Europe, continue the same as I communicated to you at the beginning of this session: and, however unsuccessful my attempts have proved for preventing the unfortunate rupture which has happened between Russia and the Porte, I shall not fail to use my good offices towards restoring peace between those powers; and I trust that the calamities of war will not extend to any other part of Europe. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons; "My particular thanks are due to you, as well for the Supplies which you have granted me for the services of the current year, as for the provision which you have made for enabling me to discharge the debt incurred upon account of my civil government. Your readiness in relieving me from the difficulties increasing upon me from the continuance of that debt, I shall ever consider as an additional motive for me to endeavour to confine the expences of my civil government within such bounds as the honour of my crown can possibly admit of "My Lords and Gentlemen; "It gives me great concern to be obliged to recommend to you, with more than ordinary earnestness, that you would all, in your several countries, exert your utmost efforts for the maintenance of public peace, and of good order among my people. You must be sensible that whatever obstructs, in any degree, the regular execution of the laws, or weakens the authority of the magistrate, must lessen the rent, they relinquish their grand constitutional privilege of deciding on the guilt or innocence of the person accused. In cases of peculiar difficulty, the jury are indeed with great propriety permitted to return a special verdict, in which the facts only are found, and it is left to the Court to apply the law in conformity to such specific statement: and surely it may be allowed by those who are most deeply versed in the mysteries of the law, that a jury, however incapable in certain cases to determine, i. e. to understand the law with the best assistance of the pleaders and of the Court, are at least competent to judge whether they do understand it or not. After long deliberation, the jury impannelled in the present cause returned their verdict, "Guilty of printing and publishing only;" thus virtually negativing the seditious meaning and intention, which being of the essence of the charge, though according to the new doctrine a question of pure law, the verdict amounted to an absolute acquittal, and the defendant Woodfall was discharged amidst the universal and unbounded acclamations of the of the people." Belsham. [VOL. XVI.] only security which my people can have for the undisturbed enjoyment of their rights and liberties. From your endeavours in this common cause, I promise myself the most salutary effect. On my part, no countenance or support shall be wanting for as I have ever made, and ever shall make, our excellent constitution the rule of my own conduct; so shall I always consider it as equally my duty to exert every power with which that constitution has entrusted me, for preserving it safe from violations of every kind; being fully convinced, that in so doing, I shall most effectually provide for the true interest and happiness of my people." The Parliament was then prorogued to the 14th of June; and was afterwards further prorogued to the 9th of January 1770. "My Lords and Gentlemen ; "It is with much concern that I find myself obliged to open the session of parliament, with acquainting you, that the distemper among the Horned Cattle has lately broke out in this kingdom, notwithstanding every precaution that could be used for preventing the infection from foreign parts: upon the first notice of its actual appearance, my next attention was to endeavour to stop, if possible, its further progress; and as the success of those endeavours must, in all probability, have been entirely defeated by any the least degree of delay in the application of them, I thought it absolutely necessary, with the advice of my privy council, to give immediate directions for every step to be taken, that appeared most capable of checking the instant danger of the spreading of the infection, until I could have an opportunity of consulting my parliament upon some more permanent measures for secur [2 T] ing us against so great a calamity; and to your immediate and serious consideration, I earnestly recommend this very important object. "I have given my parliament repeated assurances, that it has always been my fixed purpose to preserve the general tranquillity, maintaining, at the same time, the dignity and honour of my crown, together with the just rights and interests of my people; the uncommon burthens which my subjects have borne so cheerfully, in order to bring the late war to a happy conclusion, must be an additional motive to make me vigilant to prevent the present disturbances in Europe from extending to any part where the security, honour, or interest, of this nation may make it necessary for my crown to become a party: the assurances which I receive from the other great powers, afford me reason to believe, that my endeavours will continue to be successful. I shall still make the general interests of Europe the object of my attention, and while I steadily support my own rights, I shall be equally careful not to acknowledge the claims of any other powers, contrary to the limitations of the late treaties of peace. "It is needless for me to recommend to the serious attention of my parliament the state of my government in America: I have endeavoured, on my part, by every means, to bring back my subjects there to their duty, and to a due sense of lawful authority. It gives me much concern to inform you, that the success of my endeavours has not answered my expectations; and that, in some of my colonies, many persons have embarked in measures highly unwarrantable, and calculated to destroy the commercial connection between them and the mother country. