members of the committee were to take an oath to do justice similar to
that taken by jurymen in the courts of law; and the committee was to
have power to compel the attendance of witnesses, to examine them on
oath, and to enforce the production of all necessary papers; it was also
to commence its sittings within twenty-four hours of its appointment,
and to sit from day to day till it should be prepared to present its
report. It was not to the credit of the ministers that they made the
passing of such a bill a party question. The abuse which it was designed
to remedy was notorious, and Mr. Grenville did not exaggerate its
magnitude when he declared that, "if it were not checked, it must end in
the ruin of public liberty." He was supported by Burke, and by two
lawyers, Mr. Dunning and Mr. Wedderburn, both destined to rise to some
of the highest offices in their profession; but he was opposed by the
Attorney-general, by Lord North, as leader of the House, and by Mr.
Fox--not yet turned into a patriot by Lord North's dismissal of him from
office. The debates, both in the whole House and in committee, were long
and earnest. Some of the ministerial underlings were not ashamed to deny
the necessity of any alteration in the existing practice; but their more
favorite argument was founded on the impropriety of the House
"delegating its authority to a committee," which was asserted to be "an
essential alteration of the constitution of the House of Commons." Lord
North himself had too keen an instinct of propriety to deny the
existence of a great evil, and contented himself with pleading for time
for farther consideration; while the Attorney-general confined his
objections to some details of the bill, which it would be easy to amend.
Others, with too accurate a foresight, doubted the efficacy of the
measure, and prophesied that the additional sanction of the oath, by
which its framer hoped to bind the committees to a just and honest
decision, would, "like oaths of office and Custom-house oaths, soon fall
into matters of form, and lose all sanction, and so make bad worse." On