The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-05-03 00:00:00

PARIS PAPERS.

PARIS.
The celeb,,ted Miss Edgeworth hoo tamed in
Pjri•.

The Court of Caseation has rejected the appeal
of ilve Cumwetotionalost Lecarpeostier, a relapsed re-
gicide, who returned to France in contempt of the
law of 12th January, 1816, which banished the
atinittillll of the martyred King. The Assize Court
of La Manche condemned Imo, on the 15th e!'
March last, to deportation, for hawing retunted
from loasonoloment.

A smart shock of sit earthquake was felt at Crest
and the adjoining country, about nine v.:*clock in
the evening of the 21► t of April. It was accom-
panied by thunder. The motion seemed to pro-
cerd from env' to weal. The weather was very tint.
and die vky serene.

The arrival of the Duke of Cambridge at Brous-
wick is announced In a Frankfurt paper. Ili*
Royal Ifiglinei.p's visit is for the purpose of beteg
prebeut at the first communion of the young Duke
of Brunswick and his brother. These two Princes
have gone to Bruschsal. to pros some time with the
Dowager filargravine of Baden.
The Correspond's' of Hamburgli declares itself
authorised to contradict the statement, that the
Court ul Rio Janeiro had entered into au arrange-
ment with that of Naples to procure a certain num-
ber of galley slaves Far colonising the Brazils.

THE BRITISH PRESS.

LONDON.
WEDNESDAY. DRAT 3. 1820.

We entreat the particular attention of our readers
to a subject of the deepest importance to the charac-
t, r of lets Majesty's Government and the admini-
stration of public justice, which was submitted yes-
terday evening by Mr. Alderman WOOD to the
House of Commons. It will be remembered that
ore sereral occasions during the late momentous
trials at the Old Bailey, the unfortunate prisoners
referred to an individual of the name of Edwards,
a modeller, whom they all accused as the prime
instigator and promoter of the late shocking con-
roiracy. Tire same of George Edwards was cam-
p:ised in the list of witnesses comintruirated to the
risoners by the Crown, but the Conroel for the
proseention did not conceive it necessary or carpe.
(Lent to bring him forward, notwithstanding the de-
sire repeatedly expressed by the prisoners at the
her. It was of this man that Mr. Alderman Woon
ftlt himself imperiously required, under circum-
stances peculiarly painful, to put a few questions
to Thirderrood a few minutes previous to the clove
if his miserable existence.

From the statement made yesterday evening by
Mr. Alderman WOOD, we fear that there is but Ito
much reason to believe that this Edwards was a
spy, employed by the Ministers of the Crown for
some time previous to the liberatiox of Thistlewood
from Horsham gaol. The depositions of seven
perrons, offered voluntarily on oath to Mr. Alder-
man WOOD and Sir WILLIAM DOI/VILLE. •Gem
that this fellow was iu the habit of frequenting
public-houses and places of general re,iort, where
he uniformly distinguished himself by the seditious
intemperance of his conversation. and constantly
endeavoured to instigate others to the perpetration
of some dreadful' outrage; that he actually devised
a scheme for destroying the Members of the House
of Commons while engaged in debate, by the ex-
plosion of grenades, and iron tubes filled with gun-
powder; and that he had expressed an intention of
waiting the liberation of Thistlewood, as the des-
perate courage of such • man was necessary for
the perpetration of his scheme. With Thistlewood
lie accordingly became acquainted at the house
of Pre.toe, the shoemaker, within a few d.ya after
the liberation of his unfortunate victim, and there
is no doubt that he took an early opportunity of
communicating his project to Thistlewood, whose
desiwrate fortunes and vindictive temper probably
remit-red him bat too willing to give the proposal
a fiviturable reception. The question respecting
the propriety of employing spies was argued at
some length yesterday evening by Mr. BROUGHAM,
who considered the practice as at least defensible ;
but what puoisliment is due to a spy who takes ad-
vantage of his own privileged treason to instigate
others to the perpetration of the most atrocious
crimes, and then betray them to certain death ?
Mr. Aldermen WOOD declares that be has sufficient
evidence to prove that this Edwards was the first
who imagined the murder of the Ministers, lied
that it was his activity and money which drew
so many persons into the conspiracy. Surely the
Ministers who employed the spy ought to investi-
gate the manner in which their agent performed. his

