Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-25 00:00:00

A VINDICATION OF PAUL PRY.

At the Bow-street Police.eonrt, on Wednesday, a Mr.
William Burke le The' who informed the megistra'e that
he was` the editor or Paul Pry, attendel to draw attention
to some alleged inaccuracies in the newel:over reports of
the proceedings h,fore Mr. Jardine, on the previous day,
in reference to the sizere of indecent hooks and prints in
Holywell-street and Ilrjh-street. Mr. Henry recommeeded
the applic ant to wait until the matter again came before the
court, as he (Mr. Henry) was unacqoainted with the facts
of the case, and as the books, &a., were not b4ore him.
Mr. Roche sail that if the meanwhile a certain amount of
Kai chi f was going on which be &sired to stay. In one
statement all the mernine, papers concurred, viz., that some
numbers of Paul Pry bad been seiz Id. That was not true.
He male the denial advisedly, for ha had been to all the
shop., and had been aesu-ed that no Paul Prys had been
seized. The Chief Usher : Then you have been mis-
in'ormed. Mr. Superintendent Dark in drew the attention
of Mr. Jardine to'some copies of No. 14 of Paul Pr#, and
pein'ed out passages as obteere. Mr. It iche said that
other papers had also been seized, one called the Town
and another called the Little Wonder. Why were they
not also mentioned ? Ha then produced a copy of the
Morning News, and c implained of a long account of a
cenvers ation tending to produce the impression that Paul
Pry was a moat immoral work. He denied that Paul Pry
was obscene. As editor he was p-epared to take the
whole respensibility of what appeared in the paper, as at
present can luc'ed. Why was the conversation giren is
extenso in the Morning Yews? Ile believcd that the reporter
had an at itnus ageii st Paul Pry, and against himself person-
ally. The reporter refe.Ted to here observe.'.: Although itis not
usual to jo a in ouch ece.vereation, I must a k your warship's
leave to tell the applic ant that I have no animua against
him. I have net even the slightest acquaintance with him,
and never spoke to him in my life. The passage he moot
particularly complains of was not written by me, but was
extracted from an evening paper, and interpolated in the
middle of my report, as the applicant may satisfy hienself
by reference to the evening piper. I did not mention the
ToWn or the Little Wonder, as I did not know th, y were
seized. They were not produced or mentioned here, as
was Paul Try. If they had ben I should have mentioned
them. Mr. Roche : Was it stated here that the publisher
was still in prison ? The reporter : Certainly it wee. It
was as stated by the polio.. Mr. Roche : Then I can only
sty that he bas been out these two months. I hope that
statement, at all events, will be corrected. I assure your
worship that Paul Pry is not an obscene publica-
tion, and has not been since that time. Mr. Henry :
You have altered it sines the prosecution ? Mr.
Roche : That is not exactly it. But the two numbers
which were objectionable, and for which the publisher was
imprisoned were never said. As soon as it was found that
they contained objectionable meter they were all destroyed.
At present nothing objectionable appears in tha paper;
and I true, as an act ce Justice, Chit this con r adietion wilt
go forth. Mr. Henry : Ido not see that you have :hewn
any inaccuracy, but at the next hearing the books and
papers will be roduced, and it will than he fOr the magis-
trate to judge. You will have every opportnrity of
showi g that you work is not obscene, and I am aware
that it is sometimes difficult to decide what is obscene and
what is not. Applicant : lam not here to defend the
, parties who sell obscene publications, bat I deny that
Paul Pry is obscene, and I think it only fair to take all
the responsibility of . what it really does contain. At the
same time, it never was sold in Holywell•street from first
to last. Mr. Roche ultimately left the court, evidently
dissatisfied with. the magistrate's view of the case.