he nation has, therefore, no
claim to inquire how it is distributed; that it is given to support the
dignity of the crown, and that only his majesty can ask the reason of
any failures in the accounts of it.

I have, on the contrary, my lords, hitherto understood, that all was
publick money which was given by the publick. The present condition of
the crown is very different from that of our ancient monarchs, who
supported their dignity by their own estates. I admit, my lords, that
they might at pleasure contract or enlarge their expenses, mortgage or
alienate their lands, or bestow presents and pensions without control.

It is, indeed, expressed in the act, that the grants of the civil list
are without account, by which I have hitherto understood only that the
sum total is exempt from account; not that the ministers have a right to
employ the civil list to such purposes as they shall think most
conducive to their private views. For if it should be granted, not only
that the nation has no right to know how the _whole_ is expended, which
is the utmost that can be allowed, or to direct the application of any
part of it, which is very disputable, yet it certainly has a claim to
direct in what manner it shall _not_ be applied, and to provide that
boroughs are not corrupted under pretence of promoting the dignity of
the crown.

The corruption of boroughs, my lords, is one of the greatest crimes of
which any man under our constitution is capable; it is to corrupt, at
once, the fountain and the stream of government, to poison the whole
nation at once, and to make the people wicked, that they may infect the
house of commons with wicked representatives.

Such, my lords, are the crimes, the suspicion of which incited the
commons to a publick inquiry, in which they have been able to proceed so
far, as to prove that the publick discontent was not without cause, and
that such arts had been practised, as it is absolutely necessary, to the
publick security, to detect and punish.

They, therefore, pursued their examination with a degree of ardour
proportioned to the importance of the danger in which every man is
involved by the violation of the fundamental laws of the constitution;
but, they found themselves obstructed by the subtilty of some who
confessed only that they were guilty, and determined to be faithful to
their accomplices and themselves.

A farther inquiry, my lords, was, by this unforeseen evasion, made
impossible; th