Pitt replied with great indignation, that the time had been too pressing to consult precedents. He had not thought the life of a man was to be trifled with while clerks were searching records. He had founded himself on a peculiarity of case, that was its own precedent, and could be so to no other: a precedent that could never be extended but by a wicked Parliament. He had been doing his duty in Parliament the day before, had heard the momentous doubts of Mr. Keppel, and had represented them:--_he should have been ashamed to run away basely and timidly, and hide his head, as if he had murdered somebody under a hedge_. It had been the sense of the House, that what had passed should be laid before his Majesty; and he had accordingly thought it _his_ duty to represent it. What would Mr. Fox have done? _not_ have represented it? “You, sir,” said he, to the Chair, “may enter it with proper caution.” He appealed to the House, if what he had done had not been directly implied; and concluded, that he was ready to undergo the correction of the House. Fox replied with as much temper as the occasion seemed to call for resentment, (but it is not always true that one is most angry when one is most in the wrong,) that he did not think his observation had been indecent. That he would now say nothing to Mr. Pitt’s charge, but would prove his own conduct good-natured. Had he said some things that Mr. Pitt had said, he should have thought his nature base. It had not been necessary to express _a member of the House in his place_. Yet if the Speaker could think of any palliative way of entering it in the journals, he should never think of it more. Pitt said, the manner had been chosen to show the public that every method had been taken to ease the mind of his Majesty: and Lord Strange bore him testimony, that the communication had been intended by the House: and however Parliament would take it, he knew it was manly and right. Mr. Keppel then said, that the definitions given the day before of the oath had engaged his utmost attention: and he had represented as well as he could to some of his brethren what latitude it had been thought they might take in dispensing with it: but they were not altered in the least, and till an absolving Act should pass, could say nothing. “Do they still desire the Act?” said Lord Strange. “Could anybody,” replied Keppel, “mention what weight they had on their minds, and not desire it still?”