624 An Examination of Dr. Mufgrave's Addrefs.

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council, and the perfons on whom, by the regency act, the government of the kingdom may devolve. Thofe whom he loves are Wilkes, Bingley the bookfeller, Parfon Horne, the St Giles's Patriots, and other refpectable hawkers of liberty.

"Which I apprehend gives jufter grounds of apprehenfion."

For thefe apprehenfions, it may be apprehended, that Dr. Musgrave is obliged to Parfon Horne, who fo wifely and confcientiously promoted the late petition for a redress of those faid apprehenfions.

fhould not admit any body to fee the plaintiff. It is a great point in this caufe, and would tend to the aggravation of the damages, if it had been really and truly a thing maliciously intended, in the firft formation of the warrant against the plaintiff; then what arifes has been told you at the bar, that the law always implies illegality, but as to any perfonal malice, I fee none. As to any intention of fubverting the laws and liberties of the people, I fee none; but the proceeding was in courfe of office, in the manner found precedented; however, in regard to that part of the defence, it is" Having long had reason to imamaterial to obferve, it was illegal; gine." and upon the whole you must find a verdict for the plaintiff, and give him fuch damages as, under all the circumftances of this caufe, you fhall be of opinion he is intitled to, and I will go further, you are not to be confined to the feven days imprisonment and the feizure of papers, but you are to give him liberal damages. I do not mean when I fay liberal what the law implies exceffive. Exceffus in jure reprobatur. The law always condemns excefs; it must be within the rules of reafon; the particular circumftances of the cafe are to govern it, and, as near as you can, you are to give that fatisfaction and compenfation which must bear a proper proportion to the injury that has been received, under all the circumstances; and therefore you will, upon the whole, take the matter into confideration, and find a verdict for the plaintiff, and give him fuch damages as you think he ought to receive for the injury committed.

An Examination of Dr. Mulgrave's Ad

drefs.

In an affair of fo much confequence, an informer against nobles, should have, not hearsay evidence and imperfect informations, but pofitive proof and matter of fact to guide him: not imagination, which is so often difturbed by party, by vexation, by disap pointment, by envy. A poet may, without prejudice to the ftate, indulge his imaginations, but God forbid that ever vifionary notions fhould have influence either in phyfic or politicks.

"I have ardently withed for the. day when my imperfect informations fhould be fuperfeded by evidence and certainty. That day, Í flatter myfelf, is at laft approaching."

Far more becoming to have ardently wished that your apprehenfions were groundlefs, and your imperfect infor mations falfe better have wished, that pofitive evidence could never be brought against noblemen, whom you yourleif cannot charge with corruption. It is really cruel in Dr. Musgrave thus to delight himself with the idea of bloodshed.-But

Each word, fir, you impart Placari nequeunt, nifi hauriendum fangui- Has fomething in it killing-like your nem laniandaque vifcera noftra præbuerimus. Liv.

"Ta meeting of the county in orHE theriffs having fummoned

der to confider of a petition for redress of grievances, I think it incumbent on me as a lover of my country in gene

ral."

By the word general, it is evident that the doctor is a hater of fome individuals; who thefe are we may guess from his information: Lord Halifax, the peers and members of the privy

art.

"I flatter myself, that the fpirit now bear down every obftacle." appearing among the freeholders will

This fpirit, which is to bear dow every obftacle, is no other than the fpirit of juniper and the fpirit of malt; a fpirit that has lately appeared among fome freeholders in fome counties, and by intoxicating caused fome to petition and others to addrefs; a spirit not highly reified, but much under proef.

"I need not remind you of the univerfal

9.
erfal indignation and abhorrrence
which the conditions of the late
e were received by the independent
of the nation,"

An Examination of Dr. Mulgrave's Addrefs.

hat is by all thofe, who, when the was over, had nothing to depend Yet fuch is the candid, unfuspect nature of Englishmen, that even e, who condemned the measure, did. attribute it to a worse motive than anmanly impatience under the burs of war and a blind headstrong deof being relieved from it." .. Who were thus impatient and unnly were the foldiers? were the ors? If the war was a burden, sit unmanly to be relieved from it? you call taking off burdens from eft mens backs a blind beadfirong deof being eased? Ah, doctor, you lay eater burdens yourself now on the cks of our nobility. Do not you ow that as foon as the conditions of peace were figned, your indepent friends were Itarving for want of ployment, and our nation was finkg under the burden of many, many illions?

