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96
LETTERS OF
and blushed at his own baseness, and every man was astonished[1]
The interest of the public was vigorously supported in the house of lords. Their right to defend the constitution against an incroachment of the other estates, and the necessity of exerting it at this period, was urged to them with every argument, that could be supposed to influence the heart or the understanding. But it soon appeared, that they had already taken their part, and were determined to support the house of commons, not only at the expense of truth and decency, but even by a surrender of their own most important rights. Instead of performing that
- ↑ When the king first made it a measure of his government to destroy Mr. Wilkes, and when for this purpose it was necessary to run down privilege, Sir Fletcher Norton, with his usual prostituted effrontery, assured the house of commons, that he should regard one of their votes no more than a resolution of so many drunken porters. This is the very lawyer whom Ben Jonson describes in the following lines:
- "Gives forked counsel; takes provoking gold
- "On either hand, and puts it up.
- "So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
- "And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
- "Lie still, without a fee.
