But to crown thefe horrors, it is not very long fince fome fellows wearing black mantles, and others who caft white fhirts over their jackets, having been bitten by mad-dogs, communicated their madness to the whole nation. Our country. was then divided into the murderers and the murdered, and all, in the name of God.

Who would have imagined from this horrible abyfs, this chaos of diffention, a government fhould at laft fpring up,. the most perfect, it may be faid, now in the world? yet fuch has been the event. A prince honoured, wealthy, all-powerful to do good, without any power to do evil, is at the head of a free, warlike, commercial nation. The nobles on the one hand, and the representatives of the people on the other, fhare the legiflature with the monarch-We have feen diforders, civil wars, anarchy and wretchednefs lay waste the country, when our kings aimed at arbitrary power, whereas tranquillity, riches, and univerfal happiness have only reigned among us, when the prince has remained fatisfied with a limited authority. Our victorious fleets carry our glory over all the ocean; our laws place our lives and fortunes in fecurity; no judge can explain them in an arbitrary manner and no decfion is ever given, without the reafons affigned for it. We fhould punish a JUDGE as an affaffin, who should condemn a citizen to death, without declaring the evidence which accused him, and the law upon which he was tried.

Our author is not lefs free with the pope, and takes a fingular pleasure in fhewing his enmity to intolerants; after giving us a defcription of France, Italy, and Germany, he concludes his reflections with this obfervation," the Ger mans are the grey-heads of Europe; the people of Albion are men formed; and the inhabitants of Gaul are the children." After bringing Amazan and Formofante together, he concludes with a very fpirited and facetious addrefs to those who have treated his former works with any degree of feverity: and feems rather merry than angry with their criticisms.

The tranflation from whence we have drawn this sketch, is, in many places very wrong, and wrote in fo bad a ftile, that the writer feems to have loft his English, by reading the French.

THE

POLITICAL REGISTER,

For AUGUST, 1768.

NUMBER XVII.

To the EDITOR of the POLITICAL REGISTER.

SIR,

I

ON CORRUPT JUDGES.

Remember to have heard a wag fay,

that the great dealers in law have more than once wanted to fell the whole national ftock of it together. And, however ludicrous the expreffion may appear, that facts have warranted the fatire, is an indifputable truth.

During the reign of James the Firft, perhaps, no one fo much scandalized the bench as the celebrated lord Verulam. But, under his fucceffor, the lamb-skins appeared to be hung upon wolves, for then the difpenfers of law became the grofs violators of all justice.

It is true, that at first, there did appear to be fome men of confcience upon the bench, for we read, that Sir Randolph Crew was difplaced, in the year 1626, about the business of the general loan, the inftructions to the commiffioners for the raifing of which were drawn in the true fpirit of an inquifition but, by difplacing him, and, perhaps, fome others, in the following year, we find, that when the gentlemen who had been imprifoned for refufing to lend the king money, Vol. III.

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fued for their release upon a Habeas Corpus, the judges unanimoufly decided the point against them.

In the affair of tonnage and poundage, the barons of the Exchequer proceeded as well against law as the fenfe and declarations of parliament: and in their folutions of the famous queftions put to the judges, in the beginning of the year 1629, their principles were made apparent, as they likewise fubfequently were, by the enormous fines which they laid on merchants, imprisoned members, and others.

In the iniquitous affair of fhip-money, which was invented by a lawyer, (the turncoat, proftitute Noy, who fold his confcience and country for the office of attorney-general) the whole body of judges figned an opinion for which fimple hanging would, in juftice, have been too flight a punishment. It is true, indeed, we are told, that two out of the twelve, Hutton and Crooke, did not really agree in opinion with the reft, but were prevailed on to fign with them, as the opinion of the body; fo that it may be faid they were villains through cowardice, but the others were fuch from principle. Great, however, we must acknowledge the merits of Mrs. Crocke to have been at that time, to the reproach of her husband, from the honourable part she acted, in fpiriting him up to a manly discharge of confcience, in the cafe of Mr. Hampden; though pity it was, the good old lady could not be put in his place, as the certainly would have made the best judge of the whole fet. But the true fenfe of the nation in general concerning the affair of fhip-money, was expreffed in the famous speech which the great lord Falkland made in the House of Commons upon that fubject, in the year 1640: and it occafioned fuch proceedings, as, in the end, caused an abolition of the tax by act of parliament, and also a profecution of the judges and others, who had been concerned in establishing it.

Thus did the great lawyers of thofe times endeavour to fubvert the conftitution in favour of regal defpotifm. But their aim was fo widely miffed, that their endeavours ferved, in the iffue, to produce the oppofite effect, by the introduction of anarchy, which led to democratic confufion, military violence, a mockery of justice, and a reproach to the nation.

