The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-07-25 00:00:00

THE KING V. MARY ANN CARLILE.

This was • prosecution at the instance of the So.
ciety culled the Constitutional Association, for a
seditious libel on the Government and laws of the
country, published in the hepaiblicen, laud sold by
the Defendant.

Mr. TINDALL opened the pleadings.
Mr. Gummy stated the case to the Jury. He
observed, that in all his experience, which had not
been short, be never met wish a libel which in the
some space contained more mischievous matter. It
purported to be written by Richard Carlile, and
was dated from Dorchester gaol, Ist January, the
second year of the Spaniih Revolution. It was
sold by the present Defendant (who was his sister,
at his late shop), and was-entitled A t'Vew Year's
Address to the lirfornters of Great Boitain."
Learned Counsel then read the alleged libel. It
stated, that to talk of the British Constitution was
a sure proof of the dishonesty of the speaker, and
that our very laws were. corrupt and partial, not
only in themselves, bet in their administration. It
went on tostate, that refosto would be obtained when
the existing authorities were no longer able to withhold
it, and he again put fortb his opinion, that some-
thing more than a petitioning attitude was neces-
sary at the present moment; and he concluded
•

with saying, that he would not sat a ..wprd !shout
imurrectidaltheu, recowlaseuilid ateiltiomta
vilanimil-:'Sith. the-Leitted Ctiutitsil
•the_libef ;loud tie irostilltot ..sruittettie3thiMOr
Jury. eirleoult.their underrtaudiiegs. by miff
unit upon it.
The Leurnett Counsel called James Rignilf,
leito roes • Examined by Mr. TlNiiii.L.—Witness,
ptirebatedithe publication, cattail - 'l"kv libel, la

. . the
No 65, Fleetolireet:' ''Aes Caride,`
the gift 61 March hat.• •'.7
Cross-exanefsed bir Nfe.lCooill*.wine is aryl
for the 'Society bir the Suppre.siiit f Vice. and is
in-this- instance eniployed by !hi Constittitionol
.Autociation. Mr. Murray, the Solicitor of the A*
lodation sent him to get the work, •but he did r!lg
:putticulariee any that he was to .purehase. 'He laps
-no wages from the Constitutional Association, bdt
•he made a charge 'for Wrist tie had done. He is Ulet
a member of the AssoCistion. What he received yob:
'better than seven pounds, and less ,than seven
guineas. He did other business for the Society
'besides.
• Mr.'Cooeue asked what was the natttte of that
business, but time witness was reluctant td disclose 1
it. and appealed to the Court to know if it were•l
necessary.
• Mr. Justice Bert-told him he had better answer

