ed from office!

[Footnote 125: 12 St. Tr. 430.]

[Footnote 126: Burnet's Own Times, 470. See also 2 Campbell, Justices,
89, _et seq._]

5. Here is another remarkable case, that of William Owen, in 1752.
These are the facts. In 1750 there was a contested election of a
member of Parliament for Westminster. Hon. Alexander Murray, an
anti-ministerial member of the Commons, was denounced to the House for
his conduct during the election, and it was ordered that he should be
confined a close prisoner in Newgate, and that he receive his sentence
on his knees. He refused to kneel, and was punished with great cruelty
by the bigoted and intolerant House. Mr. Owen, who was a bookseller,
published a pamphlet, entitled "The Case of Alexander Murray, Esq.,"
detailing the facts and commenting thereon. For this an information
was laid against him, charging him with publishing a "wicked, false,
scandalous, seditious, and malicious libel."

On the trial, the Attorney-General, Ryder, thus delivered himself:--

"What!--shall a person appeal from that Court, who are the
only judges of things belonging to them, the House of
Commons I mean. An appeal! To whom? To a mob? Must Justice
be appealed from? To whom? To injustice? Appeal to 'the good
people of England,' 'particularly the inhabitants of
Westminster'! The House of Commons are the good people of
England, being the representatives of the people. The rest
are--what? Nothing--unless it be a mob. But the clear
meaning of this libel was an _appeal to violence_, in fact,
and to stigmatize the House." "Then he charges the House
with sinking material evidence; which in fact is accusing
the House of injustice. This is a charge the most shocking;
the most severe, and the most unjust and virulent, against
the good, the tender House of Commons; that safeguard of our
liberty, and guardian of our welfare."

"This libel ... will be found the most powerful invective
that the skill of man could invent. I will not say the
skill, but the wit, art, and false contrivance of man,
instigated by Satan;" "to say that this is not a libel, is
to say that there is no justice, equity, or right in the
world."

The Solicitor-General told the Jury that they were only to inquire _if
Mr. Owen published the pamphlet_, "_the rest follows of course_;" "you
are upon your oaths; you judge of the facts ... and _o