Star.
London, England, 1823-02-25 00:00:00

THE KING V. WILLIAM BENBOW.

This was an indictment for publishing a wicked,
filthy, and obscene Libel, in an old French Novel.
Mr. GURNEY, in opening the case for the prosecu-
tion, abstained from reading the passages of the s‘ ork
in question, which-were the subject of prosecution,
on account, he said; of their abominable lewdness and
obscenity. He even forbore to mention the name of
the work, which was a translation from the French,
and, to the honour of the country, was not composed
by an Englishman. .
The work has been published in sixpenny numbers
by the defendant, who keeps a stirall book shop in
Castle-street, Leicester-square.
' Two persons named Rigman, father and son, agents
of the Vice Society, proved the sale of the work, con-
sisting of four volumes, with plates, from which vari-
ous isolated passages were selected and set out on the
record. The greater number of these passages were
considered so offensive that they were not read, but
copies of the work were banded to the Jury for their
private inspection. The remainder of the passages
were afterwards publicly read, to save the time of the
Court. —The case for the prosecution being closed,
Mr. PHILLIPS, Counsel for the defendant, urged
the folly, and even.wickedness, of prosecutions of this
nature, which .had a necessary tendency to bring into
notice, and to disseminate works of this description,
which, even supposing them to be vicious and ob-
scene, would pass unnoticed but for this advertising
medium, which gave a keenness to public appetite,
but too prone to gratifications of this sort. He dwelt
upon the hardship of the defendant's situation, who
was thus exposed to the persecution of a body of
nameless individuals, who-set themselves up as cen-
sors of public morals and manners. He denied that
these persons really did any public good by their of-
ficious interference with the humbler classes of so-
tiety. Indeed, the firm persuasion of his mind was,
that their squeamish sensitiveness, with regard to
obscure publications of this nature, tended directly
to the demoralization of the lower orders, by giving
lbo. toriety to works which would remain unknown to
all but those whose vitiated taste induced them to
seek out in privacy means of satiating their appetites.
jf the Vice Society really wished to effect a refor-
mation in public morals and manners, they ought to
give their labours a more exalted scope, by attacking
I the vices of the great, whose example was infinitely
I more prejudicial to the lower orders than the puny
influence of a poor hungry pamphlet-seller, living in
an obscure corner of the metropolis. The Learned
Counsel proceeded to read some of the passages of
'the alleged libel, which had for twenty years passed
unnoticed,'and contended that the Jury in the ex-
ercise of their good sense, and liberal consider-
ation.of the case, could not pronounce them libelous.
Even the slightest doubt, in a case of this descrip-
tion, must Operate as an acquittal of the defendant;
a resale which *ould be attended with public benefit,
by allaying the intercity Of appetite which must be
'generated for a work of this description, if declared, by
ibe verdict of a Jury,to be wicked, filthy,and obscene.
.1 The LORD CHHti Justice summed up the case for
Ltbi iry, and iitvi It as -his opinion in '{ioint -of . law,
Shut this seas ta obscene pablieatiOn; but left it to them
to exercise their Own- judgment thion-the. subject.
- The',Jnry united for some time, and on their re-4
turn found the,defoodant Guilty.
1. . .
'iii eci .
; . 020E91.'0 *MON rums, mat ay* 24. :
itavirts-O. wiriditirs:. ' . •
• `. .16:-Setffifft TA ptif steddl: that *it' waiiiiihiettbis.'.
Or thiver 6.6 rongbt agisitist=ilWilefea.sitr;• to Yeabieif
1 tome !articles belong mg- its, 'die- . Siaiutiffs 'llho. *its
forrnekly.Captaid of this ship 70hyri -Which vessel
had p.n
d been.rcbasel by the defendant. These articles'
,hie nor Intltided Ili die "ifide ;-fiut on ' 'Schuler idetiftt.
oilsdier ibt:diftiattitit••ebtise-ta•i;trihr illelii.. 7 They'
ifttishiedif ii istiSty' Of illiegVilsefdl to 11:14e4tairst;

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