The Sun.
London, England, 1803-02-21 00:00:00

Ile to relate, ha'd found Mc way into some Public
Scholl's, and several. Schools of
,young'
Ladies, and eve't among. snine very honourable
private fatuities ; .n,a the course he, pnrsu:d was
this, he carried with him a number of prints ut a
perfectly harmless nature, such as landscapes, birds,
&c. arid if these were not purchased, which indeed
-he did not wish, bur Ladies, as they but too often,
,did, asked if he had any humorous prints, and
same hang funny, as they called it, be shelved them
, .thebe ,aborninable.pkturcs, and he too often pro..
'cured purchasers---a Lady, after having looked at
such an exhibition, almost standing pledged to buy
it. ' Thus had it bappened in,many cases, and many
persons whose realties he knew very well, had been
in this situation, but Ire would not mention them,
because it must distress very worthy families. Titis
wan's detestable traffic became, at lase, known to
the Society for the Suppresion of Vice, and they
direaed their Agent to endeavour to find him our,
'and to purchase of him some of his most wicked
..publications, for the impose of bringing him
'forward in ti Court of Justice, and 'a trap was laid
for him and-he was caught in it, and here he was
to answer for his misdeeds. fie had heard it said,
some time ago, that this was an unfair course, and
that a man thus treated, was not a fit subjel of
prosecution, because he was tempted to do the thing
• for which he was prosecuted : if indeed he were an
innocent man, pressed by poverty, and another
person planned a crime for him to commit, which
he was not in the habit of committing, and be. fell
sa vinitti to the temptation, arid then the person
who tempted him, fur the mere purpose of pre.
irailing upon him (an innocent man before) to corn.
mit the crime, with the mere%view of making a
sacrifice of him afterwards, and his seducer .came

forward afterwards to destroy hitn, by his evidence,
such a perbon ought not to he heard in a Court of
justice, as the accuser of a person who was inno.
cent until he'seduced him ; but to apply this to the
case of a man who bad been in the habit of Com.

Inittilig the crime of ?which he was accused, and
who only happened to be caught in the snare laid
for his own previous guilt, wap nothing more than
stark staring mad nonsense. It was not innocence
tempted and betrayed, but guilt detected by art,
in this case ; and this he Relied to the case of a
person going out in a post-chaise upon -Fitichley
Common, for the purpose of being attacked. by an
highwayman, who had committed many depreda.
lions there before, and for the purpose of either
blowing out the brains of, or of raking such an
highwayman, In this case the Agent of the So.
cicty went in search of this Defendant, and found
him; bargained with him for some of his abominty.
ble prints. In the course of their conversation,
she Defendant said, if he was permitted to go on
without interruption, he should plaice at large for.
tune s an appointment was then made between the
Defendant and this Agent, for' the purpose of getting
sonic of the very worst, who told him he would
get him customers for whole sets of them, and then,
by his Appointment, met him at a publit.house,
whete.two Officers of the Police bought also some
.of his most diabolical prints and book, and told
him that 0.1 would take him to a Captain Brown,
who wanted a whole lief 'of his publications to go
to India ; ,upon which the Defendant went with

