The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-08 00:00:00

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, FEB 7.

(Before Mr. Baron VAUGUAN and a Special Jury.)
UNSTAM PRO PUBLICATIONS,--T FIE ATTORNEY-GENERAL

D. C. PENNY.
Mr. SHEPHERD, for the prosecution, stated that this
W 39 an information filed by the Attorney-General against

Charles Penny, for having printed and published a news
paper called the People's Police Gazette, without

having paid the stamp-duty, and entered the necessary

affidi;it.at the Stamp Office, describing himself as the
printer and publisher of the paper, both which evasions

were a violation of the Act of Parliament, and subject to
the consequent penalties. It would perhaps, the Learned
Counsel continued, be endeavoured to show that this

publication was not a newspaper; but he would prove, on
the authority of Dr. Johnson's definition of a newspaper,
that it was one in every respect. That learned person
stated that a "Newspaper, under the third sense of news.
is a paper which gives an account of the transactions of
the present time." Now, the paper in question, in one
of its columns, gave information under the heads of
"Middlesex Sessions," " Police, " " Adelphi Theatre,"
" A Row in a Chapel"—(Laughter)—&c, &c. ; and, with
the exception of its being deficient in a leading article,
was in every sense a newspaper, and in opposition to the
spirit and meaning of the Act of Queen Anne, regulating
newspaper duties. The Learned Gentleman having re-
ftrred to the various other Acts relating to the stamp
duties, &c., in connection with newspapers, called
Mr. John Hawker, a clerk in the office of the solicitor

of stamps, who deposed that he had purchased the first
number of the paper, date, 17th of August, at the de-
fendant's shop ; and that he had subsequently seen the
defendant in the solicitor's department of the Stamp Office,
for the purpose of executing a bond engaging to defray the
advertisement duty on all advertisements appearing in the
paper; which duty it was proved he had paid, by Mr.
John Franks, Sub-Registrar in the Advertising Duty
Department. This witness further deposed, that the de.
fendant entered into a conversation with bins respecting
his liability to proceedings, on the ground of his not com-
plying with the obligations of the Stamp Act; and said,
that "he would abide the issue, for his paper, of which
he was then selling 15,000 copies a week, was too good a
thing to be given up."
Mr. Tilsley, chief cltrk in the office of the s tlicitor of
stamps, deposed, that he examined the Oise where affi-
davit, such as that which the Act required the defendant
to mate, are kept, and that there was no affidavit in the
office, in his name, on the subject.
Mr. FOLLETT, who cross-examined the witnesses, now
addressed the Jury on behalf of the defendant, and said,
:hat the real question in the case was, " whether the
publication came within the meaning of the Statute or
not." He knew nit who instituted this prosecution, nor
for what motive it was instituted ; for it was clear the
revenue must lose by the suppression of the papa in
question : it was in evidence that its number of advertise-
ments was very large, and the duty on each being 1 s. 6d.,
the loss must be very considerable ; and on this ground
alone he could hardly suppose that Isis Majesty's Govern-
ment would act with so much apathy towards the public
interest. He could have hardly thought that it would
show itself so inimical to the unrestrained circulation of
the present kind of paper amongst the lower orders of the
people. Tile defendant, he would show, now publishes
no less than six of those cheap publications, every one of
them containing advertisements, by which tlie revenue
profits much. He was allowed to publish, the duty was
taken from him on his advertisements, and now he is pro-
ceeded against. His (Mr. Follett's) Learned Friend hod
said he bad referred to Dr. Johnson's Dictionary for a de•
finition of the word " News ;" that, be must say, was
not very good authority on such a subject; the proper
authority would have been the Act of Parliament itself.
the Learned Counsel then referred to The Journal of the
Royal Society, Blackwood's Magazine, The Literary
Gazette, The Law Chronicle, and Legal Observer,
and, in a particular manner, to The Legal t. bserver, as
coming as much within the meaning of the Act relating to
newspapers as the paper in question, and yet (he would
not be und-rstood to wish it) no prosecution was insti-
tuted against them. From The Legal L'aminer he read
several paragraphs, which caul-1 not, be contended, but be
considered as information, such as " Mr. 13 trnwall, Re-
porter of the Kitig's Bench, is about to retire ;" " Mr.
Baron Bayley, it is ►aid, will soon retire ; and the Attor-
ney-General, Mr. Sergeant Spankie, &c. &e. are men-
tioned as candidates for the judicial seat.—(A laugh.)
The Attorney-General, we are credibly informed, has de-
clined the honour." Now all this was information. The
Art under which this prosecution was brought was passed in
1793—a period when there was a strong spirit of opposi-
tion to the constitution of the country, and a disposition
to overturn its settled institutions. Much was then feared
from the introduction of foreign politics, to which that
Act alluded ; but in the present paper there was not an
allusion to foreign politics—there was no allusion to Minis-
ters—no allusion to Parliament—nothing, in fact, that

relates to the affairs of Government in Church or State,
in domestic or in foreign politics. The 38th of Geo. 111.

