I hope your Lordships will not think that I have unnecessarily occupied your time in disproving the plea of arbitrary power, which has been brought forward at our bar, has been repeated at your Lordships’ bar, and has been put upon the records of both Houses.  I hope your Lordships will not think that such monstrous doctrine should be passed over, without all possible pains being taken to demonstrate its falsehood and to reprobate its tendency.  I have not spared myself in exposing the principles avowed by the prisoner.  At another time I will endeavor to show you the manner in which he acted upon these principles.  I cannot command strength to proceed further at present; and you, my Lords, cannot give me greater bodily strength than I have.

FOOTNOTES: 

[95] Institutes of Timour, p. 165.

[96] Hedaya, Vol.  II. p. 34.

[97] Hedaya, Vol.  II. pp. 247, 248.

SPEECH

IN

GENERAL REPLY.

SECOND DAY:  FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1794.

My lords,—­On the last day of the sitting of this court, when I had the honor of appearing before you by the order of my fellow Managers, I stated to you their observations and my own upon two great points:  one the demeanor of the prisoner at the bar during his trial, and the other the principles of his defence.  I compared that demeanor with the behavior of some of the greatest men in this kingdom, who have, on account of their offences, been brought to your bar, and who have seldom escaped your Lordships’ justice.  I put the decency, humility, and propriety of the most distinguished men’s behavior in contrast with the shameless effrontery of this prisoner, who has presumptuously made a recriminatory charge against the House of Commons, and answered their impeachment by a counter impeachment, explicitly accusing them of malice, oppression, and the blackest ingratitude.

My Lords, I next stated that this recriminatory charge consisted of two distinct parts,—­injustice and delay.  To the injustice we are to answer by the nature and proof of the charges which we have brought before you; and to the delay, my Lords, we have answered in another place.  Into one of the consequences of the delay, the ruinous expense which the prisoner complains of, we have desired your Lordships to make an inquiry, and have referred you to facts and witnesses which will remove this part of the charge.

With regard to ingratitude, there will be a proper time for animadversion on this charge.  For in considering the merits that are intended to be set off against his crimes, we shall have to examine into the nature of those merits, and to ascertain how far they are to operate, either as the prisoner designs they shall operate in his favor, as presumptive proofs that a man of such merits could not be guilty of such crimes, or as a sort of set-off to be pleaded in mitigation of his offences.  In both of these lights we shall consider his services, and in this consideration we shall determine the justice of his charge of ingratitude.