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Show 382 A 1'nOCIOUS JUDGES. (A. D. 1088. my opinion- I do take it to be a libel. But this being a point of law, if my brother~ have anything to say to it, I ·uppo~ c tit y will deliver their opinions." l\Ir. ,J ll .' tice IIolloway, though a devoted friend of the governJnent, had in his brea t some feeling of shame, and observed,- '' If you arc sati.~tied there was an ill intention of euition or the like, you hould fiud my lord · the bishops guilty; but if they only delivered a petition to save themselves harmles", and to free the1nselvcs fi·om blame, by showing the rca~on of their uisobediencc to the king's command, which they upprebend to be a grievance to them, I cannot think it a lib ·l." Wright, G. J.- " Look you, by the way, brother, I did uot a k you to Hum up the evidence, (for that is not u ual,) !Jut only to deliver your opinion whether it be a libel or no.'' Powell, J.-' Truly, I cannot see, for my part, anything of sedition or any other crime fixed upon the. e reverend father. Fo1·, gentlemen, to 1nake it a libel, it mu t be fa be, it m u ··t be n1alicious, and it mu:5t tend to sedition. As to the falsehood, I sec nothing that is offered by the king's coun el, nor anything a to the malice ; it wa presented with a1l the humility and decency becoming subject- when they approach their prince. In the petition, they say, because they ('Onceive the thing that wa commanded then1 to be again t the law of the land, therefore they do de ire his majesty that he would be plea eel to forbear to insist upon it. If there be no nch di'"pen-- ing power, there can be no libel in the petition which repre. ·en ted the declaration foundell on uch a pr ,tended power to be illegaL Now, gentle1nen, this is a dispensaLion \vith a witnes ; it amounts to an abrogation anL1 utter r epeal of all the laws; for I can see no difference, nor know of auy A. D.1688.] l~OBEH1' 'VRIGHT. 380 in law, between the king's power to dispense with laws ecclesiastical, and his po·wer to clispcn. e with any other laws whatsoever. If this be once allowed of, there will need no Parliament : all the legislature will be in the king- w bich is a thing worth considering- and I leave the i -sue to GoJ and your own consci.e nces." Allybone, however, on whom Ja.m s mainly relied, fooli hly forgetting the scandal which would nece - -arily arise fron1 the Protestant prelates Leing conclen1neu by a Popish judge for trying to save their church fron1 Popery, cmne up to the mark and in the senli1uents he uttered, n1ust have equalled ' ' all the expectations entertained of him by his ma ter:- "In the first place," saiJ he, " no n1un can take upon bitn to write against the actual exer cise of the gov rnn1ent, unle s he have leave horn the government. I f he doc~, he makes a libel be what he writes true or f~LLe; if we once come to ' impeach the govcrnrnent by way of argunH.mt, it is argument that makes governrnent or no government. So I lay down, that the government ought not to be impeached by argUtnent, nor the exercise of the government shaken by argument. Am I to be allowed. to cl.iscrcuit the 1\:ing's n1ini ters becau. e I can manage a proposition, in itself doubtful, \ViLli a better - ~en than another n1an ? 'fhis I ay i a libel. l\Iy next positlon is, that no private man can ta I\ :e upon 11 1·1 11 t o wt· ite concernin bo - the government at all; for what ha:; any private man to clo with the o-overnmcnt? It is the bu -ines8 of the government to manag: matter, r elating to the govcrnn1C'nt ; it !s the bu -i-ness o f subJ· ects to n1·1 n.u1 on1 y tl1 c u· · l)l,.lv'7 ate .a. ffmrs. If tho government does come to 11 ak - e my p .,.u ~t·1c ular interest' the I aw I.S open i'o r me, an d I n1ay r· eu-1 1.e:~::;,::; my "'clf '· but when I intrude myself into matters which do not concern nly par- |