ant age, or remote country, a man was
condemned upon the evidence of persons publickly hired to accuse him,
and who, by their own confession, were traitors to their country?

That wickedness, my lords, should be extirpated by severity, and justice
rigorously exercised upon publick offenders, is the uncontroverted
interest of every country; and therefore it is not to be doubted, that
in all ages the reflections of the wisest men have been employed upon
the most proper methods of detecting offences; and since the scheme now
proposed has never been practised, or never but by the most oppressive
tyrants, in the most flagitious times, it is evident, that it has been
thought inconsistent with equity, and of a tendency contrary to publick
happiness.

I am very far, my lords, from desiring that any breach of national trust
should escape detection, or that a publick office should afford security
to bribery, extortion, or corruption. I am far from intending to
patronise the conduct of the person mentioned in the present bill. Let
the commons proceed with the utmost severity, but let them not deviate
from justice. If he has forfeited his fortune, his honours, or his life,
let them by a legal process be taken from him; but let it always be
considered, that he, like every other man, is to be allowed the common
methods of self-defence; that he is to stand or fall by the laws of his
country, and to retain the privileges of a Briton, till it shall appear
that he has forfeited them by his crimes.

To censure guilt, my lords, is undoubtedly necessary, and to inquire
into the conduct of men in power, incontestably just; but by the laws
both of heaven and earth, the means as well as the end are prescribed,
_rectum recte, legitimum legitime faciendum_; we must not only propose a
good end in our conduct, but must attain it by that method which equity
directs, and the law prescribes.

How well, my lords, the law has been observed hitherto, on this
occasion, I cannot but propose that your lordships should consider. It
is well known, that the commons cannot claim a right to administer an
oath, and therefore can only examine witnesses by simple
interrogatories. That they cannot confer upon a committee the power
which they have not themselves, is indubitably certain; and therefore it
is evident, that they have exceeded their privileges, and proceeded in
their inquiry by methods which the laws of this nation will not support.

That they canno