'the qu'estiou.
Witness then said, that he went to different
•bockvellers shops, mid purchased works which he
•considered to be libellous. He has been employed
-about one year and a half by the Society for the•
Suppression of Vice, Dud before that was en Officer
-in the Customs, but has lost his situation, and has
.sio pension.
Horatio Ortoir examined by Mr. GURNEY.—
Witness purchased the book containing the libel on
the 10th October last from the Defendaut:-
Cross-examined by Mr. COOPER.-14e i►as di-
rected to purchase the work by Mr. Murray, en
lattorney, and Honorary Secretary to the Associa-
tion. Witness is clerk to the Society; before he.
was so employed, he used to assist his brother, who.
takes reports in the House of Lords, and transmits
them to the country for the provincial newspaper's..
His salary is not Axed; lie does not work by the
Piece; the Committee have not yet fixed bit salary,:
nor proposed any sum, neither has he. •He could
not bring to his recollection whether he had done
any jobs of this kind before. He knows a may
named King, and has made an affidavit respecting
him, but that was since this business; he his been
euiplo'yed by the Society from the Bth January
"last ; does not know how many jobs of this sort he
has done since the Bth March last, as they were so
"numerous he could not recollect. He has had ge-
'Bend directions from Mr. Sharpe, the Assistant_
..Honorary Secretary to the Association, to purchase
• other works.
Mr. Jounce BEST put it to Mr. Cooper whether
this course of examination could have any beneficiak
effect for his client, and whether he would not trias.,.
self regret it, seeing the sort of abswar which hl
'questions must elicit?
Mr. COOPEe said, if he did any thing to impede
▪ judicial proceeding he should exceedingly regret
it, but he disclaimed any such intention.
The cross-examination of the witness was then
continued. The Honorary Secretary was to super-
intend the business of the office; witness consi-
dered him as having the management of it.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
Mr. Coosa rose end addressed the Jury on the
behalf of the Defendant. He began by regretting
that some more able advocate than himself had not
been employed in this important cruse. Unable,
so he should conceive himself at any time, lie felt
•the difficulty still more from the short space of
'time that lie had had to consider the case, his
brief having been placed in his hands only last.
*eight ; this delay arose from the Defendant having
imagined that she should have had a similar notice
of trial to that which she' had received in the cue I
ust tried. From this circumstance it was that be!
Came in a manner unprepared to the defence of his;
thew. fits Lear-tied Friend (Mr. Gurney) had
adopted the trite arguments used in such casel,and
which were beaten like a turimitoroad, but had:
left untouched the policy of prosecutions like t 11&
present. The Ju►y were the judges of the law,
that his Lordship would tell them; and also that be
:Was bound by the statute to give toetn his opinion ;
'ho after giving due coosideration to that opinion,
tbe Jury were bound by their oaths if they saw tit
`to tire the preference to their own. They had r
right to take into their consideration the policy of•
:this prosecution. The Defendant was prosecuted
for ■u offence in the nature of a nuisruce, and the
Jury were to inquire if it were truly so, though
'former Juries had determined that similar pub-
lications were libellous, that sbould be no•
guide to tlitm here; they were bound to judge-
of each care from its own circumstances, and
if the' thought that no mischief had resulted.
from the libel, it was their duty to acquit
the Defendant. For, supposing that time out of
mind nuisances had been indicted, but suppose that
'at hart a person so indicted were to prove, that so
far from being a niiirance, what he had done was
pub!: • benefit, as in the case of hops, which.
*hen first introduced, were considered poisonous,
ind the use of them prohibited by sn Act of Par-
' lfament. Had a Defendant been indicted for the
offence created by the Act of Parliament, and bad
:Shearer t!i.it hops were nutritious, would the laity
have found him guilty ? Certainly not : neither if
there bad been ter, thousand convictions for political
libel, should this Defendant be handed over to
punishment, if (as he thought lie should coovince
them), libels of that description, so far from being
*injurious, were beneficial. But what evidence had
they that any of these pamphlets would have been
in circulation had it not been for the base, forward,
and obtrusive conduct of this Constitutional Am.
elation. The Learned Counsel proceeded to cont.
merit on the evidence and the character of the wit-
rinses, and cited the conduct of the Counsel in
that respect iu the Dean of St. Ample. case.
"There Mr. Jones, the Marshal of the King's Bench
prisms, wae, though he had no visible course:ion
'with the case, held up alternately to the keenest
sarcasm or mostjeering ridicule.
• Mr. Justice BEST put it to the Learned Counsel
•'trhether his observation were conformable to the
practice of the Bar, or Whether it was fair to reflect
on the character stud conduct of a person not present
"so defend himself.

