ty of their abilities, rather than of
their numbers.

That we shall, by passing this bill, give the commons a power which they
want at present, is unquestionably evident; but we shall only retrieve
that which they were never known to want before, the power of producing
evidence; evidence which we, my lords, must hear, and of whose
testimonies we shall reserve the judgment to ourselves. The commons will
only act as prosecutors, a character in which they were never conceived
to encroach upon our right. The man whose conduct is the subject of
inquiry, must stand his trial at our bar; nor has the bill any other
tendency, than to enable the commons to bring him to it.

What can be alleged against this design I know not; because I can
discover no objections which do not imply guilt, and guilt we are not
yet at liberty to suppose. I am so far from pressing this bill from any
motives of personal malevolence, that I am only doing, in the case of
the minister, what I should ardently desire to be done in my own, and
what no man would wish to obstruct, who was supported by a consciousness
of integrity, and stimulated by that honest sense of reputation which I
have always found the concomitant of innocence.

I hope I shall be readily believed by your lordships, when I assert,
once more, that I should not only forbear all opposition to a bill
intended to produce a scrutiny into my conduct, but that I should
promote it with all my interest, and solicit all my friends to expedite
and support it; for there was once a time, my lords, in which my
behaviour was brought to the test, a time when no expedient was
forgotten by which I might be oppressed, nor any method untried to
procure accusations against me.

Whether the present case in every circumstance will stand exactly
parallel to mine, I am very far from presuming to determine. I had
served my country with industry, fidelity, and success, and had received
the illustrious testimony of my conduct, the publick thanks of this
house. I was conscious of no crime, nor had gratified, in my services,
any other passion than my zeal for the publick. I saw myself
ignominiously discarded, and attacked by every method of calumny and
reproach. Nor was the malice of my enemies satisfied with destroying my
reputation without impairing my fortune: for this purpose a prosecution
was projected, a wretch was found out who engaged to accuse me, and
received his pardon for no other purpose; nor did I ma