MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament met on the 13th of January. At that time little was known of the disturbances in America, and the king’s speech represented the state of foreign affairs to be in such a quiescent state, that the legislature would have ample time to attend to the improvement of our domestic concerns, and to the prosecution of measures immediately connected with the revenue and commerce of the kingdom. The deteriorated state of the gold coin was especially mentioned as an object requiring attention. The addresses were voted in both houses with little or no debate.
EARLY MEASURES IN THIS SESSION.
In the early part of this session public attention was excited by the proceedings of the house of commons, respecting a libel on their speaker, which had been published in the Public Advertiser. The house issued an order for Woodfall the printer to attend at the bar, which was obeyed without hesitation, and being interrogated as to the author, he gave the name of the Rev. John Home. Woodfall was then ordered into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, and Home was then brought before the house. Home inquired whether Woodfall’s declaration was to be taken as evidence, or as the charge against him, and being told that it constituted the charge, he pleaded “Not guilty,” as in an ordinary court. The house was embarrassed; Woodfall was again called in and confronted with Home, but as he was implicated in the guilt of the publication, his evidence was not sufficient to warrant conviction. Three of Woodfall’s printers were next brought before the house; but they failed in proving the accusation, and Home was set at liberty.
The first parliamentary struggle in this session, took place on the ministerial motion for 20,000 seamen, as in the preceding year. The opposition argued that it was absurd to talk of peace and yet keep up such an establishment, and they called upon ministers to state how they had disposed of the supplies voted in the last meeting of parliament for the navy. This motion, however, was carried without a division. On the part of the opposition two motions were made and negatived: the first being that of Alderman Sawbridge for shortening the duration of parliament, and the second, that of Sir George Saville, concerning the Middlesex election, and the infringement of the rights of electors. Ministers, however, were not so successful in their opposition to a motion made by Sir Edward Stanley, to bring in a bill for rendering Grenville’s Controverted Election Act perpetual. Experience seems to have proved its utility, and though Lord North appeared at the head of the opposition, many of his friends forsook him on this occasion, and the bill was passed by a large majority, and received the royal assent before the end of the session. From this period disputed elections have been tried with the same scrupulousness and solemnity as any other titles: while previous to it, as Dr. Johnson observed, “the nation was insulted with a mock election, and the parliament was filled with spurious representatives.”
THE BOSTONIAN PETITION.
It has been seen that the assembly of Boston had voted a petition to the king for the removal of their governor and deputy governor. This petition, together with attested copies of the letters, were transmitted to Dr. Franklin, the agent for the colony, or house of representatives of Massachusets. These were delivered by Franklin to Lord Dartmouth, who presented them to the king, and his majesty signified his pleasure that they should be laid before the privy council.
In the mean time the affair had been the cause of bloodshed. Mr. Whately, secretary to the treasury, to whom the letters had been originally addressed, had recently died, and a sharp correspondence took place between his brother, a banker in Lombard-street, and Mr. John Temple, lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire: the former wishing to avoid the charge of giving up the documents, and the latter that of purloining them. The dispute ran so high that a duel was the consequence, in which Mr. Whately was dangerously wounded. The event caused great excitement, and Dr. Franklin wrote and published a letter in the Public Advertiser, in which he declared that neither Mr. Whately nor Mr. Temple had any thing to do with the letters, and that both of them were totally ignorant of the transaction. His words are:—“I think it incumbent on me to declare, for the prevention of further mischief, that I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question. Mr. Whately could not communicate them, because they were never in his possession; and for the same reason, they could not have been taken from him by Mr. Temple. They were not of the nature of private letters between friends; they were written by public officers to persons in public stations, on public affairs, and intended to procure public measures; they were, therefore, handed to other public persons, who might be influenced by them to produce those measures; their tendency was to incense the mother country against her colonies, and by the steps recommended to widen the breach, which they effected. The chief caution expressed with regard to privacy was, to keep their contents from the colony agents, who, the writers apprehended, might return them, or copies of them, to America. That apprehension was, it seems, well founded; for the first agent who laid his hands on them thought it his duty to transmit them to his constituents.”