"TERRORS OF AN IMPEACHMENT."
THE Morning Chronicle says that the Duke of CUMBERLAND bas been compelled to recoil from the work of seducing the alle- giance of the military, by the " terrors of an impeachment." Can our contemporary be serious in asserting any thing so absurd? What fear can he have of an impeachment who is perfectly cer- tain of an acquittal ? Who would form the court before whom the Grand Master of the Orangemen would be tried ? Why, the Peers. No human being can suppose for a moment that an in}, mense majority would not acquit the Duke, were his guilt proved as clear as daylight. What folly, then, it is to speak of an im- peachment, as if that were any check upon the conduct of a Peer, or a safeguard to the State against the machinations of any member of the dominant party in the Peers' House. The People have been long enough deluded with the notion that they possess con- stitutional powers of this description, which, when the time comes for exercising them, are found to be of no avail; and only fit to adorn the pages of such writers as BLACKSTONE and DE LOUSE, like rusty old swords in an armoury. The fact is, that the Peers are not only irresponsible as legis- lators and judges—they can do what they like as individuals, with all but the assurance of impunity. The Duke of CUMBERLAND and Lord KENYON run no risk of transportation along with the Dorchester labourers, convicted of an offence not more hurtful to society than that which the Grandees avow and glory in. Why are they secure in this breach of the law—supposing their con- duct to be illegal ? Simply because they are Peers, who would be tried by Peers. The greatest care is taken to exclude from the jury, who are to try a poor uneducated creature, all who can be supposed or suspected to have any prejudice in his favour, or the most remote connexion or personal regard for him. But a Peer is to be tried by his every-day associates, his relations, his friends, or if none of these, by men eager to preserve their order from the stain which the conviction and punishment of one of its members would inflict. It is therefore a mere mockery to talk of the " terrors of an impeachment." No, look at him which way you will, a Peer of England is an "irresponsible person."
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