One would really think, that change I climate and correspondence with ir enemies had produced in Dr. Mufrave a change of nature. Surely this idrefs from an Englishman is not verburthened with candor, which is o amiable to accufe without evidence, nd is never a publisher of fufpicions. To the lift of modern patriots, who have oft the fenfe of gratitude, may not our octor be added? who for ten years njoyed three hundred pounds per anum, a bounty left by Dr. Radcliffe to he difpofal of the principal officers of late, which bounty they bestowed on Dr. Mulgrave, not as the wages of a olitician, but for the improvement of nedical knowledge. How grateful a eturn he has made to his benefactors and the public, his late addrefs will ufficiently evince!

"They could not conceive that perTons of high rank and unbounded wealth could be feduced by gold to betray the interests of their country." -And let me add, doctor, their own in-. tereft.

They could not conceive that any Englishman could be fo feduced by the whifling of a name, as to raife by infammatory addreffes, in his own

625

country, the flames of difcord; to ex-.
tinguish which, not the blood of heroes
only, but the blood of nobles, perhaps
of princes, might be demanded.

This important fecret was difclo-,
fed to me at Paris in the year 1764.".
Yet Dr. Mufgrave, a flaming and im-
patient patriot, has burnt five long
years to difclofe it in England. And
after all his fecret is of fo extraordi
pary a kind, that the doctor has not,
or cannot divulge it. In one part of
his addrefs he calls it an imperfect in-
formation, and in another intelligence:
now intelligence may be falle as well

as true.

I

"Lord Halifax's behaviour was polite but evafive."

As a nobleman polite, as a minifter of ftate evafive. Had the fpies, or informers, or intelligence-mongers, at Paris been as evafive, and as little communicative as Lord Halifax, it is probable, that this address of the doctor's had been locked up till his coffin was nailed down.

"But I was not fo much a dupe of his artifice, as to believe that he had a ferious intention of following the clue I had given him, though his whole behaviour pointed that way."

When you, doctor, first waited on Lord Halifax, you certainly had a different notion of that nobleman's difpofition, otherwife you would not have given him your clue at all, which clue, by the bye, had Lord Halifax taken, it might have led him, as peradventure it may yourself, into a perplexing la byrinth, out of which neither his lordflip's enemies, nor your friends, the independant part of the nation, could have freed him: a doctor fo hand in glove with chevaliers, ambaffadors, and plenipotentiaries, ought to speak with more decency of a nobleman who had received him politely. Why fhould Dr. Mulgrave affert, that Lord Halifax was full of artifice and deceit, when his whole behaviour pointed another way? Did not Dr. Mulgrave look on Lord Halifax. with a jaundiced eye? Had he thought his lord hip fo full of artifice at the firft vifit, why did he carry his budget of informations to him a second time?

"An overture had been made in the name of the Chevalier D'Eon."

And, in the name of Beelzebub, what had Lord Halifax to do with that man who

626 An Examination of Dr. Mufgrave's Addrefs.

who took his name in vain. Dr. Mufgrave had heard, that Sir George Young had been told that fomebody without a name had faid, that an overture fomewhere had been made in the name of another man, that fome peers might be impeached of high treafon, because they had fold the peace to the French, which peace the chevalier fays the French had fold to us. But this fecret, which was difclofed at Paris in 1764, cannot be difclofed in England in 1769, because Dr. Mufgrave (the informer) cannot bring any charge of corruption against the noble men mentioned in this imperfect information. And this overture, faid to have been made in the name of another man, has been difowned and denied by the very man in whofe name it was made: really, evidence of all kinds is a very perishable thing.

If a ftranger were to call upon Dr. Mufgrave with a bundle of papers, telling him, that they contained articles of high, crimes, or misdemeanors, against any reputable family, his patients, would he not require the moft ftriking proofs, and unexceptionable evidence, before he raised an alarm? If five years after, this fame ftranger, neglecting his proper bufinefs, fhould proclaim on the house top that Dr. Mulgrave took no notice of the information given him; what idea would he form of this ftranger? Would he not affign him a place in the diftrict of Moorfields?

Thefe imperfect informations bring to mind the whifper between the gentleman ufher and the phyfician to the two kings of Brentford, and the reafon given for the whifper is, that they are both fuppofed to be politicians, and matters of state ought not to be divulged.

I leave every impartial reader to judge."

By impartial is here meant every party and prejudiced reader.

"I will fuppofe, for argument's fake, that the perfons accufed were perfectly innocent is it not the intereft and with of every innocent man to have his conduct fcrutinized? Is there any tendernefs in fuffering a stain to remain upon their characters, till it becomes difficult, or even impoffible to be wiped out?"

