her motion.

The proposition which I am about to lay down, my lords, is not such as
can admit of controversy; it is such a standing principle as was always
acknowledged, even by those who have deviated from it. Such a known
truth as never was denied, though it appears sometimes to have been
forgotten.

But, my lords, as it never can be forgotten, without injury to
particular persons, and danger to the state in general, it cannot be too
frequently recollected, or too firmly established; it ought not only to
be tacitly admitted, but publickly declared, since no man's fortune,
liberty, or life, can be safe, where his judges shall think themselves
at liberty to act upon any other principle. I therefore move, "That any
attempt to inflict any kind of punishment on any person without allowing
him an opportunity to make his defence, or without any proof of any
crime or misdemeanour committed by him, is contrary to natural justice,
the fundamental laws of this realm, and the ancient established usage of
the senate, and is a high infringement of the liberties of the subject."

He was seconded by the duke of DEVONSHIRE:--My lords, though the motion
made by the noble duke is of such a kind, that no opposition can be
expected or feared, yet I rise up to second it, lest it should be
imagined that what cannot be rejected is yet unwillingly admitted.

That where this maxim is not allowed and adhered to, rights and
liberties are empty sounds, is uncontestably evident; if this principle
be forsaken, guilt and innocence are equally secure, all caution is
vain, and all testimony useless. Caprice will, in our courts, supply the
place of reason, and all evidence must give way to malice, or to favour.

I hope, therefore, my lords, that your regard to justice, to truth, and
to your own safety, will influence you to confirm this great and
self-evident principle by a standing resolution, that may not only
restrain oppression in the present age, but direct the judiciary
proceedings of our successors.

Lord LOVEL rose next, and spoke as follows:--My lords, liberty and
justice must always support each other, they can never long flourish
apart; every temporary expedient that can be contrived to preserve or
enlarge liberty by means arbitrary and oppressive, forms a precedent
which may, in time, be made use of to violate or destroy it. Liberty is
in effect suspended whenever injustice is practised; for what is
liberty, my lords, but the power of