The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-03-29 00:00:00

Ti!E STAMSMA/Vt

0.11 THE FREEDOM OF
SSPEECH .AND
THE PRES..

To THE rniioit OF THE STATESMAN.
sia,—Coasidering your valuable publication to be
solely devoted to the cause of liberty, I conceive that
in efort. however small, to promote and extend that
inestimable blessing will be overlooked by you, or
y the friends of freedom ; permit me, therefore, to
;der a few remarks on the restraints which are im-
,osed on Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of the
•ros its this twisted land of liberty. The first thing
Fike suggests itself to me on this subject, is that the i
is not under the regulation of any law,
;.it its freedom is neither sanctioned nor forbidden
any &sting statute, but they depend entirely
;en the views and si isliee of the existing Govern-
neut. In a country which prides itself on 'its laws,
aa she administration of them, this is a singular
eicamstance, and ought to lessen our confidence in
)ar superiority over other nations ; for in America
there is no restraint on the Liberty of the Press, and
iren in France it is subject only to a previous licence;
oh:..h, though snore degrading to liberty, is not so
in,..overrient to individuals ei the permission to print ;
lost is to be subject to' an arbitrary interpretation !
oils, reed by heavy penalties.
only Statutes n hich can, by any construction
I:iaterer, be converted into a definition of libel, are
elite obsolete laws on spreading false news, tending
to the scandals= magnalune, or defaming the great
no of the realm, 3 EDW. I. c, 34, 2 Rien. IL
I. c. 5, It EACH. 11. C. II ; but these Statutes re.
;anl speech more than writing, and they expressly I
require that the tales told shall be false be-
roe they can be punishable. " Counterfeiters of ;
lulsc ne...s and horrible lies, those who tell
en false thin;s of Prelates, Lords, and others, afore-
;aid," and the indictments grounded upon these sta-
twesrvressly state that the speeches and writings
are face, scandalous, and malicious, which words
wsre lel vory lately conceived to constitute the es- i
sem of a libel. All the law that exists upon the
:!j,ct requires that a libel should be false, but by i
Jae decisions of Judges and the interpretations of
Lawyers, that salutary pi ()vision is removed, and;
it is now held, that a libel need not be false; but that
the essence of a libel is its truth. A doctrine'
rare dangerous to morality, to liberty, and even to
;or.d Government, is ould not have been devised by
he most arbitrary T) rant, nor any thing more cal-
misted to effect the subversion of liberty in a free •
fate ; and were there not some restraints upon this
latonable doe:lice in the controul of public opinion,
and in an Assembly vs here Freedom of Speech is not
oterly prohibited, such is its nature and tendency,
eat the liberties of Englishmen would not be worth
ix mouths' purchase. It is my earnest wish to- de-
Imamate as clearly as I feel it myself, the great
hanger and inconvenience of the present state of the
law as it regards Freedom of Speech and Printing,
lad to show that no harm can poisibly result either
to individuals or the public from the utmost liberty
bf speaking and printing—none at least in comps-
eson with the evil; which at present result from the
restraints to which these acts are subjected. It may
Ne said, that this is chimerical and impracticable in
lily regular Government ;—to this I reply by one
arcing and unanswerable fact, that the liberty I con-
tend for exists in America. The Lawyers, whenever
they are at a toes for a statute, tell us that such and
such things are offences at Common Law—but what is
Common Law, and whence does it arise 2—Either
from tradition, or from the decisions of Judges.—
That truth is a libel, is not to be found in the former,
.annot be denied ; that the latter is an unjust and a
.iatigerous foundation Fur law, is equally undeniable ;
eel it is a maxim established by our ancestors, that
tin office of a Judge is not to make but to pronounce
es law. That the offence of libel, as it is at pre-