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons; "I have ordered the proper Estimates for the service of the current year to be laid before you. I am persuaded that your affection for my person and government, and your zeal for the public good, will induce you to grant such supplies as are necessary; and you may be assured that, on my part, they shall be managed with the strictest œconomy. "My Lords and Gentlemen; "As the welfare and prosperity of my people have always been the object of my wishes and the rule of my actions, so I am persuaded, from my experience of your conduct, that you will be governed in your proceedings by the same principles: my ready concurrence and support, in every measure that may serve to promote those ends, you may always depend upon. On you it will be now more than ever incumbent, most carefully to avoid all heats and animosities amongst yourselves, and to cultivate that spirit of harmony which becomes those who have but one common object in their view, and which may be most likely to give authority and efficacy to the result of your deliberations; such a conduct on your part will, above all things, contribute to maintain, in their proper lustre, the strength, the reputation, and the prosperity, of this country; to strengthen the attachment of my subjects to that excellent constitution of government from which they derive such distinguished advantages; and to cause the firm reliance and confidence which I have in the wisdom of my parliament, as well as in their zeal for the true interest of my people, to be justified and approved, both at home and abroad *." Debate in the Lords on the Address of Thanks.+] His Majesty having retired, * This Speech was unsparingly ridiculed in public the prints, and the session was nicknamed the Horned Cattle Session. + The following is from the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1770. A short Sketch of the Debate in the House of Lords, January 9, 1770. The Speech was moved for by the duke of Aucaster, and seconded by lord Dunmore, a Scottish peer. Lord Chatham was the next of consequence who spoke: he condemned in the strongest and most emphatic terms, the incapacitating vote of the House of Commons, by which they had rejected Mr. Wilkes, and seated Mr. Luttrell in his place, in direct violation of the laws of the land, and to the utter subversion of our free constitution. He was followed by Lord Chancellor Camden, who declared that he had accepted the seals at first without any conditions; that he meant not, therefore, to be trammelled by his Majesty, I beg pardon, said he, by his ministers: that he had suffered himself to be so too long; that, for some time, he had beheld, with silent indignation, the arbitrary measures which were pursuing by the ministry; that he had often drooped and hung his looks, those steps, which he knew his down his head in council, and disapproved, by avowed opposition could not prevent; that, however, he would do so no longer, but would openly and boldly speak his sentiments. That, as to the incapacitating vote, he was of the same opinion with the noble lord, who spoke The Duke of Ancaster moved, "That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, to return his Majesty the thanks of this House, for his most gracious Speech from the throne. "To assure his Majesty, that it is with the greatest concern we have understood that the distemper among the Horned Cattle has lately broke out in this kingdom; to express our gratitude for his Majesty's paternal care and attention to the welfare of his people in the steps which it has pleased his Majesty to take, by and with the advice of his privy council, to check the instant danger of the spreading of the distemper upon the first notice of its appearance; and to assure his Majesty, that we will inmediately enter into the before him; that he considered it as a direct attack upon the first principles of the constitution; and that if, in giving his decision as a judge, he was to pay any regard to that vote, or any other vote of the House of Commons, in opposition to the known and established laws of the land, he should look upon himself as a traitor to his trust, and an enemy to his country; that the ministry, by their violent and tyrannical conduct, had alienated the minds of the people from his Majesty's government, he had almost said, from his Majesty's person; that in consequence, a spirit of discontent had spread itself into every corner of the kingdom, and was every day encreasing; and that if some methods were not devised to appease the clamours that so universally prevailed, he did not know but the people, in despair, might turn their own avengers, and take the redress of their grievances into their own hands. In a word, be accused the ministry, if not in express terms, yet by direct implication, of having formed a conspiracy against the liberties of their country. Lord Mansfield was the next that spoke, and he began in such a manner, that many people imagined he was going to make the same declaration as the Chancellor. He owned, indeed, that as to his character as a judge, he was perfectly of the same opinion, and that if, in giving his decision in any court of justice, he was to have an eye to the incapacitating vote of the Commons, he should look upon himself as the greatest of tyrants, and the greatest of traitors; that, nevertheless, with regard to this vote in another view, he would say nothing; that he had often been asked his opinion of it, in public and in private, by friends and by strangers, within doors and without; that he had never given his opinion, that he would not now give it, and he did not know but he might carry it to the grave with him; that if the Commons had passed an unjustifiable vote, it was a matter between God and their own consciences, and nobody else had most serious consideration of this very important object, and will exert our utmost endeavours in taking