doing right without fear, without
control, and without danger.

But, my lords, if any man may be condemned unheard, if judgment may
precede evidence, what safety or what confidence can integrity afford?
It is in vain that any man means well, and acts prudently; it is even in
vain that he can prove the justice and prudence of his conduct.

By liberty, my lords, can never be meant the privilege of doing wrong
without being accountable, because liberty is always spoken of as
happiness, or one of the means to happiness, and happiness and virtue
cannot be separated. The great use of liberty must, therefore, be to
preserve justice from violation; justice, the great publick virtue, by
which a kind of equality is diffused over the whole society, by which
wealth is restrained from oppression, and inferiority preserved from
servitude.

Liberty, general liberty, must imply general justice; for wherever any
part of a state can be unjust with impunity, the rest are slaves. That
to condemn any man unheard is oppressive and unjust, is beyond
controversy demonstrable, and that no such power is claimed by your
lordships will, I hope, appear from your resolutions.

Lord GOWER spoke next:--My lords, to the principle laid down by those
noble lords, I have no objection, and concur with them in hoping that
all our proceedings will contribute to establish it; but why it should
be confirmed by a formal resolution, why the house should solemnly
declare their assent to a maxim which it would be madness to deny, it is
beyond my penetration to discover.

Though the noble lord's position cannot be controverted, yet his motion,
if it is designed to imply any censure of the proceedings of this day,
may reasonably be rejected, and that some censure is intended we may
conjecture, because no other reason can be given why it was not made at
some other time.

Lord HALIFAX then rose:--My lords, that a censure is intended, will, I
suppose, not be denied, and that such a censure is unjust must doubtless
be the opinion of all those who are supposed to have incurred it, and it
will, therefore, not be wondered that the motion is opposed by them, as
indecent and calumnious: late as it is, my lords, I will not, for my
part, suffer such an indignity without opposition, and shall think my
conscience and my honour require, that I should not be overborne by
perseverance or by numbers, but that I should, if I cannot convince the
noble lords by argument, of the