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Wedderburuc, Eyre and Kenyon, had occasionally attended select committees of council, for the express purpose of being present, and assisting at examinations, and giving their opinion of cases, which, in their capacity of judges, they were after wards to try. Strange it must appear to the movers of the present question, that the most numerous precedents since the revolution, for summoning judges to select committees of the privy council, were precisely in those cases, where, according to their representations, the interference of a judge was most to be deprecated. So differently thought our ancestors from these modern speculatists, who are filled with such alarms for the purity and reputation of our judicature. But in truth, the judge who attends the privy council on such occasions,

is not more liable to be seriously prepossessed by these previous examinations, than the magistrates are who commit prisoners, or than the judges of the king's bench are, when they grant an information on the affidavit of one of the parties, with out sending the charge to the grand juries.

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The temptation of a scat in the cabinet, it was urged, might induce a chief justice to swerve from his duty, and the fear of losing it, when obtained, might render him more obsequious to the court, and more compliant with its ministers, than became his station as the head and guardian of the laws. But they who urged this objection seemed to have forgotten that the chief justice is always a privy counsellor, and usually a peer of parliament, and therefore accessible to the same

* Mr. Fox.

channels of influence, as if he were a member of the cabinet. Was not," it was asked," a scat in the privy council an object of ambition aiso, and was not the circumstance of being struck off from that body a cause of disgrace +." "It was worthy of remark, that the noble and learned lord, whose situation had given rise to this discussion, had been himself called upon to advise his majesty, through the means of persons who now supported the motion. After having advised his majesty to make him lord chief justice of the court of king's bench, they advised that he should be called to a seat in that house, the great council of the nation. The patent by which he was so called, stated expressly, that he was to advise his majesty on the arduous concerns of his reign, and the great dangers thereon impending ." But after converting a judge into a politician, by making him a peer of parliament, and a privy counsellor, was it decent to say, that he could not act in his new character, without sullying his purity as a judge, or at least forfeiting the confidence of the public in the integrity of his judgments? Could one hear without astonishment, that a class of of ficers, who are admitted to be perfectly eligible to the privy council, should not be allowed to discharge the functions of a privy counsellor

should in fact, be excluded from the performance of duties, which, on their admission to the privy council, they are sworn to perform? We have heard of the dinner placed before Sancho Pança: if he wished for fish, that was objected to, and if he wished for meat, an objection

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was started also; so between the objections, poor Sancho had no dinner at all. Just in a similar manner do the friends of the motion propose to deal with lord Ellenborough. -The noble lord is made a privy counsellor, but yet he is not to be consulted upon points of law, lest he mind as a judge should be prepossessed, nor is he to be consulted on points of state, lest he should be made a politician. Thus it was proposed to destroy his functions as a privy counsellor altogether."* But, the very circumstance, that a chief justice is always a privy counsellor and usually a peer of parhament, is a sufficient proof, that our ancestors had not such horror of a judge being consulted on matters of state, nor such apprehension of his mind being prepossessed by the opinions he might give as a privy counsellor on points of law. Evil consequences may possibly result from this mixture, and what to some may appear confusion of characters: but let us follow the example of our forefathers, and without seeking to anticipate imaginary evils, ap. ply a remedy to them when they occur. If to secure the due administration of justice it were necessary that a judge should have no possible temptation to unlawful compliances with power, the object would be unattainable, while "persons in the situation of judges had relations with the rest of society, while they had friends and children, and were not divested of all the feelings common to human nature."+ To satisfy such theorists, the judges of England must be placed on afooting with the ecclesiastical order in catholic countries, and even that expedient would be ineffectual to

⚫ Mr. Fox.

detach them from worldly interest. But such forced and unnatural expedients are unnecessary in this country, where the due administration of justice is secured not only by the integrity of the judge, but by the presence and control of the jury, the superintendance of the bar, and the publicity of all judicial procedings.

