I hope, my lords, I shall be easily forgiven for observing, that this is
a testimony of uncorrupted greatness, more illustrious than any former
minister has ever obtained; for when was it known, my lords, that after
a continuance of power for twenty years, any man, when his conduct
became the subject of publick examination, was without accusers?
I cannot, for my part, but congratulate the noble person upon his
triumph over malice; malice assisted by subtilty and experience, by
wealth and power, which is at length obliged to confess its impotence,
to call upon us to assist it with new laws, to enable it to offer a
reward for evidence against him, and throw down the boundaries of
natural justice, that he may be harassed, censured, and oppressed, upon
whom it cannot be proved that he ever deviated from the law, or employed
his power for any other end than the promotion of the publick happiness.
Had the officers of the crown, my lords, when his influence was
represented so great, and his dominion so absolute, projected any such
measures for his defence; had they proposed to silence his opponents by
calling them to a trial, and offered a stated price for accusations
against them, how loudly would they have been charged with the most
flagrant violation of the laws, and the most open disregard of the
rights of nature; with how much vehemence would it have been urged, that
they were intoxicated with their success, and that in the full security
of power they thought themselves entitled to neglect the great
distinctions of right and wrong, and determined to employ the law for
the completion of those purposes, in which justice would give them no
assistance.
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