on juries, they will hardly trust enough to them to order a prosecution for a supposed libel.  They may proceed in two ways:  either by an impeachment, in which the Tories may retort on the Whigs (but with better success, though in a worse cause) the proceedings in the case of Sacheverell, or they may, without this form, proceed, as against the Bishop of Rochester, by a bill of pains and penalties more or less grievous.  The similarity of the cases, or the justice, is (as I said) out of the question.  The mode of proceeding has several very ancient and very recent precedents.  None of these methods is impossible.  The court may select three or four of the most distinguished among you for the victims; and therefore nothing is more remote from the tendency of the proposed act than any idea of retirement or repose.  On the contrary, you have, all of you, as principals or auxiliaries, a much better [hotter?] and more desperate conflict, in all probability, to undergo, than any you have been yet engaged in.  The only question is, whether the risk ought to be run for the chance (and it is no more) of recalling the people of England to their ancient principles, and to that personal interest which formerly they took in all public affairs.  At any rate, I am sure it is right, if we take this step, to take it with a full view of the consequences, and with minds and measures in a state of preparation to meet them.  It is not becoming that your boldness should arise from a want of foresight.  It is more reputable, and certainly it is more safe too, that it should be grounded on the evident necessity of encountering the dangers which you foresee.

Your Lordship will have the goodness to excuse me, if I state in strong terms the difficulties attending a measure which on the whole I heartily concur in.  But as, from my want of importance, I can be personally little subject to the most trying part of the consequences, it is as little my desire to urge others to dangers in which I am myself to have no inconsiderable a share.

If this measure should be thought too great for our strength or the dispositions of the times, then the point will be to consider what is to be done in Parliament.  A weak, irregular, desultory, peevish opposition there will be as much too little as the other may be too big.  Our scheme ought to be such as to have in it a succession of measures:  else it is impossible to secure anything like a regular attendance; opposition will otherwise always carry a disreputable air; neither will it be possible, without that attendance, to persuade the people that we are in earnest.  Above all, a motion should be well digested for the first day.  There is one thing in particular I wish to recommend to your Lordship’s consideration:  that is, the opening of the doors of the House of Commons.  Without this, I am clearly convinced, it will be in the power of ministry to make our opposition appear without doors just in what light they please.  To obtain a gallery is the easiest thing in the world, if we are satisfied to cultivate the esteem of our adversaries by the resolution and energy with which we act against them:  but if their satisfaction and good-humor be any part of our object, the attempt, I admit, is idle.