A privy counsellor was bound to to give his advice to the king, in all cases and at all times, when his advice was demanded. But a cabinet counsellor was only one of those privy counsellors whom the king consulted with upon state affairs. No privy counsellor could be excluded from the committee where these deliberations were carried on, when summoned to it by his majesty's commands, except for such personal objections as would be a ground for addressing his majesty to remove such an individual from his councils. The committee of the privy council, called originally the committee for foreign affairs, and known at present by the name of cabinet council, was unknown to our law, and had in no instance whatever been recognised by parliament. It had not even a fixed or permanent existence, but consisted of those privy counsellors, who, each time it was convened, received a summons to attend its meetings. It was a mistake to suppose, that the cabinet, as such, was responsible for the measures of govern ment. "It would be difficult to point out in our statutes or in the recorded proceedings of parliament, evidence that the cabinet or any indivi. dual belonging to it had been, as such, held to be legally responsible." Nor for practical purposes was it fit that it should be otherwise. If ↑ Lord Holland,

† Mr. Fox.

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an attempt were made to attach responsibility to all the members of the cabinet, for every ministerial act, it would be apt to endanger, and in most instances to defeat, the object of responsibility, for this obvious reason, that the difficulty of producing conviction and punishment is greater in the one case than in the other. Every minister was separately responsible in his own department of the government; but no man nor body of men could be made responsible for the whole acts of an administration. The advisers of pernicious measures might be punished for their bad advice, but the fact of their having given such advicc, must in the first place be prov. ed against them. "The immediate actor can always be got at in a way that is very plain, direct and easy, compared to that by which you may be able to reach his advisers. When parliament have tried to get at the advisers too, how have they proceeded? Look at the mode, and that mode alone will sustain the argument, that the cabinet counsellors are not legally known. For in the addresses presented on such occasions it will be found, that parliament apply to know by whom any measure to which the address alJudes, may have been advised. Surely then, such an application serves to shew, that the cabinet has never been deemed a responsible body; for, if it were, such an application would be quite superfluous. But, do not confine your research to those addresses; look at the journals throughout. Examine the several articles of impeachment on record, and you can discover no instance of any man, or body of men, being impeached as cabinet counsel. i

lors. Take the end of queen Anne' reign. See the articles of impeach ment exhibited against the carlo Oxford for the conclusion of th peace of Utrecht. Lord Boling broke, who was the person princi pally concerned in that transaction being then out of the country an beyond the reach of parliament, was eagerly endeavoured to impli cate lord Oxford. In prosecutio of this object a variety of shifts an expedients were resorted to, whic would have been totally unneces sary had the cabinet council bee considered as a responsible body No, in that case it would ha been all smooth and casy. But, appears, that not a word was mer tioned, which could countenan the idea of any recognition of a r sponsible cabinet council. Fro this, and from every other circun stance that applies, I infer that suc a council was never legally co ceived to exist."* Such were th solid and irresistible arguments, b which Mr. Fox confuted brought to disgrace the flimsy ar superficial hypothesis of the cabin council being, as such, responsib for the measures of administration

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On the whol, it was satisfactori made out on the side of ministr that the cabinet, as such, is not r sponsible for the measures of g vernment; that no individual m mister is responsible for more thi his own acts, and such advice as ] is proved to have actually given that a cabinet counsellor perform no duties and incurs no responsib lity, to which as a privy counsell he is not liable; that the judges England are not intended by t constitution of their country to such insulated beings as speculati Mr. Fox.

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to office and during the early part of their administration.

Peters represent them; that the ation of lord Ellenborough to place in the cabinet, was not only ly kgal, but justifiable on the round of precedent and constitual analogy; and that the tenay and effect of his appointment been misunderstood or misreseated, in many particulars, by pporters of the motions be parliament. But, the public notbat perceive the difference ween the actual duties of a privy elor's, and those of a cabinet ellor's place; between the ocand the habitual exercise Se same functions; between the of taking a part in the politi. ssions of the day, and the ty of giving an opinion on all affairs as they arise and they rected on the slow and be progress, by which judges en detached from state intriand removed out of the perniatmosphere of the court, not but regret, that the had now taken a retrograde on, and threatened to fall back gulph, where so many ad perished in former times. view of the subject the apment of a lord chief justice to et place was to be considered a precedent that might to evil consequences, than as a te from which any mischief present to be apprehended; th. after the conclusion of date, we believe to have been pression that remained with excellent and enlightened throughout the kingdom. ore we bring this chapter to a we shall take a short and al view of the disposition of thic mind towards the new , at their first entrance inXLVIII.

