House of Commons? In what respect does it question, their jurisdiction, or suppose an authority in this House to arraign the justice of their sentence? I am sure that every lord who hears me, will bear me witness that I said not one word touching the merits of the Middlesex election. Far from conveying any opinion upon that matter in the amendment, I did not even in discourse, deliver my own sentiments upon it. I did not say that the House of Commons had done either right or wrong; but when his Majesty was pleased to recommend it to us to cultivate unanimity amongst ourselves, I thought it the duty of this House, as the great hereditary council of the crown, to state to his majesty the distracted condition of his dominions, together with the events which had destroyed unanimity among his subjects. But, my lords, I stated those events merely as facts, without the smallest addition either of censure or of opinion. They are facts, my lords, which I am not only convinced are true, but which I know are indisputably true. Do they not tell us, in so many words, that Mr. Wilkes, having been expelled, was thereby rendered incapable of serving in that Parliament? and is it not their resolution alone, which refuses to the subject his common right? The amendment says farther, that the electors of Middlesex are deprived of their free choice of a representative. Is this a fact, my lords? or have I given an unfair representation of it? Will any man presume to affirm that Colonel Luttrell is the free choice of the electors of Middlesex? We all know the contrary. We all know that Mr. Wilkes (whom I mention without either praise or censure) was the favourite of the county, and chosen, by a very great and acknowledged majority, to represent them in Parliament. If the noble lord dislikes the manner in which these facts are stated, I shall think myself happy in being advised by him how to alter it. I am very little anxious about terms, provided the substance be preserved; and these are facts, my lords, which I am sure will always retain their weight and importance, in whatever form of language they are described. The constitution of this country has been openly invaded in fact; and I have heard, with horror and astonishment, that very invasion defended upon principle. What is this mysterious power, undefined by law, unknown to the subject; which we must not approach without awe, nor speak of without reverence; which no man may question, and to which all men must submit? My lords, I thought the slavish doctrine of passive obedience had long since been exploded: and, when our kings were obliged to confess that their title to the crown, and the rule of their government, had no other foundation than the known Paws of the land, I never expected to hear a divine right, or a divine infallibility, attributed to any other branch of the legislature. My lords, I beg to be understood. No man respects the House of Commons more than I do, or would contend more strenuously than I would, to preserve to them their just and legal authority. Within the bounds prescribed by the constitution, that authority is necessary to the well-being of the people: beyond that line, every exertion of power is arbitrary, is illegal; it threatens tyranny to the people, and destruction to the State. Power without right is, the most odious and detestable object that can be offered to the human imagination: it is not only pernicious to those who are subject to it, but tends to its own destruction. ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT-DAY; FROM DWIGHT'S CONQUEST OF CANAAN. ID these dire scenes, more awful scenes shall rise; With pale and dreadful ray, the cold moon gleam; Rous'd on the fearful morn, shall nature hear P How the tombs cleave! What awful forms arise! From morn's far kingdoms stretch to realms of even, Lo, from the radiance of the bless'd abode See crowding millions, call'd from earth's far ends, Worlds after worlds, from nature's farthest bound, Each hour, with purer glory, gaily shines, But O unhappy race! to woes consign'd, Lur'd by fond pleasure, and to wisdom blind, What new Messiah shall the spirit save, Stay the pent flames, and shut the eternal grave? Where sleeps the music of his voice divine? Where hides the face, that could so sweetly shine? Now hear that slighed voice to thunder turn! See that mild face with flames of vengeance burn! High o'er your heads the storm of ruin roars, And, round th' immense, no friend your fate deplores. Lo, there to endless woe in throngs are driven, What once were angels, and bright stars of heaven! The world's gay pride! the king with splendor crown'd! The chief resistless, and the sage renown'd! Down, down the millions sink; where yon broad main Heaves her dark waves, and spreads the seats of pain; Where long, black clouds, emblazed with awful fire, Pour sullen round their heads, and in dread gloom retire. ON THE WORKS OF CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. HEN I contemplate those ample and magnificent structures, erected over all the etherial plains: when I look upon them as so many repositories of light, or fruitful abodes of life: when I remember that there may be other orbs, vastly more remote than those which appear to our unaided sight; orbs, whose effulgence, though travelling ever since the creation, is not yet arrived upon our coasts: when I stretch my thoughts to the innumerable orders of being, which inhabit all those spacious systems; from the loftiest seraph, to the lowest reptile; from the armies of angels which surround the Almighty's throne, to the puny nations, which tinge with purple the surface of the plum, or mantle the standing pool with |