di :kited, exists at Common Law, I defy any
I.ia:er to prove ; because, before the invention of
fomosi librlli, or defamatory books, were
not very common ; and though they are no-
by IlitActow, yet by their very title they
::;';use calumny and defamation, the est:!nce of
14lich is falsehood and not truth ; for no man
tin be calumniated by being told of what he has
7-cle.C.ly done, however offensive it may be to his
l"elinas ; but we are told by the lawyers, that such
1!‘ offetwe, even when caused by truth, is punishti
able as tending to a breach of the peace, by (melting
ra;sions of the person offended, and stinaplliing.
revenge himself by violent means.-:4o'.
" 'cl'i l.aw of Libcl.)—Monstrous construction,
pry, verb' every principle of reason and'.
%%Lich considers men as easily provoked
children, and lessee them unrestrained in the
commission of vice and immorality, for what
;.r.-ter restraint can there be on these enozmi-
.." than the fear of public censure? what more
'!cable supplement can be found to the law
"'eland, than the correction of a Free Press for
crimes which elude the technical accuracy of
t.. 0 law, arid may dread no other punishment than
public scorn and indignation ? Remove this check,
,11(1 you give to every man who can pay for the de-
..Tee of his reputation, a licence to be as profligate
he pleases, without censure or controul. o
lose who believe in the omnipotence of truth, few
arguments will be requisite to prove that it can
orer be injured by calumny,---but that being al-
'"%rd to defend itself by its own natural force,
will ultimately repel and confound all the
of defaMation and falsehood ; and to those
"" are not to be convinced by arguments it must be
••:.1e(1 by facts, that the Government of America,
r its late and present Presidents, has been assailed
of the most malicious and mischievous ten.
yet it has not suffered the slightest degree
omionion in the affections of the people, nor
"" the two tnagnanimees individuals placed at

its head, either lost their own reputation or
the public confidence. That this should happen
in a Republican Government, where every thing
is freely discussed and examined, may perhaps not
be so much a matter of surprises; but even in
a despotic empire, we have seen a high-minded Prince
despise the paltry efforts of calumny and falsehood,
and trust his reputation to its own strength.—
AUGUSTUS is said never to have punished any one for
a libel, but to have dismissed him with a gentle re-
proof, or treated him with silent contempt.—Among
the Many evils arising from the decisions of Judges
constituting the law of Libel, it is not the least that
such a law must be changeable or uncertain. In the
early periods of our history, truth was not deemed a
libel, and fAlsehnotl constituted its essence ; from the
time of the Star Chamber to the present day, it has been
gradually advancing, and seems now completely este-
Wished ; and for a Monarchy no doctrine can be more
convenient,for it shields the conduct and character ofall
its agents from censure and exposure; but in a Republic
where every act of the Government and the Governors
is essentially submitted to examination, there is no
need of any such protecting power, and it would in
the end subvert the institution it was intended to
shield from enquiry. Next to the power of the
Judges to make the law, no powel. in a free monarchy
can be more dangerous to the liberty of the subject
then the power of theATTORNET•GENBRAL, to accuse
whom he pleases, without being subject to any respon.
sibility for the abuse of his discretion. That this
power is not essentially requisite, nor even in any
degree requisite to protect the servants of a Monarch,
tor the Monarch himself, from public exposure, is
evident from the date of its origin ; for our Mo.
narcy existed in some of our best reigns without it,
and even the industry of a prerogative lawyer
cannot derive it higher than the Star Chamber.--
It has, however, been shown in various in-
stances so inconvenient and oppreisive to the sub-
ject, and so arbitrary on the part of the Crown,
that while it exists, our liberty must be un-
safe and incomplete. No Government and no indi-
sidual that acts fairly, virtuously, and honestly, need
fear being libelled or calumniated ; truth is the ene-
my of nothing but falsehood and vice, and whoever
is afraid of having his actions examined and even re-
probated, has some reason for that fear. A libel can
never injure a good cause, nor a good man ; it is
only to protect vice and corruption that truth can be
declared a libel—and he that shrinks from enquiry,
virtually confesses his guilt. Let facts be opposed
by facts, and calumny by truth, and there can be
little doubt which will gain the victory. The Go-
vernment or the,individual that is defended only by
proscribing truth, has a bad cause to defend, and
the sooner they are exposed to the public so much
ihebetter.for the public interest and public morality.
The best of characters are liable to misrepresenta-
tion, and the best of Governments are liable to lie
calumniated ; but no instance can be produced in
' which both live not gained by the fullest ex-
amination of their conduct. The consequence of
making truth a libel, and screening delinquents
' from enquiry, is most injurious to public ntorals, in-
asmuch as it extends its pernicious influence to every
branch of society, and introduces a studied design to
gloss over the most flagrant crimes, from a fear of
calling things by their proper names and applying to
vice those epithets of indignation and contempt,
which are the strongest means of marking a virtuous
abhorrence of every deviation from moral and politi-
cal rectitude. It makes men as much afraid of tell-
ing the truth as they ought to he of falsehood, and
countenances a system of disguise and hypocrisy,
i• which is not only itself a vice, but a cloak for those
I numerous crimes of which the law takes no cogni-
zance, and even those which the law recognizes. It
it impossib4 to make all men honest ; but no Go-
vernment ought to hold out temptations to men
to be otherwise, nor offer them• impunity for any
species of moral turpitude. And can there be a
greater temptaion to vice than to know that, it
must not be censured, that it must not be re-
probated, that it most trot he held up to public in-
' dignatiou ? No means more effectual could be
devised, to give vice the confidence of virtue, or to
clothe iniquity in the garb of honesty. What is it
that has made tyrants in all past ages guilty of such
excesses, but because they feared not the controul of
1 public opinion ; because no one dared to censure
them because they silenced even the thoughts of
me.i ; because there was no Free Press to chastise
their iniquities ; because there were no laws but their
(2e-it will.

