good man was called, in order to allay, by fuitable applications, the emotions raised by this unexpected interview.

Leander grew daily more convinced that it was not only verbal communications which paffed between Clelia and the friar. This, however, he did not think himself fully warranted to disclose, till an accident, of a fingular nature, gave him an opportunity of receiving more ample teftimony.

The confeffor had a favourite spaniel, which he had loft for fome time, and was informed at length that he was killed at a village in the neighbourhood, being evidently mad. The friar was at first not much concerned, but in a little time recollected that the dog had fnapped his fingers the very day before his elopement. A phyfician's advice was thought expedient on the occafion,

Clelia. However, the greater part thought it decent to attend her. Some went as her companions, fome for exercife, fome for amusement, and the abbefs herself as guardian of her train, and concerned in her fociety's misfortunes.

What ufe Leander made of his difcovery is not known. Perhaps, when he had been fuccessful in banishing the hypocrite, he did not fhew himself very follicitous in his endeavours to reform the finner.

N. B. Written when I went to be dipped in the falt-water."

XXDXXXXX

From the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. A PROTEST.

Die Martis, 29 Novembris, 1763.

HE order of the day for refum

He told him with great franknefs, that no prescription he could write had the fanction of so much experience as im merfion in fea-water. The friar, therefore, the next day set forward upon his journey, while Leander, not without a mischievous kind of fatisfaction, conveys the following lines to Clelia ;

"My charming Clelia,

Though I yet love you to distraction, I cannot but fufpect that you have granted favours to your confeffor which you might, with greater innocence, have granted to Leander. All I have to add is this, that amorous intercourses of this nature, which you have enjoyed with friar Laurence, put you under the like neceffity with him of feeking a remedy in the ocean.

of the report of the conference with the Commons on Friday last being read,

The third refolution of the Commons was read as follows:

Ecaufe we cannot hear, without the utmost concern and astonishment, a doctrine advanced now, for the first time in this Houfe, which we apprehend to be new, dangerous and unwarrantable, viz. That the perfonal privilege of both Houses of Parliament has never

keld;

held, and ought not to hold in the cafe of any criminal profecution whatsoever; by which, all the records of parliament, all history, all the authorities of the graveft and fobereft judges are entirely refcinded; and the fundamental principles of the conftitution, with regard to the independence of parliament, torn up and buried under the ruins of our moft established rights.

We are at a lofs to conceive with what view fuch a facrifice fhould be propofed, unless to amplify, in effect, the jurifdiction of the inferior, by annihilating the ancient immunities of this fuperior court.

The very question itself, propofed to us from the Commons, and now agreed to by the Lords, from the letter and fpirit of it contradicts this affertion; for, whilst it only narrows privilege in criminal matters, it establishes the principle. The law of privilege, touching imprisonment of the perfons of Lords of Parliament, as ftated by the two ftanding orders, declares generally, That no Lord of Parliament, fitting the parliament, or within the ufual times of privilege of parliament, is to be imprifoned or restrained without sentence or order of the House, unless it be for treafon or felony, or for refufing to give fecurity for the peace, and refufal to pay obedience to a writ of Habeas Corpus.

The first of these orders was made after long confideration, upon a dispute with the king, when the precedents of both Houses had been fully infpected, commented upon, reported, and entered in the journals, and after the king's council had been heard. It was made in fober times, and by a House of Peers, not only loyal, but devoted to the crown; and it was made by the unanimous confent of all, not one diffenting. These circumstances of folemnity, deliberation, and unanimity, are fo fingular and extraordinary, that the like are fcarce to be found in any inftance among the records of parliament.

When the two cafes of furety for the peace and Habeas Corpus, come to be wek confidered, it will be found that

they both breathe the fame fpirit, and grow out of the fame principle.

The offences that call for furety and Habeas Corpus, are both cafes of prefent continuing violence, the proceedings in both have the fame end, viz. to reprefs the force and to difarm the offender.

The proceeding ftops in both when that end is attained; the offence is not profecuted nor punished in either; the neceffity is equal in both, and if privilege was allowed in either, fo long as the neceffity lafts, a Lord of Parliament would enjoy a mightier prerogative than the crown itself is intitled to. Lastly, they both leave the profecution of all misdemeanours ftill under privilege, and do not derogate from that great fundamental, that none shall be arrested in the courfe of profecution for any crime under treason and felony.

These two orders comprise the whole law of privilege, and are both of them ftanding orders, and confequently the fixed laws of the House, by which we are all bound, until they are duly repealed.

The refolution of the other House now agreed to, is a direct contradiction to the rule of parliamentary privilege, laid down in the aforesaid standing orders, both in letter and spirit. Before the reasons are ftated it will be proper to premise two observations:

First, That in all cafes where fecurity of the peace may be required, the Lord cannot be committed till that fecurity is refused, and confequently the magistrate will be guilty of a breach of privilege if he commits the offender without demanding that security.

Secondly, Altho' the security should be refused, yet, if the party is committed generally, the magiftrate is guilty of a breach of privilege, because the party refufing ought only to be committed till he has found fureties; whereas, by a general commitment, he is held faft, even tho' he should give fureties, and can only be discharged by giving bail for his appearance.