them,. and was not aware whither he was going,
until he arrived at the Public Office, where he was
detained, and his port-folio preserved, in which
were contained a 'vast number of these diabolical
works'. When chili, case was )iroved by evidence,.
jvir. GARAOW said, he should demand of the justice
of the Jury a verdia of guilty.
The fads appeared in evidence most clearly as
they were opened.
Mr. &LEY addressed the jorih on behalf of the
Defendant, and although he was ready to ado,it the
:pure and honourable motives of the Society for the
disenuragement of vice anti immorality, yet. he
' ventured to doubt that these proceedings would have
the circa which they intended to
,produce ; on the
contrary, by rendering these vices notorious all
over the Country, Many: persons would become
familiar with them, and some might be led even to
commit them, who, but, for these Prosecutions,
might have never known such things ever had
existence : he inclined rather to think the better
course would be to leave theni to their solitude
anti privacy, and to the stings of a conscience which
must for ever haunt the guilty. 'He endeavoured
to cast discredit on the testimony of the Agent of
the Society,' who had given evidence of his having
entrapped the Defendant into the sale of these
Prints and Books to him, and who was interested,
perhaps; in theie convi(tiuns, becauie he had 'a sa..
lacy which might be discontinued unless he brought
out a Conviiiion, ?Ice. and hinted that this species of
proceeding, by a combination of men tigainsusingte
individuals, was something like what the Law i3t
hibited tinder the head of 44 I\fainteriance ;". from
these, anti 'other considerations, he submitted
CHI the Jury would acquit his Client.
Lord ELL t0i0R00(7.41 male a short address to
the. Jury, in which his Lordship observed, that this
was „au Indiammu against the Defendant, Baptista
Bariazzi, for publishireg an obscene Libel,, the con-
tents of which Were stated. on the Record, and
which it was not necessary to have heard, except
so much as shewed the tendency of the Publication,
and indeed, his Lordship said, that he_ himself had
looked over no, More of it than was necessary in the
dibeliarge of his duty, tcl,enable him to tell the Jury
bis opinion of the toltieliey of the Publication,
which was Stated an the Record ; he Was repelled
from looking' at Mitch of it by that di3gust, whidt
every moral mind most feed. Elt, had, however, resod
enough of ir to coaliled to tell tte Jury that it was a
vary obscene the Publisher of which tle,c;erved
ponisluocrt,fropt 'the Conti., in case the jury should
tintl that,the Deferidantpnblished it, which was the

ttjaterit,i, cioctitton, Ilie of the poblicaticit
re3teifoti the credit .which thershould give to the
r',Aent of the Sociery,, and dart wa4 bobjeft to the
t•t:te.r%'-,ations lit' tie Gcntietnart who had just sat
•• • 4, • • . . _

Jowl), for :tat he might be s.aio Eck 410 this for fiis hire ;
hot flit 1/C Was vontittritil essentially by the .other
Witriestes,, the. Polic:e Ofiicers, to Whom the Pi,.

trrufavit's own Colimagave cre;ii,r 41 the trios; ma.
itriA part of thf-,.. Cihe. By this, it appeared, that

