Star. — London, England, 1820-07-26 00:00:00

.. oi, .al, ‘66 S, , ing, as woulsteerte be deter other potter the licen tious Press fromfollowing the example. Lord CASTLE'REAGTI said, he enseeired there could not exist two opinions as to the Disore of ph publication which had been brought alider`their %at tention that evening ; and whatever observation he might have to make to the House on the course he thought ought to be pursued on the occasion, he trusted no one would be induced to think that any one felt rime indignation than he did, at the attempt i which had been made to prejudice a case . at present' pending in the ordinary course of justice—(Hear, hear; hear). As to the publication in question being' a libel no one could entertain a doubt; and tite o nly 1 circumstance for their consideration was, whether any and what - proceedings should be taken by that' House with respect to it; and whether that pointed out by the Honourable and Learned Gentleman , was the proper one? And he must here observe, that because the House was about to rise,-which required that immediate application, if any, should be made to it on the subject, that there were no other means • of dealing with it. He understood the case had ex cited the attention of the Attorney-General; but, if in the conflict of libels, his Honourable and Learned Friend should not have it in his power to put this down. and even if the Attorney-General had not thought proper to follow the individual in question, he begged to remind the Honourable Member that j there were other means fully adequate to meet the case. He would not go into the nicety of the Ho nourable Gentleman's argument, that because the' Bill pending in the other House might come down to them, therefore that House was identified with the, Lords in the proceeding. He wished fully to be aii derstood, as neither vindicating nor calling upon the House to pass over this flagrant offence. But be thought the Learned Gentleman, by taking this step, had placed the House in a painful situation ; and he must say, that he did think the Learned Member, when he made up his mind to call for the interfet ence of Parliament in this case, might have cast his eyes round to see if there were not. other places equally fit, and more convenient to take notice of it. He thought, that if he was in the habit of reading the ordinary Prints of the day, he might have found more than one—or indeed, he would ask him to name one day on which he had seen the Prints of this coun try, and had not fourd in them libels of as flagrant a nature, and of as dangerous a moral tendency as the one he had brought forward—(Hear). He could not understand how the Ilonourable and Learned Member could sit by and see the witnesses libelled that were to be adduced in the present case—their lives menaced, and mobs raised in the country by, these writings, and yet be content to take up one, and leave all the (Awls. The 11c:use should .act with an even ha d; and he must protest against one inte reved pe s it being made the sole object of their plc). tection, whilst the others were left unheeded, though j equally requiring it. Even the Court itself was run down, and the witnesses who were under its prolec tion were pointed out as fit objects for assassination ! He could have wished that this case, with the others of a similar nature, had been left to be dealt with by the Officers of the Crown and of her Majesty. He could have wished that their labours for the Session had been closed without their attention being called to the disgusting spectacle of the Press of this coun try—one which was in such a state of baseness and degradation, as was disgraceful to be tolerated in any j civilized nation. If the Learned Gentleman, whose' motion was before the House, had performed this duty a little more diligently and equitably, he would have fount, some of the Papers, libels of a more direct nature than that he had brought forward. He Teed not have used very extraordinary diligence to have found the jurisprudence of Parliament attacked in the grossest manner. Since this matter had been before the llouse, he (Lord Castlereagh) had paid more than ordinary attention to the su'sject ; and in Inoceeding to point out to the House some of the glaring instances of licentiousness which had occur-I tcd in the courc of his examination, he should merely premise by saying, that if Pat liament should think proper to vindicate one patty, it was their ditty to 'vindicate all. He should not make any formal com plaint on that occasion, being •?nerelll desirous of pointing out the deep wound which wits inflicted by the licentiousness of the Press, anti which was one lamentable proof of the disgrace which it had brought on itself. The Noble Lord then quoted, from theist number of the Examine, , the following passage : " This is what a true House of Commons would have done ; but when that House is for :Ise main part composed of venal Boroughmongen, grasping I'iacom:l i , greedy adventurers, and aspiring title hunters —or the representatives of such wurtnits— a body, in short, cot:tabu:l , - a far greater portion of P.:blic Cri minals than of Public Gua rdian,, what can be expected from it, but—just what we have seta it SO readily perform?" --As the Honourable and Learned Gentleman (Mr. Wetherell) thought that that House, having searched the Lords' Journals, became bound to protect that House, he thought he might also extend his protec tion to the House of Commons. Upon looking a' little farther he would find, so late as the 25th inst. in a Paper called the Republican, die following gross libel upon Parliament and the Sovereign, viz. .4 We have very little hopes that the Divorce Bill will be rej2cted in such a Parliament as the present, because we know, and have seen, that they are sufficiently profligate and servile to act against the clearest testimony of innocence and right. Still this will matter nothing: the King and Parliament must wipe off the disgrace which has so long hung about themselves before they can disgrace the Queen in the public mind. 