of that method of defence which the established customs of our country
allow him, and believe the person mentioned in this bill to deserve
rather applauses and rewards, than censures and punishments, I think
myself obliged to oppose it, and hope to find your lordships unanimous
in the same opinion.

Then the duke of ARGYLE answered, in substance as follows:--My lords,
whatever may be the fate of this question, I have little hope that it
will be unanimously decided, because I have reason to fear that some
lords have conceived prejudices against the bill, which hinder them from
discovering either its reasonableness or its necessity; and am convinced
that others who approve the bill, can support their opinion by arguments
from which, as they cannot be confuted, they never will recede.

Those arguments which have influenced my opinion, I will lay before your
lordships, and doubt not of showing that I am very far from giving way
to personal malice, or the prejudices of opposition; and that I regard
only the voice of reason, and the call of the nation.

Calmness and impartiality, my lords, have been, with great propriety,
recommended to us by the noble lord who spoke first in this debate; and
I hope he will discover by the moderation with which I shall deliver my
sentiments on this occasion, how much I reverence his precepts, and how
willingly I yield to his authority.

I am at least certain, that I have hitherto listened to the arguments
that have been offered on either side with an attention void of
prejudice; I have repressed no motions of conviction, nor abstracted my
mind from any difficulty, to avoid the labour of solving it: I have been
solicitous to survey every position in its whole extent, and trace it to