Search -
Speeches ... on the late ... state trials
Speeches on the late state trials Author:John Philpot Curran Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SPEECH JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, Esq. ATTACHMENTS. THURSDAY FEBRUARY 24, 1785. . Curran said he hoped he might say a few words on this great subject, with... more »out disturbing the sleep of any right honourable member, [the attorney general having fallen a sleep on his seat] and yet, perhaps, added he, I ought rather to envy, than blame the tranquillity of the right honourable gentleman. I do not feel myself so happily tempered, as to be lulled to repose by the storms that shake the land. If they invite rest to any, that rest ought not to be lavished on the guilty spirit. He said, he never more strongly felt the necessity of a perfect union with Britain, of standing or falling with her in fortune and constitution, than on this occasion. She was the parent, the archetype of Irish liberty, which she had preserved inviolate in its grand points, while among us it has been violated and debased. He then called upon the house to consider the trust reposed in them, as K thethe great inquest of the people. He respected judges highly; they ought to be respected, and feel their dignity and freedom from reprehension, while they did what judges ought to do; but their station should not skreen them, when they passed the limit of their duty. Whether they did, or not, was the question ? The house was the judge of those judges; and it would betray the people to tyranny, and abdicate their representation, if they did not act with probity and firmness. In their proceedings against Reilly he thought they had transgressed the law, and made a precedent which, while it remained, was subversive of the trial by jury, and, of course, of liberty. He regarded the constitution,, he regarded the judges, three of that court at least, and for their sakcs he would endeavour to undo what they had done. ...« less