task, and if instead of confloing himself %o the Wain,
and perhaps not dist est duty of merely watching
and reporting the schemes anti projects of others,
and thereby guarilia.g against the perpetration of
much evil, he should be found foremost in the way
of crimes, prompting the desperate sod encouraging
the timid, sod devising for both such enterprises
as of themselves they hod never iinsgined, the
Ministers owe it to their own fair fame, to the cha-
racter of public justice, and to the violated rights
of humanity, to snake so diabolical a ruffian ao
rumple to 0:11CM

The motion made by M►. Alderman WOOD was,
that Edwards should be called to the bar to answer
for the breach of privilege in proposing to mur-
der the Members of the House of Commons. The
worthy Alderman was driven to this course by
the conduct of Lord Sinmoirii, who refused of
course to give any sasistroce towards exposing and
punishing his owl. agent ; but as a mistier of so
grave a nature could not be properly investixtited
by the House of Commons tinder the form of a
breach of privilege, the motion was necessarily
withdraws'. The only way, indeed, of bringing
the question properly before the House of Cons-
mono, was in the limn of an impeachment against
Lord SiomouTii.

Lord ALTHORP bot night obtained leave to
bring in a new Insolvent 811. It is the same as
that introdactd by hi. Lottlshii) in the last Session.

The question of publication in the case of Sir
F. BCRDETT is still before the Court of King's
Bench; we therefore have hitherto felt an unwil-
lingness to notice it in the way of argument, but
the subject is forced upon public attention by an
Evening Treasury Print, which with its wonted fa-
cility overcomes the difficulty, by at once assuming
every poiut in dispute.
It was a favourite maxim of the civil law, as di-
gered in Jnitiaian's Instituter, that the mere act
of writing., or even of dictating N libel, isidependerst
of public:llion, was as criminal as if the writing
were actually published, and was in certain cases
punishable even by death; but by the common law
or England, the crime of libel was at all moo
held to be incomplete until the writing were ac-
tually published. In the Star Chamber, indeed,
the writing of a libel alone, without put/icor/on,
was punishable, but no precedent, we trust, will in
modern times he drawn from so infamous a source.
The course of practice for considerably more than
a century has been conformable with the ancient
role of the common law, and consequently in all
the modern books of principle or practice, the fact
of publication is held to he indispensably neceseary
for supporting either a civil action or a criminal
process. To facilitate this point of evidence, the
Courts have beets extremely libelist in their con.
'traction of publication, and it hes been uniformly
held that the communication of a libel to any perste
—whether the individual censured, or a third party
—whether by • Inter *waled, or in an apes
paper—whether by immediate trseisfer from hand
to basal, by the intervention of a third person. M
even by the common post, is a publication in law.
This evidence of publication is so indispensably ne-
emery, that it has been required even in eaves
where publication has not been charged in the in-
dictment. In the well-known case of the seven
Bishops, in the reign of JANES I 1., when of the
four Judges who filled the King's Bench, three
were notorious, for their abject servility to the Cons,
the defendants were charged in the information
with having falsely arid miiciously made, compos.
ed, and written • false, scandalous, and seditious
libel ; and yet, had not Lord StisDitit.snri, the
President of the Council, been opisortenely brought
into Court to prove the publication of the alleged
libel within the Council Chamber, the case could
not have been left to the Jury.
It was, however, lately contended in the King's
Bench, that writing u libel, alone, was criminal,
and the case of the king v. Berire, determined by
Lord Ilot.T, WWI brought forward fur the !oppose
of supporting thivd.logerous doctrine. The Learn-
ed Judge, however, who rested upon this case,
seems to have inistakeei Lord flour's meaning. In
the King v. More there wus no question about pub-
lication. The defendant, it seems, had only col-
lected lied traissclibril the libels of others with the
intent of ibein, and he was found guilty
of writing only, by which was underatood the ma-
nual act of transeribilig ; and it was contended on
the part of the defendant. that this writing alone
was not criminal. But Lord HOLT very justly
laid it down no low, that to write, meaning thereby
to transcribe a libel, with iment to publish, was
just us criminal aft act as the anginal composition.
The words in Lord IttestoNn's Report are, " He
woi of opinion that the copying of a libel by a man
who is nut contriver nor composer of it, is criminal ;"
and to prove that the intent way contemplated by
Lord II I.T, ihit 11.,.-artod dodge goes on to say,
that .1 if an officer of a court, or reporter. &c.
copies u Lbrl, such copy ill writing is not a !Owl,
because it IS tint done nil infaniiim of the party,
but only to bring the criminal to putrishinent."
From this case, therefore, we cull only deduce,
that to terde or copy the libel of another person,
with intent to du injury to a third party, is as
criminal as if 11w copyer or writer were the original
composer ; but this case can never, if fairly con.
sidered, be supposed to warrant the detestable and
dangerous doctrine familiar to the civil law, and

