of his neighbours, within the
county where the crimes alleged against him were said to be committed;
but by an act of a septennial parliament he might be removed and tried
in any place where the crown, or rather the ministry, could find a
jury proper for their purpose; where the prisoner could not bring any
witnesses in his justification, without an expense which perhaps his
circumstances would not bear. He asked, if the riot act was not an
encroachment on the rights of the people? An act by which a little dirty
justice of the peace, the meanest and vilest tool a minister can
use, who, perhaps subsists by his being in the commission, and may be
deprived of that subsistence at the pleasure of his patron, had it in
his power to put twenty or thirty of the best subjects in England
to immediate death, without any trial or form but that of reading
a proclamation. "Was not the fatal South-Sea scheme," said he,
"established by the act of a septennial parliament? And can any man ask,
whether that law was attended with any inconvenience; to the glorious
catalogue I might have added the late excise bill, if it had passed into
a law; but, thank heaven, the septennial parliament was near expiring
before that famous measure was introduced."

CONCLUSION OF A REMARKABLE SPEECH BY SIR W. WYNDHAM.

Sir William Wyndham concluded an excellent speech, that spoke him the
unrivalled orator, the uncorrupted Briton, and the unshaken patriot, in
words to this effect:--"Let us suppose a man abandoned to all notions of
virtue and honour, of no great family, and but a mean fortune, raised to
be chief minister of state, by the concurrence of many whimsical events;
afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of his own making; lost
to all sense of shame and reputation; ignorant of his country's true
interest; pursuing no aim but that of aggrandizing himself and his
favourites; in foreign affairs trusting none but those who, from the
nature of their education, cannot possibly be qualified for the service
of their country, or give weight and credit to their negotiations. Let
us suppose the true interest of the nation by such means neglected,
or misunderstood, her honour tarnished, her importance lost, her trade
insulted, her merchants plundered, and her sailors murdered; and
all these circumstances overlooked, lest his administration should be
endangered. Suppose him next possessed of immense wealth, the plunder
of the nation, with a parliam