t of discontent in England, he attributed
it to the proceedings of the house of commons in the matter of Mr.
Wilkes, and he concluded by submitting the following amendment:--"That
after the words, 'and which alone can render our deliberations
respectable and effectual,' be inserted these words, 'and for these
great and essential purposes, we will, with all convenient speed, take
into our most serious consideration the causes of the discontents which
prevail in so many parts of your majesty's dominions, and particularly
the late proceedings of the house of commons, touching the incapacity
of John Wilkes, Esq., expelled by that house, to be elected a member to
serve in this present parliament, thereby refusing, by a resolution of
one branch of the legislature only, to the subject his common right,
and depriving the electors of Middlesex of their free choice of a
representative."

This amendment was opposed by Lord Mansfield, he considering that it
was a gross attack on the privileges of the commons, and calculated to
create a quarrel between the two houses, or between the king and the
commons. A question, he said, relating to the seat of a member, could
only be determined by the house itself, whose judgment was final, and
must be received as the law of the land. The arguments which he used in
his speech to support his opinions were ably answered by Chatham. The
noble lord began his reply by extolling common sense above subtilty and
ingenious refinement. The constitution had been invaded, and he heard
with astonishment that invasion defended on principle. He denied that
the commons had a supreme jurisdiction, or that its decision must be
received as the law of the land; for why, he pertinently asked, were the
generous exertions of our ancestors made to secure and transmit to their
posterity a known law and a certain rule of living, if, instead of the
arbitrary power of a king, we must submit to that of a house of commons?
Tyranny was detestable in any shape, but especially when exercised by a
number of tyrants. But that, he triumphantly asserted, was not the fact
or the constitution of England, and he pointed out where the law of
parliament might be found by every honest man; namely, in Magna Charta,
in the statute-book, and in the Bill of Rights. The first principle of
the constitution is, he observed, that the subject shall not be governed
by the will of any man or body of men, but by the whole legislature, and
by certai