Thus it happens that political writings are generally defective:  for they are drawn up by men unacquainted with publick business, and who can, therefore, only amuse their readers with fallacious recitals, specious sophistries, or an agreeable style; or they are the hasty productions of busy negotiators, who, though they cannot but excel the other class of writers in that which is of most importance, the knowledge of their subject, are yet rarely at leisure to display that knowledge to advantage, or add grace to solidity.

Writers of the latter sort appear but seldom, and most of our political papers are the amusements of leisure, or the expedients of want.

Whether the paper now before us is the produce of ease, or of necessity, I shall not determine; I have already offered my opinion, that the man who claims it is not the author, nor do I discover any reason for changing my sentiment:  the question is a question merely of conjecture, since neither I nor the honourable gentleman attempt to offer any demonstrative proofs of our opinion.  If he has any to produce in favour of his own notions, let him lay them before you, but let him always forbear to impute to me assertions which I never uttered, and beware of representing me as declaring that I believe this paper the composition of some member of this house.

[It was then debated, whether this offence should be punished by the authority of the house, or referred to the cognizance of some of the courts of judicature in Westminster hall, on which occasion Mr. Howe spoke as follows:]

Sir, it is the duty of every part of the legislature, not only to preserve the whole system of our government unaltered and unimpaired, but to attend particularly to the support of their own privileges, privileges not conferred upon them by our ancestors, but for wise purposes.

It is the privilege of this house that we, and we only, are the judges of our own rights, and we only, therefore, can assign the proper punishment when they shall be presumptuously invaded.

If we remit this offender, who has attempted to debase the house in the opinion of the nation, to any inferiour court, we allow that court to determine, by the punishment that shall be inflicted, the importance of this assembly, and the value of the collective character of this house.

It therefore concerns us, in regard to our own dignity, and to the privileges of our successours, that we retain the cognizance of this crime in our own hands, in which it is placed by perpetual prescription and the nature of our constitution.

[The house agreed to this, and the libeller was sent to the common jail of Middlesex, by warrant from the speaker.]

Sir William Yonge then spoke to this effect:—­Sir, I am pleased with finding that the malice and indecency of this libel, has raised in the house a just resentment, and that the wretch, who, with a confidence so steady, and such appearance of satisfaction in his countenance, confesses, or rather proclaims himself the author, is treated as he deserves.  But let us not forget that the same degree of guilt always requires the same punishment, and that when the author of scandal is in prison, the printer and propagator of it ought not to be at liberty.