What! was Lord Halifax to call these

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peers and members of the privy coun cil to account? Was he to make all this uproar and confufion on the imperfect information of a strange man, utterly unconnected with people in power, at least in our realm? Was Lord Halifax to be the busy and deftructive inftrument to fend for the chevalier and his papers, fet the nation in a flame at a time when the mob was crying out crucify, crucify Was he to impeach fuch exalted perfonages on an hearfay evidence; make them prove themselves incorrupt when no charge of corruption could be brought against them; make them prove themfelves innocent that no atrocious calumny might reft upon them? One while Dr. Mulgrave fays, he cannot bring any charge of corruption against thefe noblemen, and another time ftiles them capital offenders. These noble lords, fo accufed, were to make themselves appear innocent, in order to prove themfelves not gailty: they were to call upon we know not whom, to have their conduct fcrutinized. We may venture to pronounce, that however innocent they were found, fome ftain would remain upon their characters, even by being called to account. It is not fufficient that Cæfar's wife be chaste, the fhould be unfufpected..

Would Dr. Mufgrave take it kind to be called to account for any patient that died under his care? Would be (had he been a little flurred) thank the relations of the deceased patient, fhould they call upon him to prove he had not killed him, that his innocence might appear, and no ftain remain upon his character; no suspicion of guilt! No-we may venture to affert, that it would be neither the intereft, or wish, of the innocent Dr. Mulgrave, thắt fuch an enquiry thould be made.

"I confider this refufal of Lord Halifax's as a wilful obftruction of national justice."

When Lord Halifax feized Mr. Wilkes's papers, it was thought national justice to bring Lord Halifax to account. When prudence withheld his lordship from feizing the chevalier and his papers, then national juftice wy obftructed. Qaid sequor aut quem ?

If Lord Halifax, confidered as a magiftrate, had a power to examine the chevalier, and the papers with which

ke

769.

An Examination of Dr. Mufgrave's Addrefs.

e had been intrusted by the ambaffaer of a foreign nation, every other uftice in the commiffion was invested with an equal authority. Why did ot Dr. Mulgrave then, instead of runing from one nobleman to another, wait on Sir John Fielding with his inFormation? Sir John's well known exterity at unravelling myfteries, might, with the affiftance of the docor's clue, have penetrated through all the intricacies, and difclofed to the world this important, though as yet unrevealed fecret.

If the doctor's address should unforunately occafion a rupture, the couny, as a reward for his fervices, might defire him to be in the commiffion of the peace, and then he might have a right to call all the chevaliers, and the ambaffadors of all the courts in Europe before him; then, instead of pondering the abftrufe cafe of a patient, he might with his fteady hand hold the balance of power, and, by obferv. ing which fcale preponderates, might determine the fate of nations.

"Yet even these confiderations are infinitely outweighed by the danger to which the whole nation must be expofed from the continued operation of fo much influence and authority."

By continued authority and influence Dr. Mufgrave means keeping their places and the whole tenor of his address is to turn the prefent miniftry out, that the doctor and his adherents may get in.

"That treafons may be detected, without producing either punishment or enquiry.

So the punishment is to go first and the enquiry follow.

"I have been thus particular in enumerating evils, not from a defign of aggravating that nobleman's offence: accufation is not my object, but enquiry.”

Lord Halifax is accused of artifice; his allegations are misplaced and frivolous; he deprived people of the firft rank of vindicating themselves; he would not listen to exact narratives, nor detect treasons; he said one thing and meant another; he was an obftructor of national justice, for which he ought to be punished; he made impunity perpetual, by fuffering traitors to efcape; he expofed Dr. Mufgrave's precious documents to hazard; he has

627

occafioned heart-burnings and jealou-
fies among the people; he has expofed
the royal reputation to hazard; by his
negligence a traitor might govern the
kingdom; he is the cause of future
treasons; he may bring Frenchmen
into parliament; and yet Dr. Muf-
grave's object is not accufation but
enquiry.

Sure be muft want the care of ten
Munro's,

Who thus would scribble rather than
repose.

"It has been apprehended, how juftly I know not, that any magiftrate, who fhould promote an enquiry, or any gentleman, who fhould openly move for it, would be deemed refponfible for the truth of the charge, and fubjected to fevere penalties if he could not make it good."

Apprehended! It is a known truth, and how it efcaped the great penetration of Dr. Mufgrave is furprizing. Every man, who brings a charge against another, is refponfible to prove that charge true. Does not the law of the land, does not equity in every cafe, require it? What confufion would otherwile enfue! Muft not the clearest evidence be produced on every trial? and if not produced, is not the accufer liable to pay the wrongfully accused his cofts, from the most trivial matters to those of the highest importance? Ought not this penalty to be paid? And the more fevere the charge is, furely the more fevere the penalty fhould be.