'lh more she suffers, the more will she be endeared to the Nation. There never was in England a Monarch more suspected and despised, nor a Parliament more notoriously profligate than at present.— Was it not that they hold the purse strings of the Nation, they would be kicked out of allpuwer in a few hours, and fairly swept out of the country. At present their doom is sealed, and the herald approaching with it. oat of the question: the Queen is to be tried by brtbed and par tial Judges, every man of whom is in some measure dependent on ha persecutor, and the evidence against her will be paid for in proportion to its strength. On all trials of this kind, gold is a mast powerful evidence, and the Queen has no gold at her comman d to support her. Innocence, courage, and honesty, form for her the only. barrier against the influence of a million of money, if a million could purchase her condemnation." —ln this way was this august Tribunal handled.— In another number, speaking on the same subject, this Paper says : " Thus it was with her Majesty's Counsel, they were conti- 1 Li:ally interrupted by one Lord Toespord or Spiritual or the other, so that any adroit they could have made in the behalf of her Majesty, was destroyed by the mock forms of this House of Lords. It Is really nanseous to heat those old jades talking about justice and purity, it is just as if the inmates of a brothel should quarrel among themselves which was the most virtuous, and compain of a departure from the paths of virtue and morality. 0 The House of Lords, as men veteran in profligacy, has bid what little seem of sbame-h might have possessed upon the self, and is about to proceed, naked, and without further hesi tation. iire trejoice at it, beelines it is now about to inhibit is mit in that aerator to the world whisk it has lately practised • • . The oseaption of the Parkas asst will in future be • • oily seets as thq arm at noon day, bet will be too glaring to be clouded or ihided by any matter, however dame." • " The eardrhas groaned under the curse of Monarchical Gs vantages much sno long. Civilisation has draggled against it almost in vain; and Nature herself seemed almost to despair of shaking it oft But the usonatabical form of government is like every other vice, it will-destroy itsalt in the course of time, even if no opposition be made to it. The vices of the English Monar chy are evidently precipitating it to a crisis and a downfaL" The Noble Lord then read - an extract relating to the conviction of Carlile, of too gross a character td be here repeated.—=These passages, with which he had troubled the House, would shew the lamentable state to which the Press of our day was reduced. He must remind the Honourable and Learned Gentle man, that Parliament was not confined'to the view of the case Which . he bad taken ; it could not interfere to protect her Majesty,,, without also extending its protection to the witnesses, to the Judges, and to the Court. If they Confined themselves to the insulated case now brought before them, it would shew that the House of Commons cared only for one ofthe in terests concerned ; that it did not care for the pro ceeding itself, nor for the Judges, nor for any other party whose interests were equally involved....fle did not intend to oppose the motion before the Rouse; but if the House should adopt the-proposal of the Learned Gentleman, he should certainly think it his duty to follow up the prosecution of the publication alluded to, by moving that a sweeping instruction be . given to the Attorney-Gmeial 4 to pursue the Prints to which he had just called the attention of the House. He did not mean, however, to infer that the Attorney-General would nut have prosecuted, of bis own accord, every one of those infamous libels; but that House must shew that it directed its atten tion-'to the whole 'sphere of these offences. He t. usted he had shewn as much disposition as any Member could shew to condemn thedilsel in question, to which he was not disposed to give the smallest counte nance. It was foralle.flonse to determine whether it became them to order a prosecution for that libel; but Wit did, he should feel it to be his duty to deliver , in the other publications which he had cited, for the same purpose. Dr. LUSHINGTON said, that he felt it his duty to state why he had not come before the House with some specific complaint regarding this atrocious paragraph. The paper in question had been put into his hand some days ago by an Hon. Friend, who had directed his attention to it—and lie had also re ceived information of it from other quarters. On reading it, it excited such indignation in his mind, that he determined to give it his most particular at trntion. But when he considered that the paper in question was, in all prosability, an obscure country paper, with little or no circulation, and that it would be nothing to repress its malice unless that of a part of the Metropolitan. Press was also checked, it ap peared to hint to be inconsistent with the dignity of the Queen to take any notice oEthis Western Lumi nary. He recollected also, that when his Noble Ftiend, the Member for A ylesbury (Lord Nugent), had brought the Morning Post and the Courier before the notice of the House (the first for stating that the Queen ought to suffer, it mattered little whe ther as a criminal or a martyr; and the latter, for inserting