rs argued with great force in defence of the fundamental
principles of the constitution, and proved from the journals of the
House of Commons that the Bishops had affirmed no more than the truth
when they represented to the King that the dispensing power which he
claimed had been repeatedly declared illegal by Parliament. Somers rose
last. He spoke little more than five minutes; but every word was full of
weighty matter; and when he sate down his reputation as an orator and a
constitutional lawyer was established. He went through the expressions
which were used in the information to describe the offence imputed
to the Bishops, and showed that every word, whether adjective or
substantive, was altogether inappropriate. The offence imputed was a
false, a malicious, a seditious libel. False the paper was not; for
every fact which it set forth had been proved from the journals of
Parliament to be true. Malicious the paper was not; for the defendants
had not sought an occasion of strife, but had been placed by the
government in such a situation that they must either oppose themselves
to the royal will, or violate the most sacred obligations of conscience
and honour. Seditious the paper was not; for it had not been scattered
by the writers among the rabble, but delivered privately into the hands
of the King alone: and a libel it was not, but a decent petition such
as, by the laws of England, nay, by the laws of imperial Rome, by the
laws of all civilised states, a subject who thinks himself aggrieved may
with propriety present to the sovereign.

The Attorney replied shortly and feebly. The Solicitor spoke at great
length and with great acrimony, and was often interrupted by the
clamours and hisses of the audience. He went so far as to lay it down
that no subject or body of subjects, except the Houses of Parliament,
had a right to petition the King. The galleries were furious; and the
Chief justice himself stood aghast at the effrontery of this venal
turncoat.

At length Wright proceeded to sum up the evidence. His language showed
that the awe in which he stood of the government was tempered by the
awe with which the audience, so numerous, so splendid, and so strongly
excited, had impressed him. He said that he would give no opinion on the
question of the dispensing power, that it was not necessary for him to
do so, that he could not agree with much of the Solicitor's speech, that
it was the right of the subject to petition, b