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ments, why the writ of atachment
hould not iffue.]

In July 1765, the miniftry
were changed; and a total revo-
Jution in politics took place. Mr.
Yorke, who had been appointed
attorney-general, was defirous of
continuing the profecution; but
the marquis of Rockingham, who
was then minifter, interpofed, and
prevented any farther proceedings.

"In the month of November, 1768, a woman having appeared before two of his majesty's juftices of peace, to fwear a child against the fecretary to count Bruhl, the Saxon minifter; the count interfered, and the juftices were afraid to proceed. The woman applied to fir Fletcher Norton, who advised that a motion fhould be made in the court of King's-bench for a peremptory mandamus to the juftices to proceed in that filiation. The motion was accordingly made by Mr. Mansfield.

"The lord chief juftice Mansfield received it with marks of anger and furprife; he faid he did not understand what was meant by fuch collufive motions, unless it was to draw from that court an opinion upon the privileges of foreign minifters, which they had no right to meddle with; that the motion was abfolutely improper; that he wondered who advised it, and that he certainly should not grant the mandamus.

Sir Fletcher Norton then got up, and faid, that the party was bis client; that his majefty's fubjects, when injured, had a right to redrefs fomewhere or other; and that he knew of no place where fuch redress could applied for or obtained, but in the be legally court of King's-bench; that therefore he had advised the motion.

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Lord Mansfield, upon this, be

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gan to flourish, in his ufual ftyle, baffadors, the law of nations, &c. upon the facred privileges of amlufive motions, and took notice that &c. repeated fomething about colthe application for redrefs ought regularly to have been made to attorney-general. count Bruhl, or to his majefty's

rately, that he agreed entirely with "Mr. juftice Aston said, delibethe lord chief justice, and that the motion ought not to be granted.

that, after he had declared himself "Sir Fletcher Norton then said, the adviser of the motion, he did called collufive; that he defpifed not expect to have heard it again and abhorred all ideas of collufion as much as any man in that court; hoped it would be the last, that he that it was the first time, and he thould hear the court of King'sEngland to a foreign minifter, or to bench refer an injured fubject of that the laws of this country had an attorney-general for redrefs; plaining of injury, without a legal not left his majesty's fubjects, comand certain protection; that their claim was a claim of right, upon full authority to inquire, and muft which the court of king's-bench had injured, he should always bring determine; that if his clients were them to that court for redrefs, let who would have committed the injury, and he would take care that that his motion was proper, and that court fhould do them juftice; fhould not be withdrawn.

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the reafons offered by fir Fletcher Judge Yates then faid, that Norton had clearly convinced him; that he had not the leaft doubt of the authority of the court to prothat, for his part, he fhould never tect his majesty's fubjects; and nifter, or to an officer of the crown; refer them either to a foreign mi

that

that he thought the motion perfectly regular, and that it ought to be granted.

"Judge Afton then began to recant. He faid, that he was always glad to be convinced of a mistake, and happy in having an early opportunity of acknowledging it; that from what his brother Yates and fir Fletcher Norton had faid, he faw clearly that his firft opinion had been erroneous, and that he agreed the motion ought to be granted.

"Lord Mansfield then, in great confufion, faid, that he fhould take time to confider of it.' To this fir Flether Norton replied, that, as two of the three judges were of the fame opinion, the motion muft be granted; but that, for his part, if his lordship wanted any time to confider, whether, when a fubject applied to the court of King's bench for redrefs, he was or was not to be referred to a foreign minifter, or to an attorney-general, he had no objection to allowing

him all the time he wanted.

"Thus wickednefs and folly were defeated, and the unhappy foreign minister, in fpite of the law of nations, was obliged to comply with the law of nature, and to provide for his child."

"The conduct of lord Mansfield on the question concerning literary property is well known. He gave a judgment in the court of King's-bench, by which the London bookfellers were induced to believe they had a permanent property in what they bought; and when the matter came to be argued in the houfe of lords, upon an appeal, and he was firmly attacked by lord Thurlow, (then attorneygeneral, and counfel for the appellant), and all his doctrine reprobated by lord Camden, he had not

courage to rife up in his place and defend his own judgment. He said not a word.

"If he was ambitious of being thought a Mæcenas, which was fuppofed, that may be pretended to be fome excufe for his judgment on this queftion in the court of King's-bench, but cannot apologize for abandoning his own character in the house of lords.