Mr. Coma said, he could bare no intention of

r

AR'4; !Rik ,lesse, .;11.41, he lidmitie4that
nrhOf.4ftir*%utiou• to altuo!linic hi! jatomic.
theit le file A tterney-Generer Led' pollettlidil
titeeral_proireWtions against Cailite he 1s fully
'ware of this.. publication. and from ins uot 410--
'ceedingagdiatit it he had a right to eliew.theinfeer-
tem, that the'Law OM eets of tbe Crupw dtdtiit
'think this it se ',hitt called PT .peeisecutitia. As
ix had • Were °beetled, there was not i'iWilt of
'evidence to Thew that those peruplilefil roirltt have
ever heeh circulited till the writs of tins Hawser-
ilile Society had gone and seduced (voluced.'he
would say, for he knew tin other fitting wool) the
'Defendant to make this publication.-
Mr. Sonic, BEST—" You mean to offer atnne
evidence of that ?"
Mr. CoOPEa would only offer that evidence
'which was befote the Court. What, he continued,
conk be said of those who provoke crimes in.order
to inflict isunnehmeeit, who tempt to sin that they
may haVe the power to damn; what could be said
-but that they were devils and nut meet. liebeg-
ged pardon ; he laid uo intention of wasting much
'time on these witnesses; but so much his indiges-
tion had wrung from his contempt. The Learned
Counsel then minutely examined the alleged libel.;
'and by a coarse of ingenious arguments
.autlarkilfil
cam ',orisons of the context, endeavoured to. Lew that
the writer of the pamphlet never intended to ad"-
cate resistance to authority by phy.ical force, %tit
merely by au union of legal .efforts to obttio
reform. Neither did he, when he said that Eng-
land had no constitution, mean any thing more than
that the practice and theory of the constitution "dried.
When he spoke of corruption, he in fact alluded
to and used the words of the Speaker of the House
of Commons, who had stated, .4 That there were
practices in existence as notorious as the sun. et
noon-day, at which their aucesturs would have
started with iodignation.'
Mr. Justice HEST wished to know where Sr.
Cooper found that recorded. •
Mr. Coorea said it was in ill the usqal-recotds
of parliamentary proceedings, the daily papers, and
the Amid Register.
Mr. Justice Best. said them was no authentic
account of speeches in Parliament. Petliantent
had privileges; but had that which was quoted
been spoken out of Parliament, Mr. Abbott would
have been a libeller of the British Constitution ;
but it could not be known that he lied used such
languages.
Mr. COOPER said he knew there was nothing
that could be called a legal record of parliamentary
speeches; bat he was only using the circumstance
for the purpose of argument.
Mr. Justice BEST s nd, lie had only intimated his
'opinion, if the Learned Counsel thought fit be
might proceed.
Mr. Coorea thought it essential for the defence
of his client.
Mr. Justice BEST—" You had better go on then."
Mr. COOPER resumed his argument, and (egged
to the-Jury that it was impo.aihle to doubt that
the writer of the pamphlet alluded to that speech
of my Lord Colchester's, and that in saying
England had no constitution, he had merely
used an exaggerated figure of speech. With respect
to the policy of prosecutions like the present, the
Learned Counsel said, there was no opinion in which
he was more firmly fixed than that political prose-
cutions were worse than useless, for oftentimes they
served to call the public attention to what hod other-
wise dropped " still-born from the press." The
danger from free discussion was considerably aggra-
vated. There was no instance in history of any
.state which had fallen by the assaults of paper pel-
lets; such was not the cause of the decline and fall
of Athees and Rome. in more modern times the
French Revolution was ascribed by some persons to
the writings of Rousseau, Helvetii's, and Voltaire';
but he thought there could be little doubt that had
it not been for the corruptions of their Government
and the disorders of the finances, these writers
might have laboured in vain. The Virginian Le-
gislature had recorded in the preamble to one of
their Acts, their opinion of the impolicy of poli-
tical prosecutions.
Mr. Justice BEET observed, that with the Acts of
the Virginian Legislature they could lave uothisig
to do.
Mr. Coorea said, he stated it to spew that other
men thought in the way he did upon the subject.
He then quoted the authority of Locke and Milton
to the same effect, and contended that it was im-
possible to prevent such writings by prosecutions.
for were every other mode impossible, men would
write in mountains, and scatter their produc-
tions about the streets during the darkness of
the night. To repress them by prosecutions
was like the conduct of the Society fur the Suppers-
Anon of Vice, who once resolved to put down all
'the houses of ill.fame in the metropolis, fur which
purpose they placed a luminous Inform at the
doors of such houses. The ouly consequence pro-
duced was, ilea strangers from the country, who
were ignorant of the localities, were thin informed
of that of which they were before in ignorance.
The Learned Counsel concluded a loiig mid able
speech, of which our limits lisee enabled us to
give only a mere sketch, by citing the ,opinion of
Lord Loughborough iu fasour of the free discussion
of political topics.
Mr. Justice BEST then charged the Jury, He
said it was his duty to reeml their Linea iiiiii to th..
question which they had to try. Many of th.
serrations which they laid heard might fur slight
he knew be very proper for a Virginian Aesembly,
but hscl very little to do with the present question.
The Jury had been truly told that they were to judge
whether this were a libel or not, hut he must beg to
deny that either they (the Jury) or he had any thing
do to with the propriety or impropriety of the prose-
cution, or with the Constitutional Asausiation, by
by whom it was iustituted. The questions for the
Jury were, Is the writing a libel of not, and has the
Defendant published it ? His Lordship raid. he
would not yield to the Learned Counsel, nor to any
man in his admiration of the liberty of the press.
The improved state of Europe, compared with the
other quarters of the world, was the result of free
iinrptigation, and God forbid that any act of his
ah.ald tend to diminish that free discussion, hut it
wee /pettier! to inquire what the liberty of the
press M. It consisted according' to'llost writer,
whom the Learned Gentleman had q.soted, in
the permission to publish all opinions but hold-
ing the writer onswensble fur them ; but me-
cording to the doctrine which they bad bets

`'.