The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-04-21 00:00:00

This Day a published. in One Volume Oro, price Six Shillings
in hoards, a Second Edition; of
rr WELVE SERMONS, on the AdvAntages which
i result horn Chrinianito, and en the litluence of
Christian Principles on the Mind and Cersdat. 'Io which
are added, PIIILANTtiROPIC TRACTS; consisting of
1. An Essay on the State of the Pour, and on the means of
improving it by Parochial School., Friendly Societies, dec.
11. Rules for forming and emiducting Friendly Societies, to
facilitate their general establi.hment.
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JUNIUS', LF.TTERS.
Th,s day is, published, in Two elegant Volumes, small oAavo,
embelli:hed with beautiful Portraits, by Caroline Watson,
price 12s. in b ant:'
COMPLETE and dAUTHENTIC EDITION
of the celebrated LETTERS ed JUNIUS, containing
much additional Mawr, and much lollermation. not to be
found in any other Edition.
Among the Additions are 11) the various Letters to which
Junin+ replied ; (1) copious illustrative Notes, historical and
biographical ; and (3) an Enquiry relative to the Author of
the.e Papers, in which the Pretenstons of various supposed
Writ us are cittically examined, mid the Nanae of the real
Author ascertained.
By JOHN ALMON,
Author albs Lives of the Earl of Chatham and John Wilhite,
or Anecdotes Historical and Biographical, &c. &c. &c.
No person can doubt the superior mimeo sus of Mr. Al-
mon to give to the +mid so illustrated and classical Edition
of the famous Letters of Junius, a task for which he has al.
ways been acknowledged to be better qualified than any
other ContemperaM of that l~rlnted Writer. This Edi-
tion claim', therefore. the 4w-11W ?reference of the Public,
as the last Week of the veteran Editor, who wet intimately
comiettett with the iniet mitten: political Characters of the
period in which Junius wrote, mid also as being the con.-
pietist, the cheapicit, and the molt elegant Edition extant.
Printed for Richard Phillips, Bridge-street, Bleetfrierv, and
may be hod et all 111•00ellan and Dealer+ in Boobs.

PROM trtußDAr NIGHT'S GAZETTE.
At the Co wt at the Queen's Pak:ft Os 16th of April, 1806,
PRESENT, •
The King's Most Esc*Hem hilijetty in Council.