upheld by the practice of the Star Chamber, that
the mere act of committing libellous sentiments to
paper is criminal, without publication subsequent."
The next question then is, whether ine charge of
publication, which is the substantive offence, can
be laid in one county, and be prnved to have
occurred in another? which is the Paine as if it
were proton :et! to support an information at the
very moment that it is contradicted in the prin-
cipal point by the evidence for the prosecution !
It is admitted that Sir Fitaxcis BURDETr wrote
the letter in Leicestershire, but there is no evidence
that he communicated it to any indisidual in that
county. The publication in Middlesex was clearly
shewn by Mr. Bat:wits ; and therefore the offence,
if any, was clearly committed in Middlesex, where
as certainly the Hon. Baronet might have been pro.
seeded. This point was laid down in argument
by the Recorder of London, who was of Counsel
fur the Crown in the case of the seven Bishops,
and was not then contradicted. " Suppose a Masi,"
**id Iw, " write a *conditions letter from London to
a Jodge at Exeter, and send it by the post, and
the letter is received from the post at Exeter mid
opened, would any man make a question whether the
gentleman that sent the letter may not be indicted
for a libel at Exeter, where the libel was received?"
This position cannot be contradicted, and it was
upon this very principle that the seven Bishops
were prosecuted in Middlesex, where the publica-
tion was effected, and not in Surrey, where the libel
was actually written.
The writer in the Treasury Print very weakly
observe., that " libellers might write in one county
with impunity if they but sent to print and publish
it in another county, and no such thing as respon-
sibility fur authorship would exist." This device
would be of little avail, because the libeller may
be prosecuted in the county where the printing and
publishing takes place—where, in fact, the crime is
complete, and the only hardship imposed upon the
prosecutors is, that they shall not lay their renue in
a county where no offence has been committed.

Paris Papers of Satu►day last have arrived et our
Offiee. Three petitsons, which had been trans-
mitted to the Committee before the removal of the
Duke DEcAzEs from the Cabinet, were reported to
the Chamber on F►iday. The petitions were from
different individuals, but they concurred in praying
the Chamber to Addrers tht KING that M. DEC AZES
*lmola be dismissed from the administration of the
Goveroment. To this one of them added u
request, that this Minister should be impeached, on
the ground that his measures were injurious to the
cause of Royalty. M. BENJAMIN CONSTANT
and M. MANUEL, strongly urged the necessity
of transmitting this last petition to the Mioirter of
the Interior, for the purpose of complying with its
prayer. but after some th,ctipsion, the Chamber
passed from the three petitions to the order of the
day.

The Five tier Cent*. are 73 f. Go c. Bauk
Actiuus 1,500 f.

