The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1784-03-30 00:00:00, page 2

On the Liberty of ibe PRESS;
✓4nd a certain nonfenfeal Advertifemeut againfi
Scipio.
PART I.
E Liberty of the Press has ever been
efteemedhby all free nations as their grand
bulwark against the abuse of office, the op
== predion of men in power, and publick pecula
tion and publick mismanagement of every fort. The
people at large, generally immersed in their own do
meftick occupations, think that all goes well, while
they hear nothing to the contrary. They advert but
little to politicks ; and after having appointed the dif
ferent officers to tranfa& the affairs of the Common
wealth, they think that every thing goes right, be
cause it ought to do so. There are nevertheless a
thousand ways in which they may be abused in the
confidence they repole ; and refpeXing which, they
ought to be obliged to any man, who will be at the
trouble to undeceive them. The press hath always
been found a most excellent instrument for this pur
pose. It is the easiest channel that can be contrived,
through whch to communicate to the people the
danger to which they are exposed; to shew them that
they are, and how they are, imposed upon by those
who betray their confidence; and by these means to
unite them in removing the grievance, and procuring
themselves justice. This channel of communication
having ever been found so salutary to liberty, and so
formidable to publick corruption, has been the con
stant darling of the virtuous, and the perpetual dread
of the wicked. Hence defpotick governments inhibit
printing altogether. Arbitrary Rates generally lay it
under such reftriXions, as nearly amount to a prohi
bition : And even some constitutions that loudly vaunt
of liberty and law, have often so (hackled and ham
pered it, as to render it, relative to the two greatest
and most important fubjeXs that can occupy the hu
man mind, and which most intimately affeX our pre
fect and future felicity, 1 mean religion and govern
ment, almost totally useless. But of all the solecisms
in nature, the doXiine laid down in the laws of Eng
land concerning libels (and every thing with them is
a libel that is reduced to writing, and tends to ex
pose a man's reputation) is the most ablurd. For as
that people, notwithstanding all their boasts of hav
ing a government truly republican, though with a king
at its head, as really was that of the Romans with a
consul for their chief magistrate, have always been
managed by the regal branch of the constitution; the
minions of the crown, dreading a popular examination
into their conduX, have had the address to frame into
law the most pernicious political heresy on the fubjeX
of publications against men in office, that ever entered
into the human head: For according to their laws,
every literary production, affeding a man's character, is
the more heinous for being true. I verily believe the
English are the only people in the world, who have
made the ufeful discovery that liuth is more criminal
than falfehood. But it is to be hoped that the supe
rior illuminations of the Americans concerning the
unalienable rights of human nature, will, ere long,
make their late matters emerge from their gothick
barbarism ; and convince them that (peaking and
writing truth, is at least as innocent as the telling and
publishing of lies. It is hoped that they will soon
correct the above absurdity in their juridical code, at
the fame time that they expunge from it the pretty
conceit, that the whale, being a royal filh, and to be
divided between the King and Queen, her Majesty is
to have the tail, for the fake of the whale-bone ;
which shews about as much knowledge in natural his
tory, as their ideas of truth and falfehood do in mo
dal philosophy. 'lhanks to Heaven ! the Americans
entertain very different sentiments about the Liberty
of the Press. They have, and, as inseparably con
nected with the idea of freedom, they muff have, a
right to publish the conduX of their Superiors, in or
der to communicate it to their fellow-citizens, for fe
cilitating the remedy, and correcting the mifehief. All
that a writer in this case is to look to, is, that his
accusations be true; or at least so probably founded,
that he caqpot be supposed to be mitigated by male
volence. For certain it is, that no man should be
fuffered to propagate, with impunity, injurious falfe-
hoods concerning another; and as this is not tole
rated in conversation, I know not how it can be sanc
tioned by pafiing through the particular vehicle of the
press. Written dander seems rather worse than oral,
because more extensive, and consequently more detri
mental. But that a man ought to be criminated even
for this, is not universally true. Printers often inno
cently publish what is falfe, believing it to be true.—
Were they to be liable for such error, I know not
what news they could give us, without firft applying
to the court of chancery for a commission to examine
witnesses in foreign parts, to ascertain the facts they
find already published in the gazettes from which they
feleX their intelligence. Suppose, for instance, that
a Printer in New-Jersey, meeting with the following
article in a Maryland Gazette, " 1 hat Patrick M'Mur
rough had been there executed for a burglary," should
re-print it in his news-paper, believing it to be true ;
Mr. M'Murrough being ah the while in full life, and
never having committed any burglary—would an ac
tion of (lander lie for this against the Jersey Printer ?
