International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1,: No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850Various
Science
International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1,: No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850
Various
Art -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
censure the publisher of this paper, and I affirm that you support
injustice by violence; that you are guilty of a heinous aggravation, of
your offense; and that you contribute your utmost influence to promote,
on the part of the highest court of judicature, a positive denial of
justice to the nation!" Junius traded up on the invincible infirmity of a
judge, who might have been destroyed by his weakness had he not been
upheld by his unsullied purity and fame.
The attacks of Junius were not without effect on Parliament. A motion was
made in the House of Commons for "a committee to inquire into the
proceedings of the judges in Westminster Hall, particularly in cases
relating to the liberty of the press." In the House of Lords Lord Chatham
and Lord Camden re-echoed the charges of the House of Commons, and while
the latter warned noble lords how they received the opinions in that
House of the "most experienced lawyers" upon questions of law, the
former, in his accustomed style, threatened to ring again and again "the
alarm-bell of liberty," until he "could rouse the people to a proper
sense of their injuries." Stung by persecution Lord Mansfield suffered
himself to be betrayed into unaccountable error. Intimating one day that
he had something of importance to bring to the notice of the House, he
moved that their Lordships should be summoned to receive the
communication. The appointed day arrived, and the attendance of peers was
unusually large. Lord Mansfield rose amidst profound and anxious silence.
Lord Chatham and Lord Camden had calumniated the judges, and they were
now no doubt to be the objects of a vote of censure. Nothing of the kind.
Lord Mansfield simply informed the House that he had left a paper with
the clerk assistant containing the judgment of the Court of King's Bench
in the case of "the King against Woodfall," and then, to the astonishment
of every one, resumed his seat. Lord Camden rose and inquired whether the
noble lord intended hereafter to found any motion on his paper? Lord
Mansfield answered "No," and the House proceeded to other business. The
very next day Lord Camden resumed the subject. He regarded the conduct of
the Chief Justice as a challenge against himself, and he at once accepted
it. In direct contradiction to Lord Mansfield he maintained that his
doctrine was not the law of England. He had considered the noble lord's
"paper," and had not found it very intelligible. He begged to propose
four questions to the noble and learned lord, to which he required
categorical answers, that their lordships might know precisely the points
they had to discuss. The questions were submitted, and Lord Mansfield,
instead of meeting them, "with most abject soothings," as Horace Walpole
gleefully says, "paid the highest compliments to Lord Camden." He had the
highest esteem for the noble and learned lord who thus attacked him, and
had ever courted his esteem in return. He had not expected this treatment
from his candor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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