This being premifed, the firft objection is to the generality of this refolu

tion, which, as it is penned, denies the privilege to the fuppofed libeller, not only where he refufes to give fureties, but likewife throughout the whole profecution, from the beginning to the end; fo that, although he should fubmit to be bound, he may, notwithstanding, be afterwards arrested, tried, convicted, and punished, fitting the parliament, and without leave of the house, where in the law of privilege is fundamentally misunderstood, by which no commitment whatsoever is tolerated, but that only which is made upon the refufal of the fureties, or in the other excepted cases of treason or felony, and the Habeas Corpus.

If privilege will not hold throughout in the cafe of a feditious libel, it must be because that offence is fuch a breach of the peace, for which fureties may be demanded; and if it be so, it will readily be admitted, that the cafe comes within the exception, "Provided always, that fureties have been refufed, and that the party is committed only till he shall give sureties.”

But first, this offence is not a breach of the peace; it does not fall within any definition of a breach of the peace, given by any of the good writers upon that fubject; all which breaches, from menace to actual wounding, either alone or with a multitude, are defcribed to be acts of violence against the perfon,goods, or poffeffions, putting the fubject in fear by blows, threats, or geftures. Nor is this case of the libeller ever enumerated in any of these writers among the breaches of peace; on the contrary, it is always defcribed as an act tending to excite, provoke, or produce breaches of the peace; and although a secretary of state may be pleased to add the enflaming epithets of treasonable, traiterous, or feditious, to a particular paper, yet no words are strong enough to alter the nature of things. To fay then, that a libel, poffibly productive of fuch a confequence, is the very confequence fo produced, is, in other words, to declare, that the cause and the effect are the fame thing.

Secondly, But if a libel could poffibly, by any abuse of language, or has any where been called inadvertently, a breach of the peace, there is not the least colour to fay, that the libeller can be bound to give fureties for the peace, for the following reafons:

Because none can be so bound, unless he be taken in the actual commitment of a breach of the peace, striking or putting fome one or more of his majes ty's fubjects in fear :

Because there is no authority, or even ambiguous hint in any law-book, that he may be fo bound:

Because no libeller, in fact, was ever fo bound:

Becaufe no crown-lawyer, in the most defpotic times, ever infifted he should be fo bound, even in days when the prefs fwarmed with the most invenomed and virulent libels, and when the profecutions raged with fuch uncommon fury against this fpecies of offenders; when the law of libels was ransacked every term; when lofs of ears, perpetual imprisonment, banishment, and fines of ten and twenty thousand pounds, were the common judgment in the star chamber, and when the crown had assumed an uncontroulable authority over the prefs.

Thirdly, This refolution does not only infringe the privilege of parliament, but points to the restraint of the perfonal liberty of every common fubject in thefe realms, feeing that it does, in effect, affirm, that all men, without exception, may be bound to the peace for this offence.

By this doctrine, every man's liberty, privileged as well as unprivileged, is furrendered into the hands of a fecretary of state: he is by this means empowered, in the first inftance, to pronounce the paper to be a feditious libel, a matter of fuch difficulty, that fome have pretended, it is too high to be intrusted to a special jury, of the firit rank and condition; he is to understand and decide by himself, the meaning of every inuendo; be is to determine the tendency thereof, and brand it with his own epiEe a

thets &

I

nure.

Obferved our lands, (for I then lived in a wet clay country) after having borne three crops of corn, which is the common method of husbandry in those parts, produced good quantities of grafs for two or three years, after which the ground began to fadden, and then the produce diminished, and rushes grew in abundance.

This led me to think, that whatever would contribute to keep the particles difunited would be of great fervice: and further, I imagined, that clay or foil burnt would never re-unite; which proved a fact moreover, that the falt it gained by paffing through the fire would enrich the land, which appeared from its produce when denfhired; tho' I never approved of that husbandry, as the foil was thereby diminished, which is already too thin in that country. This determined me to attempt burning clay, which I did in the manner following.

1 caused a labourer to dig as much clay as made a number of walls of nine inches high, and of the fame thickness, and the fame distance from each other, in a parallel direction, as would make

about a 'fquare of three yards: thefe vacancies, being like tunnels of brickkilns, I filled with brushwood, and on that threw fome cinders, or small-coal of which I had fufficient quantities, then, living nigh fome collieries; after which I covered the whole fquare with clay about three inches thick, leaving the ends of the tunnels open, which I then lighted on the windward-fide: as foon as the fire had got fufficient head, I ftopt the mouths of them; and when I perceived the covering was almoft burnt through, I had a fmall fprink. ling of cinders, or small-coal, thrown on the heap, and then another covering of clay of the fame thickness; and thus I went on, till my fire was feven or eight feet high.

When I found my fire was very well kindled, which was commonly about the time I put my fecond coat on, I ufed to enlarge the bafe of the fire, by continuing the tunnels, and by adding new ones to the fides, (which were filled and covered as the others, and then lighted) till I made my fire about feven yards fquare; for I foon found it never burnt well in the middle if it was fo large at first.

Care fhould be taken the labourer does not put on too thick a coat at once, as it will be apt to fmother the fire: befides, by confining the heat in too much, the clay was apt to run and vi trefy, which was then of little use.

As foon as the heap was fufficiently cool (for the fooner it is laid on the land the better) I put about ten large cartloads on a ftatute acre, and found it an admirable manure for either meadow, pafture, or corn: for the latter it will not last more than three crops, though longer for the two former: and with this I have made prodigious improve. ments; but I dont believe it will an fwer for a fandy foil, as it will render it still lighter.

This manure I burnt all times of the year, though flower in the winter than fummer, but always faftelt in windy weather.

This, I fancy, may be burnt with

bruth.