such effectual measures as may secure us against so great a calamity. "To return our thanks to his Majesty for the repeated assurances his Majesty has been pleased to give us of his fixed purpose to preserve the peace, maintaining, at the same time, the dignity of his crown, and the interests of his people. "To express our dutiful sense of his Majesty's provident attention to prevent the necessity of involving his subjects in fresh difficulties, after the great burthens to which they so cheerfully submitted, in order to bring the late war to a happy conclusion; and our satisfaction to find that the assurances given to his Majesty any thing to do with it; and that at all events, for their lordships to take notice of this vote in their Address to his Majesty, was to carry up to the throne a railing accusation against the Commons, which, perhaps, might excite a flame between the two Houses, that might not be so easily allayed; and that he therefore disapproved of the proposed amendment. Upon this, as an Lord Chatham rose up a second time, and observed, that it plainly appeared from what the noble lord had said, that he concurred in sentiment with the opposition; for had he concurred with the ministry, he would, no doubt, have avowed his opinion; that it now behoved him equally to avow it in favour of the people; that he ought to do so honest man, as an independent man, as a man of courage and resolution; that to say, that if the Commons had passed an unjustifiable vote, it was a matter between God and their own consciences, and nobody else had any thing to do with it, was such a strange assertion as he had never heard, and involved a doctrine subversive of the constitution. What! if the Commons should pass a vote abolishing this House, abolishing their own House, and surrendering to the crown all the rights and liberties of the people, would it only be a matter between God and their own consciences, and would nobody else have any thing to do with it? You would have to do with it-I should have to do with it-every man in the kingdom would have to do with it—and every man in the kingdom would have a right to insist upon the repeal of such a treasonable vote, and to bring the authors of it to condign punishment. I therefore again call upon the noble lord to declare his opinion, unless he will lie under the imputation of being conscious to himself of the illegality of the vote, and yet being restrained, by some unworthy motive, from avowing it to the world. Lord Mansfield replied not. by the other great powers of Europe, afford reason to hope that, without prejudice either to the honour of his crown, the rights of his people, or the general interests of Europe, it may still be in his Majesty's power to continue to his subjects the farther enjoyment of the blessings of peace. "To assure his Majesty, that we will take into our most serious consideration the state of his government in America; to express our utmost concern that his Majesty's paternal endeavours to bring back his subjects there to a due sense of lawful authority, have not answered his Majesty's expectations; and that we shall be ready to give every assistance in our power for rendering effectual these his Majesty's gracious intentions, and for discountenancing those unwarrantable measures practised in some of his Majesty's colonies, which appear calculated to destroy the commercial connection between them and the mother country. "To assure his Majesty, that we are thoroughly sensible that the welfare of his people has ever been the object of his wishes, and the rule of all his actions; and that we will endeavour to deserve the favourable opinion which his Majesty is graciously pleased to express of our being governed by the same principles: that we have a most thorough reliance on his Majesty's promised support, in such measures as may serve to promote those ends: that as it is peculiarly incumbent upon us, at present, to avoid heats and animosities among ourselves, so we shall endeavour to cultivate that harmony which is so necessary to the common cause, and which alone can render our deliberations respectable and effectual; being fully persuaded that such a conduct, on our part, must greatly contribute to the happiness and prosperity of this country, and to establish a due sense of the very distinguished advantages of our happy constitution, as well as a firm attachment to it, and must justify, both at home and abroad, his Majesty's gracious confidence in the wisdom of his parliament, and in their zeal for the true interests of his people." Lord Dunmore seconded the motion. *This very important Debate was taken by a gentleman, who afterwards made a distinguished figure in the House of Commons; and by him it has been obligingly revised for this Work [A. D. 1813.] pliments to the noble mover, took notice how happy it would have made him to have been able to concur with the noble duke in every part of an Address, which was meant as a mark of respect and duty to the crown-professed personal obligations to the King, and veneration for him; that, though he might differ from the noble duke in form of expressing his duty to the crown, he hoped he should give his Majesty a more substantial proof of his attachment than if he agreed with the motion. That, at his time of life, and loaded as he was with infirmities, he might perhaps have stood excused if he had continued in his retirement, and never taken part again in public affairs. But that 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 to his country; that he was determined to perform it, even at the hazard of his life. That there never was a period which called more forcibly than the present, for the serious attention and consideration of that House; that as they were the hereditary counsellors of the crown, it was particularly their duty, at a crisis of such importance and danger, to lay before their sovereign the true state and