The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-12-13 00:00:00

PROTESTS.
....--

The =Mason who have signed the following
protests derarve, and will have the thauks of every
rellecting_ganiet. for the stand they make against
a series of the most severe edicts ever offered to
the Parliament of this or any other country.
mons or LORDS, Sac. I.
seerruns visa emu— reeves: nartinoN or

Mowed to inert " with intent •to excite bib
Kojesty's subjects to subvert by violeoce the Go-
venuesdt by law established." It wee resolved in
Iles negative.

llkessarnmov.
lat. Became the mime of unkwhil li-
bels has, accenting to the pendia law,
embrand various offences. Mlbeight_ 11111111110,
as well their degrees of tiger, 6.011 the
wilful and predetermined gunge tbn eelPel writer
sad radiator, to the rieirdsdnee, end iometinies
eve, to the inevitable *memo tithe p.arty who
bee been deemed guilty by es
in respect
of his peaugary interest in tie podesidism. or his
mere civil relation to the one pshisher; and it
thereinto seems just and aoMmery, that where a
discretionary punishment of isereased severity is to
bean:led. it should be cosalodto that species of
libel, which, both in its annual tendency, and in
the motive of the publidiir, exhibits the highest
do=of seefignity.
Bemuse the most effectual, if not the only
mode of amomplishleg this object, is to introduce
into the statute, and consequently into the indict-
ment or tobrmadent proceeding upon it, a precise
Minden of the erime which it is intended to pre-
treat by the edionan and alteration of the punish-
ment:
By such mean alone can juries, in the first in-
*lgoe. bd .ippleed of the particular character of
the eines iispelled to the defendant, or can the •
Judge ban a ands vule-to distinguish the cases
in which his discallarary power is to be exercised.
•fistl,yo *wee without mush exact definition as
bit boas. nistrlsil, le possible that Judges, as
will as Jerks, may, apes dent ocesains, differ
very widely se to the sminoloc of the word sedi-
lisoi, and thereby islroduce into the administra-
te. of a penal law an eneertabity which is at all
OMB MI on, but which is particularly mischievous
stilion the law is wary
Hotwoi, Cowrie,
was. Roseau,
lasestowic. MISTO,
Cansreaves, Gaosvasea.
MOO. LACD6II,4“,
Innen Teasurr.
Jams+. ADC[

11101011401111111111.1112.1.-4MILOTINT AGAINST 53:01111111111N T.
ROMA to leave Get the word (Banished):
• 14. was reserved in the negative.
OMMISIMMT.
•
Ist. Became the introduction of banishment in I
the present Bill seems to es a wanton and dangerous
meat. That peeishment hes been hitherto 1
awrinown to the law of Ragland, and on the present
occasion there has beep no proof shown of its ne-
cessity, nor doe examination bad of its consequences.
So malarial an hisontion on a system of images,
statutes, and maxims, established without reference
to may such punishment, may, by analogies and in-
ference 4 of law, affect the rights of the exiles sad
their deseendstity in a manner not foreseen by the
authors of the Bill, nor in the contemplation of the
Legislature that enacts it.
2ndly. Because banishment, from its very nature
a punishment of unequal severity in different cases,
may be rendered doubly so by the favour or enmity
attic Sovereigns, to whose dominions the exiles
would most naturally resort. We doubt the justice
of subjecting an Englithman. el en when convicted
of a political offence against the Rulers of his own
country, to the capricious will or arbitrary laws of
a foreign Government ; and we question the policy
of teaching men of active spirits and turbulent de-
signs., to look to foreign favour f tie: mitigation ,
of their lot, on the miscarriage r,f their enterprires I
at home. Observation of what k going on around
u.--retlection on what his taken place in past times
—strengthen these con-ider-tions. The present
situation of Europe afFirds us no assurance that the
power of one sovereign nisi). not he rendered sub-
WI'S it tit to the ve:,,:eance of another: and the his-
tory of free S:ates, modern as well as ancient, ad-
nietishes us, that nothing has a more direct ten-
dewy to ietreiluce foreign influence and foreign in-
terferecce iu the inku mil affairs of a country than
the baiiisLustut of tate delingllCtitS.
t.LA ROSILTN,
143111,11. Cowres,
llsoroan,
Januar,

LAUDEILDA 1.
.

*I at• ST INS PASENG OF INS SSD/VOUS LIIIIL DILL.
Moved that this Bill do pass.

Dlyssiertssr,
Cur the reasons assigrcil in the Protest on the
Of t•nd reading of thi,
%lie, because, feeling, as I (10, a just abhorrence
ni the mischief of eirculuting blasphemous writings.
1 am persuuiled that the prevalence of such libels
will not be diminished by the provisions of this

Bin.
Because I cc.r.sider, also, that in the present dis-
limbed and distracted state of the country, meuures
of extreme severity are little calculated torus tore con-
fidence to an irritated and suffering people, and that
the increased measure of punishment kir the repeti-
tion of the offence of " composing, pr:nting, or pub-
lishing" what are termed seditious libels, is incon-
sistent with the genuioe spirit of the English Com-
Afitifition, sod inealcieut for the object which it
Mawas to bays in view. By:01W.

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Slt• MS.
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0 Flawing .
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