206 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. very foon after, a printed pamphlet C May ry, I think, I need add no more, and therefore fhall conclude with moving, That the Hon. Alexander Upon this T. Sempronius Gracchus I BAM extremely forry to hear this affait brought again before the houfe, becaufe I am perfuaded, that the wifeft thing we could have done, would have been to let it reft in oblivion. The people of this country feem at prefent to be in a moft quiet and peaceable difpofition, which is a difpofition that we ought to cultivate and as great numbers were concerned in this affair originally, I am fure, we ought not in prudence to irritate them, by a way of proceeding, which, tho' authorized by precedent, must be allowed not to be common. The noble lord talks of preferving our authority: Sir, by agreeing to his motion we may give a fresh and a fignal inftance of our power; but I much fear, we fhall thereby lofe our authority; for authority does not depend upon power, but upon the wifdom and juftice with which power is exercifed. When power is wifely and juftly adminiftered, it is accompanied with authority, and has therefore no occafion for feverity; but when it is imprudently or anjufily exercifed, it is forfaken by authority, and muft therefore have recourfe to severity, which appears to have been the cafe of all the cruel tyrants we read of in hifto I hope, Sir, the houfe will take a proper method for difcovering the author or authors of this pamphlet ; but whoever was the author or au thors, I have reafon to fufpeft, and indeed, every gentleman muft have reafon to fufpect, that it was not D published without Mr. Murray's approbation. If it was not, I am fure, he deferves the fevereft punishment this house can inflict upon him; but this is not the cafe now before us: I mention it only to fhew what we may expect, if we allow any man E whatever to contemn our orders with impunity; and I mention it as a prefumption of the strongeft kind, that he has not in the leatt repented of his former tranfgreffions; therefore if we have any thing of that magnanimity left, by which this afiembly F was directed in former ages, we must refolve to bring this gentleman again before us, in order to fubject him to that punishment which he laft feffion evaded; and when we have done fo, we may mitigate that punishment, if he fhould, by teftifying a fincere G repentance, give us any reason to do fo. As the orders of laft feffion have been read, Sir, and as the facts are recent in every gentleman's memo 1752. PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. 207 member of the house I am obliged any This, I fhall grant, Sir, is a wrong way of thinking; but will you in E crease, will you perpetuate a man's punishment, because he happens to be of a wrong way of thinking? This is not all, Sir, fuppofe he had fallen upon his knees to receive the fentence of this houfe, which was for his being committed close prifoner to Newgate, the meaning of which is always underflood to be, that he shall remain there, until he gets a petition presented to the house, confefling his fault, and begging pardon for his offence. This he muft have done, or he must have remained in Newgate, as he did, until the end of the feffion; and as this likewife would have been deemed a contempt, there would have been the fame reafon for renewing the order at the beginning of this feffion. We have in this country, Sir, an antient and a very ridiculous law, that if a man accused of any crime refufes to plead, he fhall be preffed to death: Suppofe this law had been extended a little farther: Suppofe the law had been, that if a condemned criminal refused to confefs his being guilty of the crime, and to acknowledge the juftice of the fentence, he fhould be preffed to death, and 1 have been told they have in Holand fome fuch law, would not this be tyrannical, would it not be torture? What the noble lord now propofes is really, in my opinion, fomething of this kind; for if the gentleman be confcious of his innocence, and at the fame time firmly convinced, that his receiving his fentence upon his knees would be a confeffion of his guilt, he must continue an exile during life, or he must take up his quarters in Newgate from the beginning to the end of every future felli. on. I fay every future feffion, Sir, because there would be the fame reafon for committing him at the beginning of next feffion, and every future feffion, that there is at the beginning of this, which, in my opinion, would be a moft cruel prolecution. F 208 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c May certainly will very foon put an end to our power, as Oliver Cromwell did to that very parliament which had given him his power. As to the confequences, Sir, of our not abafing the pride of this gentleman, as the noble lord was pleased to exprefs himself, that is to fay, of our not compelling him to confefs himfelf guilty of what, he fays, he knows himself innocent of, A I believe, we need be under no apprehenfion; for in the first place, I hope, it will never again happen, at leaft I may hope, that it will very rarely