In an action to be brought against Dr. Mufgrave, in which either his character, or property, was to be concerned, would he be fatisfied with a bare trial of the matter? And on fucceeding in the event, would he thank his accufer for bringing him into court? Would he not expect fome farther fatisfaction, fome recompence for the expence which he had been at; for the time loft and trouble taken in setting afide a falfe charge; befides the anxiety which every good man muft fuffer, while his character is attacked and hung up for public odium? And yet, in the prefent cafe, fo blind and headftrong is party zeal, that Dr. Mufgrave does not know how justly a perfon can be deemed refponfible for the truth of a charge, even in a cafe which concerns both the property and life of

another.

628
another. This must have dropt from
the doctor without reflexion, fince
every other perfon must clearly fee the
juftice of verifying every charge.
Audi alteram partem, is a good maxim;
and before the public pafs fentence
on Lord Halifax, let them confider
what may be gathered from the doc,
tor's addrefs. Lord Halifax was per-
fuaded the charge was wholly ground-
lefs. The Speaker of the Houfe of
Commons refufed to be inftrumental
In promoting an enquiry. Sir George
Younge, Mr. Fitzherbert, and several
other members of parliament, who
were acquainted with the matter, or
rather heard fome whispers only of a
confufed tale, did not intermeddle with
it. May we not think they all had
good reafons for not meddling with
It? If their reafons were laid before,
the public, they would probably con-
vince us that they acted right. But
are Lord Halifax, the Speaker of the
House of Commons, and others of the
like exalted characters and ftations, to
give reafons for all their proceedings
In a news-paper, or an humble addrefs?
If they thould do it in one cafe, it
would be afterwards expected they
fhould do it in all: and if one peer, or
member, why not all? God forbid
that they fhould have nothing elfe to
do than to furnish out materials for
the news of the day. The affairs of the
nation require a ftrict attendance, and
must indeed suffer if their time is to be
taken up with anfwering every writer,
No-a charge against them must be
brought in a proper court; there every
evidence must be produced and exa-
mined; and there, and there only, the
matter must be determined. What is
reported out of court is generally vague
and uncertain; and if, after fuch a
trial, they are found innocent, what
fatisfaction can be made to them by
Dr. Musgrave? In trivial matters, by
which characters of meaner perfons
have been hurt, and damages fultained,
a pecuniary compeufation is generally
fufficient, but here where perfons of
unbounded wealth, and above all fuch
confiderations, are concerned, every
recompenfe will be inadequate, as the
lenity of our laws will fill permit Dr.
Mufgrave to enjoy life, though he has
been aiming to deprive others, of that
invaluable bleffing.

An Examination of Dr. Mulgrave's Addrefs.

"Not till the accumulated errors

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of government should awaken a fpirit
of enquiry too powerful to be refifted,
or eluded,"

This Spirit can only be a spirit of
rebellion a spirit which difcovered
itself in the late treatment of the D
of B, at Exeter, bearing down eve.
ry obftacle in its way, without waiting
for an open and impartial enquiry.
For they wished, and actually endei
voured to punish, without fir taking
any legal ftep for proving the charge
against him. Such a fpirit is always
railed by defamatory writings, which,
containing a fecret poifon, operate on
the minds of the people, and give then
a blind beadftrong defre of taking all
power into their own hands, and ufag
it as they please, without allowing time
for reafon to act and weigh all things
with impartiality.

This would be to difgrace my former conduct."

We never heard of Dr. Mulgrave till he propofed to difclofe this impr tant fecret, which, from the doctor's inability to reveal, feems never to have been communicated to him. We ne ver heard, and probably, now never fhall hear, of any fervices performed by Dr. Mufgrave for his country, #ther in his private, or public capacity, By former conduct the doctor mut certainly mean fome transaction of his in France, for which we perhaps have no reafon to thank him.

Bayes, in the Rehearsal, fays, when he writes familiar things as Sonnets, and the like, he makes use of stewed prunes only when he has a great de fign in hand, he ever takes phyfic and lets blood, for when you would have pure fwiftnefs of thought and hery flights of fancy, you must take care of the pentive part; in fine, you mu purge the belly. If Dr. Mulgrave had purged his belly well before he wrote his addrefs, he might have got rid of thofe ill humours, which have been vented by him again the ftate: but it is to be feared he wrote when all was in a ferment within, which made him adminifter an extraordinary po tion to the belly of the whole nation, where it now lies raifing violent com motions, and threatening, convulfions to the whole body. Excellent will be the art of that phyfician, who can cure the body politic of the difordes under which it now labours! Difordess

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