calumnies against her Majesty almost as atrocious as that on which they were then debatirg), little indignation appealed to be excited • within the walls of that House. When he considered, too, tha these papers, as also others which generally sup ported the measures of Government, and which were supposed to be, in a certain degree, under its in fluence, were suffered to go at large with every sne. cies of libel in them which could disgrace her Ma jesty or injure her cause, it appeared of little conse quence to him whether the Western Luminary met the punishment it deserved or not. Indeed, he thought it better to let the writer of that paltry paper, in his greedy anxiety after base lucre, die in the oblivion to which his demerits were certain to consign him, rather than to call him from it into notoriety by a - efforts which he might make to punish him. Had he, however, thought that, by at tacking that reptile, he could have silenced the ma lignity of other scribblers, he would boldly confess that, unpleasant as it would have been to him, for reasons which lie would afterwards state, to call down the vengeance of the laws on the public Preis, he certainly would have attacked him. His lion. and Learned Friend had stated, that the offence of that individual consisted in branding her Majesty with criminality before she had been brought to trial. He agreed with him fully upon that point; but had her Majesty had no guilt imputed to her, no crimi nali,y alleged against her, without a trial and before conviction, except in the public papers? Would she now go to her trial in the same predicament and under the same advantages with which any other individual would go to it? No—slichad already been treated by the Government as if she had been convicted—she had been deprived, by its orders, of all the honours due to her rank and sex—she had been disgraced in every way which their ingenuity could invent—they had erased her name from the Liturgy—(Hear),— whilst her trill' was pending, Without informing her what were the charges of which she was accused, without telling her who were the persons who took it upon themselves to accuse her, without confronting her with those who were said to be the witnesses of her shame, without giving her an opportunity of refuting their testimohy, and without permitting her to speak in her defence! Under these circumstances be could not hap asking the House what opinion they would have formed of his judgment, if, after all that had thus occurred, he had called upon the House not to take any notice of The Post, The Courier, or even of Fly:stars Western Luminary?—(Cheers). True it was, that her , Majesty had been most shamefufly calumniated— true it was, that her case had been most strangely and unwarrantably prejudiced ; but it was not by anv of the paltry publications of the day, but by those who exercised a much more 'powerful and extensive influence—(Cheers). Such was the view which he bad taken of the subject, and such as it was, be had submitted it to her Majesty, who fully concurred in the propriety of it. With regard to the Press in ge neral, he had always considered that any attempt to restrain it must be attended by great rnisclef. Whenever he had beard accusations preferred against it, he had always said, that subject as it was in its licentiousness to do great harm, it was still always stations,t i n g under the to productive of greater advantages ; and - that, when once attempts were made to fetter it, there could be no telling where those attempts might end ; for; without a Ness entirely and absolutely free, it was impossible that the liberties of this or any other coun try could long exist in 'safet , j'. Whilst he was thus stating his opinion of the public Press, he felt it ne cessary to add, that he would not suffer such publi cations as those which the Noble Lord opposite had read to then% tn.go•anpurrished. He would leave it, however, M w aies hic t h 's. at L ta a c w he O d ffi to cer the a ir c do their duty in regard to them ; and would not leave responsibilityo his it to any individual who might think fit to prosecute them without 'being under that responsibility which they were, and without having the same means of obtaining accurate information. Everything, how- 1 , ever, must be completely altered before her Majesty should ever, by his advice, resort for protection to the lower Courts, when she ought to be placed under the protection of the highest—(Cheers). If Govern ment had protected her Majesty up to the time . of trial, and bad not treated her as guilty until she had been regularly proved so,the case would have been different. He agreed with the Noble Lord as to the propriety of protecting all the witnesses from insult, nn which ever side they might be; and could see nothing but disgrace and infamy attaching to thesountry, if the witnesses who came to it were to be in perpetual danger of their lives, and were not allowed to give their evidence free from any bias or embyrassment whatsoever. He would take that opportdYsity of in forming the House and the Country that her Majesty had not read any of the publica;ions alluded to by the Noble Lord, and that she would not read any of them, either before or during the trial. If the Law Officers of the Crown were determined to fix upon any publications of that class for prosecution, he hoped that they would not be of that description which had been selected two or three years ago. He alluded to some prosecutions against the Morning Chronicle and other Papers, in which so much doubt existod as to the offence, that acquittals necessarily followed. Prosecutions against the l'ressought never to be instituted, except in extreme cases, and where the obtaining of conviction was almost rendered a moral certainty. