British empire, which is concerned, but the credit and honor of the
British nation itself will be decided by this decision. We are to decide
by this judgment, whether the crimes of individuals are to be turned
into public guilt and national ignominy, or whether this nation will
convert the very offences which have thrown a transient shade upon its
government into something that will reflect a permanent lustre upon the
honor, justice, and humanity of this kingdom.

My Lords, there is another consideration, which augments the solicitude
of the Commons, equal to those other two great interests I have stated,
those of our empire and our national character,--something that, if
possible, comes more home to the hearts and feelings of every
Englishman: I mean, the interests of our Constitution itself, which is
deeply involved in the event of this cause. The future use and the whole
effect, if not the very existence, of the process of an impeachment of
high crimes and misdemeanors before the peers of this kingdom upon the
charge of the Commons will very much be decided by your judgment in this
cause. This tribunal will be found (I hope it will always be found) too
great for petty causes: if it should at the same time be found
incompetent to one of the greatest,--that is, if little offences, from
their minuteness, escape you, and the greatest, from their magnitude,
oppress you,--it is impossible that this form of trial should not in the
end vanish out of the Constitution. For we must not deceive ourselves:
whatever does not stand with credit cannot stand long. And if the
Constitution should be deprived, I do not mean in form, but virtually,
of this resource, it is virtually deprived of everything else that is
valuable in it. For this process is the cement which binds the whole
together; this is the individuating principle that makes England what
England is. In this court it is that no subject, in no part of the
empire, can fail of competent and proportionable justice; here it is
that we provide for that which is the substantial excellence of our
Constitution,--I mean, the great circulation of responsibility, by which
(excepting the supreme power) no man, in no circumstance, can escape
the account which he owes to the laws of his country. It is by this
process that magistracy, which tries and controls all other things, is
itself tried and controlled. Other constitutions are satisfied with
making good subjects; this is a security fo