The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-03-28 00:00:00

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E•

IS.
oasolaiaise that witilst 'Oni Eaglish martin
`awn *
Far
vat to Irish whiskey, the Scotch distiller was
e NM they pealed that as rest:lenses eight be
vonaht
im. I. WOETLET mai, that eateaideratile relief would
Vlliallenfibi Si the poltateaflariey is Serritaad, if malt sod
boa* wag he data the English market ea the
rare Was as hen
AS ea esigasltoo of Ms. LUREINGTON, the Peiltioa
:anettieletais beetepeeete the Agricultural CaseaUsest.
MEM ACCOUNTS.
llvAllifiltaLT sled that oho artier of that Noss
shit AWN* lea, AWE* Ara OM aosoales, might .
f
Vill=litikliii 1.14 that ha should aspen the Han
tleeithijeas (Sff. , ) waialedlrect the papers re.
;•'$ 'held I* to that sidLlitil=il be forthwith laid before As
• iini;:ir ;for is owe that onto was sot altetyated with. he
• :4,14 rat' it so ba hie Italy to move ilea she Allereet diem.
a tow. Imate. it woo et leaks out thew acentato timid be
vs;e( In the bar.
114.11E514 EY presented a Milieu featiKaareaborotieli,
preying that the INN which waa before the Nome for lb.
remover, emelt debts. should pose lido a law....Ordarod to
he ea she table.
CAltu Ms 1180PNAN.
Di. Lifll6llllerron caret be held in his hand • Pe.
tiniest* which be wished to call the attention of the
Home. It was the Petitino efao individual in very
humble eireatestances iu life, who was suffering
Ilitifitr Oh aglieati of, the Jew. His complaint was,
4liat,hti tit* •eg seised, ander that venturer,
%rouse the by oboes he was tried wi4 Dot is
free rid • • /*diced Jury. fee they had but two
derv' beGooq iril.• verdict in the very same
atm
care. . Re. , " ,the House would feel that no-
thing timid Umber, essential than that the trial by
jury shesidlie reserved in its pristine purity, end
that tbrielialshriarors should be free front any sp..
cies of prejadiee. Mutt was the Inure necessary when
ail Individual was accused of a crime of a deep chi.
racier. for there was always a tendency in the ho.
num Naiad to be prejudiced ugliest a person who
stood charged with a serious crime. The Petition
Was from a person of the Name of John Barclay,
a led of 17 years of age. He wss one of those
who hid fallen victims to that Society most falsely
called' Confoitutional." He woe one of those who,
according to tip coarse pursued by that. Suciety,
, . hid beemarrikiltioll l's the first instance, end cow.
pelted to twirleine. before trial. • preliminary iii).
prisoriment... .4 Pro° the 4th of March his trial
was to have ease on before the Common Ser. •
.leent. end the Gianni for the Defendmit took an
election to the :Atty. He was anions to state the
ahrettee,.-foe eiders that House could afford a re.
...thedY. he did .mot knew where to apply. The ob.
section waatbie, tint the Jury was not competent to
try the offence or the offender, because two days
*if i!-Fhtl.,ifad PrOholanced @verdict Aspen the very
4iiiel ;denim:id libel. The Common Serjesnt was
al opinion that thiebbetecbiti was not well founded;
bat bi (Dr." Lida. -
srewnteuded that it wee, for
lfrilytlit3tiiirdiblibflie:teied by a jury who had.
'illreirfy.ireeripdged. the caw.. wee a violation of the.
twat principles of the trial by joey. It was the opia!
~wirsu, of .Loxd Coke that not only should apt" be.
eletti •ezieptiooe ',odor, bat that they should have
owl prejudice Whatever upon the particular ogle they
were whoa Id try. In .the present instance. the
Riff/..11,ed Yrefedged the ease, std it was impossible
ol after,.• warren investigation and a deliberate.
adricnion epos oath upon the very same cow, they'
.coold come to the re-/Consideration of that question
with unbiateed minds. And Lord Coke bad hid
preset, laid,sll delta that no persons were fit to hers*:
jrtt. 5 sty who had pronounced • verdict upon dr,
COW sod such a circumstance would hilt
;paid ,
Our came of challenge. The tiesuelosimet
remember the Bill which Mr. Fox had with greet'
difficulty pissed through that House, by which
41tetywarere restored to the privileges winch wet*
'l•Wirpett from them by preceding, Judges, of decide!