"By his patronage of fir John Dalrymple, who compiled The 'Memoirs of Great Britain,' already mentioned in the preceding chapter; and of Mr. Lind, who wrote fome tracts entitled, Letters on Poland,' in which the late king of Pruffia is treated with great alperity; and fome tracts against America, during the American war, in fupport of the miniftry; and of fome other writers of the fame principles; perhaps he flattered himself with the hopes of being efteemed an encourager of literary men. But avarice was his ruling paflion. He used to say, thofe who purchafed eftates, preferved their principal but received no intereft; thofe who bought in the funds, had intereft but no principal. He laid out his money in mortgages, and good fecurities, by which he had both principal and intereft.

"His lordthip was also ambiti qus of being thought a ftatesman. Upon one occafion only he fhone as a politician: this was his attack on the Sufpending and Difpenfing Prerogative in the Year, which was undoubtedly made with great ability, but the cafe may be faid to have been more a matter of jurifprudence than politics, and although he gave to his eloquence all the advantages he had acquired by a long exercife, yet the merit of the attack is

letfened, when it is recollected that lord Camden had maintained

the

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upon the Bofton Port Bill, in reply to lord Dartmouth, at that time fecretary of ftate for the colonies. His lordfhip faid, the fword was drawn, and the fcabbard thrown away. We had paffed the Rubicon;' alluding to Cæfar's march to Rome. This was not lefs a prophetic and dreadful denunciation to the interefts of Great Britain, than the infcription on the bridge over the Rubicon was to the fate of Cæfar, and the liberties of Rome,

the neceffity of a fufpending power in a cafe of imminent danger of famine, which was the fact, and that lord Mansfield warmly embraced this opportunity of upholding a true conftitutional doctrine, to gratify his envy and hatred of lord Camden. His motive was founded in perfonal rancour, not in conftitutional. All those who are acquainted with the history of the time will not hesitate to admit this diftinction. But the tract which was publifhed, called A Speech a- "Montefquieu, in confidering gainst the Sufpending and Difpenf- the caufes of the grandeur and deing Prerogative, and contained all clenfion of the Romans, obferves, that lord Mansfield advanced in his that policy had not permitted arfpeech upon this fubject in the houfemies to be ftationed near Rome, for of lords, was not written by his lordhip, although generally believed to have been his production, nor was he privy to the writing or publication. The pamphlet was written by lord Temple, and lord Lyttelton, and a gentleman who was prefent at the debate, and ftates in the form of one fpeech all the arguments on that fide. However, lord Mansfield's motives may be excufed, if the feverity of his attack makes minifters more affiduous in their duty, for they had information. of the approaching danger, and did not attend to it; if they had, fuch attention would have prevented the Aeceflity of reforting to fo violent a remedy.

"Of his lordfhip's political opinions and conduct, it would have been happy for his country if they had been founded in thofe juft principles of all government, which make the honour of the ftate and the interests of the people perfectly the fame. His political ideas were like thofe of lord Bute; they were contracted, fplenetic, and tyrannical. No better proof need be given than his memorable apoftrophe in' the house of lords, in the year 1774,

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this reafon confiderable forces were kept in Cifalpine Gaul; but to fe 'cure the city of Rome against those troops, the celebrated Senatus Confultum was made, ftill to be feen engraven on the way from Rimini to Cefena; by which they devoted to the infernal gods, and declared to be guilty of facrilege and parricide, 'thofe who fhould with a legion, with an army, or with a cohort, país the Rubicon.' Montanus gives the infcription at length, which is ftronger than Montefquieu ftates, and fays that Aldus Manutius, in the year 1565, in his way from Venice to Rome, faw this infeription, and carefully tranfcribed it. When Cæfar, in his march for Rome, had advanced to the Rubicon he paufed a few moments at this infcription, but his ambition. prevailing, he paffed over the bridge and then exclaimed, the lot is caft, let the gods do the rest!

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"Whoever knows lord Mansfield's influence in the British cabinet, will fay this was the die of A-. merica."

"In the progrefs of the American war, lord and general Howe; had hot the fuccefs which his lord

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ship expected, and he could not field faid, the Howes had no help expreffing his difappointmentheads;' to which fir at dinner at one of the Surrey af- ton neatly replied, fizes; the fubject of converfation will become of the heads of thofe being the American war, lord Mans-who fent them?"

then what

ANECDOTES of the REIGNING SULTAN, and of the RULING CABINET at the OTTOMAN COURT.

[From CONSTANTINOPLE ANCIENT and MODERN, &c, by JAMES DALLAWAY, M. B. F. S. A. late Chaplain and Physician to the British Embaffy to the Porte.]

