SESSION OPENED.
When the parliament of England was opened in the month of November, the king, in his speech from the throne, gave them to understand, that for the same purposes which suggested the treaty with the elector of Bavaria, he had now, in conjunction with the states-general, concluded another with the king of Poland, elector of Saxony. He told them that the unfortunate death of the prince of Orange had made no alteration in the state of affairs in Holland; and that he had received the strongest assurances from the states, of their firm resolution to maintain the intimate union and friendship happily subsisting between his majesty and those ancient and natural allies of his crown. He exhorted both houses to consider seriously of some effectual provisions to suppress those audacious crimes of robbery and violence, grown so frequent about the capital, proceeding in a great measure from that profligate spirit of irreligion, idleness, gaming, and extravagance, which had of late extended itself in an uncommon degree, to the dishonour of the nation, and the great offence and prejudice of the sober and industrious part of the people. The paragraphs of this speech were, as usual, echoed back to the throne in addresses replete with expressions of loyalty, affection, and approbation. Opposition was by this time almost extinguished; and the proceedings of both houses took place with such unanimity as was hardly ever known before this period in a British parliament. The commons, however, seem to have assembled with such sentiments as did no great honour to their temper and magnanimity. In a few days after the session opened, lord viscount C——e, a young nobleman, whose character entitled him to very little regard or influence among men of sense and probity, made a motion, that Mr. Murray, who had been so severely executed in the last session for refusing to humble himself on his knees before them, should be again committed close prisoner to Newgate for the same offence. This proposal, which supposed a power that the commons had never before exercised, was sharply disputed by the earl of Egmont, and others, who had not resigned all sense of moderation; but the majority adopted the measure with great eagerness, and the speaker was ordered to issue his warrant accordingly. Then the house resolved, that the said Alexander Murray should receive the sentence, for his now being committed close prisoner to his majesty’s gaol of Newgate, at the bar of the house, upon his knees; and the sergeant-at-arms was commanded to take him into custody for this purpose. Their indignation, however, was eluded by the caution of the delinquent, who, having foreseen the effects of their resentment, had prudently retired to another country. They determined, nevertheless, to proceed against him as a person of some consequence in the commonwealth; for, being informed of his retreat, they condescended so far as to present an address to his majesty, desiring that his royal proclamation might be issued for apprehending the said Mr. Murray, promising a reward to him who should have the good fortune to apprehend this fugitive-a request with which his majesty most graciously complied.
PROCEEDINGS UPON A PAMPHLET, ENTITLED “THE CASE OF MR. MURRAY.”
Nor was this the only address presented to the king: upon such an important subject. A pamphlet, entitled “The Case of the Hon. Alexander Murray, esquire, in an Appeal to the People of Great Britain,” was first stigmatized in a complaint to the house, and was afterwards produced and read at the table. The piece was written with great acrimony, and abounded with severe animadversions, not only upon the conduct of the returning officer, but also on the proceedings of the commons. The violent members immediately took fire, and the flame extended itself to the majority. Nay, the house unanimously resolved, that the pamphlet was an impudent, malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel, falsely and most injuriously reflecting upon, and aspersing the proceedings of the house, tending to create misapprehensions in the minds of the people, to the great dishonour of the said house, and in violation of the privileges thereof. They furthermore presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously pleased to give directions to his attorney-general to prosecute the authors or author, the printers or printer, and the publishers or publisher of the said scandalous libel, that they might be brought to condign punishment. Directions were accordingly given for this purpose, and a prosecution commenced against the publisher, who had some reason to be dismayed, considering the great weight of influence he was doomed to encounter—influence arising from a prosecution of the crown, instituted at the request, and founded on a vote, of the house of commons. Nevertheless, when the cause was heard before the lord-chief justice of England, a jury of free-born Englishmen, citizens of London, asserted their privilege of judging the law as well as the fact, and acquitted the defendant with a truly admirable spirit of independency. They considered the pamphlet as an appeal against oppression; and, convinced that the contents were true, they could not in conscience adjudge it a false libel, even though it had been so declared by one of the branches of the legislature.
1752
The commons, in regulating the supplies of the ensuing year, voted the continuation of eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven men for the land-service, though not without some opposition from certain patriots, who, rather from a sense of duty than from any hope of influencing the majority, affirmed that sixteen thousand men in time of peace would answer all the ends proposed by a standing army. The number of seamen was fixed at ten thousand; large sums were granted to make up deficiencies, and fulfil the engagements of the crown with the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, as well as for the maintenance of Nova Scotia and Georgia, and the castles on the coast of Guinea; and one hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-two pounds, three shillings and threepence, were voted, as a full compensation to the old royal African company for their exclusive charter and property, to be applied for the relief of their creditors. *
* These expenses were defrayed by a continuation of the duties on malt, &c; a land-tax at three shillings in the pound; a duty on licences, to be yearly paid by pawnbrokers and dealers in secondhand goods, within the bills of mortality; the sum of one million four hundred thousand pounds advanced by the bank, according to a proposal made for that purpose; five hundred thousand pounds to be issued from the sinking-fund; a duty laid on gum Senegal; and the continuation of divers other occasional impositions. The grants for the year amounted to something less than four millions, and the provisions made for this expense exceeded it in the sum of two hundred and seventy-one thousand and twenty-four pounds, ten shillings and sixpence halfpenny.
The laws enacted for the encouragement of traffic, and the regulations of civil polity, consisted in an act for licensing pawnbrokers, and for the more effectual preventing the receiving of stolen goods; another for preventing thefts and robberies, by which places of entertainment, dancing, and music, in London, Westminster, and within twenty miles of the capital, were suppressed and prohibited, unless the proprietors of them could obtain licenses from the justices of the peace, empowered for that purpose; a third for annexing the forfeited estates in Scotland unalienably to the crown, after having made satisfaction to the lawful creditors; establishing a method of leasing these estates, and applying the rents and profits of them for the better civilizing and improving the highlands, and preventing future disorders in that part of the united kingdom. Nothing could be more salutary than the purposes of these regulations. The suburbs of the metropolis abounded with an incredible number of public houses, which continually resounded with the noise of riot and intemperance; they were the haunts of idleness, fraud, and rapine; and the seminaries of drunkenness, debauchery, extravagance, and every vice incident to human nature; yet the suppression of these receptacles of infamy was attended with an inconvenience, which, in some cases, arose even to a degree of oppression. The justices being vested by the legislature with the power of granting or refusing licenses, were constituted, in effect, the arbiters on whose decision the fortunes and livelihood of many individuals absolutely depended. Many of those who exercised this species of magistracy within the bills of mortality, were, to the reproach of government, men of profligate lives, needy, mean, ignorant, and rapacious, and often acted from the most scandalous principles of selfish avarice.