discover that they were more eager of blood than of • justice, and more folicitous to destroy than to con

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vict.

• I hope none of these circumstances, my lords, can at present obstruct a candid and deliberate en

quiry; with regard to the public, I am not able to ' difcover any pressing exigences that demand a more ' compendious method of proceeding than the estab• lished laws of the land and the wisdom of our • ancestors have prescribed. I know not any calamity ' that will be aggravated, nor any danger that will • become more formidable by fuffering this question to be legally tried.

Nor is there, my lords, in the circumstances of the perfon accused, any thing that can incite us to a hafty process, for if what is alledged by the noble lords is not exaggerated beyond the truth, if he is universally detested by the whole nation, and loaded • with execrations by the public voice, if he is confidered as the author of all our miseries and the • fource of all our corruptions, if he has ruined our ' trade and depressed our power, impoverished the

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people and attempted to enslave them, there is at least no danger of an infurrection in his favour, or any probability that his party will grow stronger by delays. For, my lords, to find friends in adversity and affertors in distress, is only the prerogative of innocence and virtue.

'The gentleman against whom this formidable ⚫ charge is drawn up, is, I think, not fufpected of any • intention to have recourse either to force or flight; ⚫ he has always appeared willing to be tried by the • laws of his country, and to stand an impartial examination; • amination; he neither opposes nor eludes enquiry, • neither flies from justice nor defies it.

And yet less, my lords, can I suspect, that those • by whom he is accused act from any motive that may • influence them to defire a fentence not fupported by evidence or conformable to truth, or that they can ' wish the ruin of any man whose crimes are not notorious and flagrant, that they perfecute from private malice, or endeavour to exalt themselves by the fall of another.

Let us therefore, my lords, enquire before we * determine, and suffer evidence to precede our fentence. The charge, if it is just, must be by its own nature easily proved, and that no proof is brought * may perhaps be sufficient to make us suspect that it * is not just.

For, my lords, what is the evidence of common fame, which has been so much exalted and fo confi✔dently produced? Does not every man see, that on • fuch occafions two questions may be asked, of which * perhaps neither can easily be answered, and which yet • must both be refolved before common fame can be admitted as a proof of facts?

• It is first to be enquired, my lords, whether the • reports of fame are necessarily or even probably true, • A question very intricate and diffusive, entangled with a thousand and involving a thousand diftinctions:-a question, of which it may be faid, that a ⚫ man may very plausibly maintain either fide, and of ' which, perhaps, after months or years wasted in difputation, no other decifion can be obtained than • what is obvious at the first view, that they are often true and often false, and therefore can only

• be grounds of enquiry, not reasons of determina' tion.

But if it appear, my lords, that this oracle cannot • be deceived, we are then to enquire after another ' difficulty, we are to enquire, What is fame ?

'Is fame, my lords, that fame which cannot err, a report that flies on a sudden through a nation, of ' which no man can discover the original? a fudden • blast of rumour that inflames or intimidates a people, and obtains, without authority, a general credit ? • No man versed in hiftory can enquire whether fuch

reports may not deceive. Is fame rather a settled < opinion prevailing by degrees, and for some time esta'blished? How long then, my lords, and in what degree must it have been established to obtain un' doubted credit ? and when does it commence infalli<ble? If the people are divided in their opinions, as in • all public questions it has hitherto happened, fame is, I suppose, the voice of the majority. For if the two parties are equal in their numbers, fame will be * equal, then how great must be the majority before it can lay claim to this powerful auxiliary? and how • shall that majority be numbered ?

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These questions, my lords, may be thought, per• haps with justice, too ludicrous in this place; but in my opinion they contribute to shew the precarious < and uncertain nature of the evidence so much con' fided in.

• Common fame, my lords, is to every man only • what he himself commonly hears, and it is in the power of any man's acquaintance to vitiate the evi'dence which they report, and to stun him with clamours, and terrify him with apprehenfions of miseries ' never felt, and dangers invisible.

But

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But without such a combination, we are to remember • that most men associate with those of their own opi

nions, and that the rank of those that compose this • assembly naturally disposes such as are admitted to ' their company, to relate or to invent such reports as

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may be favourably received, so that what appears ⚫ to one lord the general voice of common fame, may by another be thought only the murmur of a petty faction, defpicable with regard to their numbers, and deteftable if we confider their principles.

• So difficult is it, my lords, to form any folid judgment concerning the extent and prevalence of any particular report, and the degree of credit to be given to it. The industry of a party may supply the defect ' of numbers, and fome concurrent circumstances may › contribute to give credit to a false report.

'But, my lords, we are ourselves appealed to as • witnesses of the truth of facts which prove him to be

fole minifter, of the number of his dependants, the • advancement of his friends, the disappointments of ' his opponents, and the declarations made by his ' followers of adherence and fidelity.

• If it should be granted, my lords, that there is nothing in these representations exaggerated beyond the truth, and that nothing is represented in an improper light, what consequence can we draw but that the fol'lowers of this gentleman make use of those arts which

have always been practised by the candidates of pre' ferment; that they endeavour to gain their patron's ' smile by flattery and panegyric, and to keep it by ' affiduity and an appearance of gratitude? And if ' such applications exalted any man to the authority • and title of first minifter, the nation has never, in my

memory, been without some man in that station, for there is always fome one to whom ambition and • avarice have paid their court, and whose regards have been purchased at the expence of truth.

' Nor is it to be wondered at, my lords, that pofts • of honour and profit have been bestowed upon the friends of the administration, for who enriches • or exalts his enemies ? Who will encrease the influence that is to be exerted against him, or add 'strength to the blow that is levelled at himself ?

That the right honourable gentleman is the • only disposer of honours has never yet appeared; • it is not pretended, my lords, that he distributes

them without the consent of his Majesty, nor even ⚫ that his recommendation is absolutely necessary to • the fuccess of any man's applications. If he has • gained more of his Majesty's confidence and esteem ⚫ than any other of his fervants, he has done only • what every man endeavours, and what therefore is not to be imputed to him as a crime.

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'It is impossible, my lords, that Kings like other men should not have particular motions of inclina' tion or dislike; it is possible that they may fix their • affection upon objects not in the highest degree * worthy of their regard, and overlook others that

may boast of greater excellencies and more shining ' merit, but this is not to be supposed without proof, ⚫ and the regard of the King as of any other man, ⚫ is one argument of defert more than he can produce • who has endeavoured after it without effect.

• This imputed ufurpation must be proved upon • him either by his own confession or by the evidence < of others, and it has not yet been pretended that he < affumes