The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-12-22 00:00:00

Or el I r;

"• ••• v• • • 24.-- •
out *tit, 'and that
.ment should stand ist_Aita Hear...par.)
—And note, at this lAA seusou of thi yaw.
without }thy other exploitation or argument, they
were colled on to past a lliii, -including a pro.
vision -which Was an absolute innovation on Ole law
of the I,nd. For never before 114.1 a *hole c11%41f
offences been subjected to the . penalty of b
merit, thong!' individual crirttes might, In hia
conscience, he thought that he should not die-
charge his duty to the !louse or the country, did
he not ask tbe Noble Lord to give them an oppor-
tunity of pausing before they enacted such a measure.
Lord CASTLEREAGH saiii,.that if the ineisure
had been of the same complicated nature OP the
for the !screen/ion of Seditious Nleetini,tt. he
should adiiuit that there WllB 90111 e farce in the Right
Hun. Gent lemaies appeal ; but the principle of this
measure was simple anti its details few. Ile did
certainly conceive that in the
of all the measures, he had submitted to the
House the principles of this mes-tire as fully
as was necessity. The Bight floonutable Geo-
tlemau said, it was not the shine BM which had
passed the other house, but lie insisted that he ha,l
stated with sufficient fullness the reasons why he
thought the clause should have been altered. It
rested with Getitlemen opposite to state their orgn-
merits to the measure; if they did an, he trii-tell
they should receive an answer loon his role of tlit?
House; but it could nut reasonably be expected
Shot they should get up and make @vetches for
nothirig, or in answer to spreears which seemed to
him to bear on any subject hut that berme them.
Ile thought the House would ahandon a great
moral duty, if it should separate for the 11:did:ISIS
whthuut 1/11%%1114 11114 11111, to protect the country
from the greatest of the dangers and doigroces with
which it hail heels affLcied.—(lleor, hear.)
Sir JAMES AIACEINTOSII said he had entered the
House in the expectation that those who had pros
posed a new penal law, and a penal law ug dust the
liberty of the press, would stare the reason. why
they did so.—(llenr.)—But the Noble Lord iv
that his oppoilents should first offer their objec-
tions. Ile said that whoever did so would render
himself • party to the outrage committed on the
Constitution by the Noble Lord —(Near) —be-
cause he would establish this odious priociple,
that whatever Bill came (lowa front the (loose of
Lords ought to he adopted by tics, without
the slightest cau'e having been given to them.
The Noble Lord had expressed himself ill such a
manlier, as if lie looked oil the B:11 to he of so fri-
volous a nature, as hot to require any exploit ou.
—(h ear, hear.)—He asserted that no 1141(711 distinc-
tion lay between this and the Seditious Nleetiogs
Bill, as that contencltd for by the Noble Lord.
The Noble Lord had not priori that the present
law was insufficient, because the proposition was
absolutely untenable. The ijoestom at present
was the fitness of the remedy la meet the exi.oni4
evil, and that the remedy would hot produce a
greater evil. None of these tiiiiigs hail beers at-
tempted to be made out, and iii the few paragraphs
of the Noble Lord's opening speech, it was impos-
sible. He should therefore vo:e fur the Amend-
ment of his Noble Frirod.

The ArroaNev.GENEaAL sail!, that the charge
against Members on his side of treating the Bill us
frivolous, was wholly unjust. It appeared to him
that the speeches which hail hero made by Gentle-
men opposite applied to any thing rather thito the
Bill. The Learned Gentleman then took a minute
view of the various efforts which had been matt for
the prosecution of libels within the last five or silt
years. and their consequences, for tire portrait' of
establishing the inadequacy of the existing laws to
their suppression. Ha did not memo to arraign
the motives of any unto, but he fesrlepAy said,
that the necessary effect of the conduct of those
who set on fitot a subscription for Mr. Fluire,', was
!moot prejudicial to the country. It held him up
as a person persecuted and deserving of reward.
The effect of it was to cause a prosecution fnt a
libel to be considered as a prize to the indivir:ual,
and hit Hon. and Learned Friend (we preturne the
Solicitor-General) had received four or five letters
from ',enrolls actually courting prosecution.
Ins entrance into office lie had thought it his duty
to prosecute laid* by c.r-r:gi eio informations, and
by indictinetib, but no ;lumber of prosecutions
could put a slop to the offence. I•,ws bring
indequate to meet the evil, the object of the Bill
was to crush its growth and existence.
Sir JAmvis MACKINTOSH explained, that the dis-
tinction which he drew was between a mode of pre-
vention by previous restraint, and one by terror and
penalty. lie still denied that endurilig soy punith-
tnent by banishment wa; applicable to offeoces
committed by the press. That was indeed a new
penalty.
Lord Atrunny complained of the mode in which
government proseculiolis had been conducted, and
of the appeal- mode to ►tree socces-ive Junes by
the Attorney-Gesirral in 31r. Flume's case. This
perseverance accorded but little with the relaxation
which followed it, couceruing cases•of a lets equi-
vocal nature.

