the case alluded to, is so far from being full and complete, that it is not the same case.

"The case of which your lordship has favoured us with a copy, consists of four parts: "The sentence of the court.

"The recorder's warrant.

"A stating of a sign manual; which is not

our case.

"A conclusion, which is not our question.

"The case and the question, therefore," add they, "referred by his majesty's command to the twelve judges, is neither our case nor our question.

"For these and many other reasons, my lord, we wish humbly to entreat his majesty, that the same method may be followed with us as was practised in sir Edward Coke's case; who, after having been chief justice, was appointed sheriff of the county of Buckingham, and, taking four exceptions to the oath proposed to him, both his exceptions and his reasons were, by the lord keeper, laid before all the judges, and received each a separate answer, with their reasons."

On November 30, it was notified in an official letter, that the judges were of opinion," that the time and place of execution are in law No PART of the judgment; and that the recorder's

warrant was a lawful authority to the sheriffs, as to the time and place of execution."

On this the sheriffs complained to the lord chancellor, of a "naked opinion," on the part of the judges; and lament, "that their doubts are OVERRULED without being SATISFIED." They, however, at length complied, and the two prisoners were accordingly executed, at Bethnal Green, Dec. 6, 1769, by the civil power alone, as the sheriffs refused to accept of any military assistance whatsoever. From this moment, however, the mode of passing sentence has been altered, so as to accord with the objections before stated, and prevent any variation between the judgment and the order for execution.

Mr. Horne afterwards published the particulars of this transaction, under the title of "Genuine Copies of all the Letters which passed between the Lord Chancellor and the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, &c. relative to the Execution of Doyle and Valline*."

* Printed for R. Davis, in Piccadily, 1770, with the following motto:

"In rebus novis constituendis,

"Aut urgens necessitas aut evidens utilitas: "

We feel not the one, we see not the other.

Sir F. Bacon's Quotation and Comment.

Such of these papers, as were written by Mr. Horne, (and there is reason to suppose that he either penned or dictated all such as were subscribed with the names of the two city magistrates,) abound with able, learned, and sententious remarks. The notes, too, are at once recondite and curious. Both will be prized by those whose studies have been directed to constitutional investigations, on account of their respective merits; and while the lawyer may be inclined to praise them for their research, the logician must at the same time be pleased with the order, skill, and ingenuity of the arguments.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM 1769 TO 1770.

Account of Mr. Horne's printed Sermon.- Mr. Onslow commences an Action for a Libel.The different Verdicts in that Cause. - Reflections.

IT has already been remarked, that Mr. Horne, at this period of his life, had distinguished himself as a preacher; and, notwithstanding the tumult of election contests and the continual bustle and confusion incident to so many political struggles, he now actually found time to compose and publish a sermon. This seems evidently to have been written in the bitterness of disappointment; and, as it is supposed to be the only religious tract ever printed by him, a copious analysis shall be inserted in this place.

The text is taken from Psalm lv, verses 12, 13. "It was not an open enemy that hath done

me this dishonour: for then I could have borne it.

"But it was even thou, my companion, my guide, and my own familiar friend."

The divine begins by acknowledging himself to be sensibly affected with the pathetic impatience of David, who in all his other trials appears patient and resigned; but this he owns he could not bear. Few, it is observed, but have experienced a similar sensation. "And because a disappointment in friendship is the most common, and, at the same time, the most stinging of all others-Listen to me, while I propose to you a method how you may escape this anguish, and never know, how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a faithless friend.'

"Forgive me, O my God, that I am forced from this place to offer thee this public dishonour, by putting thy friendship in competition with that of man! Thou, O God, best knowest how little trust there is reposed in thee; and how necessary is this exhortation, to persuade thy infatuated creature-man-to withdraw his confidence from his fellow worm, and repose it wholly upon thee, his creator, who alone art mighty, both to save and destroy,"

We are next told, that the distrust of God's friendship, and want of reliance upon him,