bondsman lingering out life in thankless toil, at once put to flight all conceptions of freedom. In the midst of altars fuming to liberty, of harangues glowing with the most pompous protestations of scorn for servitude, of crowds inflated with the presumption that they disdained a master, the eye was insulted with the perpetual chain. The temple of liberty was built upon the dungeon.Rome came, and unconsciously avenged the insulted name of freedom; the master and the slave were bowed together; the dungeon was made the common dwelling of all.

XLIX.

Defence of a Client on his Trial for a Libel on the Clergy of Durham.-BROUGHAM.

It is necessary for me to set before you the picture, my learned friend was pleased to draw of the clergy of the diocese of Durham, and I shall recall it to your minds almost in his own words. According to him, they stand in a peculiarly unfortunate situation; they are, in truth, the most injured of men.

They all, it seems, entertained the same generous sentiments with the rest of their countrymen, though they did not express them in the old, free English manner, by openly condemning the proceedings against the late queen; and after the course of unexampled injustice, against which she victoriously struggled, had been followed by the needless infliction of inhuman torture, to undermine a frame whose spirit no open hostility could daunt, and extinguish the life so long embittered by the same foul arts-after that great princess had ceased to harass her enemies-after her glorious but unhappy life had closed, and that princely head was at last laid low by death, which, living, all oppression had only the more illustriously exalted-the venerable, the clergy of Durham, I am now told for the first time, though less forward in giving vent to their feelings than the rest of their fellow-citizens-though not so vehement in their indignation at the matchless and unmanly persecution of the queen-though not so unbridled in their joy at her im

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mortal triumph, nor so loud in their lamentations over her mournful and untimely end-did, nevertheless, in reality, all the while, deeply sympathize with her sufferings, in the bottom of their reverend hearts!

When all the resources of the most ingenious cruelty hurried her to a fate without parallel-if not so clamorous, they did not feel the least of all the members of the community-their grief was in truth too deep for utterance-sorrow clung round their bosoms, weighed upon their tongues, stifled every sound-and, when all the rest of mankind, of all sects and of all nations, freely gave vent to their feelings of our common nature, their silence, the contrast which they displayed to the rest of their species, proceeded from the greater depth of their affliction; they said the less because they felt the more!

Oh! talk of hypocrisy after this!-Most consummate of all hypocrites! After instructing your chosen official advocate to stand forward with such a defence-such an exposition of your motives-to dare utter the word hypocrisy, and complain of those who charged you with it! this is indeed to insult common sense, and outrage the feelings of the whole human race! If you were hypocrites before, you were downright, frank, honest hypocrites to what you have now made yourselves-and surely for all you have ever done or ever been charged with, your worst enemies must be satiated with the humiliation of this day, its just atonement, and ample retribution!

L.

Noble Burst of Judicial Eloquence.*—MANSFIELD.

IT is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out: the numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court; and the tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us, from those they call the people, the judgment to be given now,

* Delivered by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in the celebrated case of the King against John Wilkes.

and afterwards upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged, from danger to the kingdom, by commotions and general confusion.

Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable audience to let the whole world know, all such attempts are vain. Unless we have been able to find an error which will bear us out, to reverse the outlawry, it must be affirmed. The constitution does not allow reasons of state to influence our judgments: God forbid it should! We must not regard political conse quences, how formidable soever they might be if rebellion was the certain consequence, we are bound to say, "Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum." The constitution trusts the king with reasons of state and policy: he may stop prosecutions; he may pardon offences; it is his to judge whether the law or the criminal should yield. We have

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no election: none of us encouraged or approved the commission of either of the crimes of which the defendant is convicted: none of us had any hand in his being prosecuted. It is not in our power to stop it; it was not in our power to bring it on. We cannot pardon. We are to say, what we take the law to be: if we do not speak our real opinions, we prevaricate with God and our own consciences.

I pass over many anonymous letters I have received: those in print are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way: I will do my duty unawed. What am I to fear? That mendax infamia from the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The lies of calumny carry no terror to me: I trust that my temper of mind, and the colour and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of armour against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have done it without any other reward, than the consciousness of doing what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and without any collateral views. I honour the king, and respect the people; but, many things acquired by the favour of either, are, in my ac count, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is

run after it is that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which my conscience tells me is wrong, upon this occasion, to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which come from the press: I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libels; all that falsehood and malice can invent, or the credulity of a deluded populace can swallow. I can say, with a great magistrate, upon an occasion and under circumstances not unlike, “ Ego hoc animo semper fui, ut invidiam virtute partam, gloriam, non invidiam, putarem."

The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced. I do not believe it: it is not the genius of the worst men of this country, in the worst of times. But I have set my mind at rest. The last end that can happen to any man, never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country (for liberty is synonymous with law and government). Such a shock, too, might be productive of public good: it might awake the better part of the kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have benumbed them, and bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are sometimes stunned into sobriety.

Once for all, let it be understood, "that no endeavours of this kind will influence any man who at present sits here." If they had any effect, it would be contrary to their intent: leaning against their impression, might give a bias the other way. But I hope, and I know, that have fortitude enough to resist even that weakness. No libels, no threats, nothing that has happened, nothing that can happen, will weigh a feather against allowing the defendant, upon this and every other question, not only the whole advantage he is entitled to from substantial law and justice, but every benefit from the most critical nicety of form, which any other defendant could claim under the like objection. The only effect I feel, is an anxiety to be able to explain the grounds upon which we proceed; so as to satisfy all mankind "that a flaw of form given way to in this case, should not have been got over in any other."

LI.

The President of the United States-what he ought to be.LOUIS M'LANE.

A CHIEF magistrate of the union should look to noble objects, and consider himself called to a high destiny. I would have him rouse his spirit and expand his mind to the elevation and grandeur of his important trust; I would have him to realize that he is the governor of a great, free and prosperous people; various in the habits, opinions and occupations, but all pursuing the general end of human action, the happiness of themselves and their posterity, and all equally entitled to the protection and favour of their government. I would have him to purify himself from all temptation to proscription or intolerance, and all vindictive or personal suggestions, and to maintain himself at a sightless distance above the low intrigues and bitterness of faction. I would have him thoroughly to understand the spirit and import of the constitution of our country; to consider all its functionaries entitled to equal respect with himself; to preserve sacred the just balance and apportionment of power among the various departments, and, in all cases of diversity of opinion-whether between the heads of departments or among the people at large, to maintain a wise moderation and forbearance, and to endeavour to lead the jarring parties to entertain respect for each other, and to co-operate for the common good. "I would have him to think of fame as well as of applause, and prefer that which to be enjoyed must be given, to that which may be bought; to consider his administration as a single day in the great year of government, but as a day that is affected by those which went before, and that must affect those which are to follow." I would have him to consider the constitution and the laws as the sole rule of his conduct, neither stretching nor warping them either to enlarge his own power or to abridge that of the coordinate departments, or of the people. To usurp no authority inconsistent with their spirit, nor to abuse that which they confer. I would have him diligently to inform himself of all the great and diversified interests of