Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/97

due from every subject to the Crown, or he could not say he was transmitting the lustre of it unimpaired to his Successors. And—in conclusion, requiring to know if there was no way to deal with those fellows who had shown him this outrage—We need not doubt, it would be alleged in behalf of their Client, by one or other of the authorities consulted (had it been but to gain time, either to let his Majesty grow cooler over the difficulties of the case, or to look for precedents, if there were any.)—That the Bench being King's, who antiently sat there in person, but now deputed his Judges to represent him, and that court being: accustomed, in common with others, and with both Houses of Parliament to commit for contempt, it would be strange if the head of it could not be protected from such contumelious language, which it would be quite inconsistent with his paramount rank in the state to tolerate; and which although nominally addressed to the person whom he had directed to state to the Board the result of the trial at Richmond, was virtually and to all intents, the same as if it had been repeated to him, at his Palace of St. James. That it would be very surprising if the Judges in his own Court—the Court of the King's Bench, or the King's Seat, could not extend to their principal the benefit of a privilege available in their own case. Would they not be fully justified in issuing their warrants, placing the offending parties in duress in the usual form, for