Townshend tried to compose the heat that had arisen by recurring to the subject, and said he hoped no lawyer would assert that juries were not judges of law as well as of fact. De Grey, Solicitor-General, said the juries had given the prosecutors exemplary and vindictive damages, and had been animated by faction. The defendants had pressed the prosecutors not to delay. Charles Yorke spoke for three-quarters of an hour on the side of the Opposition; said he would retract if he had altered his opinion; but found reasons against the warrants growing all over the kingdom. The warrant had been so _emphatically illegal_, that it never could be debated in a court of law. It was expedient for Parliament and for the honour of the Crown, that Parliament should take the lead in questions of law. The House of Commons had often carried up resolutions to the other House. This question was connected with the privileges of the House. Precedents made in good times were felt in bad. The words of the warrant had been copied from an old blundering warrant of office, and could never be taken up again. The Crown should extinguish any jealousy of such a proceeding in future, by not making difficulties on plain questions. Beckford said, this country was obliged to Wilkes for the stand he had made. It had been the more necessary when a Whig Ministry acted on Tory principles, and he quoted the instance of Minutius, who pleaded that he had written nothing against the Emperor and _his mother_. Dyson said, if the House of Commons had a right of declaring law, it had no occasion to make laws: they might declare to be law whatever they wished should be so. Lord George Sackville asked if the seizure of papers would come in question in the Courts below? and said, that, had they had a mind to impeach the Secretaries of State, they must previously have come to this declaration. Norton entered into the defence of Lord Halifax, whose delays, he said, had not impeded the decision of the great cause. Lord Halifax had been guilty of a slip; and therefore, against such a prosecutor as Wilkes, was justifiable. Lord Halifax had availed himself of his privilege, till Wilkes was outlawed, (and so he did for years after); the journeymen printers had applied to be bought off. Dryden Leach’s attorney had come to him (Norton), and said he had heard it was wished to compromise Leach’s cause; but he (Norton) had refused, but had offered to bring it to an issue in a week; since then had never heard of him. Till that very day they had not been able to get the bill of exceptions sealed. Charles Yorke had said that question had never been argued; but he (Yorke) had argued it himself. (This Yorke denied.) It would be a quære whether Lord Halifax, as Secretary of State, was a Justice of Peace. Had not the most respectable characters, living and dead, been abused? That sort of libel deserved no quarter.