The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-11-28 00:00:00

The KING'S ATTORNEY...GENERAL having re-
solved to file informations ex-officio against the
Proprietors of certain public Papers for libels re-
toweling the Government, we would Pugged to the
QUEEN'S ATTORNEY-GENERAL the expediency of
following the example with respect to the ministerial
writers, who are incessantly employed in insulting
her MAJESTY. Such a proceeding is due to the
outraged character of the country, for the vindica-
tion of its taste, loyalty, and humanity. We are
perfectly aware that the QuEEN herself is extremely
averse to the adoption of any measures which might
savour of hardship or severity, even towards her
revilers or persecutors ; but it is a mistaken princi-
ple of clemency and mercy to salter the brutal ma-
lignity of such persons to riot in the consciousness
of impunity. It may, indeed, be urged, in proof of
the futility of any proceedings against them, that
in cases of conviction the Ministers, who encourage
their vile trash, will indemnify them from the
effects of any sentence which may be pronounced
by the King's Bench ; .but the assurance of this,
while it removes the difficulty ari g from the ten-
derness of her MAJESTY'S nature, ought not to
prevent the public exposure of their indecent
ribaldry, nor deprive a Jury of honest Englishmen
of the satistsctiou they must feel in openly express-
ing to the world, on behalf of their country, their
hearty detestation of the disgraceful means adopted,
or at least permitted by the Ministers of the Crown,
to blacken her MAJESTY'S reputation, and pervert
every action of her life into a topic for scandal or
reproach.
‘l'hile the Ministerial Papers thus abuse the
liberty of the press, sad by their indecent bur-
faoneries disgust every honourable mind—while the
Ministers of the Crown not only permit, but re-
ward such gross licentiousness—while they encou-
rage and promote the most illegal and unwarrant-
able attacks upon every character, public and pri-
vate, no matter how estimable, which may chance
to be opposed to their measures, by what pretence
of injury do they venture to authorise the ATTolt-
NEY-GENERAL, in filing iuforaisations against any
part of the public press? We certainly do not
mean to defend the improper conduct of several
writers in what are called Opposite Papers, nor
do we deny that many of their productions have
been libels well deserving of punishment; hut we
do deny the right of the Ministers of the Crown to
demand from a Jury a verdict against any writer
whatever for an alleged abuse of the liberty of the
press. while they themselves countenance conduct
equally atrocious on the pert of their own writers.
flmey do not come into Court with " cleat hands ;"
they are not Tern in curia ; they stand in the can-
dition of defamers and libellers themselves—a class
of psrsnes who, by the old law, were disabled
from bringing actions for calumny and defamation,
and who in modern practice are looked upon in
our Ceurtr with great and deserves! suspicinu. If
The Examiner, or The or The Chronicle,
or any other Paper, should have written with ill-
advised severity agaicst tie Ministers of the Crown,
is ilitre nut a set-off, if not a justification, ii the
itolecent scerrilities, the malignant calumnies,
the flagitious insults, the lies—ilie wicked lies
which the The Pest and Courier are daily vent-
Mg upon private personas to gratify the depraved
appetites their Inv rnn. or their own cot.
rowed natures ? A Jury might well say to the
ATTORNEY-GENERAL, "You have laid before us a
very intemperate piece of winning, but you have
not shewn that any injury has been sustained by the
111milisters who have instituted this prosecution. You
have not shear' to us that this liver was written
with any uthrr intro' than to correct time no less in-
temperate *riling% issued either by those Ministers
themselves, or by their minions limier their Emu inn.
ofrcluite authority. You have not shewn to OS at
Irast that the Ministers hive at any time displayed
any I 'tillable anxiety to correct the abuses of the
piers, or to temver its licentiousness by checking
or punwhitig any of their own scribes; we cannot,
therriore, give you credit fur your professions, nor
believe that your object in presecuting this de-
ferodaut is any other than the gratification of • yin•
digitise freling, unnecessary for %indicating the ho.
inns of the Crown, fur securing the sratiquillity of
the State, and foreign bum the true interests of
juvice."

The Committee met at Guildhall yesterday, and
sat from eleven till four o'clock to orpike arrange-
Merits for her MAJESTY'S going to St. Paul's. The
Dean and Chapter have consented to the adrui.siou
of 4,000 special constables to enter the chinch at
ten o'clock. A liertum WOOD will sit at Guildhall
from twelve to two o'clock ibis dry to swear them
in—the first two thousand who enter their names
will be admitted into the church, and all ribose
that number will attend in the streets from Temple-
bar to St. Paul's. Plscards ate ordered to he
posted cautioning the people to keep silence in the
church, so attempts may he made to distarb the
peace. Mr. Archdeacon BATHURST. WM of the
venerable Bishop of Nuawics, arrived its town last
imoruing for the express purpose of preaching a
grins before her 11l AJ NASTY at St. Paul's to.
morrow,
but the Dean and Chapter will not allow
any HMOs to be preached ou that day.