“A

FBW anecdotes of the fultan and the prefent ruling cabinet, which I offer as genuine, may not be unacceptable, as varibus caufes feem at this juncture to confpire, by which the Ottoman court may take a more active part on the great political theatre of Europe. Sultan Selim III. is the eldest male defcendant of the houfe of Ofman, who in 1299 established the <fth dynafty of the kalifes. At the death of his father Mustafa III. in 1775, he was fourteen years old. According to the known precedent amongst the Turks, Abdul-hamid, his uncle, fucceeded to the throne; for they disdain to be governed either by a woman or a boy.

"At his acceffion Abdul-hamid had reached the age of forty-nine, and during the fifteen years' reign of his brother Mustafa had endured a ftate imprisonment, which the jealous policy of the feraglio had long ordained. As a folace of his confinement, hecultivated literature and the arts of peace. His difpofition, mild and beneficent, induced him to forego the ancient prejudice, and to fuperintend the education of fultan Selim, giving him every liberal indulgence. Sultan Muftafa

and fultan Mahmood, the fons of Abdul-hamid and the only remaining heirs of the empire, are both minors. They experience a generous return for their father's kindnefs, and are treated with fuitable refpect. Each has his feparate fuite of apartments, and fixty attendants, amongft whom are thirty elderly female flaves, with an annual reve nue of .5000 fterling. The good mufulman, who laments the poffible extinction of the imperial family, is comforted by the aftrologers, who have publicly declared, that after he has attained to forty years, fultan Selim will be bleffed with a numerous progeny.

"His countenance is handfome and impreffive, and his figure good; he is afiable, and poffeffes much fpeculative genius, is not ill informed of the characters and feparate interefts of his contemporary princes, and has every inclination to reconcile his fubjects to the fuperior expediency of European maxims, both in politics and war. But it is dubious if he be capable of that energetic activity, and that perfonal exertion, which are required in an abfolute prince to re-model a people whofe opinions are not

to be changed but by an univerfal
revolution.

<< Peter the Great and Charles
XII. in their plans of regenerating,
or conquering the Ruffians, did not
depend folely upon the agency of
minifters for fuccefs.

"The curiofity of Selim refpecting the other nations of Europe originated in frequent convertations with Rachib Effendi, the prefent historiographer-royal, who was for fome time envoy at Vienna, after the laft war. Thofe who have gained his confidence fince the commencement of his reign, have confulted that inclination, and improved every opportunity of extending his intelligence on thofe fubjects. I have heard it afferted that the young men in the feraglio are now inftructed in the French language by his command; and his partiality to French wine is no fecret amongst the well informed.

"The firft efforts towards improvement have been applied to the army and marine. Forts have been erected on the Bofporus, regiments have been trained to European difcipline, chiefly by French officers, and the fleet will become in a certain degree formidable.

"When he has leifure to render his vast territory, at leaft in the vicinity of his capital, more refemblant of civilized nations, he will probably establish a poft, which may facilitate communication between diftant provinces. During the last war many places of importance were taken, or evacuated, weeks before the miniftry were in poffeffion of the fact.

"The only imperial works now feen in his dominions are mofques, aqueducts, and fountains; he may hereafter turn his attention to great roads, now barely paffable, which would be as ufeful monuments of his fame.

"Mehmet Melèk Pafha, the late favourite, in his youth, of Mustafa vifier, refigned in 1794. He was a III. who gave him his fifter in marriage, and the appellation of Melek, or the Angel, on account of his fintake their furname from fome perfongular beauty; for the Turks ufually al excellence or peculiarity. After having enjoyed fome of the moft lucrative governments in the empire he returned to Conftantinople, and was called to the vifirate, at the advanced age of ninety years, in 1789. He has retired to his palace on the Afiatic fide of the Bofporus, and, as hiftory, has had a fon born to him an extraordinary fact in natural whofe legitimacy cannot be invalidated.

ment aims at the fuppreffion of the
"The prefent fyftem of govern-
former fole authority of the vifier,
and has reduced him to a mere
the fultan takes a more active flare
member of the cabinet council. As
than his predeceffor in public af-
fairs, and liftens to more advisers, it
feems to draw to an end. The
vifier now in office is likewife
a harmlets old man, fo that they
may probably foon fit state-fta-
tutes only.'

fent day are,
"The ruling perfons of the pre-
kiayah, or high-fteward to the ful-
1. Yusuf Aghi,
tan's mother, who retains a very
decided influence with him. Yu-
sùf's private life has been marked
by uncommon circumftances. He is
a native of Candia, and was origi-
nally a writer to a fhip, from which
employment he paffed into the fer-
of Anatolia, refiding at Kutayal.
vice of Abdullah Patha, beglerbey
During ten years he fo ingratiated
himfelf with the pafha, that he de-
termined to fecure to him his great
wealth in his life-time. Accord-
ingly he gave him intire poffeffion,
ordering him to fly to the Porte,

and

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