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THE

CRISIS

NUMBER X	To be continued Weekly.
SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1775	[Price Two-pence Half-penny.

LETTER II.

To the Right Honourable LORD APSLEY, Lord Chancellor of England.

My LORD,

March 6, 1775.

I SHALL begin this letter to your Lordship, with an extract of a Letter, I addressed some Time since, to Lord Mansfield, because I knew how exactly your Lordship’s capacity is fitted, to think just as he thinks.

To him observed;—to your Lordship I repeat it.—

“That in matters of private Property, we see the same byass and Inclination, to depart from the decision of your Predecessors, which you certainly ought to receive, as evidence of Common Law: Instead of those certain positive Rules, by which the Judgement of a Court of Law, should invariably be determined; you have fondly introduced, your own unsettled notions, of equity, and substantial Justice. Decisions given upon such Principles, do not alarm the Public, so much as they ought; because the Consequence, and tendency of EACH PARTICULAR INSTANCE, is not observed, or regarded.” But the Day is now come my Lord;—the Public

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have taken the Alarm;—your Lordships lawless Decision, in the court of Chancery, in the Cause of THICKNESS and LIEGE, and the Mannner in which it was corruptly Affirmed in the House of Lords, has shook the Kingdom to its very Basis.—Till that fatal Day my Lord, the supreme Tribunal of this Country, stood un-impeached and un-polluted, as to Matters of Private Property: But that was a Day in which a Deed was done, that even Lord Mansfield durst not become a Partisan.

That Day, my Lord, was only a grievous Day, to the Appellant: but it will prove a fatal Blow to BRITAIN.

When the Foundations of Justice, are so corrupted, that the first Law Officer in the Kingdom, shall dare to stand forth, in the highest Court of Judicature, knowing that he has assistant Judges, determined to support him in reading Letters containing the Opinions of Men, not Judges in that Court; in order to affirm a Decree unsupported by Argument, and in direct contradiction to a former and recent Judgment of that House; the Day cannot be very remote, when the Nation, the Laws and the Violators of them, will all be involved in one COMMON RUIN.

You Lordship is now brought to a greater TRIBUNAL, than even the House of Lords.

The Tribunal of the PUBLIC.

You stand Charged my Lord, at that awful Bar, with setting at Defiance, those Laws you were so shamefully appointed to support, in order to confirm a wicked Decree, without Law to sustain it, or an Argument to give even a Colour to shade it. You did it my Lord, by the assistance, of that BUCKHORE BULLY, Lord Denbigh, who assassinated Justice, and stifled every Idea of Honor, or Humanity; till he had driven every honest Man, but LORD CAMDEN, out of the House! He, it is true, was not to be menaced from his Duty, by the grossest Language: nor frightened from his Post, by the foulest Fiend who ever appeared in human form.

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Are you not afraid, my Lord, to lie down in your Bed, knowing—for you do know it; that you have sacrificed a whole Family to your Vanity, and thereby ruined a Gentleman, who has eight Children; the Eldest of whom, is next Heir, to a Seat in that House, you have so openly dishonoured, by plundering his Father, and Family, of their legal Property.

I have seen, my Lord, a Copy of this Gentlemans Letter, written to his Eldest Son, now at Giberalter, the Day after he was sacrificed at the Altar of Ministerial Justice.

In that pathetic Letter, my Lord, the highly injured, and deeply afflicted Father, after informing his Son with the foul doings of your Lordship, and your wicked Coadjutors,—adds;

“And now my dear Son, let me call upon you, as your affectionate Father, and as your faithful Friend, (for be assured I am both) never to enter the House of Lords, without casting your Eyes about you, and saying; IN THIS HOUSE MY FATHER WAS DEFRAUDED OF TEN THOUSAND POUNDS: and if ever you should be called to sit in Judgement there, never take your Seat in it, without looking up to Heaven, and calling upon GOD, in a short Prayer; to enable you upon every Occasion, to divest yourself of all Party-Zeal; all personal Pique; all private Resentment; and so to enlighten your Mind, and direct your Heart, that in all you say, or do, it may be conformable to that Godlike precept, OF DOING, AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY.—If you do not this; then, to GOD, I offer up this, my fervent Prayer.—That you may never have any Voice where Justice ought to be Administered.”

Can your Lordship sustain the horrid Reflection, of the Deed you have done? (OF THAT Black Day’s Work!) Can the SOOTHING GENTLE MANNERS of that flattering low born† Perrin, or the Smiles of your obsequious Register, divert you from feeling the most pungent Remorse? or do they, by telling you, how much they approve your Decree, make your pliant Mind easy? My Lord, I know they tell you so, but I will tell you, my Lord, that they durst not say so, to any LAWYER.

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There is but one Opinion among them, and that is, (you shall hear it my Lord, while Junius can hold a Pen, and you the Seals) That Lord Mansfield singled your Lordship out, as a vain, weak, and wicked Wretch; to support the same false, and unsettled Doctrines in the Court of Chancery, which he has so long, and so shamefully practised, in the Court of King’s Bench; and which he has Address enough to give sanction to, even without appearing in Person, to Appeals in the House of Lords.

When Lord Camden, with that gentleness of Manners, which ever accompanies solid Sense, and unshaken Integrity; told your Lordship, that no Mans Opinion, however high his Station, or however great his Abilities, if not a Judge in that Court, could be produced or Read, lest it should influence any of the Lords in their Judgments; you had the Boldness to stand forth, and casting down your Hat, with which you ought to have hid your Face;—you persisted in reading Sir William De Grey’s Letter; because your Bully, Lord Denbigh, said he would Read another to the same Purpose, if he had it.

