t warmth; and
though Mr. Pelham had, with the most disinterested air of candour,
repeatedly declared that he required no support even from his own
adherents, but that which might arise from reason unrestrained and full
conviction, he on this occasion reaped all the fruit from their zeal and
attachment, which could be expected from the most implicit complaisance.
Some plausible amendments of the most exceptionable clauses were
offered, particularly of that which imposed an oath upon the members of
every court-martial, that they should not, on any account, disclose the
opinions or transactions of any such tribunal. This was considered as a
sanction, under which any court-martial might commit the most flagrant
acts of injustice and oppression, which even parliament itself could
not redress, because it would be impossible to ascertain the truth,
eternally sealed up by this absurd obligation. The amendment proposed
was, that the member of a court-martial might reveal the transactions
and opinions of it in all cases wherein the courts of justice, as the
law now stands, have a right to interfere, if required thereto by either
house of parliament; a very reasonable mitigation, which however was
rejected by the majority. Nevertheless, the suspicion of an intended
encroachment had raised such a clamour without doors, and diffused the
odium of this measure so generally, that the minister thought proper to
drop the projected article of war, subjecting the reformed officers of
the navy to the jurisdictions of courts-martial; and the bill being
also softened in other particulars, during its passage through the upper
house, at length received the royal assent.

The flame which this act had kindled, was rather increased than abated
on the appearance of a new mutiny-bill, replete with divers innovations
tending to augment the influence of the crown, as well as the
authority and power of a military jurisdiction. All the articles of
war established since the reign of Charles II., were submitted to the
inspection of the commons; and in these appeared a gradual spirit of
encroachment, almost imperceptibly deviating from the civil institutes
of the English constitution, towards the establishment of a military
dominion. By this new bill a power was vested in any commander-in-chief,
to revise and correct any legal sentence of a court-martial, by which
the members of such a court, corresponding with the nature of a civil
jury, were rendered abs