I think not. And hence it is that in the English law,
notwithstanding its ineffable nonsense of making the
printing of truth more atrocious than the printing of
lies, still charges every libel in the process against the
author of it to be not only falfe, but malicious, clear
ly affording the most violent implication that even a
falfity unattended with malice (and such ought to be
presumed every falfity which the publisher believed to
be true) is not culpable. By this it allo appears how
flatly they contradict their own doXrine, that falfe
hood is more innocent than truth ; and how clearly
they render the absurdity of their theory still more
absurd by their practice. .What is proved above, re
lative to Printers, may doubtless, there being no ex
clusive privilege in the case, be predicated of every
other citizen.
• During the heat of the war, of which this Rate has
had a great Share, it was impossible for our Legis
latures to advert to many things, to which in
times of peace and tranquility, they will queftionlefs
turn their attention. They were perpetually occupied
with bulinefs immediately resulting from our Rate mi
litant. We were incessantly petered with enemies
both foreign and domeftick ; and, for a considerable
time, had one British army at one of our extremities ;
another British army at the other; and tories and re
fugees, and London-traders and rascals of every kind,
interspersed through the whole extent. In such a Si
tuation of things, no Legislature could find time to
look narrowly into our more internal police, which is
properly the work of peace and Jeifure. The mean
while some individuals in publick trust, taking ad
vantage of the turbulence of war, and the distress of
their country, have retained in their hands, and con
verted to their own use, large sums of money still un
accounted for; and the payment of which into the
treasury, would greatly alleviate our taxes. Are we
not under obligations to every writer, who will point
out all those who ought to be called upon for this
purpose? And muit a man, who is willing to devote
a portion of his time thus essentially to serve his coun
try, and thereby five it many thousands of pounds
that may other wile be loft, be obliged to set his name
to his publications? An author may have many rea
sons for writing under a fictitious signature. Though
willing to serve his fellow-citizens by communicating
his sentiments about publick men and publick mea
sures as an anonymous writer, he would be totally
discouraged from doing it, were he obliged to reveal
his name. He may mistrust his capacity for correX
composition; and dread the ridicule of ill-natured cri
ticks. He may fear to draw upon himfelf the per
sonal animosity of those whose conduct he holds up
to publick view, and to embroil himfelf with all their
connections. He may be too much above, or too
much below, the level of those whose conduX he cri
minates, to enter with them, on equal terms, into
personal altercations. At any rate, why should he be
made the but of their united vengeance, when his sole
objeX is to serve the community ? Sometimes his
publications may lose the effeX they would otherwise
have produced, merely from his being known to be
the author. Can it be expeXed that the publisher of
a course of (peculations on political fubjeXs, will con
tinue to write under such circumftahces ; and have
not a thousand weekly essays been published under
borrowed names? And what necessity for this pue
rile inquisitiveness ? Cannot this man eat the wing
of a turkey, without knowing the poulterer who
brought it to market; or set down to a mutton-chop,
without firft afeertaining what ram was the grand
fire of the sheep? Is a man's reasoning either the
better or the worse for its being communicated with
out a name? Can we not embrace truth and rejeX
error, without knowing the chriftian and surname of
the person who publishes it ? If we do not know who
he is, which is of little consequence ; we fliall soon
know what he is, from the nature? of his publicati
ons. But this being too copious a fubjeX fully to
dilci fs in one paper, I (hall reserve the remainder of
what I have to offer upon it, to two succeeding num
bers. S C IP 1 0.
Foreign Intelligence.
On Wednesday the 17th infl. arrived at New-York
the Brig Nancy, Captain Drummond, in 8 weeks
from Glasgow, by which we have received the
following advices:
PARI S, December 21.
THE city of Theffalonica, capital of Macedonia,
a great magazine for the Levant trade, has
been totally overthrown by an earthquake ; tin the
lower part, many French, English, and Italians, are
buried in the ruins. This disaster is more deftruXive
than that of Meffina. Warehouses of all kinds of
commodities, belonging to the merchants of Mar
seilles and London, are swallowed up.
LONDO N, December 25.