Yet when monarchy and the laws became happily restored again, fuch fatal examples of the effects of corrupt practices in the courts failed to preferve long the awful feats therein undefiled. The reign of Charles the Second proved alike fruitful in violences and oppreffions from the administration of juftice: nay, the iniquities of courts of judicature then foared above all examples of former times; for murders and

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mifchiefs of every kind became abundant, from evident corrupt influence, and the most partial determinations. Sham plots, malicious profecutions, illegal fines and condemnations, cruel executions, nay imputed murders, perpetrated in fecret, as well as with the mockery of open juftice, by means of packed juries, may be faid to have aftonished and terrified the whole nation. The chief corporations of the kingdom were intimidated into a furrender of their charters; nay, that of London was forcibly taken away by an unjuft fentence of the judges of the King's Bench; and though afterwards agreed to be reftored, on difhonourable conditions, yet the king repented of that favour, and entirely abolished the privileges of the chief city in his dominions.

When the nation had become more than half enslaved by the wickedness of his counfels, James the Second mounted the throne, with fair profeffions in his mouth, but a fixed determination in his mind, with all poffible expedition, to accomplish his wicked project, for deftroying the liberties, laws, and religion of the kingdom. Some of the first acts of his administration were thofe of collecting cuftoms, duties, and an excife by proclamations, which could not conftitutionally be his due till granted by parliament: and yet how very favourably fome lawyers thought of fuch proceedings will presently be fhewn.

In this reign the corrupt judges and lawyers most confpicuoufy figured. It was almoft begun with the perfecution (we can call it no better) of Oates, Dangerfield, and Baxter; the former of whom, we may, at leaft, fay, was inhumanly tortured; the fecond, cruelly treated by the law, and afterwards murdered by a lawyer; and the latter, though a man. of a most respectable character, was, on his trial, treated by lord chief-juftice Jefferies with the utmost infolence and brutality, who even extorted from the jury the penalties inflicted on him.

After the defeat of the infatuated duke of Monmouth, and his few followers, what a campaign (as the king himself called it) did the bloody-minded Jefferies, and his military colleague, Kirk, make in the western counties! where, fome hiftorians fay, above fix hundred perfons were hanged. Neyer before that barbarous expedition was there heard of executions being made fubftitutes to the ufual methods of faluting with artillery: but thefe men were turned off upon gibbets, ten at a health, by the favage Kirk; and he probably would have been pledged as loyally by Jefferies, had the latter been apprifed of the frolic; for his difpofition to barbarity can in no point be doubted. Nor indeed was the fpirit

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of tyrannical executions confined to the weft; for at London, about the fame time, there were examples bad enough of such violent measures.

These ftrange proceedings were followed by a rapid advance of Popery and prerogative in Ireland, and in Scotland a total fubmiffion to abfolute power; while, in England, by the difplacing of but four judges, in order to make room for a like number, with more pliable confciences, he got the following points fettled for general rules of law by that venerable body. ft." That all the laws of England are the king's laws. 2dly. That therefore it is an incident, infeparable prerogative of the kings of England, as of all other fovereign princes, to difpenfe with all penal laws in particular cafes, and upon particular neceffary reafons. 3dly. That of thefe reafons and neceffities the king is the fole juge; confequently, 4thly. That this is not a trust invested in, and granted to the king, but the ancient remains of the fovereign power of the kings of England, which was never yet taken from them, nor can be."

From fuch a body of judges better determinations were not rationally to be expected. Nay, they even fubmitted to receive orders from the chancellor, to ufe their authority, on their circuits, for confirming the right, affumed by the king, of difpenfing with the laws, and for difcouraging all whom they found of incompliant tempers; which orders, we read, they executed with extreme rigour and infolence.

But fuch a difpofition in lawyers was by no means confined to the order of judges; for the following very extraordinary addrefs was prefented to the king on the 11th of June, 1687, by the fociety of the Middle Temple :

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May it please your Majefty,

"WE your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, to our "great joy, have received a happy occafion of making this "declaration of our gratitude: and as we know that your "majefty's goodness is the greatest that ever was fhewn by "a prince to his fubjects, fo we with the voice of men and "angels, to return fufficient thanks for your majesty's condefcenfion and clemency to all your fubjects in your gracious "declaration for toleration. And as for this compaffion and goodness, thanks ought to be paid to your majesty by all your fubjects, fo we efpecially of the profeffion of the law, "have reafon to be thankful for the honour you have done us, by afferting your royal prerogative, which is the very life of the law and our profeffion. Which prerogatives, AS THEY ARE GIVEN BY GOD HIMSELF, fo we declare, that no power on "earth can diminish them, but they must always remain entire

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" and