happen, that this houfe fhall find a man guilty of what he knows himfelf innocent of; and if it fhould B ever happen, I believe, we shall much more rarely happen to meet with a man fo tenacious of his honour or his opinion, as to lie a whole feffion in Newgate without pen, ink, or paper, and without any perfon to fee him, unless by the leave of the C house, rather than depart from his opinion, or from a point in which he thinks his honour concerned ; and if we should ever again meet with fuch a man, I fhall always think fuch a confinement for one feffion fufficient punishment for his obftina- D cy. Would you banish a man, Sir, for fuch a whimfical obftinacy? Would you fend him regularly to Newgate at the beginning of every feffion, and keep him there under fuch a folitary confinement; until he should have reason to rejoice, and the whole E nation, I fear, would with him rejoice at your feparation? Sir, I hope the character and dignity of this affembly will always be fupported by the wisdom and juftice of our proceedings, not by the feverity of our punishments. By fuch a method, Sir, F we may for a while preferve our power, but, like all other tyrants, we fhall lofe our authority; and I can tell you, Sir, that our power depends upon our authority, not our autho rity upon our power; for every one knows who would be glad not to be troubled with fuch an affembly; and if we should ever, by the feverity of our proceedings, put an end to our authority, they then may, and they The question now before us is therefore, Sir, of much more confequence than the noble lord imagines; and I was forry to hear it fupported by an infinuation of facts, of which we have no proof, nor can at prefent have any parliamentary knowledge. This is really, Sir, not a very fair way of proceeding; becaufe they may influence the opinion of fome gentlemen, who would otherwife have been more inclined to mercy than feverity; and were the facts to be inquired into, they might perhaps appear in a light very different from that in which, I am convinced, they have been reprefented to the noble lord. If the gentleman was attended from prifon by fome of his friends, it is what we cannot find fault with: He could not refufe his friends the fatisfaction of seeing him delivered from fuch a tedious confinement; and if he was attended by his keepers, who had ufed him with all the humanity in their power, it was but grateful in him to invite them to an entertainment, it was but civil in them to accept of his invitation. This does not therefore deserve our notice, but if his delivery became the topick of popular joy, it does, indeed, deferve our notice, but far from exciting a continuance of our refentment, it ought to be a warning to proceed with caution; for a general popular opinion, however founded, ought never to be neglected by thofe in authority; and a wife magiftrate will never perfift in a meature, if not abfolutely neceffary, which he finds to be against the general bent of the people. This was queen Elizabeth's maxim, during the whole courfe of her reign, tho' her mea. fures were generally fo wifely undertaken, that he had feldom any occafion to depart from them; but G 1752. PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. fhe readily did, as foon as fhe found As to the pamphlet mentioned by the noble lord, if, after I have heard it read, I fhould be of opinion, that it is fuch a libel as he reprefents, I fhall be ready, Sir, to join in all proper measures for difcovering and punifhing, the author of it; but farely we are not to make it a handle for treating a gentleman with feverity, who, for what we know, was no way concerned in its compofition or publication. When we confider how ready bookfellers and their authors are to compofe and publish a pamphlet upon every occafion, which, they think, will promote a fale, we may eafily fuppofe, that it might have been wrote and publifhed without his privity. We cannot fuppofe, that it was wrote by Mr. Murray himself, as it was published, it feems, prefently after his discharge from Newgate, and as he had neither pen, ink, nor paper, whilft he was there, unlefs we fuppofe, that he wrote it as Fauftus is faid to have wrote fome of the books he first printed, neque calamo neque atramento, fed mirabili quadam arte. As little can we fuppofe, that it was wrote by any of the people we allowed to fee him in Newgate; for I have not heard that any of them ever attempted to be an author: I must therefore own, Sir, that I am at a lofs to comprehend, what reafon the noble lord has to fufpect, that Mr. Murray approved of the writing or publishing this pamphlet. On the contrary, if it be fuch a libel as the noble lord reprefents, it may have been wrote and published by one of Mr. Murray's enemies, on purpofe to inflame the refentment of the house against him; and whoever was the author, I am B 209 fure, he could be no friend to Mr. Murray, because he could not but foresee the ufe that is now made of it. For this reafon I fufpect, that the author was either an enemy to Mr. Murray, or a friend to a cause which I am afhamed to name, because it has fo often