ittlk only as to the fact of publication, but w
i heel
i Om publication were libellous or nut. No
• greater security could have been afforded to the
:liberty of the preen than Mr. Fox had procured feei
tit by test Bilk • But io the care before the House;
'Ur. Ifis's gill was set at nought, becalm the jute
'led motto *decide linen the libel. bet merely on the
.6w( of publicatioa.—(clear, hear.)—lt was a great
vmtiefaction to him that he was now slating &OA
which could not be eiiiiiiiireitad: they did not reel'
on the statement of the petitioner; they *era.,
confirmed by the Yorentau of. the Jury, who cots.',
planted of the situatien in which he was placed br.J
the Leaned Judge who presto:led, ai well as by the
testimony of several reirectable bystanders. And
.liere he coeld not help calling the atteut ((((( of the
;House to the charge of the' Judge who tried that
case. That Learned Personage 'referred the Jury
to the speech he had delivered two days ago, on the
'very same subject, and said, the reasons he bud then
laid down must be 'Arleta to convince them of
-the libellous character of the publication. How,
:then, was the Counsel for the Defeodant to be able
to answer arguments in the former statement which
be did tint hear; and of which he must have re.
imained iii perfect ignorance ? He had, therefore,
to complain of, the conduct of the Judge—it'
was riot upright, just, and impartial—end he
brew of no tribunal before which he could
so properly make that assertion as befure disk
',House of .Grammons of England.—(Hear, hair.*
—l'lte ledge mated. that be did not know Itepo
the Jury could form a different coricluSion friths',
their former verdict ; and instead of endeavouring,
at was his duty, to remove any prejudice wht-a
*night exist in their minds since the former trial,
he urged them to be consistent, and adliese to their-
former verdict. He (Dr. Lushington) was happy
to see his Ho.i. sod Learned Friends opposite in
their places end he appealed to their candour to
come furore:46nd state their disapprobation of that
conduct. He would put this question to them :
Suppose they were conrerned in the prosecution of
two or three individeols for libel, and that one of
theme persons had neen found guilty, would they,
with any common regard to their own clieracters•
soy to she very same jury, " Come, my good
hirsute, yoe have found A. B. guilty, and we there-
to-re c.il( upon you to pronounce a simpler:
verdict against C. D.?" He hoped he lied NW
said prise enough to conviuce the House that'
a Aahltleo of justice had been committed.'
. After Illeilory had heard the speech of the Cie*.
awl for the . defence, they deliberated for Si mi.
. notes, uotivitlietauding their former decision, nod if
they had aot,been called upon to preserve their
,s, eonsioieueyk.it was highly probable the b woad
Have ' -- . ' for after -'

Cate. iheeitneo imprlimied for the mall
Awe. Ose of them was seoteoced to two years-.
impnsomnent, sod at the expiration of that period.
to find security for life, soperadded to which was
the sentence of herd labours-(Hear, hear.)—He
'Aid set Wean to say that the Court had not ii,. '
power to indict that sentence, but for 28 years he
.sneer-of .no Saes isatenee Uiwhitle the poworint
been exercised. But be thought the House
feel that it was too severe a sentence for a 4
setter of opinion ape° a subject concersiog
so wasy of the greatest meet had differed, and upon
iihich, if we could dive into the semis of the
limm, perhaps few in that Hone would be
.ffmend to agree. However, the tweeties of bard
Is might not have been pet,* die MM.
giber, for that was the necessary Wiessosence
libeing sent to the House of Correcties. 'rust
ty calling itself " Constitutional" (the Hegel
ensield feel) had crested infinite mischief. They
mist hove seen how by the absurdity of their pro-
ceedings they had disseminated ell the doctrines
they wished to suppress, and converted the very
perilous who were convicted of these crimes lute
martyrs and victims. The duty of • public pro-
genitor should be inhibited with great caution,
even to the most qualified; and they had lately
emu how that power was abused in the hands ides in-
dividual whose talests most excite teepee*. and whose
olOtlifit7 ""1s doubted, he meant Sir S.. Shepherd,
Ohs by a prosecution he had coudueted, excited
as esteems! flume throughout the country. sod
raised Hans from a state of obscprity to be a man
of consequence, and circulated his Parodies all
through the country, from the farthest part of
Wales to the most remote corner in Scotland. The
Petitioner was an individual in low and' übfortu-
nate circumstances ; but the case which the House
had to consider was one of infinite iutportancee.eit
involved the last safeguard? of Englishmen, the
preservation of the ancient sad invaluable institu-
tion of trial by jury ;•and when they witnessed the
attemptcsbet were daily made to infringe upon
' that privilege, when they saw it stated in • publi-
cation. ender the sanction and openly *vowed by
Ministers, that juries cupid no longer be intrusted,
when they heard it said that the nosiotensoce of
military force was essential to the preservation of
our civil liberties, when that doctrine was openly
maintained, mid when besides all that they looked
'at the Six Acts which had bee.° pawed. he mild
.uot help thialting that if the House did not adhere
to the determination of reserving the trial by
jury free and independent, there 'mold soon be an
end to that proud institution which had so long
been considered the ornament and defence of the
coontry.—(Hear, hear.)