The ATTORVEY-GENERAL explained. He de-
fended the conduct of his predecessor in not
ing prosecutions it' ter those ill rinitlids.
The Nlarquis s f TxvisTucx ruse with great
warmth. and said, that I hi, e.:os not the first allu-
sion which had beeii made by the Law Officers of
the Crown to the case of Hone. They were
nut coutented with castihg reflections on successive
Juries, but they inmt include in their reprehension
those who entered tutu the aiibberiptioli for Mr.
Hone. Being tine of the subscribers to that fund,
he felt it right to justify his conduct. Before lie
did so, he must say, that, between the con-
duct of Hoerr ttttt cot on one hand. stud Mr.
Hone on the other, proceeding■ haul been car-
ried to such an extreme. that the disgust which
the parodies were naturally calculated to ex-
cite, was lost in the condemnation of the mode
of proceeding to punish them. He repelled with
contempt the imputation that those who subscribed
to the fund for the relief of Mr. Hone were en-
couragers of blasphemy. That subscription was
less intended to defend those parodies than to ex-
press the opinion which the subscribers had of
the mode adopted iu the prosecution. They
had seen Mr. Hone selected for prosecution
for sit offence. riot only not prosecuted in other.
cases, but where the parties who had previously
committed it were couutenanced and favoured by
Government, and endowed with hoooors. The

