this assertion may be regarded as having been uphold by the refusal
of the judges to release the Lord Mayor and Alderman when they sued out
writs of _habeas corpus_; and they consequently remained prisoners in
the Tower till they were released by the prorogation.

But with this report of the committee the matter was suffered to drop.
The transaction had caused almost unprecedented excitement, which was
not confined to the City, for the grand-juries of many English counties
and a committee of the Dublin merchants showed their sympathy with the
Opposition by sending up addresses to the imprisoned City magistrates;
and the ministers had a prudent fear of keeping alive an agitation which
had not been always free from danger to the public tranquillity.[15] In
effect, the victory remained with the Opposition. No farther attempt was
made to punish any of the printers; and, though the standing orders
which forbid such publication have never been formally repealed, ever
since that time the publishers of newspapers and other periodicals have
been in the constant habit of giving regular details of the proceedings
of both Houses of Parliament. And one enterprising publisher, Mr.
Hansard, has for many years published a complete record of the debates
in both Houses, which is continually appealed to in the Houses
themselves, by members of both parties, as a manual of political and
parliamentary history.

The practice, as it now prevails, is one of the many instances of the
practical wisdom with which this nation often deals with difficult
subjects. The standing order is retained as an instrument which, in
certain cases, it may possibly be expedient to employ; as, in fact, it
has been employed in one or two instances in the present reign, when
matters have been under consideration which, however necessary to be
discussed, were of such a nature that the publication of the details
into which some speakers deemed it desirable to go was regarded by
others as calculated to be offensive to the taste, if not injurious to
the morals, of the community at large. But the very fact of such an
occasional enforcement of the standing orders under very peculiar
circumstances implies a recognition of the propriety of its more
ordinary violation; of the principle that publication ought to be the
general rule, and secrecy the unusual exception. And, indeed, it is,
probably, no exaggeration to say that such publication is not only
valuable, as the best