Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/32

10 more to  than to a higher power, Providence excepted.

The last day in the House of Lords put an end to my hope from the public. I wish I might be permitted to live and die in my village, rather than sacrifice the little remnant I have left of Life to the hopeless labours of controversial speculation in Parliament. If I can avoid it, I mean to come little to Parliament, unless I may be of some service. I know that I cannot alter in the point, and if others who have as good a right to judge cannot either, I had better stay away. I shall thereby do less mischief to the public. I will as soon subscribe to Transubstantiation as to Sovereignty (by right), in the Colonies. Again and again, humble thanks to your Lordship for the favour of your most obliging letter. I am, ever with all respect, your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant,

The effect in England however was not so much to cause despondency as to arouse the national spirit. Subscriptions were raised in London and other large towns, and in Scotland, for enlisting troops; Manchester and Liverpool offered to equip two regiments of a thousand men each, at their own expense. These displays of loyalty were of doubtful legality, although the judges came forward to support Mansfield in denying that there was anything unconstitutional in private individuals raising troops by subscription without the consent of Parliament. Against this doctrine the Whig party protested, as well as against the English garrisons of Gibraltar and Minorca being replaced by Hanoverian troops unmentioned in the Army Estimates and Mutiny Act, a proceeding contrary to the provisions of the Bill of Rights, though not absolutely without precedent. Shelburne denied that Parliament was to pay implicit obedience to the opinions of the judges. "Few questions," he said, "come before this House of which your Lordships are not as competent to decide as the judges. In grand national points I shall