My Lords, far from us, I will add, be that false
and affected candor that is eternally in treaty with crime,--that half
virtue, which, like the ambiguous animal that flies about in the
twilight of a compromise between day and night, is to a just man's eye
an odious and disgusting thing! There is no middle point in which the
Commons of Great Britain can meet tyranny and oppression. No, we never
shall (nor can we conceive that we ever should) pass from this bar,
without indignation, without rage and despair, if the House of Commons
should, upon such a defence as has here been made against such a charge
as they have produced, be foiled, baffled, and defeated. No, my Lords,
we never could forget it; a long, lasting, deep, bitter memory of it
would sink into our minds.
My Lords, the Commons of Great Britain have no doubt upon this subject.
We came hither to call for justice, not to solve a problem; and if
justice be denied us, the accused is not acquitted, but the tribunal is
condemned. We know that this man is guilty of all the crimes which he
stands accused of by us. We have not come here to you, in the rash heat
of a day, with that fervor which sometimes prevails in popular
assemblies, and frequently misleads them.
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