Whereas Hie Majesty has received advice that His Maje ty
the Kim of Prussia has taken pemessien sit flit Majent's
Electoral Dominions ie a forcible sad hostile manlier; arid has
she caused it to be notified to His Majesty's Minister at the
Court of Merlin, that all boleti chips were thencJorth to
be excluded frest the pests of the Prussian riomiMons, and
Ifinna certain ether ports in the Nunh of Europe. tinder
the forcible cuntreul ref Prussia, in violation of the jos.
rights and interests of His Majesty and his dominions, cal
narateary to the established Laws and Practice of Nations in
Amity wth each other : And whereas His Majesty, by and
with the Advice of his Privy Courted, Ives been pleased to
cause ■n Frobargo to be laid upset Vessels belonging to the
Subjects of Pruysia, now within, or which hereafter shall
come Into any of the Purts of the Ueited Kingdom or Great Wi•
gain and Ireland, eagether with all Peens sod Effects on
breed the said .retch I And wit there is just reason to
apprehend that the neutrality of the riven Weser, and
Lois. and the free navigation thereof, will not, under these cir-
cumstances, be duly respected ►y Ile Msjesty's en 'ruts., but
will be reedered subject to the hostile measure: above describ-
ed{ tlis Majesty, by and with the advice of Ilia Privy Council,
is pleased teenier, and it is hereby ordered, that a general ern-
►argo or stop be made in like manner, until further order from
this board, of all ships and vessels belonging to persons residing
in any pertsor places situate upon the and rivets Elbe, Weser,
and Ems, save and except vessels under the Dentsh ft .g, and
else save and except, that in respell to the rands arid effects on
►read loch ships and ♦assets which shall have been laden In, or
eve caning consigned to any ports of the United Kingdom, the
same shall he forthwith liberated and delivered up to the said
linden or consignees respectively: And it is hereby further
mitered, that to property or freight mosey appearing to belong
teeny subject of Prussia, or to any penises rending as &forestal,
respecting which, proceedings are now depending, or shalt
hereafter depend in any of His Majesty'. Courts of Prize, shall
he decreed to At restored, nue shall the proceree of any property
or freight-money ►elonging at aforesaid, which hails alrelds
been decreed to be restored, be paid to, or on behalf of ill.-
claimants, but ties: same shall be kept in safe secret y until Ills
Majests% forth*, melee hemline And It flieelheellaMed, That
DO person residing within Hi Majesty's dominions do presume
to pay stay freight-money dire or payable so, or on behalf of
ally person or persons being subject:, or residing within the do-
minions of the King of Prussia, err in the ports or places afore-
said, fur the f might of merchanthse laden on bead any snip
which is detained under the said embargo, or which shall here•
after be brought into any of the ports of His Majesty's
dominion., but Ott such heirt-moues shall be forthwith
paid into t►e Registry of the I ligh Court of Admiralty,
there to remain until His Majesty's pleasure shall be
further known, or until ether provision shall be made
by law: And whereas it ha. been represented to His
Mijetty. that the goody on board several of the Prussian
vessels an detained, or to be detained by the Erehargo, are the
property of Kw Majesty's subjects, or the property of persons
not being subjects of Prussia! It n further Grimed, that all
gents nu board any vessels dst iined under the sae, Kmbeign,
♦both were Jeerer in, or remote consigned to ports of the
Unied Kingdom, shall be delivered to tie deers:real of the
issuers or their agent., upon affidavit being made, and produced
In the High Court of Admiralty. that the said goods were not,
at tee time of shipment, nor are now, the propene of 6.1.6e:is •
of Prussia, and upon paying the height due upon such goods,
lOtu the emote of the awl Court, sad ii on g,slu g trek sent
bail, Maeda adjudscetien in case any proceestior should be
enumented againe the said goods within t so month. from tit •
'lat., of such deliver. : %ad the Right Honourable the Lord-
Commissioners of lin Malany's ;rie.aairry, the Lords Com-
missioners of the Admireley, and Lam! Warden of the Cinque
Pais. and the Surfer of the High Court of Admiralty, ■re to
give the nec y deediems herein a. to them mar IlOfbefilvel,
appeerm. S I'EPIiEN Clef tRELL.


TIIE BRITISH PRESS.

I. ON D N ,
MONDAY, 21.

We promised, on Saturday, sime obsorrei
upon the Bill which Mr. Se! jeant Iles r r.‘s obtained
leave to bring in, to prevent the publication of ex•
parte evidence, in criminal cases, in the Ncsi spapers;
or as it might, perhaps, be more pi operly c "
Bill for increasing the labour of Judges, for the
benefit of the Gent!ernen of the B.:r, and the en-
couragement of common ir.rnrrwrs." It is a cir-
cumstance not a little exttaar3in iry, that la hen-
ever a Gentleman brings for-war:3 • any measure for
abridging the Liberty of the Press, he is sure to pre-
face it with a panegyric upon the value of that
blessing, accompanied with professions of the great
love a..d respe& which he bears it. He affals to
put himself in the place of a fond parent correning
a spoiled child, and suffering more pain from the
chastisement, than the little truant whose errors
have forced his relunant hand to strike. Mr. Ser-
?ant Be.sr, when stating the outline of his Bill,
has not been deficient in this particular ; and has
represented the measure as the result of his great
alfedlion for the Liberty of the Press. 1 hat an in-
dividual m ly be injured by the publication of e.r-
parte evidence in such cases, and that such publica.
tions do sometimes appear in the Newspapers, are