been made use of in this houfe for very bad purpofes; and if the friends of that caufe have already begun to make their own ufe of that gentleman's cafe, it fhould be a caution against our proceeding farther in that cafe with any extraordinary fort of feverity; for whatever opinion fome gentlemen may entertain of the judgment or conduct of the friends of that cause, their disappointments hitherto have been more owing to the mildness and lenity of his maC jesty's government, than to any miftake or want of conduct in them. Whilft the people confider cooly the confequences of things, and think that they can enjoy life with fecurity, it is hardly poffible to raise a rebellion against an established government; D but when their paffions are inflamed by the severity of punishments, and their fecurity rendered precarious by profecutions which they think unjuft, they want only a leader for breaking out into rebellion; and we ought to confider, that if ever the people of this country should be worked up into fuch a temper, they cannot be long without a leader, who has fhewn, that he has courage to undertake the most dangerous enter-prife, and fuch a wifdom to conduct the most difficult one, as could be overmatched by none but that royal prince who was at laft fent against him. E F To conclude, Sir, fuppofe that Mr. Murray had behaved as I believe moft men would have done upon the like occafion: Suppole, that notwithG ftanding his innocence he had fubmitted to receive the fentence of this houfe upon his knees, and that in a week or two afterwards he had got 210 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. May a petition prefented, confeffing and begging pardon for his offence, would you have rejected his petition? Would you have kept him confined in Newgate during the whole feffion? I believe there are very few that hear me, who would have countenanced fuch A feverity. A fortnight's confinement in fuch a noisome and dangerous dungeon would have been thought punishment enough for the crime he had been convicted of, I believe, by a great majority of this houfe; therefore I must think, that fuch a con- B finement for a whole fefsion was a moft fufficient punishment, not only for the practices he was convicted of, but alfo for the contempt he had been guilty of; and I am convinced that the generality of people without doors will be of the fame opinion; C efpecially as that contempt was not Owing to any want of refpect for this affembly, bat to a miflaken point of honour, or I may fay, a fcruple of confcience, for they are in effect the fame; because in both the opinion of other men is not to be regarded: D A man muft in his own opinion be fatisfied that he is right before he can act; for no man of true honour will do what he himself thinks dishonourable, no more than a man of true religion will do what he himself thinks irreligious, becaufe other peo ple tell him it is not fo; and to punith a man in either cafe for not doing is perfecution: To punish him feverely is cruelty: It is requiring of mankind fomething more thin paf five obedience, it is requiring active obedience, which even a Jacobite would not require from a fubject to his fovereign; and our infifting fo peremptorily upon fuch an obedience, will, I am afraid, alienate the minds of all true whigs from this affembly, perhaps from this government; therefore, Sir, unless the noble lord G will confent to drop his motion, I muft think myself bound in duty, to conclude with moving, That the house do now adjourn. E F To this P. Curiatius replied in Effe as follonus: I Mr. Prefident, SIR, MUST confefs, Sir, that the noble lord has faid every thing that could be faid in favour of this obftinate offender, whofe cafe is now under our confideration, yet nothing his lordship has faid gives me fuch a conviction, as can induce me to drop my motion. I have, 'tis true, a compaffion for the wrongheaded obftinacy of this gentleman, but I have a much greater compaffion for the honour and dignity of this house, which is, I think, deeply concerned in the prefent queftion. Call it profecution or perfecution, which you will, it is what the culprit highly deferves, because he is himself the caufe of it; for by his behaviour he has brought the affair to this fhort queftion, whether we shall depart from our honour and dignity, or he from his obftinacy; and upon fuch a queftion, furely no member of this house can balance a moment how to determine. Moderation and mercy I fhall always be for, as often as there can be room for any; but there can be no room for either, until the culprit fubmits and confeffes his fault. We have the greatest, the most venerable example for denying forgivenefs to those who do not fincerely repent of their tranfgreffions; as to the fincerity of the heart we cannot judge, 'tis true, with any certainty; but surely we ought to infift upon all the outward figns of repentance, and there every man muft exhibit, before he can lay any claim to our mercy. Before this to grant mercy is pufillanimity. It is parvi et pufillanimė not to exert our power against a man who difdains to fue for our compafiion. There |