them, in order to discover their true caufes, and to provide an effectual and a legal remedy; for if the law fhould lofe its force, if it should become neceffary upon all occafions to make use of a military force for preferving the peace of the kingdom, our Conftitution would be at an end; we could not then be faid to be under a civil, but a military govern ment. Of all the late tumults, the first I fhall take notice of, are those which have happened in the Weft on account of the turnpikes. Why turnpikes fhould occafion disturbances in that part of the country more than in any other, is what I shall not, at present, pretend to account for; but these difturbances were fuch, it seems, that, for quelling them, it became neceffary to employ a military force, which I am very much furprised at, confidering the fevere law your Lordfhips paffed some time fince against thofe who fhould be concerned in any fuch; to me it is amazing to fee that the civil power, armed with fuch a fevere law, fhould not be able to prevent, as well as to quell any fuch tumult, without the affiftance of the gentlemen of the army; and therefore I am apt to suspect these tumults proceeded not from any want of power in the civil magiftrate, but from some other cause, perhaps from fome real injuftice or oppreffion brought upon poor people by means of these turnpikes. The people feldom affemble in any riotous or tumultuous manner, unless when they are oppreffed, or at leaft imagine they are oppreffed. If the people fhould be mistaken, and imagine they are oppreffed when they are not, it is the duty of the next magiftrate to endeavour firft to correct their mistake by fair means and just reasoning; in common humanity he is obliged to take this method, before he has recourfe to fuch fteps as may bring death and destruction upon a great number of his fellow countrymen; and this method will generally prevail where they have not met with any real oppreffion; but when this happens to be the cafe, it cannot be expected they they will give ear to their oppreffor, nor can the feverest laws, nor the most rigorous execution of thefe laws, always prevent the people's becoming tumultuous; you may shoot them, you may hang them, but till the oppreffion is removed or alleviated, they will never be quiet, till the greatest part of them are deftroyed. This is the chief reafon and the chief end of all parliamentary inquiries, and this ought to be our chief view in the inquiry we are now going upon. If we find any injuftice has been done, if we find any of thofe tumults have proceeded from oppreffion; the only way to prevent fuch tumults for the future will be, to remove that oppreffion, and to punish feverely every one of thofe who have been guilty of it. This is the only human method of preventing riots, or tumults; for I hope none of your Lordships are of opinion, that more fevere, or any larger powers ought to be granted by law. You have already, by a late law, made it death without benefit of clergy, to be riotously concerned in breaking down any turnpike, You cannot, by any maxims of government hitherto pursued in this kingdom, inflict any severer punishment; and I hope you will not, under pretence that the civil magistrate is not able to execute this law, agree to the erecting a barrack at every turnpike, in order that the civil magiftrate may have it in his power to fhoot every man who prefumes to make his escape from that punishment which is provided for him by law. As for these tumults that happened at Spitalfields, and that neighbourhood, the government was, I think, as little concerned in them, as ever it can be in any fuch. They proceeded entirely from an accidental quarrel that had happened between the English and Irish labourers, and they might have been quelled, and the ringleaders punished, even though we had not a regiment of regular troops in the kingdom. Then with respect to that most ridiculous affair in Weftminfter Hall, it was, it is true, a moft daring infult both проп " upon the government and the Courts of Juftice; but I de not think it can be called either a tumult or a riot. There was, I believe, but one perfon actually concerned in it and but very few privy to it; and as it answered no end, nor could proceed from any fudden paffion or refentment, I muft think none but madmen could have any hand in it. If we confider the place where, and the perfon before whom this ridiculous infult was committed, we must conclude, that no man in his right fenses would have been guilty of it, or would have fo much as thought of any fuch impu dent and foolish contrivance; for the noble Lord who prefided in that court, has, I am fure, gained the esteem and affection of every man of fenfe in the kingdom. He is a magistrate of great power; but, my Lords, great as it is, his authority is equal to his power. Power and authority we muft confider as two things of a very different nature; pow er the legislature may give, but authority it can give no man; authority may be