Yesterday at half past two, the Speaker, attended
by almost the whole House of Commons, attended at
St. James's with the Address, as moved by Mr. Er
skine on Monday last ; when his Majesty being seated
on his Throne, in the Drawing-Room, the Speaker,
attended by Mr. Erskine and Colonel Fitzpatrick on
his right, as the mover and seconder, and by Mr.
Huffey, the Chairman of the Committee, on his left,
stepped up to the foot of the Throne, and read the
following Address to the King:
" THAT your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal
fubjeXs, the Commons of Great-Britain, in Parlia
ment assembled, think themselves bound in duty hum
bly to represent to your Majesty, that alarming re
ports of an intended dissolution of Parliament have
gone forth.
“ That your Majesty's faithful Commons, acknow
ledging the wisdom of the constitution, in trusting to
the Crown that just and legal prerogative, and fully
confiding in your Majesty's Royal wisdom, and pater
nal care of your people, for the most beneficial exer-
cife of it, desire, with great humility, to represent to
your Majesty the inconveniencies and dangers which
appear to them, from a consideration of the date of
the nation, likely to follow from a prorogation or dis
solution of the Parliament, in the present arduous and
critical conjuncture of publick affairs. The mainte
nance of publick credit, and the flipport of the reve
nue, demand the most immediate attention. The dis
orders prevailing in the government of the East-In
dies, at home and abroad, call aloud for instant re
formation; and the Rate of the East-India Company's
finances, from the pressing demands on them, require
a no less immediate support and assistance from Parli
ament.
" Chat your Majesty's faithful Commons are at
present proceeding with the utmost diligence upon
these great objeXs of government, as recommended
to their attention by your Majesty's most gracious
Speech from the Ihrone, but which must necessarily
be fruftrated and disappointed by the delay attending
a dissolution, and molt cfpecially the affairs of the
East-Indies, by the assembling of a new Parliament,
not prepared by previous enquiry, to enter with equal
effect upon an objeX involving long and intricate de
tails, which your Majesty's faithful Commons have in
vestigated for two years past with the most laborious
earnest, and unremitted attention.
" That your Majesty's faithful Commons, deeply
affected by these important considerations, impressed
with the highest reverence and affection for your Ma
jesty s person and government, and anxious to pre
lerve tne luftre and fafety of your government, do
humbly beseech your Majesty to fuffer your faithful
Commons to proceed on the bulinefs of the session, the
furtherance of which is so essentially necessary to the
prosperity of the publick, and that your Majesty will
be graciously pleased to hearken to the advice of your
faithful Commons, and not to the secret advices of
persons who may have private interests of their own,
separate from the true interests of your Majesty and
your people."
HIS MAJESTY'S ANSWER.
" Gentlemen,
"II has been my constant object to employ the au
thority entrusted to me by the constitution, to its true
and only end—the good of my people; and I am al
ways happy in concurring with the wilhes and opini
ons of my faithful Commons.
" I agree with you in thinking that the support of
the publick credit, and revenue,' must demand your
most earned and vigilant care.—The date of the East-
Indies is also an objeX of as much delicacy and im
portance as can exercile the wisdom and juftiee of
Parliament I trust you will proceed in those con
siderations with all convenient (peed, after such an
adjournment as the present circumstances may seem to
require. And I allure you I fliall not interrupt your
meeting by any exercise of my prerogative, either of
prorogation or dissolution."
Yesterday the following bills received the Royal
assent by commission, viz. Malt-bill—Land-tax bill —
East-India Payment bill—American trade bill—frifh
postage bill—Borrouftownefs canal bill, and some road
bills.
Jan. 8. The French King has given the black rib
bon of St. Michael, together with letters of nobility
and 3000 livres (about 160 I.) pension to Mr. Mont
golfier. On the firft persons who went up in the ma
chine let loose, he has fettled 1000 livres pension, on
Mr. Charles 2000 livres, and on Mr. Robert one.—
He has moreover taken the expense of ereXing a co
lumn in the Fuilleries, to perpetuate the memory of
the discovery upon himfelf, and the most able French
aitifts are employed making designs for it.
Among other inexplicable mysteries, the state of the
funds is none of the least amazing. They fell when
Lord North was in—they fell when Shelburne was
in—they fell when he was out —they fell when the
coalition was in—and now they fall when they are
out. —Where lies the magick power that can raise
them ?