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Much, then, was expected from their exertions; but, though some good will existed towards them, there was no enthusiasm in their favour, Little popular feeling, in deed, of any sort was left in the country. The violence engendered by the French revolution had long since spent its fury, and had given place to universal apathy and indifference on all political subjects, that did not affect directly the public purse, or concern the safety or naval glory of the kingdom. Hatred of peculation, and aversion to France, were the only springs that moved or even touched the public mind. But, while the new ministers could reckon little on the zealous or ardent support of the country. they had to contend at once with the secret disinclination of the court, and with the active and indefatiga. ble opposition of the persons whom they had recently displaced from office. The friends and adherents of the late ministers, though disunited in every other respect, were agreed in the most cordial hatred of their successors; and though the ex-ministers themselves had little name or popularity to boast of, their followers were numerous and active, and from their past habits and occupations they were particularly fitted to give annoyance to any administration against which they had an interest to combine. Many of the public journals were under their influence, and from long prac tice and experience in the art of leading and governing public opinion through the press, they perfectly understood how to avail themselves of that powerful engine to the best advantage. They had D

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intimate connections in the city, in the bank. in the India house, and in most of the great trading corporations, and were able to communi cate a party impulse to these bodies whenever it suited their purposes. In all the public offices, in all the boards of revenue, customs, excise and taxes throughout the kingdom, in all the civil and military departments of the state, the superintendants, subalterns, and clerks were in general persons who had been indebted to the ex-ministers for their places, who had looked up to them for further preferment, and who now trembled lest they should suffer from their disgrace. Among the discarded adherents of the late ministers, it happened, that all those were included, who had ever served as secretaries of the treasury under Mr. Pitt, and they who know the interior of our government, will be at no difficulty to understand, of what importance to the new oppo. sition was the acquisition of so many persons of that description. In short, the whole of that noisy, bustling, forward, self sufficient part of the community, which is usually most loud and zealous on the side of government, was at present, when best affected towards the ministers, silent and indifferent, but more frequently openly hostile to them, or sccretly employed in thwarting their measures and reviling their characters. This sort of opposition, despicable as it may appear, is doubly injurious to the ministers against whom it is directed, because every individual of this description, who adds one to the number of their opponents, takes one at the same time from the natural strength of their government. The new opposition, thus constituted, directed their at.

tacks, at first, exclusively against the Foxite part of the administration: but, when they found, that their flattery and cajolery were thrown away upon lord Grenville; that their praises, of his talents were un heeded; their expressions of con fidence in the integrity and sound ness of his principles received with. out gratitude or reward; and tha even their admonitions on the un worthiness of his colleagues, though intended solely for his benefit, wer slighted by him and disregarded their resentment quickly overleap ed the boundaries to which they ha originally confined their hostilities and all parts of the administration began to share alike in their cen sures and invectives.

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But the great strength of the new op position, lay in the opinion which the were careful to circulate, that they ha the secret wishes of the court in thei favour; and many circumstances, must be confessed, tended to impres the public with a suspicion, that a least the new ministers had little o hearty support in that quarter. was notorious, that the necessity the times had alone brought abou the change of administration. was observed during the first month after the new ministers into office, that the persons co nected with the household seldom a tended in their place, when the mea sures of the new government requi ed support, and that when any d cent excuse could be given for the conduct, they were always ready vote against it. The language that description of persons, be known by the name of courtier was from the beginning unfavou able to the new ministers. As th administration declined in popul rity, because the greatness and su

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