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been backward in taking any notice of these irregularities, because, as far as regarded himself, he had been long used to them, and despised them, being satisfied that such personal attacks as, from time to time, had been made on the managers, injured no person's character, when made singly; but when joined to a gross falsification of facts, they became more serious, and necessarily called for proper reprehension.

The motion was put and agreed to.

June 18.

On the 18th of June, Mr. Grey, perceiving the attorneygeneral in the House, asked the honourable and learned gentleman, why certain prosecutions for libels, ordered by that House, during the course of the preceding session, had not been brought to an issue? The right honourable and learned gentleman had, he imagined, good reasons to give why the prosecutions in question had lingered so long; but he thought it right for the House to watch over the execution of its directions, and most especially where prosecutions for libels were ordered, to take care that such prosecutions were not nugatory, and he the rather embraced that opportunity of putting the question, because he was anxious that the prosecution moved for against the printer and publisher of "The World" the other day, for one of the many gross libels on the House which had appeared in that paper, might be carried into effect. The attorney-general answered Mr. Grey at some length, and in conclusion, expressed his wish, that gentlemen would not hastily, and on the spur of indignation, rise and move a prosecution, but would suppress their resentment, and consider well the whole of the probable consequences which might attend a prosecution before they moved it.

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Mr. BURKE said, that he agreed most perfectly with the honourable and learned gentleman, that the utmost caution was necessary in moving for prosecutions for libels, under

*

defendants in the trial of such prosecutions, would tend more effectually to weaken their authority and degrade their dignity, than the publication of any libel however slanderous. But surely, it had escaped the honourable and learned gentleman, that the right honourable gentleman who lately sat in the chair had been the member who moved for the prosecution in question, and therefore, as he was in habits of intimacy with the crown lawyers, it must be supposed, that the right honourable gentleman had acted with the greatest deliberation, and the more especially as the motion had subsequently received the sanction of his majesty. Motions for prosecutions for libels in that House, did not greatly impress his memory; but, if he recollected rightly, the prosecution alluded to was for a libel against Sir Elijah Impey, who had complained of the newspapers, and called upon the House to protect him from their slander. Undoubtedly, every man whose conduct was under inquiry before that House, was entitled to its protection. It was his due, and he had a clear right to claim it; but he neither had, nor ever would be the man to advise a prosecution without doors. The House was bound to defend its solemn acts, and to guard them from ridicule and slander; but, had he been consulted in regard to the prosecution in the case of Sir Elijah Impey, he would not have recommended a resort to any other tribunal than that House, which he should at all times contend, was perfectly competent to support its privileges by an exertion of its own authority. Whenever that arm was turned aside, the House would subject itself to repeated insults of every description, and its privileges might ultimately be carried, by writ of error, before the House of Lords, to be decided upon; a degradation which the House could not guard against with too jealous a caution. Certain he was, that in all motions for prosecutions for libel, the House, whatever it did, ought to do it with due deliberation; and,

* Mr. Grenville.

in all cases, unless of a very aggravated nature, the safest mode of proceeding was to resort to their ancient and wholesome practice of attachment, where their own privileges were infringed or insulted. With regard to the late motion for a prosecution for a libel respecting the trial of Warren Hastings, that motion had, as they all knew, been made by one of the worthiest, soberest, and most respectable men in that House, who, as he himself declared, had been touched with indignation at the first sight of the most insolent, audacious, and unwarrantable attack, that ever was made on the solemn acts of a House of parliament. The House were in possession of his opinion upon the subject, and had heard him declare, that provoking and audacious as that libel was, it was nothing in comparison to the many and repeated false accounts which were daily given in the same paper concerning what passed in Westminster-hall. Those continued misrepresentations called for serious notice, because, however respectable any public body might be, if it suffered itself to be daily libelled, abused, and ridiculed, it must, necessarily and unavoidably, sink in the public opinion; and therefore, such a series of insults, grounded on such a series of falsehoods, were more worthy of prosecution, than a libel on Sir Elijah Impey, or even a general libel on the dignity of the House. He was ready, Mr. Burke said, to allow largely for the inaccuracy of newspaper reports of public and parliamentary proceedings; and when the scanty time for committing them to the press, and the difficulty of satisfying the craving appetite and eager curiosity of the public for intelligence of an interesting and important nature sufficiently early, were considered, every fair man would be willing to make a reasonable, and a full and liberal allowance. Free discussion, candid disquisition, and even an honest opinion on what passed, or what was passing, might be warrantable; but, in a judicial proceeding, pendente lite, even an opinion ought not to be hazarded, because it might injure the cause at issue, and could not be a well grounded opinion before all the evidence and argu

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ARRY ESTIMATES-FRENCH REVOLUTION - DIFFERENS OF OPINION BETWEEN MR. BURKE AND MR. FOX

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February 9. 1790.

ON of February, the army estimates were brought

Survey Sir George Young, the secretary at war. The etimuses were neatly the same with those of the preceding year, and were not voted without some objections from the side of opposition. It was observed by Sr Grey Cooper, Mr.

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n, and others, that eight years of peace had elapsed, the military estimates were not yet reduced even to .ce establishment of 1775, though the committee of which sat in the year 1786, had presumed upon a still reduction. That there was nothing in the actual situaaffairs that called for this extraordinary military force; the contrary, that his majesty had assured them of the disposition of all the foreign powers: that France, our at rival and enemy, in consequence of her internal disnces, would probably be disabled from giving us any station for a long course of years; and lastly, that the nces we had made, and the subsidiary treaties we had red into on the continent, inasmuch as they multiplied chances of our being involved in war, were proportionably >chievous, if they did not enable us to reduce our expences time of peace. To these arguments it was answered in neral by Mr. Secretary Grenville and Mr. Pitt, that though ere was no reason at present to apprehend that we should be gaged in hostilities with any foreign power, yet the unseted state of Europe, and the internal situation of several parts fit, made it necessary for us to keep ourselves in such a state, is might enable us to act with vigour and effect, if occasion should require. That it was a preposterous economy to tempt an attack by our weakness, and for a miserable present saving to hazard a great future expence. That our foreign alliances, which had been approved of by all parties as necessary for the preservation of that balance of power in Europe, upon which the permanence of its tranquillity depended, could only be rendered effectual for that purpose, by our being able to support them with an adequate force; and, lastly, that it would be found, upon an examination of the detail of all our military establishments, that they could not, with common prudence, be reduced to a narrower scale.

In the course of the debate upon this subject, Mr. Fox took occasion to remark, that the conduct of the French soldiers, during the late commotions, tended greatly to remove one of the objections, which he had always entertained against standing armies. That army, by refusing to obey the dictates of the court, had set a glorious example to all the military of Europe, and had shewn, that men, by becoming soldiers, did not cease to be citizens.-Colonel Phipps begged leave to enter his protest against the compliment which had been paid

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