incontrovertible ; but as it c innot be desirable
to any sincere friend of constitutional liberty, to ex-
tend the code of criminal law, and load the table
with penal statutes, unnecessarily, let us see, ad-
mitting the gs:zvance, how far this new remedy is
called for by the circumstances of the times. In
the first place, then, as to ea-parte evidence, in the
examination of persons before Magistrates at the
Police Offices, the praElice of publishing it has been
growing fcr some time into disuse. Amongst
these, Bow-street Office is the principal shop ; and
scarcely a case from it appears in the Newspapers
once in a fortnight ; and when the great multipli-
city of business do se there is considered, this surely
cannot appear to be one of those growing evils that
calls for the i:.terference of the Legislature. In fat,
among the few cases that do appear from Bow-street,
most of them are such as the Magistrates could not
disapprove, being published in furtherance of justice.
as the means of eliciting new evidence, in dark,
doubtful, and mysterious cases. Besides, intelli-
gence of this kind is the lowest and most contempti-
ble feature in a newspaper. The world, in its pre-

sent agitated state, supplies matter of too much im-
portance to permit an Editor to fill his columns with
the examination of thieves and pickpockets. at 'dow
street aad Hatton-Garden.—So far then from this
being a flagrant evil, calling for immediate and se-
vere laws to restrain its growth, it is greatly upnn
the decline, and there never sea.; an ■ra in the hi•-
tory of Newspapers, when a law upon the subjeCl
was less necessary.—The same observation applies
with almost equal force to conditional rules for at-
tachments and criminal informations in Westmin-
ster Hall. As publications, in cases of this kind,
bearing with peculiar severity upon the character of
innocent individnals, have occurred, the Court has,
from time to time, declared its disapprobation ul
this practice; and threatened to punish it.—
"l he consequence has been a total interruption
of this abu e; bat when the fear had subsided, some
inferior paper resumed the prodlice, and this obliged
the rest to follow itit example. Had, however, the
Court visited its indignation upon the party thus
offending, the practice would have long ceased to
exist ; and, we are confident, that it is still only
necessary for the Court to issue a peremptory order,
and enforce it in the first case of its violation, to
put an end to the abuse for ever. Now these ap-
pear to be the two great heads of offence which Mr.
Serjeant Bssr seems anxious to correct ; and, if he
will frame his Bill so as to meet them distinctly and
clearly, without exposing printers to endless li-
tigation, he null do them a service. The mat-
ter of Newspapers will be henceforth more se-
led, and much money will be saved ; for the
learned Serjeant may be assured, that the reports
of those ex-parte proceedings are not obtained N ith-
out expence. But without meaning any reflection
upon Mr. Besr, whose talents we highly retina
we fear that he will not be able to accomplish this
desirable purpose. Thanks to our ancestors, secret
tribunals and inquisitions are unknown to this
country, and contrary to the spirit of our laws.
Our Courts of Justice are open, and as the law has
not limited them to a certain size, the number of
strangers present may be very considerable
Are not then these ex-parfe proceedings made knnws
of necessity to the public ? and is riot the evil in.
herent in our free constitution ? For 111 these
strangers, when they return home, will communi-
cate them to their respeilive societies ; and we should
be glad to knew whether a publication of that sort
t. calculated to excite a p•ejudice? I. then the