coy ilaereatre w that i c tep ia 1.•
were, to fay., rof V ,val to:least, awi 111 the oilier
iligainst them. The public kit indigos:A at steiii,c
'three prosecutions successively persevered in, for
what was in fact but one offence. ;11r. I lone too
had, ors the first trial, declared his determination
nit to. re.puldivli airy of thane parodies, a deter-
enioatimi which lie hail since faithful;. kept.
This avowal dud nut the less shield hint from the
pros,rutionv. The sulhctileitia which
way the only optairtnnity open at the
tune, to mark the Prose of the public upon the
Course pursued tawards the individual. flossy' r
objectionable the mode of political II 'emission by
parody on the sacred writing; u. qi se-6011.011y
was„%lr. !Foie could plead abundant precedents
for it. The Nulde Marquis then. appevilid to the
recofectiou of the Right Hon. Gentleman typo-
Site (llr. Causing), whether lie had trot in liti former,
perhaps he might call them lila less prudent
flay., indulged he such * mode of expressing his
ferlihgv, and whether lit the time he ditl so. he
was not, 'revert beless, capable of entertaining a just
abhorrence of blasphemy and seditiaii.—( /fear.)
The Sotact tO It-GENERA I. denied that he had
ever imputed rot the subsctibers to Mr. Hone a
direct lutenist-in of encouraging blasphemy and
setlitiou ; but hr ha I snot, what lie now repeated,
that the effect of tlie course they pursued was cai-
rn! tte.l to give a airier circulatio i to winks cf the
lutist offensive kind. Ile spoke his own free and
unbiassed opimmi upoicilie facts owl circumstances
of the case. Before lie entered that Howie he
W. 14 UtlCollitedett with any pIIIIItICaI party, nor had
r ever lieen s member of uoy society.
He felt hinsvelf entitled to cell the parodies of
Haw pownear libels, hecainie they hail been so de-
saiernoest by that eminent moo, the late Chief Jus-
tice of the Yislirs Bench, and by the present Chief
Justices in their charges to the several Juries. Ile
hail also the authinity of two coovictions of the
game parodie4, to justify the opinion lie gave of
tlieto. The lion. and Learned Gentleman then
alluded to the public 'fleeing where .Jr. Hotie/s
soloicrintiiiii originated. where Mr. Wonler pea- i
litlaneril a most scandalous and iuf.unmatory attack
on the Judge who tried hitn. Fresh u; that attack
came the subscription, which lie was fire to udniit,
contained the names of men of the highest rank,
iirtegrity, rind patriotism. It was this lamentable
display of support that rendered it hazardous to
•irpeal in other cases to successive juries, fur nut
doing whiirit hi. Majesty's Glove 11111 l rot wit so cen-
sured he Gentlemen opposite. The lion. and
Leitrottl Geartlruuu then defended the consistency
of the eipiitiosis which he thee' avowed, being those
which load actuated him through
Mr. SCARLET r admitted that lie never heard
that his Ifiniouralda and Learned Friend had
been a int-tuber of any political party before he
tittered that House ; his present zeal, however,
sliewed that lie liked the fitends ali i surrounded
hum better flow than when he was :V4 acquainted
with them.—(d lure.;/e.)—Tile Hon. and Learned
Gentleman then proceeded to reilldrk on the act.
terry which had been manifested to prosecute
bleeds in the year 1811, cud subsequently.—
Ile had hi math* seen twenty or five-and-I wenty
persons brought up for sentence, who, though le-
sally respowithir, wrre, in a moral souse, free from
✓ay guilt. Fur libels in newspapetv, he had seen
women, the trustees of tr. oillell, Utit:Ullatitit, and
others, whose names were entered as propriews,
brought op from MI parts of the country, rod pu-
nished fur the coinimvston of an uttroce, of which,
in reality, they knew nothing. During the time
when Sir W. eia.fil:V tilled the office of Attorney-
General, only one case of libel (slr. Wooler's) was
prosecuted, which Wei 110 t of a very aggravated
nature. The Defendant exhibited a degree of
talent which had a powerful influeoce on leis
audience, Hurl via far in intetest vxcerded that GI
the Amino c-Geutral, that lie verily believed an
acquittal would have folianed, were it not fur the
Defendant's own imprudence. Ile designated the
Bill of Rights, the 1111 of 11Trutigit, and avowed
himself the follower of l'Atoe's political doctrines;
an avowal to which lie (Nit'. S.) imputed Isis cutivic-
tien. 'noun canoe on the second prosecution fur a
publication, evidently sent forth with an air of
Plegeilitry. The Defendatit treated it as such.
Ile said, that after the tragedy clime the farce.
The Juries participated in that feeling, and ac-
quitted him, a decision in which he fully concurred.
Next came Mr. Moue's prosecutions for parodies
on the Ailinnusiun Creed.. die Lita"!lt cud the
Common Prurr. One'was charged as beiog pub-
halted with 'talent to revile the Litany, and bring it
iota contempt. The motnent he knew that the
offence was so laid in the niformation, he remarked
to a men also was now au olutionent of the Deitch,
that the Attorney. General would not get tatter
men to agree in conviction. Parodies like
the Deleudant's were of old standing. They
had been published with impunity by Bishops,
Ports, and Nliiiisters of State. One of them,
celebrated, is The Freeholdeett Culechista," im-
puted trrualeously to Wilkes by Mr. Iloilo, was
in fact the work of Dr. Arbuthuot, end had been
rxtriisively circulated in the reign of Queen Anne.
Parodies of that kind were often written by
mess eminent for their le as wog and virtue,
and were never before ottempted to Ise construed
into offences against the religion and morals of the
connnunity. As well might it have been said, that
when AI r. Poison wrote his parodies on Pope's
Eluisa and Abelard, lie iiitenited to bring that
poem iota Cootrlllpt. 'Else Hon. and Learned
Gentleman ilefemleil the people of this country from
the imputatiou of ifietigion, and justified the suc.
cessive acquittals of Mi. Hone, upon the helot*
which the Juries entertained, that his object was
not to bring the Scriptures into contempt. It was a
libel on Juries to say, that because they acquitted
in such cases they would tint convict in others otiere
the intention was free Iron) ambiguity. Why,
then, did the Government sleep throughout 1818,
wheel they might have obtained mitten:lions of
libels unquestionably blasphemous and sedi-
tious ? %Vas it necessary that such puolications
should be tolerated, to laird a pretext for tie in.
troduction of coercive measure* and restrictioue flu
the tiberty of the subject ?---(Hear, hear.)
Colonel WOOD said, that the reason lie should
support this Bill fur punishing a libeller, and after-
wards expellitig him from the country, was from
his conviction that the evil could iti no other man-
ner be abated. He would tell Gentlemen opposite