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL observed, that he could not avoid expressing some surprise that his ilonourable and Learned Friend should have selected this particular case for the animadversion of the House. No opportunity had yet presented itse'f of instituting a prosecution, or of putting in exercise the powers which were entrusted to him. An ex qfficio information could not be filed until the ensuing Term, which would not comnience till November next. Ii: had conceived that credit might be given to him for not being disposed to overlook any of the positive duties belonging to the office which he had the ho-- nour to hold. With relarence, however, to -the ob ject of the prosecution which was now recommended, the House must be aware that the relief would come rather tardily, inasmuch as it could not be had till the month of November. He did not state this as an excuse for his not proceeding against the author of this scandalous publication, but merely to shew that the proposed remedy must be of slow attain ment, and therefore in some degree inefficient. He had filled the situation of Attorney-General only for a short time; but during that period he had acted upon the rule of never instituting a prosecution, ex cept when he was satisfied in his own mind that he should be able to procure a conviction. By this rule he had guided his official conduct, and in every pro secution which lie had commenced, he had obtained a verdict. He took no credit to himself for this suc cess; and he believed that such was the -state. of the Pres., so great the ma s of libels which inundated the country, that if more prosecutions had been insti tuted, more convictions must have followed. The Hon curable and Learned Gentleman (Dr. Liishing ton) had not confined himself to the question imme diately before the [Luise, but, as on some former oc ca ions, had reiterated various charges against his Majesty's Government—charges which he (the At torney-General) conscientiously believed had not the slightest foundation. The Honourable And Learned Gentleman had said, that the Queen was treated as a convicted person, and that she was not to expect re.. dress. This was a painful subject to expatiate on, and he had already deprecated its introduction. He could not but regard the present motion zs an at tempt to raise a prejudice against his Majesty's Go vernment, which was discharging a painful duty, undertaken with deep reluctance. With regard to the omission of her Majesty's name in the Liturgy, he, for one, was prepared to say that it was perfectly justifiable in point of law. If the Queen's name had been inserted, after serious charges bad been pre ferred against her=charges supported_ by evide nce that could not be overlooked—the impropriety might have been considered just as great ; and if it were said that, by omitting her Majesty's name, condemnation had been pronounced, with equal reason might it be urged, thAt its insertion would have been to declare that all the charges against her were groundless. If, therefore, any disrespect had been shewn towards her Majesty, it was to her conduct, and net to the inten tions of his Majesty's Ministers, that it ought to be ascribed. The course pursued by the Honourable and Learned Gentleman might be extremely proper and becoming, as the Queen's advocate, but it did not savour much of that judicial impartiality, which, on such an occasion, ought to characterize a Member of Parliament. It was incumbent on them all to preserve their minds free from all bias on this dis tressing subject, and they were bound to act with the utmost caution, before they lent themselves to any popular outcry. They would at once prejudge the case, if they were to lend the sanction of their autho-, city to the numerous and sweeping calumnies whjch were mow propagated in all directions. Although he strongly disapproved of the libellous publication which had been brought under their notice, he woul d say, that, in point of virulence, it would b ear no com parison with many. other publications, which, under the mask of advocating the Queen's cause, had no other end in view than to produce a revolution,— He had himself seen placarded in the public streets, ' bills and paperWthe most infamous description, put forth evidently- for the direct purpose of influencing the due course of justice, and prejudging the merits man (Mr. Wetherell) must, as . he app r d e d, h ave of the case. The Honourable and ' Gentle &zed also 'seen theae placards, now posted up in every quarter, and dEsigned to intirnidite, not only the 4., witnesses who Were to give evidence, but t!:e Jud , c s who were to decide upon it. The lizeriticu,, ess' the Press was carried . to such an extreme, it wei.t , far beyond all its former limits, that he feated Ca, arm of the law Iva% scarcely strong enough io re. press it. It was, towever, his duty to mAke tLe tempt ; and be trusted that he should not be * ni. dered remiss in its discharge, and that he should ua t be represented as having slept at his post, because :* had not hitherto commenced proceedings in cases a recent occurrence. Highly as he valved the tree it of the Press, he was sure that no Iloitourasle e cru . bet could look at these mischievous and co::tem:s. tible productiotA without feeling that they ee-cwrisi the severest animadversion. If, however, he act; !a institute% prosecution iii e've'ry instance in which :!1,4- proceeding would be justifiable, and would seen; to be called tor, his whole time wcitild be occupied the employment. With regard to the question inrtr immediately before them, he was of opinion that the publication complained of ought to be tithe,: with legal punishment ; but he did not think the able and Learned Mover had satisfactor ly rov e ,' that it was a breach of the privileges of tbat Mr. TIERNEY said, it was his intention to Cr;;iiite himself strictly to the question, and to avoid rl,r et . pression of any sentiment as to the me. its of that im portant matter on which they might hereafter be called upon judicially to determioe.