principle is to he followed up, strangers mast be ex-
ciddA !run' Court> of Justify, ; foe even to pra
labit them to viiiisper a'rroad, what they may hate
heard in Conic, will not ar-e.over the purpose. 'l6 y
will go away with their p-11.2i. es, ari d may be
evratu tliy anta.ng, ;he Jury vetso wi:: Sc v the cause.
Eut the Eiil, to ire comply:fly efliciettr, mart rot be.
c vo!-t.ted ! c!te ordinary Courts of idatce : It r., tot
extett,i to bath Houses of Parham nt, and etnln ace
all tie:: pi ocrediop. Whenever the House
of Lot bit, in its jaalicial capacity, the
must be kept ignorant of what passes, fi:,4l
jatlment. All cases of
_Criminal Conver-anon
that come before it, Mr. Jo,tice Foz's case, ard
every other of a criminal complexion, and
the debates upon them, must be suppressei. By
the like rule, the Newspapers ought not to hart.:
mentioned one word of the debates in the li-us:
Commons upon Viscount MEr•lLLe's CAS, tot
hour, and when his Lordship's trial comes on, t
same silence must be observed until its conchista
Should it last as long as that of Mr. Floss tor,
about eight years hence, the Newspapers may legal'y
begin to retail it to the public. So far, however. tire
Editor of a newspaper has fair play, and the road is
plain before him ; but what shall be said of the vari-
ous cases, which, in their origin, w •ar a civil aspea,
and ultimately prove of a et inainal nem te
meats for forgery and per:ptry frequently grow out
of Bills in equity, and aelions upon silt of Exchange.
Only one criminal suit, viz. that against Vis-
count Meavif cc, has been as yet the result of ti e
I,lbours of the Commissioners of Naval Enquiry.
How many ()Ater' may be founded upon tho Twelve
Reports now before the public, we cannot pretend to
say ; yet, so far, they are all tsp./ule es ilenee ayainst
the party, and consequently within the spirit,
principle, and meaning of Mr. Best's Bill. In
10, so far as we can perceive that Get.::eman's
object and motive, no Newspaper can be safe
in giving the substance of any paper called for by
Parliament, as it may he for the put pose of en-
quiry, and it is impossible to foresee to what en-
quiry may lead, and that it gray not ultimately
prove ex parte evidence, upon a crimMal.plosecuticn.
These, and a thcusand other cases of great hard-
ship and dliculty, will be thrown upon New.-
papers by the proposed Bill, if the principle upon
which it is recommended be followed up ; in which

case it would be the most adverse that ever wit
conceived to the spirit of our free constitution, and
calculated for every purpose of arbitrary power, by
keeping the people in the dark upon many questions
of vital importance ; and if the Bill does not fol-
low up the principle, we ask, of what use can it be?
--It only afferfts, as we have already sheen, cases
for which a remedy is already provi.led. The
learned Serjeatit admits, • that both the Air
sv-G Le ea* t, and the party aggrieved, can
call for punishment upon the publishers of (s-
-park evidence, in cases of criminal prosecution, and
he has instanced one recent case, viz, the King e.
the Printers of 7-1.0 Le=es Joarwal, in illustration of
this position. Having thus sheen that the proposed
measure is unneevssary, and that if carried into died
it would prove severely oppressive, we now wish to
know what flagrant instance of abuse, on the part r.f.
Ole NeW Spa perSOIAS calk] for this extraordinary mea-
sure ? The learned Serjeant has stated t o, via, the
Cases of Colonel &Apart!, and Mr. P tcb. We are
perfectly aware that he was Counsel for Colonel
Decaartl, and as such, is peculierlyAnalifiecl to say,
how far public prejudice infloonced that mares fate;
but that is an event of three year's sraudin;;, and
cannot begin to operate now, for the first time. Mr.
Patch's case, no dcubt; is not liable to this objec-
tion ; hut, surely, it ta.root be salt, that tither
IlApard et Parch, had not a fair Trial, and th.t"
either of them was the victim of popular pre!odice,
excited and fomented by ex-parts publication_
Newspapers.—lt requires all the strength of a liberal
and enlightened mind, to divest itself, in cases to
flagrant crime, of all prejudice against the party ac-
cused. Mr. Justice Fos r a*, and other exceilrint tees
ters, feelingly lament, that Juries have, in such eases,
been carried away to the conviction of innocent m:11
and therefore the prejudice will exist, although the
Newspapers should be silent. In fact, as putilie opi-
nion generally lear.s to the unfavnurab:e At, it may
be aquestion, whether Newspapers do not operate as
a corrective, by giving a fair view of a case,,chicle
private whispers cculd extort and exaggerate
and, therefore, for one man that has a right to
complain, twenty may have reason to be loth'
fled with the Newspapers; but this is going fa-
tli:r than we wish. We do not approve of the
publication of Ar-rarte evidence, either in case cf
examination before the Police Magistrates, or on
motions for criminal informations in Westminster
Mali. It is true that such publications often had
to the deteaioa of guilt, and that the fear of public
,
ensoisure prevents many applications to Courts c;
Justice; bUt it is much better that litigation shozl..:
increase; and that a thousand offenders should
ipe pun:blieure!. that one ignoceut