The SOPICITOR•GSUBRAL said he felt himself
called upon to say a few words. in consequence of
the appeal vihich had been mide to him and his
Learned Friend. lie should not imitate the
warmth of' his Honourable and Learned Friend
who had just sat down, but would rather have re.
course to that candour which had been appealed to.
He must then presume that his Learned Friend
had not read the libel in question, for a more sedi.
tious or blasphemous libel Dever issued from the
press of this country, of the pernicious tendency of
which no man could be ignorant. It might not be
improPer to recal to the !Mention of the House
that Carlits was the author of that libel. and fee 19
mouths had that individeal, sod those with whom he
*as concerned, set the .wat defiance. When Carlile
was imprisoned, he declared that he never would
be prevented from circulating these writings; that
be would employ the members of his own family,.
who would be »aline to become martyrs to the
cause for which he suffered; and if it should turn
out that they would be imprisoned, then he would
'employ persons in low situations in life with low
wages, and make them the Mattel:Dents for circu-
lating his puhlicatious. Accordingly, they had
seen that he kept his word. for while he was in
prison he continued to circulate them by means
•of his wife. and afierwarde his sister, and lat.
terly by those individual, whom he hired for the
purpose. Every body was acquainted with the arts
resorted to in order to evade the law, and it was the
bounden duty of every man who had evidence to
produce to bring these iudividuals to jostice. Un-
der these circumstances the prosecutii n was insti-
stated. With the Society from whence it originated
he had nothing to do, but this he would say, that
having nbtanied substantial evidence, public justice
required them to act as they had dyne. And when
reproaches were cast upon the Learned Judge for
the pest he had acted, he would ask his Hon. and
Learned Feiend, as a lawyer, would it have been
competent for him to have interfered ? The Learned
Counsel employed for the defence might have made
a challenge to the array, and he had sufficient time
and opportunity to inquire what legal steps were
necessary to be taken in the intermediate time be.
tween the two trials. He would just read one short
passage from the libel, which would give the House
an idea of its tendency. It ststed that " all reli-
gion it the vice .of society, and merely founded
upon the sucient mythology, and can only be sup.
ported by priesterA." Those were the opinions
which Gentlemen who complained of thew pro.
secutions would suffer to go unpunished.—
With respect-to the sentence of hard labour. he
understood it was competent for the Governor of
the flouseof Correction not to impose hard la- '
boor, hut when a prisoner demanded prison allow-•
slice, Own he might subject hun to such light la-
hour as would rbe necessary, in order to prevent
him being an expense to the county ; and he
would venture to say, that.. upon inquiry, it would
be found that was the course pursued it, this case.
Some of the greatest and must merciful Judges
had • passed similar sentences. His Hon and.'
Learned Friend would not consider Sir Matthew'
Hale open to the charge of inbuinsnity, and yet-
lie had sentenced an individual convicted of biase
phemy to hard labour. and to give security for life.
In later tones Lord Kenyon, in the case of the Kiug
o Williams, precisely the same sentence lied bees
pronounced. to the days of Lord Mansfield the
same course had been pursued ; in fact it would be:
bard to find an instance of a person convicted of a
blasphemous libel th.it was not sentenced to the
sante punishment. He was bound, in justice to the
character of the Learned Judge, to give that expla-
qatiou, and he was sure the House would see that
ip Ihta particular instance no degree of severity
had b.- sauctioned' -

Learned Gentleman heri adatqled ohs substance of
the Petition to be correct, inalmitich as he admitted
that the question of 64 libel or wo hid already
been tried and decided by • the same Jury, and an-
swered it by saying, that no two persons could be
supposed to entertain a difference of opiniotron that
question. But it was not, as he (Dr. Lushington)
etiottld contend, the opinion of the nohow:lite 'arid
Learned Gentleman, nor that of •tly person it' thet
House, that could justify the exposing of aoy man
•to Ise tried by a Jury *hick had'already-06ded.
upon the material part of his cue I. nor *could he
,free with the Honourable and Learned Gewilesoso
in the opinion that the Learned Judge whu tried the
case bad it not in his power to send -it to a new Jury.
The Petition was then read sod ordered' to be

rioted.
ADDITIONAL GAOL DELIVERY.
Sir ELIA. HAIIIIIT ran to present a Petition
which demanded the most serious attention of the
House. It wet from the gentlemen qualified to
serve as Grand Jurors for the County of Essex
and its prayer was that some means might b:
adopted for holding * C.aottnissiou of gesteral Gaol
Delivery, in the intervtl of eight months that
elapsed between the Seininter and the Lent Amino.