condition of his subjects, the discontent which universally prevailed amongst them, the distresses under which they laboured, the injuries they complained of, and the true causes of this unhappy state of affairs. That he had heard with great concern of the distemper among the cattle, and was very ready to give his approbation to those prudent measures which the council had taken for putting a stop to so dreadful a calamity. That he was satisfied there was a power in some degree arbitrary, with which the constitution trusted the crown, to be made use of under correction of the legislature, and at the hazard of the minister, upon any sudden emergency, or unforeseen calamity, which might threaten the welfare of the people, or the safety of the state. That on this principle he had himself advised a measure, which he knew was not strictly legal; but he had recommended it as a measure of necessity, to save a starving people from famine, and had submitted to the judgment of his country. That he was extremely glad to hear, what he owned he did not believe when he came into the House, that the King had reason to expect that his endeavours 6 to secure the peace of this country would | before them, by which they might judge be successful; for that certainly a peace of the proceedings of the colonies, he was never so necessary as at a time strongly objected to their passing that when we were torn to pieces by divisions heavy censure upon them, which was conand distractions in every part of his Ma- veyed in the word unwarrantable,' conjesty's dominions. That he had always tained in the proposed Address. That it considered the late peace, however neces- was passing a sentence without hearing sary in the then exhausted condition of the cause, or being acquainted with the this country, as by no means equal in facts, and might expose the proceedings point of advantage to what we had a right of the House to be received abroad with to expect from the successes of the war, indifference or disrespect. That if unand from the still more exhausted condi- warrantable' meant any thing, it must tion of our enemies. That, having de- mean illegal; and how could their lordserted our allies, we were left without al- ships decide that proceedings, which had liances, and during a peace of seven years, not been stated to them in any shape, were had been every moment on the verge of a contrary to law? That what he had heard war: that, on the contrary, France had of the combinations in America, and of attentively cultivated her allies, particu- their success in supplying themselves larly Spain, by every mark of cordiality with goods of their own manufacture, had and respect. That if a war was unavoid indeed alarmed him much for the comable, we must enter into it without a sin- mercial interests of the mother country; gle ally, while the whole House of Bourbon but he could not conceive in what sense was united within itself, and supported by they could be called illegal, much less the closest connections with the principal how a declaration of that House could repowers in Europe. That the situation of move the evil. That they were dangerour foreign affairs was undoubtedly a ous' indeed, and he greatly wished to have matter of moment, and highly worthy that word substituted for unwarrantable.' their lordships' consideration; but that he That we must look for other remedies. declared with grief, there were other That the discontent of two millions of matters still more important, and more people deserved consideration; and the urgently demanding their attention. He foundation of it ought to be removed. meant the distractions and divisions which That this was the true way of putting a prevailed in every part of the empire. He stop to combinations and manufactures lamented the unhappy measures which in that country; but that he reserved himhad divided the colonies from the mother self to give his opinion more particularly country, and which he feared had drawn on this subject, when authentic informathem into excesses which he could not tion of the state of America should be justify. He owned his natural partiality laid before the House; declaring only for to America, and was inclined to make al- the present, that we should be cautious lowance even for those excesses. That how we invade the liberties of any part of they ought to be treated with tenderness; our fellow subjects, however remote in for in his sense they were ebullitions of situation, or unable to make resistance. liberty, which broke out upon the skin, That liberty was a plant that deserved to and were a sign, if not of perfect health, be cherished; that he loved the tree, and at least of vigorous constitution, and must wished well to every branch of it. That, not be driven in too suddenly, lest they like the vine in the Scripture, it had spread should strike to the heart. He professed from east to west, had embraced whole himself entirely ignorant of the present nations with its branches, and sheltered state of America, therefore should be them under its leaves. That the Americautious of giving any opinion of the mea- cans had purchased their liberty at a dear sures fit to be pursued with respect to that rate, since they had quitted their native country. That it was a maxim he had country, and gone in search of freedom to observed through life, when he had lost a desert. his way, to stop short, lest by proceeding without knowledge, and advancing (as he feared a noble duke had done) from one false step to another, he should wind himself into an inextricable labyrinth, and never be able to recover the right road. That as the House had yet no materials That the parts of the Address which he had already touched upon, however important in themselves, bore no comparison with that which still remained. That indeed there never was a time, at which the unanimity recommended to them by the King, was more necessary than at pre |