England was at this period, infested with robbers, assassins, and incendiaries, the natural consequences of degeneracy, corruption, and the want of police in the interior government of the kingdom. This defect, in a great measure, arose from an absurd notion, that laws necessary to prevent those acts of cruelty, violence, and rapine, would be incompatible with the liberty of British subjects; a notion that confounds all distinctions between liberty and brutal licentiousness, as if that freedom was desirable, in the enjoyment of which people find no security for their lives or effects. The peculiar depravity of the times was visible even in the conduct of those who preyed upon the commonwealth. Thieves and robbers were now become more desperate and savage than ever they had appeared since mankind was civilized. In the exercise of their rapine, they wounded, maimed, and even murdered the unhappy sufferers, through a wantonness of barbarity. They circulated letters demanding sums of money from certain individuals, on pain of reducing their houses to ashes, and their families to ruin; and even set fire to the house of a rich merchant in Bristol, who had refused to comply with their demand. The same species of villany was practised in different parts of the kingdom; so that the government was obliged to interpose, and offer a considerable reward for discovering the ruffians concerned in such execrable designs.
BILL AGAINST PENSIONERS SITTING AS MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
In the speech with which the king opened the session of parliament on the twenty-first day of January, he told them that the present critical conjuncture seemed in a very particular manner to deserve their attention; that as the transactions then depending in the several courts of Europe were upon the point of being determined, the great event of peace or war might be very much affected by their first resolutions, which were expected by different powers with great impatience. He said, the continuance of that zeal and vigour with which they had hitherto supported him and his engagements, must at this time be of the greatest weight and importance, both with regard to his allies, and to those who might be disposed before the season of action to prevent, by an accommodation, the fatal consequences of a general rupture. The former scene was repeated. Both houses, in their addresses, promised to support his majesty in all his engagements; yet the members of the opposition demonstrated the absurdity of promising to fulfil engagements before they could possibly know whether or not they were for the service of Great Britain. Another bill was brought into the house of commons, to prevent pensioners from sitting as members of parliament; and, after a third reading, carried up to the lords for their concurrence. When the supply fell under consideration, the debates were renewed upon the subsidies to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the duke of Wolfenbuttle, which, however, were continued; and every article was granted according to the estimates given in for the expense of the ensuing year. Two petitions being presented to the commons, representing the delays of justice occasioned by the use of the Latin tongue in proceedings at law, a bill was brought in for changing this practice, and enacting, that all those processes and pleadings should be entered in the English language. Though one would imagine that very little could be advanced against such a regulation the bill met with warm opposition, on pretence that it would render useless the ancient records which were written in that language, and introduce confusion and delay of justice, by altering the established form and method of pleading: in spite of these objections it passed through both houses, and obtained the royal assent. A great number of merchants from different parts of the kingdom having repeated their complaints of depredations and cruelties committed by the Spaniards in the West Indies, their petitions were referred to the consideration of a grand committee. Their complaints upon examination appeared to be well founded. The house presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously pleased to continue his endeavours to prevent such depredations for the future; to procure full satisfaction for the damages already sustained; and to secure to the British subjects the full and uninterrupted exercise of their trade and navigation to and from the British colonies in America. The hill against pensions produced a warm debate in the house of lords, where it was violently opposed by the dukes of Newcastle and Argyle; the earl of Hay, and Dr. Sherlock, bishop of Bangor. This prelate, in a remarkable speech, represented it as a scheme to enlarge the power of the house of commons, and to break the balance between the powers essential to the constitution, so as sooner or later to prove the ruin of the whole. The great barrier provided against bribery and corruption by this bill, consisted in an oath to be imposed on all members of the lower house, by which they must have solemnly sworn and declared, that they had not directly, nor indirectly, any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, or any office in part, or in the whole, held for them, or for their benefit, by any persons whatsoever; and that they would not accept any such pensions or offices, without signifying the same to the house within fourteen days after they should be received or accepted. The bill was vindicated as just and necessary by the earls of Winchelsea and Strafford, lord Bathurst, and lord Carteret, who had by this time joined as an auxiliary in the opposition. [237] [See note 2 K, at the end of this Vol.]
1731
TREATY OF VIENNA.
The house of peers proceeded to consider the state of the national debt: they read a bill for the free importation of wool from Ireland into England, which was fiercely opposed, and laid aside, contrary to all the rules of sound policy. They passed the bill for carrying on proceedings at law in the English language; and a fruitless motion was made by lord Bathurst for an address, to desire his majesty would give directions for discharging the Hessian troops that were in the pay of Great Britain. On the seventh day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king had given them to understand that all apprehensions of war were now happily removed, by a treaty signed at Vienna between him and the emperor. He said it was communicated to the courts of France and Spain, as parties to the treaty of Seville, the execution of which it principally regarded; and that it likewise was submitted to the consideration of the states-general. He observed, that the conditions and engagements into which he had entered on this occasion were agreeable to that necessary concern which the British nation must always have for the security and preservation of the balance of power in Europe; and that this happy turn, duly improved with a just regard to former alliances, yielded a favourable prospect of seeing the public tranquillity re-established.