than he--are entitled to look at his cavalier-like treatment of their best services, with a feeling stronger than that of mere surprise? In concluding this long article--in expressing our conviction of the error of the Lords--we feel one consolation at all events--that if we err, we err in good company; and that we are not conscious of having transgressed the limits of legitimate discussion, in exercising as undoubted a right of its kind, as these three peers exercised in branding so overwhelming a majority of the judges of the land with the imputation of ignorance of those laws which all their lives had been spent in administering. The very existence of the ancient common law of the land is put in jeopardy by such a procedure as that which we have been discussing; and our honest conviction, however erroneous, that such is the case, will suffice to excuse the freedom of our strictures; if, indeed, we require an excuse for echoing the stern declaration of on forefathers--_Nolumus leges Angliae mutari_. As to him who has reaped the benefit of this lamentable miscarriage--Mr O'Connell--the law of the land has nevertheless been vindicated, and the stability of the empire secured, to a far greater extent than he is willing to acknowledge. Agitation he must continue; he _must_ play out his base and sordid game. But his powers of mischief are manifestly and seriously crippled; and we quit him with the language addressed by Pope to a mean one of _his_ day-- "Uncaged, then let the harmless monster rage-- Secure in dulness, madness, want, and age!" FOOTNOTES: [1] See the Judgment of the Judges, ordered by the House of Lords to be printed, (and from which the quotations in this article have been made,) read to the House of Lords by Lord Chief-Justice Tindal, on the 2d September 1844. [2] State Prosecutions, pp. 9, 10. No. CCCXXXIX. Vol. LV. [3] Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 302. [4] Several distinct offences may undoubtedly be included, in as many counts, in one indictment. [5] Two of the defendants' (the two priests) names do not appear in the record of the verdict, as one of them (Tyrrell) died before the trial, and as to Tierney, the Attorney-General entered a _nolle prosequi_. [6] _Comyn's Digest_, title _Pleader_, 3 B. 18. [7] This is the proper expression. See _M'Queen's Practice of the House of Lords,_ p. 256. "They are summoned _for their advice in point of law_, and the greater dignity of the proceedings" of the Lords.--(_Blackst, Comm._ p. 167.) [8] 1 _Blackstone's Commentaries,_ p. 69. [9] Opinions of the Judges, &c.--(Pp. 1-3.) [10] Opinions of the Judges, p. 23. [11] 3 _Blackstone's Commentaries_, p. 395. [12] We quote from the edition of Lord Denman's judgment, sanctioned by himself, and edited by D. Leahy, Esq., (one of the counsel in the cause.)