Sir William De Grey’s Letter was then Read by your Lordship! his Opinion it seems, coincided with the Duke of Chandois’s, Lord Denbigh’s, and the two Scotch Lords, who sat for Lord Mansfield.

By these worthy Peers, my Lord, and Two silent Bishops, your Lordship’s (I mean Sir William De Grey’s) Decree, was affirmed, without a Division!

The Weak and Feeble efforts of Lord Camden, were over-powered, by your Lordship’s great Abilities; and nobly sustained by Lord Denbigh, and your other auxilliary Troops.

That Sir William De Grey’s detection, has produced in him, both Shame and Fear, is very obvious; for he never suspected you would so openly Publish his secret Instructions; as his Letter to the Appellant THICKNESS, will clearly Evince; and I make no Doubt, if I can prevail upon your Lordship, to attend to what the World thinks, and to understand what I say, you will be equally ashamed;—though I confess, not equally Criminal, with Sir William De Grey.—I say not equally Criminal, my Lord; for God forbid I should think the Crimes of so contemptable a Wretch as your Lordship, are equal to those of a Man as capable of Tortureing,

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at once, the Laws; and involving them, and a whole Family, in one common Ruin, as even Lord Mansfield himself.

Copy of Sir William De Grey’s Letter, to PHILIP THICKNESS, Esq.

SIR,

I Am very Sorry that you press me so much to speak more explicitly upon the Subject of your Letter.

I do not think that I can, with Propriety, give an Answer to the Question you are pleased to ask me.

I am, Sir,

your most Obedient,

Februrary 21, 1775 humble Servant,

WILLIAM DE GREY.

In a former Paper (No. VII.) I gave your Lordship a Copy of Sir William De Grey’s first prevaricating Letter, to the Appellant Thickness; on that Letter I made but one Comment; on this, I shall, at present, make only one other: either Sir William De Grey (I will not blot my Paper with calling him a Chief Justice) cannot Support Lord Mansfield’s Decree, and is ashamed to repeat your Lordships unmeaning Jargon, about substantive Gifts; or, he has received farther Orders.

I shall conclude this Letter to your Lordship, by observing, that there are still a few People, disposed to think Favorably of you; and to impute the black Part of this Transaction, to Sir William De Grey; because they confess the Weakness of your Head, and Lament, as a National Misfortune; that a Man of such contemptible Abilities, as your Lordship’s, and AT SUCH A TIME TOO, should disgrace the British Nation; in holding the highest Law-Department in it; without Talents to acquit yourself with common Decency, even in the Lowest; but some Men are still, willing to hope you are Honest.

Now, my Lord, for their Sake, and for your own also; either Answer the following Question, fairly, and openly, or for Ever decline holding out

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Lights to dazzle the World with false Marks of your Virtue or Integrity. Would the selling a Living to Dr. Dodd, or his Buying it of you, have been Half so Criminal, as what you are now charged with?

Did not your late deceased Brother, Mr. Benjamin Bathurst, keep his Money, when he had any, at Messrs. Hoares, in Fleet-Street?¹ And did he not frequently over draw, on that very respectable House? My Lord he did;—you know he did: and did not you, his Executor, when you settled his Affairs, and possessed his Property, refuse to allow that House, a Sum of Money, your necessitious Brother, had over-drawn upon it, under the Shameful, Shameful! did I say?—under the Infamous pretence, that they could not recover it.—The Time being lapsed!

If this be true my Lord, and Facts you know are obstinate things. The World will then be as fully satisfied about the rectitude of your Heart, as they have always been about the extent of your Genius. They will then all be of one Mind, as to your Lordship, whatever they think of

JUNIUS.

I never yet knew a Man perfectly Sober, taking Pains to convince every Man he met, that he was so; but a drunken Man is always acting the Part of a Sober one: when you rung the Alarum about Dr. Dodd,² I violently suspected YOU, and soberly set you down for the Man, all the World will now believe you to be. And therefore I must repeat what I said before, the Nation will no longer bear with you; your Lordship cannot after such FOUL PROCEEDINGS, HOLD THE GREAT SEAL.

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CAMBYSES,³ King of Persia, finding that his CHIEF JUSTICE, Sisamnes, had Pronounced an unjust Sentence, caused him to be Executed and Flayed, and with his Skin, covered the common Seat of Justice; then constituted Otanes his Son, Judge in his room, he sat My Lord upon his Fathers Skin; which probably put him in mind of his own: And Perrin will make the application for your Lordship, and if he is not ashamed, remind your Lordship, of the Fate of the two time serving Judges, EPSOM and DUDLEY, who were hanged in the Reign of Henry the 7th—of this Transaction, one of the greatest Lawyers and most upright Judges this Nation ever was blest with, makes this remarkable Epiphonema.

“Qui eorum vestigus insistunt, eorum Exitus prehorres cant.⁴

“Those that dare tread in their Steps, let them dread, or expect, the same dismal end.”

In my next I shall lay before the Public some farther traits of your Lordships public and private Life, for be assured I will never drop my Attention to you, while you continue to hold the Seals.

The Public are desired to observe, the cunning of that most artful, as well as most wicked of Men, LORD MANSFIELD. His Lordship first planned the affirming the Decree, made by his Chan cellor in the above-Cause, in order to reak his private Vengeance on

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THICKNESS, and then, in a Matter in which he was totally indifferent about the Issue, he affects to correct Lords L.D. SPENCER,⁵ and DENBIGH, for Interferring in nice points of Law.—This repremand, was taken in good Part,—the two Lords were instantly convinced of their Error. They made proper and public Acknowledgement, of their ignorance in the Tythe Cause; but Lord Denbighs Villainy in the former Cause, is to pass unnoticed.

JUNIUS.

On the 3d. Day of April, will be Published, (Price 1s. 6d.)

The Prophecy of RUIN, a Poem.

Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.