s majesty's privy council; and,
therefore, though they should be defective, I do not see how it is
reasonable or just, that he should be singled out from the rest for
disgrace or punishment.

The motion, therefore, my lords, appears to me neither founded on facts,
nor law, nor reason, nor any better grounds than popular caprice, and
private malevolence.

If it is contrary to law to punish without proof; if it is not agreeable
to reason that one should be censured for the offences of another; if it
is necessary that some crime should be proved before any man can suffer
as a criminal, then, my lords, I am convinced that your lordships will
be unanimous in rejecting the motion.

The duke of ARGYLE spoke next, as follows:--My lords, if we will
obstinately shut our eyes against the light of conviction; if we will
resolutely admit every degree of evidence that contributes to support
the cause which we are inclined to favour, and to reject the plainest
proofs when they are produced against it, to reason and debate is to
little purpose: as no innocence can be safe that has incurred the
displeasure of partial judges, so no criminal that has the happiness of
being favoured by them, can ever be in danger.

That any lord has already determined how to vote on the present
occasion, far be it from me to assert: may it never, my lords, be
suspected that private interest, blind adherence to a party, personal
kindness or malevolence, or any other motive than a sincere and
unmingled regard for the prosperity of our country, influences the
decisions of this assembly; for it is well known, my lords, that
authority is founded on opinion; when once we lose the esteem of the
publick, our votes, while we shall be allowed to give them, will be only
empty sounds, to which no other regard will be paid than a standing army
shall enforce.

The veneration of the people, my lords, will not easily be lost: this
house has a kind of hereditary claim to their confidence and respect;
the great actions of our ancestors are remembered, and contribute to the
reputation of their successours; nor do our countrymen willingly suspect
that they can be betrayed by the descendants of those, by whose bravery
and counsels they have been rescued from destruction.

But esteem must languish, and confidence decline, unless they are
renewed and reanimated by new acts of beneficence; and the higher
expectations the nation may have formed of our penetration to discove