• Ile certaiii: ) , could not regard this as a breach of their privilegt.i, and thought the argument in defence of that prop*, sition a great deal too refined. It reste eiairely their general knowledge that the House of L'rd , Pm! commenced a Parliamentary proceeding w ith tek:- ence to the conduct of her Maje,ty. This kticiw;e4 t e they had not acquired by a solemn message, but, as must be presumed, from an inspection of the Lords Journals. By these it appearet, that the Lord,, f or reasons best known to themselves, had intioduced a Bill for the Queen's degradation ; but it (ha nut a p. pear that this Bill would certainly pass, or that it would ever come before the House of Coon mous.— The whole argument in support of the motioa it for granted that the Bill would inevita,ily be seat down to them, but he could join in no such pi esttrar tion. If the publication complained of was a b7e.tea of privilege, it was a breach of the pr ivileges of other House, not of their own; and he must dec,.irl. his idability to comprehend the overstrained leas° ;g which would represent it otherwise. Whenes, House directed the Attorney-General to prosecute, it took upon itself an odious and invidious office, be. cause it sent an individual to trial un.ier the heavy disadvantage of an .opinion expressed by the against him. He must repeat, that they lc,lew no thing of the proceedings in this case except from ti.e Journals of the other House; and, on the fullest con. sideration he could give to the subject, he was in clined to think that the wisest course would be to withdraw the motion. - Lord ARCHIBALD HAMILTON denied that what had been said by his Hon. and Learned Frienit (Dr. Lushington), in disparagement or condetnnatioa of the proceedings of his Majesty's Ministers, was tended to raise or inflame any public prejudice. it was nothing more than a fair statement and reir...sen tation of their conduct. The Hon. and Learned Gen tleman (the Attorney General) was not, he thougl.t, remarkably happy in his argument, that the inset - ma of the Queen's dame in the Liturgy would have pre- Vrented them from giving credit to the charges ag.tinst her. Such a doctrine was fundamentally erronee:: , , and nothing was more certain than that an accmcd person ought until conviction to be treated as in:in- Deaf : but the offer of £50,000 a-year was a proceed ing quite as inconsistent with the present proseculion as the insertion of the Queen's name in the Lituroy could have been. It appeared, in the course of t'i:c late negotiations, that the omission did not arise ot:t of:the charges, and would not be affected by their ic es*. He admitted that many gross and malignant libels had been published, but the authors seemed to have caught the infection from his Majesty's Mini sters, and to have improved upon their example. In the endeavours made to pervert the irritation cf the public mind, his Majesty's Ministers had been most ablecoadjutors. By the systentwhich they had adopted they had armed one branch. : of the Royal Family against the other, and made the triumph—if triumph it could be called—of one branch consist in the other's degradation. With regard to the libel in question, it was so gross as to be beneath her Majesty's attentior., and calculated to be detrimental only to its author. Mr. MAXWELL thought it would be a violation Of the duty which they owed to the country, not to take the most prompt course of punishing the author of this wicked publication. Mr. WETHERELL said, he inferred, from what had fallen both from the Noble Lord and from the Attorney-General, that it was the intention of the latter to proceed against the authors of this scanda lous libel. If he were right in this understanding, his object was answered ; but with reference to the censure which had been passed upon him for select ing this particular, case, he did not think it indicated a great deal of the Noble Lord's usual amenity. TLC Noble Lord had called their attention to other pub lications directed against the Monarchy, and again - t the religion of the country ; but his own Attorney-Gc neral had admitted that he had not seen those publi cations. He could not agree with the logic of the Noble Lord, that he was acting in a partial manner by bringing this question under consideration. It was not his business to animadvert on every libel that might be published, or to propose an inquiry irtn every disturbance which might happen at Dover er elsewhere; he was neither the shadow nor the fag tii the Noble Lord, nor was he constantly engaged LI hunting after libels. This occupation he left to clic Attoeney-General, and was perfectly satisfied with having obtained the general and unequivocal opirica of the House that the publication of which he corn plained merited the severest animadversion.—Ti:: motion was then withdrawn. Lord CASTLEREAGH gave notice that he should, to-morrow, move the adjournment of the House 6:1 the 21st of August. Mr. CALVERT gave notice of a Bill for nc:t 'Session, to regulate the Fees of the Court of Requests in Southwark. Mr. Alderman WOOD presented a Petition, signet by G. EdmOnds, on behalf of a numerous Meetill4 at Birmingham, at which Meeting the Petitioner acted at Chairman. He was aware that it cou:d only be received as his Petition ; but as the langoyc of it, though strong, was not disrespectful to t.;,2 / . ? .