The National Register.
London, England, 1811-03-17 00:00:00

AL REGISTER:

flogging was condemned in equally strong terms. When.lie
concluded, a considerable clapping was set up in the Court.
'I. he Judge, with great indignation, censured this indecency, and
threatened one person, whom he selected from the crowd) with
imprisonment fur the Eence.
Mr. CLARKE, rising,to reply to the defence, observed, that a
stronger proof of the evil tendency and influence of the publica-
tion of the defendant could not be shown, than in the gross at-
tempt which had been just made to overawe by popular clamour,
and to bear down the free agency of the Jury. Abe defence
made for the present defendant, he said, was ever the sort of
defence made for men of similar sentiments and conduct : the
advocate who had defended the author of The Ri gilts of Max,
had taken precisely the same ground, and pleaded the same
rights. The allusion of the Learned Gentleman to the trial of
the Messrs. Hunts, gave him (Mr. Clarke) a right he had not
assumed before, of making those very persons-witness ageinst
the defendant ; for although their will .) say all they dare say was
not to be doubted, it was a powerful ieeeurnstance against the
present defendant, that in copying the artrie from his paper for
which they had•been prosecuted, they had ou.ltted the strongest
parts of it, and thus shewn their own judgmenr of the libellous
tendency of the original. The present prosecu: therefore,
was for a libel infinitely. stronger than those men Lad dared to
publish ; and yet the opinion of the eniinent Judge elio tried
the cause in which they were eliminated was, that eve:. their
softened `‘publicatien was a seditious and mischievous libel. Al
luding to the 'liberty of the press, about wh; muc
been advanced, the Learneel. Gentlemen said, that too much wes
assumed un :er that mis-used phrase : in France and other cotta-
tries the liberty of the press etieted Hot, because Licensers were
appointed to controul it; and this.exeznption, from the :exit--
ference of the Licensers in England, was what rightly was under-
stood by the liberty of the press.: it was not to supposed that
any man was to print whatever his seditious views or a ma -
nant disposition might suggest, and to call thatehehberty of the
press which her bad a right to enjoy uninterruptedly--no such
thing ; the press was a free agent to all,, but every man must
answer for his use of it; and it was the office of a I dry to stand
between the liberty and the licentioosness of it. Aa to the pub-
lication before the Court, read a& it was, in put:she-houses, by
illiterate persons, incapable of deep thinking, it was not to be re-
garded in the same light as Sir Roberrt Wileun's publication,
which was meant for the librariei of men of judgment : its bane
was unaccompanied by any antigoteeand night do inconceiv-
able mischief. It was a strange Way of encouraging.the English
soldier, to hold him out eas a degraded slave, cut off from the
pale of the Constitution, and below the level of his fellow-iub-
jects. Notwithstanding the boasted excellence of the system of
Buonaparte, whose service the defendant so much admired, our
soldiers never yet had met those of the Tyrant without .proving
the superiority of their courage, nidtheir love for their offil:ers ;
and if they were not reduced or seduced,. by such persons as the
author of the pres'entellbel, would still repel the enemy add save
their country ;but If: they were to be insulted and taunted, or
taught that they bled for those whee treated them only with
cruelty, whilst Buonaparte respected his soldiers a!id made their
condition superior—the safety of the country was nu longer. to
be regarded as certain.
Th. Judge, ,served, that they
had '

the de
his client

the co

He

but,
addressed
Jury -

to at

befog
that

and . nifxed
up
wl ruin 'feeling
for the publication
before „ reasonably
be supposed ;to _laye actuated t writ,_. he fared
that. many persons in this countrtikirejendeaciotiring to itisist
the enemy in his.projec..t. of disgusttpg the peppy ivith institu-
tions by which they were governed. .!:Alth restiet ko fbr ob-
servations of the Leatuiid Cientientari (;%Tr:
subject of military he could trot tit 'thiratc•tini.speeCh of
this day would have'been better 4611vOted it. that lititttitirable
House of which he is a' Menib'el'c he hoped be ihottld
see him agitate the subject thvre,',,if h4iit •tiot,
ferrcd that the Genthiniati di4l:6o(o)kiri as .b thej..tirn-
ed Judge then alluded to the'Cisd riiinerty,'m an Instance
of the extra4tclinarf tenaper for libelling which Ivati-piqgvalent„
and the eatravagant notiuu4' which prevailed about the right of

egarucu as GC,...
he Judge, in his address to the Jury ' observed, that they
heard a very eloquent and powerfulitarangue in favour bf
defendant, and the Learned Counsel had dune his duty io
:Rent: it was the duty of the Ju'ry, to.consut 'the justice of
country. The I-earned Counsel hvd• asked, Whether -what
innocent at Westminster should
.be criminal at LitiCain?
(the Judge) did nut wish to spec disrespettfull y Juries,--
,of Jurics,
, he might be permitted to siai plat the eintlernen he then
reseed were nut to -be bpll: Vy.tl4. cotglucs 'of MI tither
(, and he thought thent:t 4
1.11 cOmPetept as thieretlired
t Westminster, o forM alhst ifdginelit in the matter W.-Might
ge them. " am soy.cy," sdtdstr Oebige Wooil; to say,
we live in ap age whein the ll* :of thel refs !host
Idalously ahusvd, and. lits4ll4 Is tiecurrie a tra44.l2lViblent
inflamnvtqy expression, he' added,'tere:,tiOt t'obe'riiixed
with discussion, and to Oils tinder the •eldirot 'feeling
the public good. Let the:. Jtiry, examito;Othe puhlie4tion
)re them, mat see whether any gOod Mutivelould retisbnably
muposecl,.to haye *uated.tbe.wrifer. It wasioiliitfti4red
.Ink ad