e
are grown out of humor with the English Constitution itself: this is
become the object of the animosity of Englishmen. This Constitution in
former days used to be the admiration and the envy of the world: it was
the pattern for politicians, the theme of the eloquent, the meditation
of the philosopher, in every part of the world. As to Englishmen, it was
their pride, their consolation. By it they lived, for it they were ready
to die. Its defects, if it had any, were partly covered by partiality,
and partly borne by prudence. Now all its excellencies are forgot, its
faults are now forcibly dragged into day, exaggerated by every artifice
of representation. It is despised and rejected of men, and every device
and invention of ingenuity or idleness set up in opposition or in
preference to it. It is to this humor, and it is to the measures growing
out of it, that I set myself (I hope not alone) in the most determined
opposition. Never before did we at any time in this country meet upon
the theory of our frame of government, to sit in judgment on the
Constitution of our country, to call it as a delinquent before us, and
to accuse it of every defect and every vice,--to see whether it, an
object of our veneration, even our adoration, did or did not accord with
a preconceived scheme in the minds of certain gentlemen. Cast your eyes
on the journals of Parliament. It is for fear of losing the inestimable
treasure we have that I do not venture to game it out of my hands for
the vain hope of improving it. I look with filial reverence on the
Constitution of my country, and never will cut it in pieces, and put it
into the kettle of any magician, in order to boil it, with the puddle of
their compounds, into youth and vigor. On the contrary, I will drive
away such pretenders; I will nurse its venerable age, and with lenient
arts extend a parent's breath.

SPEECH

ON

A MOTION, MADE BY THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM DOWDESWELL,

MARCH 7, 1771,

FOR LEAVE TO BRING IN

A BILL FOR EXPLAINING THE POWERS OF JURIES IN PROSECUTIONS FOR LIBELS.

TOGETHER WITH

A LETTER IN VINDICATION OF THAT MEASURE,

AND

A COPY OF THE PROPOSED BILL.

I have always understood that a superintendence over the doctrines as
well as the proceedings of the courts of justice was a principal object
of the constitution of this House,--that you were to watch at once over
the lawyer and the law,--that there should be an orthodox faith, as well
as proper w