so with fair public views, and without private scandal. I have done it with advantage to the Commonwealth, but with none whatever to myself on the score of interest. I have, it is true, a consciousness of correct intentions, and of faithful efforts for the public good, which I would not exchange for money nor place, neither of which do I look for from the great.

If anything was wanting to complete my disgust with public life in every shape, it was such a proceeding as the present. I look upon the Speaker as one of my best benefactors, because he has ruptured the last feeble tie,* which attached me to the pursuit of politics; a pursuit into which I would advise a brother or any young man not to enter too zealously, nor indeed at all; further than to form his own opinion, and give his vote. It is a pursuit in which it is difficult to be honest, and impossible to be happy. He that gives himself to it at an early period of life, and with honest intentions, will find that he must play a subordinate part to many very small, and to some very worthless men; and he may find after years of toil that he is forgotten by all but his enemies.

Sir, I am no longer the Editor of the Massachusetts Journal. That paper has been accused of many offences, and I am glad that it is no longer in my hands to be accused of more. Its misdemeanors are undoubtedly numerous; perhaps it has done few things, which did not appear such in the eyes of somebody. It is impossible for an independent editor to please every body. The paper was the only democratic paper in

* It is proper to mention for the purpose of correcting a misapprehension, that I referred to my connexion with the House, not with the Journal and Tribune. I had two or three months before requested Messrs. Carter and Hendee to make an arrangement to release me from the Editorship, and their attention had been occupied with that view. From the report of my remarks which appeared in one of the city papers, it was supposed by several persons that the separation was in consequence of the Speaker's prosecution, and was not amicable. It is due to Messrs. Carter and Hendee, as well as myself, to say that such was not the fact.

this city, speaking according to old party lines, which recommended and supported that course of policy that placed Mr Webster in the Senate of the United States. And if Cicero for overthrowing a foul conspiracy and saving Rome from conflagration, was called its second founder; the senator of Massachusetts for overthrowing nullification, a greater calamity than fire, may be justly called the second father of our country. If Washington did more than any other man to set up our glorious constitution; Webster has done more than any other to render it stable and everlasting. So may it be. Esto perpetua, in the language of the enthusiastic votaries of the British constitution.

It was my lot to apppear as one of the counsel of the late warden of the state prison, before a joint committee of these Houses. I studied the subject, and I assisted in an investigation of the complicated questions, connected with it, during four weeks. I published several numbers upon it in the paper. What was the result? The old establishment which was a school of corruption and crime, crime which might reach the bedchamber and the bosom of any man in the community, was broken up, and the present system established by acclamation of the legislature and the people. The Governor was praised, and is now most justly praised for this great improvement; other gentlemen are praised, and most justly, for their contributions to it, but the Massachusetts Journal is damned. I had a long, troublesome and expensive law-suit to sustain for publishing the libellous facts of the case, libellous because they were facts. The plaintiff took nothing by his action except a further exposure; and I got for my zeal as a reformer nothing except the trouble and expense of defending myself against a very powerful attack.

On another occasion I was informed of proceedings, which I thought illegal and corrupt in your committee of accounts. I published them to the world, and particularly to the county of Middlesex. That appeal to the public' gave great offence.

I was indicted for a libel. The commonwealth which I had served was brought down as a party to crush me. The treasury which I had guarded, was employed to worry me! Men came as witnesses, who had an animosity against me for my conduct at the crisis of the election of U. S. Senator. But they did themselves no credit on the stand. On the oath of the prosecutor, a man more deeply interested in the result than I, aided by an artful and most unjust charge of the judge, I was brought in guilty, and suffered great loss and injury thereby, but the commonwealth was a gainer. The legislature, in consequence of the facts, which were developed at my cost, immediately passed a bill providing for a state auditor of accounts. They passed an order, which put an end to the old and loose system of contracts for the state printing; and they stopped the extra pay of the committee on accounts. At the head of that committee was then, and had been for a number of years, that very prosecutor, party, and witness. I hope and expect still to beat him, for the question is now before the full bench. I might trace in the political history of this man and of his men' further effects of that most extraordinary trial, but I forbear. Such, Sir, are some of the crimes and misdemeanors of this Massachusetts Journal, this seditious Tribune. I leave it and the case and all my actions to your judgment, and that of my constituents. I am confident you and they will do justice to them all. I should not have said so much of either, if I had not been punished for doing my duty-if I had not been abused for that of which I am proud. It only remains for me to thank you for the attention and patience with which you have listened to me.

