448 1770 WEDDERBURN'S SPEECH. Ch. 11. questionable or even illegal act, was utterly extravagant. The bonds of law and order might constantly be in danger of dissolution, if such a doctrine were to obtain; since the House of Commons is the last resort of that supreme power which must exist in every polity. Such vast responsibility can rest only on the ample faith and dutiful obedience of the great body of the people. To censure the conduct of the House, even to dispute the validity of its acts, as was done in the case of the Middlesex election, was one thing; but to deny the title of the House of Commons is to deny the title of Parliament, since the other branches of the legislature have no power to make binding laws without the concurrence of the representative body.m Lord North's conduct. Wedder Lord North attacked this point, upon which he could obtain an easy victory, as if it had been the burn's speech. material point in the remonstrance. He would no doubt, have got rid of the motion, had he been a free agent; but, urged on by the court, he assented to it, the less reluctantly, perhaps, because he knew it could end in nothing. Wedderburn, in an excellent speech, showed the House that the remonstrance was protected by the express terms of the Bill of Rights; and asked the government whether they proposed to proceed against the corporation by quo warranto, after the precedent of 1679, or whether they meant to bring in a bill of pains and penalties? m See Addenda C, p. 465. POPULAR MOVEMENTS. The issue of the debate was for some time doubtful. If the opposition had been firm and united, it is said they might have prevailed;" but 'the moderate Whigs and temperate statesmen' of the Rockingham school, who regarded the city movement with great aversion, either stayed away or voted with the court. The motion was carried by a large majority. The debate was renewed when the papers came regularly before the House, but the matter ended in an empty resolution. 449 Ch. 11 - 1770 remonstrance. If the court were indignant at the city address, Westminster the people of London and its neighbourhood were not less exasperated at the unprecedented style of the royal answer. The City of Westminister immediately sent up a petition, or remonstrance, after the pattern of London. The counties of Middlesex and Kent did the like. ments sanc Chatham. Lord Chatham gave his sanction and support to Popular movethese popular movements. He had announced his tioned by Lord intention of attending at the Westminster meeting, but was prevented by illness. Lord Rockingham, at his instance, was present at a great political dinner, given by the Lord Mayor to the members of the Opposition in both Houses, on the very day that the resolution of the Commons on the City remonstrance was sent up to the Lords for their concurrence. A few weeks afterwards, Chatham brought in a Chatham's bill, condemnatory of the resolutions of the Lower bill. 1 Calcraft to Chatham, March 13.-Chatham Corr. VOL. I. G G condemnatory 450 Ch. 11. 1770 Chatham's speech. DEBATE IN THE LORDS House with respect to the Middlesex election. The enacting clause was in the following extraordinary terms:That all the adjudications contained in the above-mentioned resolutions are arbitrary and illegal, and the same are and shall be hereby reversed, annulled, and made void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.' To suppose that the House of Commons which had passed the several resolutions recited in this bill by large majorities only a year previously, could concur in such an enactment, was to expect a marvel. Nor could a House of Commons of any spirit have suffered the hereditary branch of the legislature to originate a bill which dealt with the right of election. But the bill was of course introduced only for the purpose of keeping up the agitation against the government. Chatham's speech on the occasion was, according to his practice in opposition, highly aggressive and inflammatory. He accused the King, almost in plain terms, as the author of the proceedings which he asked the House to pronounce 'arbitrary and illegal.' He was called to order, but he refused either to retract his words or to explain away the meaning which attached to them. Mansfield's Lord Mansfield, without venturing expressly to defend the doctrine of the Lower House, opposed the bill on the ground that it professed to interfere in a matter which belonged exclusively to the other House. They are the only judges of questions arising out of contested elections, and from their judgments there was no appeal. This called up his speech. ין 1 ON THE MIDDLESEX ELECTION. 45I Ch. 11. 1770 poses a vote of rival, Camden, who supported his friend and patron, Chatham, in a speech more declamatory than argumentative. He also alluded in a significant manner Camden's speech. to the 'secret influence' which had decided that 'Wilkes should not sit,' and repeated the ominous allusions to Charles the First and Hampden, which formed part of every speech and paper on this subject. After the bill had been rejected, Lord Chatham proChatham desired that the House might be sum- censure. moned for the following day, when he intended to submit a motion of great importance. This was for the purpose of proposing a vote of censure on the King's answer to the City Remonstrance, by way of retaliation for the censure which Parliament had passed on the remonstrance itself, at the instance of the court. Chatham, as had been his practice this session, used language of the most provoking and insulting character; but the ministers, relying on their secure majority, prudently avoided the hazardous ground of debate. The veteran leader of opposition, not checked by these repeated failures, nor by the still more disheartening coldness and reserve on the part of his Whig allies, persevered in bringing forward motion after motion. A few days after his last discomfiture, and in spite of the contrary opinion of Lord Rockingham, he moved an Address to the Chatham Crown for a dissolution of Parliament. In order dress to the to frustrate the object of these motions, which was to keep up the excitement of the public mind, the government rigidly enforced the standing order for moves an ad crown. 452 Ch. II. 1770 Neglect of the American question. NEGLECT OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS. the exclusion of strangers on the day when Chatham's motion was to be debated. This motion was negatived without a division. While the Court, the Parliament, and the Country, were engaged in these angry discussions about the Middlesex Election, a far more momentous subject was comparatively neglected. The persecution of Wilkes was an unworthy condescension on the part of the Sovereign; the substitution of Luttrell for Wilkes was a violent and unlawful act on the part of the House of Commons. But after all, the constitution was really in no great danger by these proceedings. The time had gone by when a King of England could ruin an obnoxious subject. The oppression of Wilkes, so far from ruining that worthless adventurer, had made his fortune. The House of Commons had no plan of usurping the elective franchise. Their corruption, indeed, had a tendency to subvert the institution of Parliament; but even this was a remote danger. The real, the pressing danger, which menaced the integrity of the empire, its wealth, prosperity, and power, was the wide-spreading disaffection of its American provinces. But though no English statesman took so wise and liberal a view of the Colonial Question as Chatham, American independence was the last word to answer the purpose of party opposition. The people of this country believed that the colonists were their inferiors, and were content that the Government |