Defendant went about' the Country with his
port-folio, and that, very improperly, he had had
access to hoarding schools. That at first he pro:.
duced prints of an innocent nature, such as land-
napes, and upon being asked. for game, he made a
literal compliance with the word it game," and
exhibited piatires of '' pheasants and partridges ;"
but, on being 'asked for any thing of humour,: he
took that as a signal for exhibiting those abominable
Prints, which thejuryhad seen, , anti which it must
be painful for them to look at, but it was necessary,
and they had endured it.----Now, if the Jury be-
lieved the Agent of the Society, the Defendant was
in the habitual traffic of this abominable tpecies'of
publication, and that. he himself' hail said, if he
should he 'permitted to go on Withimt interruption,
[God fihbid he should] he should soon make a large
tontine. This was a very fit sobjea ofProsecu.
0011. A 9 to Maintehance,,which was hinted at by
the Learned Gentleman :who was Counsel for the'
Defendant, his Lordship could only say, that if any
thing', Ithat kind was,imputable to this Society, it
might be brought forward in a legal shape ; and, if
they had conduefeti themselves in any manner con-
trary to Law; he should deliver his opinion against
them without any. reference whatever toe the esteem
he had for their moral good harader or virtuous
intention ; but in all that appeared in these 'Prose-
cutions, the Gentlemen of this Society were so far
from having committed a breach of the Law, that
they had dote what the Law required,-they had
taken up pests' of the Community, and had thereby
done much towards .preventing 'a foul contagion
among the Public,'so that ' they deserved the thanks
of every virtuous man in the Community in'which
we lived. I his Lordship concluded with obseiving,
that if the Jury believed the evidence, (and he
thought he had been able to coiled their opinion
upon that Matter,) they wtiuld find the Defendant
Guilty.—What punishment be was to receive would
be for the consideration of the Court, when he
should be brought up to'.receive Judgment.
The jury found the Defendant—Guilty.
Mr. Gmutow said, that whatever might have
been his purpose when he carne into' Court this
mornicg, he should
,noW insist on having this
fendant tried upon .another Inditiment ; and he felt
that he owed no apology to any body for calling
upon the Jury fora second conviction of this man on
a second Indiftment—and he should, in the event of
that second conviction, feel it his duty to call
,for a
second punishment.—He felt that this was a' mo.
mehtous.subjetl, and deserved the serious attention,
it now met with ; he.was glad of the treatment it.
met with from the Noble and Learned judge upon
the Bench. Such sentiments, from such authority,
would have their weight with the Public, to, tvhoin
they were most interesting, and so far was he from
desiring those Gentlemen who communicated pro.
ceedings of the
,Court to the Public through' the,
channel of Newspapers,. to abstain from reporting
these Cases, that he desired, he entreated, he prayed,
he implored them to publish every syllable which
was uttered by the Chief Justice of England on this
most important occasion, a correa report of which
would be of incalculable value to the Public ;
what he took'the liberty of suggesting was, that
they should abstain 'from that sort of report
which might give information how anti where these
most diabolical publications might be had, a sug.
gestic))) which :he had every reason to believe would
be attended to. He then proceeded to vindicate the'
condul of the Society : in answer to the, observations
of Mr. ALL'S', he observed, 'that this Society
was a combination of honourable men to check the
growth of die greatest evil that ever yet afflided
society, that 'of a Conspiracy of a few to eradicate
from the minds of Youth, all, regard for moral pre.
cept, and to lead them to' premature indulgences
that disturbed
,the ecohortty of nature, an evil of
Which it
,wasquite impossible to conceive the mag.
nitude or effect, if suffered to spread. To prevent
that spieading of incalculable evil; the Society was
formed, and they had adapted for their Motto, the
words of a very eloquent man, not now,among us,
Mr. Burke, who bad, said, " When wicked men
Combine, 'good men must associate." He then pro.
ceecied to state' the case upon.thia Indidment, which
was that of selling another of the same sort of Prints
to oiled the Officers of the Police, which was proved
by the same evidence as in the former case.
Lord li:Ltastaottoucir observed, that he was
called upOn to give his opinion on the Libel ,nosy
before the Jury, and that -opiniim was such as he
was assured was the 'opinion of themselves, and of
every moral peeson 'who had the pain to see it, or
to hear a description of it ; that it was an abomina.
ble pririti an obieene and infamotts Libel, as stated
by the indidment, and that if the Jury believe() the
eVtdence, they would find' the Defendant guilty.
As to the Mode'in which these trials were concluded,
his Loidship observed, that it did credit: to the
Counsel for the Defendatt, tollaye foreborn to in.
sent on having the Libel read, a course in which,
however diStressing to auditori, he would have been
warranted by law. "it could not have been of, any
use to his Client, nor would' it have been benefici:4
to the Public to have the Libel lead, His Lord.
ship observed also, that thOse persons who attended
Courts fur the purpose of communicating what
passed in them' to the Public by, means of Daily
Papers, would have abiniiined from stating any
the noxious parts of these Libels if they had
been read, he was persuaded, they Would have
done so, from die manner in which they attended to
a late admonition, on another very late and serious
Subjed [the State Trials in the Borough]. They
would have attended too muds' to their duty as
moral men,, to publish such scenes, so that his Lord.
ship entertained no apprehension that the event of .
these Trials would he in any degree.disadvantageous.
to Society. There was' one 'point to which hiS
Lordship: bad omitted to advert in the forthei trial,
which he Would take notice of in this.,-.that °flay-
ing at trap for the Defendant to commit thii offence,
anti then giving evidence against him by the persist));
who had laid that tr; tp. 7 'Die law upon that point
was this : if a pet•son who was innocent before, and
from. his poverty, or the pressure of any circuit)-
stance, watt ensnared into the cornimssion of a crime,
plotted and designed lq another ; and that he was
persuaded ley that' other to commit it, far the put. s