Mr Child having concluded his defence, the House adjourned.

In the afternoon, Mr Whipple of the committee addressed the House in support of the report. He contended that the House had jurisdiction, and ought to exercise it. He admitted that the report of the evidence read by Mr Child was fair. Mr Gardner of the committee went at length into an argu

ment to show that the House had the power to punish. The clause in the constitution did not exclude the common law of Parliament. The common law of England was expressly adopted by the constitution, and the Parliamentary portion had long been in force in this country.* The rules and orders did not comprehend all the law of the legislature, but all history and practice and precedent went to show that offences against the House might be punished by the House. That was the first question to be settled, and but little doubt existed in regard to it. There was another question, whether the offence, in this case, deserved punishment. He then examined some of the evidence, and concluded that the Speaker was entirely right, and that the imputations cast upon him were unfounded altogether, and deserved punishment,

Mr Williams of Boston denied the right to punish, and said the constitution did define the powers of the House—and to adopt the report would be to take one step towards unjust construction. The investigation began under a state of high excitement-the consequences would be tremendous to his colleague, whose motives had not been bad, though under a sense of arbitrary conduct, he had written with indiscreet warmth. Nobody would be benefited by punishing him; and

*The report of Mr Gardner's and the Speaker's remarks is from the Centinel. As I had no opportunity to reply on this point I state some authorities for an opposite opinion. None were given for the opinion expressed by Mr G.

It is the law and custom of Parliament that all weighty matters in any Parliament moved concerning the Peers of the realın, or Commons in Parliament assembled, ought to be determined adjudged and discussed by the course of Parliament, and not by the Civil Law, nor yet by the Common Laws of this Realm, used in more inferior Courts. *** And this is the reason that Judges ought not to give any opinion of a matter of Parliament, because it is not to be decided by the Common Laws, but according to the Law and custom of Parliament; and so the Judges in divers Parliaments have confessed.'

Lex Parl. 360.

'As every court of justice hath laws and customs for its direction, some the civil and canon, and some the common law, so the high court of Parliament hath also its own peculiar law called the law and custom of Parlia ment.' 1 Black. 163.

nobody had been injured by his act. He hoped the amendment would be rejected, and the whole subject postponed. He had the highest legal authority for saying that the House had no power whatever to punish a member for an offence of this kind. If any one was injured, the remedy was to be found in a court of law, and not in the House. The motive of Mr Child had never been bad; no one supposed the Speaker had been injured, and he thought Mr Child had already been punished more than enough.

MR SPEAKER said, when he found himself charged with a violation of his duty, and of the rules of the House, he felt it to be his duty to present the matter for the inquiry of the House. He was bound, as well as every member, by the rules and orders; and the 2d rule says, the Speaker' shall preserve decorum and order; may speak to points of order in preference to other members, and shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the House, on motion regularly seconded.' This was not a quibble, but a substantial rule, defining the duty of members in regard to appeals, by which all were bound. When he first decided the motion to adjourn to be out of order, he did so under a rule of parliamentary proceeding-another motion was soon after made to lay on the table, which he decided to be in order. There was a plain distinction in the two cases-at such a period of proceeding, a motion to adjourn was out of order, but a motion to lay on the table was in order-and the distinction would be found in the 'Manual,' which is the rule of the House.

Since this discussion had been carried on, all the particulars were brought directly within his distinct knowledge; and he would declare, that if he ever made a decision of a point of order, upon which he was willing to stand, and rest his reputation, it was that decision. It was the application of a rule, not for the first time, but of a rule constantly repeated and well known, and he was prepared to defend it at all times and in all places. But all this and much other matter he thought ir