Wesley Corpus

What an insult upon common sense is this wild way of talking ! If Middlesex is wronged (put it so) in this instance, how is Yorkshire or Cumberland affected by it; or twenty counties and forty boroughs besides; much less all the nation? “O, but they may be affected by and by.” Very true ! And the sky may fall ! To see this whole matter in the clearest light, let any one read and consider the speech of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, on a motion, made by Lord Chatham, “to repeal and rescind the Resolutions of the House of Commons, in regard to the expulsion and incapacitation of Mr. Wilkes:”-- “In this debate, though it has been already spoken to. with great eloquence and perspicuity, I cannot content myself with only giving a single vote; I feel myself under a strong necessity of saying something more. The subject requires it; and though the hour is late,” (it being then near ten o’clock,) “I shall demand your indulgence, while I offer. my sentiments on this motion. “I am sure, my Lords, many of you must remember, from your reading and experience, several persons expelled the House of Commons, without ever this House once pretending: to interfere or call in question by what authority they did so I remember several myself;” (here his Lordship quoted several cases;) “in all which, though most of the candidates were sure to be re-chosen, they never once applied, resting contented with the expulsatory power of the House, as the. only self-sufficient, dernier resort of application. “It has been echoed on all sides, from the partisans of this motion, that the House of Commons acted illegally, in accept ing Colonel Luttrel, who had but two hundred and ninety six votes, in preference to Mr. Wilkes, who had one thousand. one hundred and forty-three. But this is a mistake of the grossest nature imaginable, and which nothing but the intem-. perature of people's zeal could possibly transport them to, as Mr. Wilkes had been previously considered by the laws as an unqualified person to represent the people in Parliament;. therefore it appears very plainly, that Colonel Luttrel had a. very great majority, not less than two hundred and ninety six, Mr. Wilkes being considered as nobody in the eye of the law; consequently, Colonel Luttrel had no legal opposition.