acquired by wisdom, by prudence, by good conduct, and a virtuous behaviour, but it can be granted by no King, by.no potentate on earth; a man's power depends upon the poft and ftation he is in, but his anthority can depend upon nothing but the character he ac quires amongst mankind, and the more power a knave or a fool is vefted with, the more he will be defpifed, the more generally will he be loaded with hatred and reproach. The riots and tumults which proceed from fmuggling, are, my Lords, of an old standing, and of a very different nature; but they are of late become fo frequent, and the fmugglers are become fo numerous and fo audacious, that they deferve our clofeft attention. I am afraid fome extraordina ry methods must be made ufe of for fuppreffing them; but the only way of contriving an effectual method for that purpose will be, to inquire into their caufes, and to take fuch meafures as may be proper for removing thefe caufes; for in the body political, as in the body natural, while the caufe re nature. mains, it is impoffible to remove the diftemper; fevere laws against smuggling, and the most rigorous, the most arbitrary execution of these laws, we know, by the example of a neighbouring kingdom, will never prevail. By fuch methods we may irritate, we may deftroy the fubject, and at laft, perhaps, bring on a diftemper of a much more dangerous nature; and I am afraid the law paffed last year for preventing smuggling, will be found to be a remedy of fuch a If that law had been paffed in that form and hape, in which it was once put by this House, it would not, in my opinion, have been fo extraordinary, nor fo dangerous; and I believe it would have been much more effectual. We were told by the best lawyers in England, that by that law, as it was firft brought in, and afterwards paffed, no judge in England could know how to direct a jury; and after they had been told fo, I must think it was a little odd, to turn it out of that shape we had put it into by their advice, and pass it in that very shape in which they told us it could have no effect. Upon this occafion, I must observe, my Lords, that even that wicked, that atrocious riot and murder committed at Edinburgh, proceeded originally from fmuggling; for it was the execution of a smuggler that occafioned all that disorder and wickedness that afterwards enfued. That tumult and the murder they committed, was, indeed, one of the most extraordinary that ever happened in any country, and it was, I think, one of the greatest indignities that ever was put upon an established government. For this reafon, it highly deferves our attention, and we ought to look upon it as the more dangerous, and the more to be taken notice of, because it was carried on with a fort of decency and order; for as Germanicus obferved of a mutiny among the Roman foldiers, it was the more to be dreaded, because it seemed to be attended with no diforder or confufion: I am forry to hear the government has not been able to difcover, or at leaft to apprehend, any of the perfons guilty of that barba rous murder; for where fuch perfons were concerned, many of their names may furely be difcovered; and if they are fled from juftice, fly where they will, they ought to be brought back and punished. By our power, we may bring them back from our plantations, and by our interest we may be able to bring them back from any foreign country, for no state in Europe would protect fuch cruel murderers: a foreign ftate may, perhaps, for political reafons, give shel ter to the rebels of a neighbouring country, but I cannot think any state will refuse to give up fuch criminals, when a proper application is made to them for that purpose. The names of the murderers must be all known in the city of Edinburgh, at least the names of fuch as have abfconded, or fled on that account, and if the citizens refufe to give an account of their names, there may be methods found for compelling them: they may be threatened with removing the Courts of Juftice, as was done in the late Queen's time, when the tumult happened there which occafioned the execution of Captain Green. Upon that occafion Her Majefty, by the advice of her Privy Council here, wrote a letter to the Privy Council of Scotland, ordering them to fignify to the magiftrates of Edinburgh, that in cafe any tumult ever happened again, the Courts of Juftice should all be removed from that city: from whence I would conclude, that the King has power to remove them; for if our King had no fuch power, I am fure no fuch thing would have been threatened by fo wife an Adminiftration as we had then the happiness to have at the head of our affairs. But, my Lords, if the citizens of Edinburgh should obftinately protect or conceal thofe murderers, there are cafes in which a city may forfeit her charter, and become as it were in miferecordia regis, with respect to her whole liberties and franchifes. The city of Cambridge was declared by Parliament in the reign of Richard the Hd. to have for |