as expressly prohibited by our Blessed Saviour in his

sermon on the mount.

Many statutes have been made against this offence; and by the last of these, which was enacted in the nineteenth year of the present king, every daylabourer, common soldier, common sailor, and common seaman,' forfeits one shilling; every other person under the degree of a gentleman, two shil-. lings; and every person of or above that degree five shillings.

And in case any person shall after such conviction offend again he forfeits double; and for every offence after a second conviction treble.

Though the execution of this act be entrusted to one single magistrate, and no jurisdiction, unless by appeal, given to the sessions; yet I could not forbear mentioning it here, when I am speaking in the presence of many peace-officers, who are to forfeit forty shillings for neglecting to put the act in execution. And I mention it the rather to inform them, that whenever the offender is unknown to any constable, petty constable, tithingman, or other peace officer, such constable, &c. is empowered by the act, without any warrant, to seize and detain any such person, and forthwith to carry him before the next magistrate.

And if these officers would faithfully discharge the duty thus enjoined them, and which religion, as well as the law, requires of them, our streets would soon cease to resound with this detestable crime, so injurious to the honour of God, so directly repugnant to his positive commands, so highly offensive to the ears of all good men, and so very scandalous to the nation in the ears of foreigners.

Having dispatched those misdemeanours (the principal ones at least) which are immediately committed against God, I come now to speak of those which are committed against the person of the king, which person the law wisely holds to be sacred.

Besides those heinous offences against this sacred person which are punished ultimo supplicio, there are many articles, some of which involve the criminal in the guilt of præmunire, and others are considered in law as misprisions or contempts. The former of these is by Mr. Serjeant Hawkins, in his Pleas of the Crown, divided into two general heads: viz.

Into offences against the crown,

And offences against the authority of the king and parliament.

Under the former head he enumerates nine several articles; but as these chiefly relate to such invasions of the royal prerogative as were either made in Popish ages in favour of the Bishops of Rome, or in those times which bordered on the reformation in favour of the Church of Rome, and are not practised, at least not openly practised, in these days, I shall have no need to repeat them here,

Under the latter head he mentions only one, which was enacted in the reign of queen Anne, 6 Ann. c. 7. If any person shall maliciously and directly, by preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, declare, maintain, and affirm, that the pretended prince of Wales hath any right or title to the crown of these realms, or that any other person or persons hath or have any right or title to the same, otherwise than according to the acts of settlement; or that the kings or queens of this realm, with the authority of parliament, are not able to make laws to limit the crown and the descent, &c. thereof, shall incur a præmunire.

A most wholesome and necessary law. And yet so mild hath been our government, that I remember no one instance of putting it in execution.

Misprisions or contempts are against the king's prerogative, against his title, or against his sacred person or government.

Under these heads will fall any act of public and avowed disobedience; any denying his most just and lawful. title to the crown; any overt act which directly tends to encourage or promote rebellion or sedition; all false rumours against his majesty, or his councils; all contemptuous language concerning his sacred person, by cursing, reviling him, &c. or by uttering any thing which manifests an intention of lessening that esteem, awe, and reverence, which subjects ought to bear to the best of princes.

These are offences, gentlemen, which I must earnestly recommend to your inquiry. This, gentlemen, is your duty as grand jurors; and it must be a most pleasing task to you as you are Englishmen ; for in proportion as you love and esteem your liberties you will be fired with love and reverence toward a prince under whose administration you enjoy them in the fullest and amplest manner.

Believe me, gentlemen, notwithstanding all which the malice of the disappointed, the madness of republicans, or the folly of Jacobites, may insinuate, there is but one method to maintain the liberties of this country, and that is, to maintain the crown on the heads of that family which now happily enjoys it.

If ever subjects had reason to admire the justice of that sentiment of the poet Claudian, That liberty ' never flourishes so happily as under a good king, we have reason at present for that admiration.

I am afraid, gentlemen, this word liberty, though so much talked of, is but little understood. What other idea can we have of liberty than that it is the enjoyment of our lives, our persons, and our properties in security; to be free masters of ourselves and our possessions, as far as the known laws of our country will admit; to be liable to no punishment, no confinement, no loss, but what those laws subject us to! Is there any man ignorant enough to deny

that this is the description of a free people? or base enough to accuse me of panegyrick, when I say this is our present happy condition?

But if the blessing of liberty, like that of health, be not to be perceived by those who enjoy it, or at least must be illustrated by its opposite, let us compare our own condition with that of other countries; of those whose polity some among us pretend so much to admire, and whose government they seem so ardently to affect. Lettres de Cachet, Bastiles, and Inquisitions, may, perhaps, give us a livelier sense of a just and mild administration, than any of the blessings we enjoy under it.

Again, gentlemen, let us compare the present times with the past. And here I need not resort back to those distant ages when our unhappy forefathers petitioned their conqueror, that he would not make them so miserable, nor be so severe to them, as to judge them by a law they understood not.' These are the very words, as we find them preserved in Daniel; in return to which, the historian informs us, nothing was obtained but fair promises. I shall not dwell here on the tyranny of his immediate successor, of whom the same historian records, that seeking to establish absolute power by force, he made both himself and his people miserable.'

6

I need not, gentlemen, here remind you of the oppressions under which our ancestors have groaned in many other reigns, to shake off which the sword of civil war was first drawn in the reign of king John, which was not entirely sheathed during many successive generations.

I might, perhaps, have a fairer title to your patience in laying open the tyrannical proceedings of latter times, while the crown was possessed by four successive princes of the House of Stuart. But this, gentlemen, would be to trespass on your patience indeed; for to mention all their acts of absolute

power, all their attempts to subvert the liberties of this nation, would be to relate to you the history of their reigns.

In a word, gentlemen, all the ftruggles which our ancestors have so bravely maintained with ambitious princes, and particularly with the last mentioned family, was to maintain and preserve to themselves and their posterity, that very liberty which we now enjoy, under a prince to whom I may truly apply what the philosopher long ago said of virtue, That all who truly know him, must love bim.

The third general head of misdemeanors, gen¬ tlemen, is of those which are committed against the subject; and these may be divided into two branches.

Into such as are committed against individuals only:

And into such as affect the publick in general. The former of these will probably come before you by way of indictment; for men are apt enough to revenge their own quarrels; but offences in commune nocumentum do not so certainly find an avenger; and thus those crimes, which it is the duty of every man to punish, do often escape with impunity.

Of these, gentlemen, it may be therefore proper to awaken your inquiry, and particularly of such as do in a more especial manner infest the publick at this time.

The first of this kind is the offence of profligate lewdness; a crime of a very pernicious nature to society, as it tends to corrupt the morals of our youth, and is expressly prohibited by the law of God, under the denunciation of the severest judgment, in the New Testament. Nay, we read in the 25th chapter of Numbers the exceeding wrath of God against the children of Israel for their forpication with the daughters of Moab. Nor did