with the
constitution of our government, but with the practice of our ancestors;
he has shown, that it may be supported not only by reason, but by bills
of the same kind, enacted on occasions of far less importance.

He has proved, my lords, all that the most scrupulous inquirer can wish;
he has made it evident, that the bill would be proper, though it were
unprecedented; he has produced many precedents in support of it, and has
thereby evinced, that the only present question is, whether it is just?
To the precedents alleged by him, it has been objected, that they differ
in some particulars. But when, my lords, did any two actions, however
common, agree in every circumstance? Relations may be complicated
without end, and every new complication produces new appearances, which,
however, are always to be disregarded, while the constituent principles
remain unvaried.

If we consider the difficulties in which the opponents of the bill have
involved themselves, it will not be easy to think well of a cause, which
gives birth to such wild assertions, and extravagant opinions. They have
first, by requiring precedents, determined, that our constitution must
be henceforward for ever at a stand; and then, by declaring that no
precedents are of any weight, in which every circumstance is not
parallel to the case in debate, have debarred us from the repetition of
any occasional law; they have declared, almost in plain terms,
themselves useless, and destroyed that authority at once, which they
seem so much afraid of communicating to the commons.

But, by none of their arts of subtle distinction, my lords, have they
been able to evade the argument which arises from the conformity of this
bill to the common practice of our courts; an argument, which has
produced no other answer than loud declamations; against the indecency
of comparing with pickpockets and highwaymen, a noble person, a minister
of acknowledged merit, long graced with the favour of his sovereign, and
long invested with the highest trust.

I, my lords, am very far from pleasing myself with licentious or
indecent language; I am far from envying any man that exaltation which
he obtains either by good or by bad actions; and have no inclination of
levelling the person, whose conduct I desire to see examined, with the
profligate or infamous. Yet I cannot forbear to observe, that high rank
is an aggravation of villany; that to have enjoyed the favour of his
sovereign, is no