TheHonoterable Memberless understood to state in
support of the Petition, that of the prisoners in the
Calendar at the late Arises for that comity, there
were twenty-two committed between August, the
month in which the preceding Assizet were held,
sod the 30th September, whose trials could not
come on until March. Of dun number, six were
acquitted, and two. discharged by proclamation ;
so that eight prisoners out of twenty-two had been
unjustly confined for the period of nearly six
months. The length of time that elapsed before
the prisoners could be brought to trial often pre-
vented prosecutors from appearing against them, so
that justice was defeated by delay.
Mr. WillTaall rose to support the Petition. This
subject he hod before brought under the considera-
tion of the House, sod the Noble Lord (London-
derry) had on that occasion declared that it had en-
gaged the serious attention of Government, and
that it was in contemplation to apply some remedy
to the evil. Au Act had beep passed in the last
Session authorising the building of a new IFsol for
the county, sod that naturally led to an inquiry
into the nature of the provision that it would be
necessary to make, and the number of prisoners for
which it would be expedient to provide; and it was
found that on the average of the lest four or five
.years, one half of the whole number of persons
fur trial at the Assizes, were committed between the
termination of the Summer Anises and the mouth
of January—whereby it happened that they ware
under the necessity of providing for at least double
the number of prisoners, for whom provision
would be required if there were a gaol delivery in
or before the month of January. That was a most
important consideration, not only es a point of eco-
nomy, but of security and convenience ; for pri-
soners of that class that were committed for capital
felonies, were the most difficult to be properly pro.
vided fur. It so happened that at the present mu.
meet a circumstance had occurred which proved
the necessity of at least one more gaol delivery. He
alluded to whet had occurred at the present Attlee.
at Maidstone. The ember of prisoners for trial
was so great, that Mr. Irmo Graham was obliged
to put off the trial of many causes at Nisi Pries,
at • great expense to the suitors, in order to
assist Mr. Baron Wood in the trial of. prisoners;
besides which, Mr. Serjeant Lewes and Mr.
Sorjeant Pell, were sitting in other rooms, one
of them in an Anabaptist Chapel, fur the same
purpose of accelerating the gaol delivery by pro-
ceeding with the trials of prisoners. Another forei-
•ble consideration was the cruel state of suffering in
which an innocent man was placed by being con-
fined for so long a period, and compelled to associ-
ate with felons of every description ; whereby the
mind as well us the body was tortured, the spirit
often broken down, and the man reduced to a con-
dition in which lie became highly susceptible of
the contaminating influence of the society in
which he was forced to mix. At the Lent
Assists in 1819, there were four hundred prisoners
for trial who had been committed befure Octo-
ber, many of whom were acquitted. At the
MSC As,ive there were eight hundred persons
einvicted of felony, who were ventenced to periods
of imprisonment shorter than that which those four
'hundred persons had actually undergone before
trial, and many of theta for no crime at all. He
thought that a more frequent gaol delivery might
be had without soy great additional inconvenience
she difficulty. One mode which he would suggest
was, that at the period of the Quarter Sessions a
Judge should sit in the Criumnd Court, for the
trial of the prisoners charged with capital felonies,
while the Magistrates proceeded in the Aiai Prins
Coort with the ordinary business of the Sessions.
He thought it most objecionable that persona
should be confined longer then three months with-
out trial. The Lent and Summer Assizes were well
placed in point. of time for the delivery of the
gaol* ; January and October also were equally con-
venient periods for ant+ an object, and lie would
therefore suggest the propriety of the
gaol delivery, in point of time, to the Quarter See-
shins, at which times there were assrpibled the
Sheriff,, the Grand and Petty Juries, the
Magistracy of the county, and all those persons
whore presence was necessary fur the purpose.
,Some objection, perhaps, might be made, on the
ground of the interference of such an arrangement
with the other business of the Judges ; but six
Judges only would be necessary to go the Circuit
of Gaol Delivery for the whole kingdom. if in
Term time, three only could he spared front the
regular business of the Courts ut Westminster,
surely it would nut be too much to ask for so lin-
fortant an object as that of perfecting the ad-
Itsioietration of the criminal law of the country,
fait three additional Judges should be appointed
fir that purpose. He concluded by seconding the
motion of his Hon. Colleague, that the Petition be
brought up. •
Mr. Pm, paid, no one who had heard the speech
of the Hon. Member who had just .at down could
fail to be impressed with a deep sense of the im-
C:e of the subject to which he had addressed
017. He Motion the least return that could
be mode for the manner in which the duties that
4lesolved Wren to-- .

"S Imesiiieliitsed. (wilier all they receinmeod. had been introduced thatwasooteaoued by tha—j
liMelted Olean them were discharged by the Ma.
ad boas W swot* sad he. was 'ol,oeaced to six greMest authorities.—(Hear, hear.) , lispates of the couotcy, was to pay the utmost
eaostbe isteriakOmell! POI Irilfd lira slim of Dr. Lussineron stud, that the fienotirside and *NA= to the representations which they Bride
.
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