ce; which is
little less than to say, he must be at once a man of business, and a man
of leisure; for political transactions are not easily understood, but by
those who are engaged in them, and the art of writing is not attainable
without long practice, and sedentary application.

Thus it happens that political writings are generally defective: for
they are drawn up by men unacquainted with publick business, and who
can, therefore, only amuse their readers with fallacious recitals,
specious sophistries, or an agreeable style; or they are the hasty
productions of busy negotiators, who, though they cannot but excel the
other class of writers in that which is of most importance, the
knowledge of their subject, are yet rarely at leisure to display that
knowledge to advantage, or add grace to solidity.

Writers of the latter sort appear but seldom, and most of our political
papers are the amusements of leisure, or the expedients of want.

Whether the paper now before us is the produce of ease, or of necessity,
I shall not determine; I have already offered my opinion, that the man
who claims it is not the author, nor do I discover any reason for
changing my sentiment: the question is a question merely of conjecture,
since neither I nor the honourable gentleman attempt to offer any
demonstrative proofs of our opinion. If he has any to produce in favour
of his own notions, let him lay them before you, but let him always
forbear to impute to me assertions which I never uttered, and beware of
representing me as declaring that I believe this paper the composition
of some member of this house.

[It was then debated, whether this offence should be punished by the
authority of the house, or referred to the cognizance of some of the
courts of judicature in Westminster hall, on which occasion Mr. HOWE
spoke as follows:]

Sir, it is the duty of every part of the legislature, not only to
preserve the whole system of our government unaltered and unimpaired,
but to attend particularly to the support of their own privileges,
privileges not conferred upon them by our ancestors, but for wise
purposes.

It is the privilege of this house that we, and we only, are the judges
of our own rights, and we only, therefore, can assign the proper
punishment when they shall be presumptuously invaded.

If we remit this offender, who has attempted to debase the house in the
opinion of the nation, to any inferiour court, we allow that court to
dete