ase_, reversed the judgments of the courts below, contrary to the
opinion of all the judges." But the House of Commons, "_in reproof of
this assumption of legislative authority in the Lords_," immediately
brought in the 10 and 11 Will. III. c. 16, which passed into a
statute.[27] May we venture to suggest that the elaborate, and long,
and deeply-considered opinions of the judges of the land, who had been
summoned by the Lords to advise them, were worthy of more than the
single day, or day and a half's examination which they received before
they were so peremptorily pronounced to be "_clearly_ erroneous?" And
may we, with no little pain, suggest to Lord Campbell, that the array of
_Gamaliels_ at whose feet he had _sate_ during his whole life--whose
feet he had indeed so very recently quitted--whose integrity, whose
profound learning, whose sagacity, none has had larger experience of
than he--are entitled to look at his cavalier-like treatment of their
best services, with a feeling stronger than that of mere surprise? In
concluding this long article--in expressing our conviction of the error
of the Lords--we feel one consolation at all events--that if we err, we
err in good company; and that we are not conscious of having
transgressed the limits of legitimate discussion, in exercising as
undoubted a right of its kind, as these three peers exercised in
branding so overwhelming a majority of the judges of the land with the
imputation of ignorance of those laws which all their lives had been
spent in administering. The very existence of the ancient common law of
the land is put in jeopardy by such a procedure as that which we have
been discussing; and our honest conviction, however erroneous, that such
is the case, will suffice to excuse the freedom of our strictures; if,
indeed, we require an excuse for echoing the stern declaration of on
forefathers--_Nolumus leges Angliae mutari_.

As to him who has reaped the benefit of this lamentable miscarriage--Mr
O'Connell--the law of the land has nevertheless been vindicated, and the
stability of the empire secured, to a far greater extent than he is
willing to acknowledge. Agitation he must continue; he _must_ play out
his base and sordid game. But his powers of mischief are manifestly and
seriously crippled; and we quit him with the language addressed by Pope
to a mean one of _his_ day--

"Uncaged, then let the harmless monster rage--
Secure in dulness, madness, want, an