n laws to which he has given his assent: laws which were open
to him to examine, and not beyond his ability to understand. He then
denounced the late decision as destitute of every condition essential
to its legality, and as being unsupported by reason, precedent,
Magna Charta, or the Bill of Rights. Whether it be questioned by the
legislature, he continued, will depend on the resolution of the house;
but that it violates the constitution, no man who had listened to the
debate could deny. He then expressed his confidence in the wisdom and
constitutional authority of the house, and after praising the ancient
nobility as founders of the constitution, and invoking the house
to follow their brilliant example, he thus concluded:--"Those iron
barons--for so I may call them when compared with the silken barons of
modern days--were the guardians of the people; yet their virtues were
never engaged in a question of such importance as the present. A breach
has been made in the constitution--the battlements are dismantled--the
citadel is open to the first invader--the walls totter--the constitution
is not tenable. What remains, then, but for us to stand foremost in the
breach, to repair, or to perish in it?"

The lord chancellor Camden had declared, upon his patron's resignation
of the privy-seal, that Chatham should still be his polar star, and that
he reluctantly consented "to hold on a little while longer with this
crippled administration." The part which he took in this debate proved
him to be sincere in his declarations. The house was astonished to
hear, indeed, sentiments from his lips as strong as those delivered by
Chatham. "I accepted," said he, "the great seal without conditions: I
meant not therefore to be trammelled by his majesty--I beg pardon--by
his ministers. But I have suffered myself to be so too long. For some
time I have beheld with silent indignation the arbitrary measures of
the minister. I have often drooped and hung down my head in council, and
disapproved by my looks those steps which I knew my avowed opposition
could not prevent. I will do so no longer, but will openly and boldly
speak my sentiments." Lord Camden then agreed with his friend respecting
the incapacitating vote of the commons, and accused the ministry, by
implication, of having formed a conspiracy against the liberties of
the country. By their violent and tyrannical conduct, he said, they had
alienated the minds of the people from his majesty'