And a little lower.

'My Lords, if the manner of this folemn Profecution has not alter'd the Nature of Things, I hope I may infift, without putting in a Claim of Right in behalf of all the Factious and Se'ditious People in the Kingdom, to revile the Government at pleasure, that by the happy • Conftitution under which we live, a Subject of England is not to be made Criminal by a labour'd Conftruction of doubtful Words; when that cannot ferve, by departing 'from his Words, and reforting to his Meaning. Too many Inftances there were of this nature, before the late happy Revolution; but that put an end to fuch Arbitrary Conftru'Яtions.

or,

After thefe Excellent Words of this Great Man, every thing I can fay will appear very flat and low; for which Reafon 1 fhall give you but very little further Trouble. I have heard it faid in this Place, that no private Man ought to take the Liberty of expreffing his Thoughts as I have done, in Matters relating to the Administration. I do own, that no private Man ought to take a Liberty which is against the Laws of the Land. But, Sir, I prefume that the Liberty I have taken, is a legal Liberty; and obnoxious to no Penalty in any Court of Juftice. If it had, I cannot believe that this exraordinary Method would have been made ufe of, to distress me upon that Account. And why should I here fuffer for having done that, which perhaps in a future Tryal would not be judged Criminal by the Laws of the Land? Why should I fee Perfons, whofe particular Prowince it is to profecute Seditious Writers in the

Courts

Courts of Juftice, imploying their Eloquence against me in this Place? I think that I have not offended against any Law in Being: I think that I have taken no more Liberty_than what is confiftent with the Laws of the Land: If I have, let me be tried by thofe Laws. Is not the Executive Power fufficiently armed to inflict a proper Punishment on all kinds of Criminals? why then fhould one part of the Legislative Power, take this Executive Power into its own Hands? But, Sir, I throw my felf upon the Honour of this Houfe, who are Able, as well as Obliged, to skreen any Commoner of England from the Wrath of the most powerful Man in it; and who will never facrifice a Member of their own Body, to the Refentments of any fingle Minifter.

Here I ended in the House. Most of what I faid was put into my Mouth by my Friends, whofe Kindness and Difcretion prevented my adding to these forcible Arguments many ho neft Truths, which they thought would Authorise a Severity from the Houfe to me, rather than fecure me against their Resentment. I cannot, as an indifferent Man, dare to affert what I would have done, under the Sanction of a Member of Parliament, fpeaking in Parliament. The Happiness of convincing fome honeft Gentlemen who were against me, was not to be my Fate: But, (barring that I made the best and most refpe&ful Obeyfance I could: to the Speaker) with a very awkard and unwilling Air I withdrew; and the next News I heard was, that I was Expelled.

It is Juftice due to Human Nature, to fignifie to an Offender why he is punished. It is a Ju

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Atice

ftice to inform the meanest Man in Human Society, why he is diftinguished from the reft to his Difadvantage; it is a Christian Duty to give him the Contrition he ought to have, and work in him a Repentance from Arguments towards his Conviction. But the Houfe, without letting me hear one Reason, or Shadow of an Argument to prove me Seditious, have peremptorily pronounced me fo.

To hear a Man fpeak, without being moved by what he fays, or controverting it before Sentence, is only to give Exercife to an hard Heart; a ridiculous Candour, that is an Aggravation of an Injury, by putting on the Face of Juftice. I fhall therefore, as briefly as I can, confider the Matter yet further: For I am now as much concerned to fhow why this Sentence fhould not be a Reproach to me now it is paffed, as I was before to fpeak against its being pronounced.

It may be objected, that I am fure to come off, when I who am the Criminal, am also to be the Judge. I may make the fame Objection against the Determination of the House, they who were the Judges, were alfo the Accufers. In the firft Place I aver, that if I had, as indeed I have not, been guilty of raising groundless Fears to the Difadvantage of the Miniftry, it is lefs the Part of the House of Commons, than any other Body of Men, to be Inquifitors in Favour of them. Their more graceful Province had been to have encouraged what I had to fay, if I had had Objections, rather than fuppreffed me for offering at it. It

had

had been well, after fuch a fearch, to have chaftifed or approved the Man accused, according to his Deferts. But my Fate is fo Extraordinary, that I am punished by the Houfe of Com. mons, (where Freedom of Speech is an effential Privilege) for faying what was Criminal no where elfe. Had what I have written been spoken in the House of Commons, no Man will pretend to fay it had beenCriminal: How then when it was Innocent in another Place, came it to be criminal by being produced there? I was fafe, when in Circumftances that rendered me more accountable, and run into Danger by being privileg'd.

But I flatter my felf that I fhall convince all my Fellow-Subjects of my Innocence from the following Circumftances, allowed to be of Weight in all Tryals of this Nature. From the general Character of the Offender, the Motive to bis Offence, and the Character of the Perfons who appear for him, opposed to those who are against him. There are fome Points to be allowed, which bear hard against the Prifoner at the Bar; and we must grant this by way of Confeffing and Avoiding, and give it up, that the Defendant has been as great a Libertine as a Confeffor. We will fuppofe then a Wit nefs giving an Account of him, who, if he... Spoke true, would fay as follows;

I have been long acquainted with Mr. Steele, who is accufed as a malicious Writer; and can give an Account of him (from what he ufed to confefs to us his private Friends) what was the chief Motive of his first appearing in Print. Besides this, I have read every thing he

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has

has writ or published. He first became an Author when an Enfign of the Guards, a way of Life expofed to much Irregularity; and being thoroughly convinced of many things, of which he often repented, and which he more often repeated, he writ, for his own private Ufe, a little Book called the Chriftian Hero, with a Delign principally to fix upon his own Mind a strong Impreffion of Virtue and Reli gion, in Oppofition to a ftronger Propensity towards unwarrantable Pleasures. This fecret Admonition was too weak; he therefore Printed the Book with his Name, in hopes that a ftanding Teftimony against himself, and the Eyes of the World, (that is to fay of his Acquaintance) upon him in a new Light, might curb his Defires, and make him afhamed of understanding and feeming to feel what was Vir tuous, and living fo quite contrary a Life. This had no other good Effect, but that from being thought no undelightful Companion, he was foon reckoned a difagreeable Fellow. One or two of his Acquaintance thought fit to mifufe him, and try their Valour upon him; and every Body he knew measured the leaft Levity in his Words and Actions, with the Character of a Christian Heroe. Thus he found himself flighted, instead of being encouraged, for his Declarations as to Religion; and it was now incumbent upon him to enliven his Character, for which Reafon he writ the Comedy called The Funeral, in which (tho' full of Incidents that move Laughter) Virtue and Vice appear just as they ought to do. Nothing can make the Town fo fond of a Man as a fuccefsful

Play,