Parliament so shameless, so thoroughly abandoned, as to undertake your defence? You know, my Lord, that there is not a man in either house, whose character, however flagitious, would not be ruined by mixing his reputation with yours; and does not your heart inform you that you are degraded below the condition of a man, when you are obliged to hear these insults with submission, and even to thank me for my moderation?
We are told, by the highest judicial authority, that Mr, Vaughan's offer to purchase the reversion of a patent in Jamaica (which he was otherwise sufficiently entitled to) amounts to a high misdemeanour. Be it so: and if he deserves it, let him be punished. But the learned Judge might have had a fairer opportunity of displaying the powers of his eloquence. Having delivered himself with so much energy, upon the criminal nature, and dangerous consequences of any attempt to corrupt a man in your Grace's station, what would he have said to the minister himself, to that very privy counsellor, to that first commissioner of the treasury, who does not wait for, but impatiently solicits, the touch of corruption; who employs the