Yesterday the Duke of YORK transacted Liilitnry
business with the KING at Ins Palace in Pall-mall.
The Doke of CLARENCE and Duchess of Gi.ou-
CiSTEN paid their respects to his MAJESTY.
The Duke of YORK held a Levee yesterday as
Cominauder-in-Chiet, at his Office in the Horse
Guards, wilich was attended by upwards of thirty
Officer*.

Yebterclay the Earl of Ltvteroor. hod in
outhence of the li ! tr G.

A letter front Liverpool, dated April 27, says,
"General D'EvEagux sailed this day for
Cc-
lumbia. Ile was ocemnpoilieil by the Officers of
his Staff, Ins Chaplain, soil 30 young Gentlemen,
who, to emulation of their countrymen of the !ri►h
Legion, have cuo►rcrated their lives sod swords to
the rau►e of South American freedom."

On the 29th of March the PRESIDENT of the
Coiled States rent a Alessage to Congress, inform-
ing them that the Courts of Great Britain, Rus.
am, and France, continue to interpose their good
offices to effect the ratification of the Treaiy reit- •
tire to the Floridas, on the part of Spain. And
in consequence of the earneo, desire of these
Powers, that the United States would take nu
step for the present on the pr iple of reprisal,
which might possibly tend to Jistuth die peace be-
tween the United States and Spain. the PitesiDE!lT
recommends to Congress the postponement of the
decision on the questions now pending with
Spain, until next tienion. "The distress of that
nation at this juncture (he add.) utfords a mo-
tive for this forbearance, which cannot fail to be
duly appreciated. Under such citcninataiices the
attention of the spoohie Governatent may he di.
relied from its foteign concerns, mid the arrival of
a Minister here lie longer delayed."
Jamaica papers to the 14th March have arrived
by the packet. They contain %nions particulars
of operations on the Spanish Alaiti ; but nothing
decisive had occurred, either on the stile of the
Patriots or Royalists. An expedition by the lat-
ter, connoting of 900 troops and as many militia,
under the e ttttt mand of Geo. W ARLETA, had beets
dispatched to attempt the re-conquest of the pro-
vince of Antiochia, but foiled its its object, and was
compelled to return Jowl' the river B area to Cartha-
geom. Ocala Wits occupied by the Independents.
By the moat receipt accounts from Lima, it appears
that the Andromache frigate was lying tit Callao
during the blockade of the harbour by Lord COCH-
MANS. Captain Sltlßaxrr ass applied to by the
Spanish merchants to take specie no boar,l, but re-
booed, as contrary to his instructions. This refusal
is in strict accordance with the neutrality professed
by Great Britain its the contest beta/gel, Slain uud
her Colonies ; and the contraiy conduct would pro-
bably have given fist to oil altercation with Lord
COCHRAN E.

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FASHIO.VA 81.0 PAIITIEB.
The Earl of Warwick willientertain a large party of die-
linznishril personages sus Saturday next, at hie house inSey•
nsiieliNrr.
IEIII Bathurst has isaurd cards of iovitation for a gravid
dinner ini the 11th Wawa, at his house in Stanhoyie•street,
May-fair.

Count,.: Ileinchansp bas issued cards of invitation for it
grand lout, un the 11111 inst. at her house in St. JilMtlit•
music.
Mr. and Mrs. Fremantle gave an elegant entertainment
Ca Stourla. at their hawse in Stanhope-street, May-fair, to
the Duke niGloncesser. Among the diatingnishml party in-
vited to mret his Royal Highness werr, the Ambassador of
the Netherlands, the Marchiosses" of Salisbury, Earl and
Countess Temple, Lord and Lady Bulkrley, Connlru Vern_
lam, Lord lintham, Colonel Datums, Major Ilesketli, &C.
Sir William Ahrly, But. has issued earth of Mattson/is for
a musical party on Monday next, at his house in Hill.alreet,
Berkeley•square.