being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
much was done until the 30th of April.

On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
Attorney-General.

The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
be inevitably weakened,--and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
justice herself."

That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.