enacted, that " no un;tanlped newspaper or paper ebould

print cr publish any news, intelligence, or occurrences."
Now, he would ask the jury if those words, in their mean.
ing, had not a reference to the affairs of Government? And
if the publication of Police, Law Courts, and Courts of
Aldermen, intelligence and accidents, with which the
paper in question was filled, could be supposed to have
any such meaning ? Mark (continued the Learned Gen-
tleman) besides the above, the sort of news it contained ;
" Account of a Court-martial," " Captain Ross's wel-

come back," " The Adelphi Theatre," " A Row in a
Chapel."—(Laughter.) An action, he recollected, was
broaght some time ago against a cheap publication, and
the strong hold of the defence then was, that there was
nothing relating to foreign politics or domestic occur-
renc,s contained in it. Lord Lyndhurst, however, before
whom the case was tried, observed that there were letters
in it addressed to the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert
Peel, and other distinguished characters, which had a
political bearing, and a verdict was therefore returned
against the publisher. In this paper there was not, as he
said before, anything that could justify a verdict against
the publisher. Government, then, if resolved to suppress
such publications, would have to pass a special Act of
Parliament for the purpose. He would refer the Jury,
in addition to the publications he had before quoted, to
the following, which were equally liable to prosecution as
the present paper—namely, The Penny Magazine,
issued by the " Society for the diffusion of Useful Know-
ledge," of which the present Lord Chancellor is Presi-
dent, to The Mechanics' Magazine, and to The Spec.
tator. They all contained news and intelligence.
Mr. 13aron VAUGHAN—Da they contain such news as
is set forth in this paper ? I fancy not.
Mr. FOLLETT resumed—And having urged the harm-
lessness of the present paper, said that the newspapers of
this country, when the Act in question was passtd, were

. -
what the newsparrs of the Continent now are, contain.

. . _
ing—not accounts of police or accidents—but comments
on the political state and political events of the country.
lie hoped, in conclusion, for the sake of the defendant,
and of all those who had, like him, embarked their capital
In publications of this sort—that the Jury would acquit
him ; and he begged of them to bear in mind, that there
was no sedition in the publication i and th it nothing had
been pointed out in it by his Learned Friend reflecting in
the least on his Majesty's Government.
Mr. StromErtn, in his reply referred to the statement
of his Learned Friead, Mr. Follett, " that Government
would be a loser by the suppres•iou of this paper ;" but
lie (Mr. Shepherd) would put the question in this shape
—namely, it was in evidence that the defendant had stated
his weekly sale of the paper to be 5,000 copies; which, at
tourpence a stamp for each, would on a calculation yield
a sum of 2501. a week; and would this, he would ask,
be nothing to Government ?
The Learned Judge summed up ; and having referred
p e,,p leH,s i
sapAnotilalii.ceresatny
Gazetteot thus utisie:
0::
to the various Acts of Parliament passed on the subject,
drew the attention of the Jury to the following article ;
which, his Lordship observed, notwithstanding it had
been urged that the paper did not contain anything of a
political bearing, was as strongly marked for its political
meaning, as anything he had ever read. It was an
t Saturday
h is moonstricken
on
..st Evening,ri cke n Half.pa r..
allusion to the King's Speech at the last prorogation of
parliament,
haeincopf:rotfhethsehoSopteiencghsdee:.
past Ten.—We have just received (by express) from our cor-
ril
iiov,isinepro:iiidtb_eyn(tir,,::::: et:l:nip:hoer
olNgluoionng,
t'
son. As the names of persons, places, and cities in the Moon,
would be unintelligible to our readers, we have taken the
liberty of altering them into names better known i but we beg
of our readers not for one instant to suppose that we hereby

mean to make any allusion to the political affairs of this country,
a subject from which we are excluded by the absence of a

stamp.
" Ml* LORDS AND GENTLEMEN—When I first called you
together, I told you that you would have most important busi-
ness to get through, and you certainly have got through it.-
-(A laugh.) The manner in which you have discharged the
duties intrusted to you, the thorough humbug displayed by all
parties, the gentlemanly manner in which you have swindled
my subjects of their money, and the great power you have dis-
played in leaving things no better than you found them, I can
never sufficiently admire.' "
The article concluded as follows :

" In the next Session I hope you will repeal that humbug
the Habeas. Corpus Act.—(Much laughter.) Upon my soul I I
am very much obliged to you for the Supplies and Civil List, and
will do my best to spend all I can get. Your vote of 70,0001. to
furnish Buckingham Palace, which you have declared uninha-
bitable, is a sure proof of your wisdom and economy.'"
" Such was the speech of his Majesty of the Moon.—
(Laughter.) It only remains for us to say, that scoundrel,
swindler, and other hard words, which in our language bear an
opprobrious signification, are, in the language of the moon,

titles of high distinction."
His LORDSHIP commented strongly on the above speech,
and said that the publications between which and that in
which it appeared, a comparison had been drawn, never
contained anything of the kind, and were perfectly inno-
cent in comparison with it. Publications of this descrip-
tion, his Lordship continued, were like "smuggled goods,"
an injury to the fair trader, who was undersold by them
in the market. He implored the Jury, then, to dismiss
all political feeling from their minds, and to remember
tint they were upon their oaths, in which case he was
sure they would act fairly and impartially in determining
their verdict,
The Jury conferred shortly together, and returned a
verdict for the Crown.
His Loansuur then recommended the Counsel for the
Crown to be content with the penalties
on
th on the
one counts
selected to proceed upon, which are,
201., and on the other 100/.
Counsel consented.