our walls.

Strongly as I think the public ought to know what paffes here, I with to God I could bind you, myfelf, the whole house, with every clerk, with even the meaneft attendant, to fecrecy on this occafion. But that would be impoffible. However, fir, a great deal of mifchief may still be avoided, if we keep ourselves to ourselves; if we do not fend our judgment to be executed abroad, and make our refentment the parent of riot and fedition, anarchy and uproar.

Moft fincerely, therefore, do I call upon the noble lord who fits on the Treafury Bench; he has neither my ill thoughts, nor my ill wishes; and if his lordship is truly spoken of, he has never approved this bu finefs. Let me then conjure him, for his own honour, for the cafe and dignity of his fovereign, and, a. bove all, for the peace of his country, to lay hold on the opportunity given by the prefent motion to clofe this fcene of mifchief here.

The main object of those who are charged with the cares of government is peace. The greatest kings, the wifeft minifters, have thought it not beneath them to give up points of the utmost moment for the fake of general tranquility. Minifters must govern accidents, not be governed by them. But when minifters themselves endanger public peace for trifles, and raife difcord out of atoms, then is government itself in a state of anarchy; then may we fay delenda eft Cartbags, and confider ourselves only as the ruin of a mighty, or a provident people.

[To be continued in our next.]

Account