gned
those offices which set him above punishment or trial; he is now without
any other security than that by which every other man is sheltered from
oppression, the publick protection of the laws of his country; but he is
yet found impregnable, he is yet able to set his enemies at defiance;
and they have, therefore, now, with great sagacity, contrived a method
by which he may be divested of the common privileges of a social being,
and may be hunted like a wild beast, without defence, and without pity.

Where, my lords, can it be expected that malice like this will find an
end? Is it not reasonable to imagine that if they should be gratified in
this demand, and should find even this expedient baffled by the
abilities which they have so often encountered without success, they
would proceed to measures yet more atrocious, and punish him without
evidence, whom they call to a trial without a crime.

It has been observed by the noble lord who spoke last, that there are
crimes mentioned in the report of the secret committee of the house of
commons, or that at least such facts are asserted in it, that an
accusation may, by easy deductions, be formed from them. The report of
that committee, my lords, with whatever veneration it may be mentioned,
by those whose purposes it happens to favour, or of whatever importance
it may be in the other house, is here nothing but a pamphlet, not to be
regarded as an evidence, or quoted as a writing of authority. It is only
an account of facts of which we know not how they were collected, and
which every one may admit or reject at his own choice, till they are
ascertained by proper evidence at our own bar, and which, therefore,
ought not to influence our opinion in the present debate.

Nor is the bill, my lords, only founded upon principles inconsistent
with the constitution of this nation, apparently tending to the
introduction of a new species of oppression, but is in itself such as
cannot be ratified without injury to the honour of this great assembly.

In examining the bill, my lords, I think it not necessary to dwell upon
the more minute and trivial defects of the orthography and expression,
though they are such as might justly give occasion for suspecting that
they by whom it was written, were no less strangers to our language than
to our constitution. There are errours or falsehoods which it more
nearly concerns us to detect, and to which we cannot give any sanction,
without an evide