_
Liberty consists not only in thinking but in speak-
ing : it is of no use that we think as we please, if we
(•:. 'mot speak as we think—and where there is, that
liberty MPII sill be bold, honest, and upright; NqE
.thing so warps and perverts the mind to the mean-
vst purposes, as restraint upon the liberty"of speech
and writing ; nothing so breaks down the dignity of
man as the constant fear of punishment, and the con.
stintcompromise between fear and honesty. No
-nation can be called free, where the Press is fettered
chy making truth a libel ; for freedom consists not
merely in that of the person, but of the mind and
speech. Without freedom, riches and knnwledgeare but
specious misery, and every other good of life is tame
and insipid. The wandering savage of the desert, who
i has freedom, is more to be envied than the most en.
lightened philosopher, or the richest Nobleman, who
lives under a Government where he is afraid to write,
Ito think, and to speak according to the dictates of
his conseience, or the suggestions of his reason. Such
• a man Is a slave, and a slave must be miserable. To
l make truth a libel is to protect vice by law, to pro.
scribe morality, and to contradict both the practice
and the precepts of Christ. And if, as the greatest
of moralists has told us, that the science of Govern-
ment is only an enlarged morality, can any thing
bo more contrary to good Government than to
proscribe truth, which is the foundation of morality,
the end and object of all our researches? Surely he
must be a very short-sighted, narrow-minded poli-
tician, who can build his system of policy or govern.
ment on a studied or enforced concealment of truth ;
he can have penetrated a very little way into the
knowledge of man, who is igmorant that nothing can
tend mote to illustrate, exalt, and adorn the human
character than the fearless promulgation of truth.—
We are told by the law, that the Christian Religion
may be libelled. If that religion Is true, it cannot
be injured by falsehood ; if it is false; it cannot be
libelled by truth—this dilemma is inevitable.- The

liberty of our persons must always be under the re-
straint of the law, because some men are stronger
than others, and, therefore, might exert that strength
to their injury ; but as the streng+l,2of a man's cha-
racter depends on himself, the law ought to have no-
thing more to do with it than to punish those by
whom it is unjustly attacked, so as to put the person
injured nn a level with the libeller. Whenever, there-
fore, a libel can be proved to be false, and to have
injured any man in his profession or property, it
should award him a compensation from the libeller
equal to the extent of his loss; but if the alleged
libel can be proved to be true, he who is thus at-
tacked can have no right to any compensation.

I remain, &c.
Welbeek-street, Cavendish-square, March 21

W. B.

PRIVATE. CORRESPONDENCE.

RAMSGATS, MAncit 27.—This morning, about 10
o'clock, a foreign packet from Ostend came into
Ramsgate Pier, and landed between 40 and 50 pas-
sengers, among whom is Col. Trench. Two Mes-
sengers came in her, one, it is said, from Vienna,
and the other with dispatches from King Louis, who
was at Ostend yesterday at twelve o'clock, when
this vessel sailed. It is reported that Bonaparte is
at Lisle ; hut whether this is true or not, it is cer-
tain that Lisle is occupied by troops in his interest,
and the King finding it unsafe to remain there, came
to Ostend on Thursday or Friday last. Also at noon
Oh day, the Lord Liverpool Ramsgate packet, from
°fiend, arrived off this harbour, but it blowing a
heavy gale at the time, and a great swell, she could
not, without risk, get in here, and proceeded,' it is
supposed, for Kingsgate Bay, to land her passengers,
upwards of 100, and four carriages on board; like-
wise having dispatches from Louis XVIII.

- .
There area great many transports in the Downs;
some will come into Ramsgate harbour most likely,
when the weather moderates. Six troops of the 12th
i Hussars are under orders to embark here for Ostend;
' part of them are now at our barracks.
BRIGHTON, MARCH 27.—Arrived this day at New-
haven, the Doggerbank French packet, Captain Sal-
Ivator, from Dieppe, with 40 passengers, four car-
' riages, and ten horses. The above vessel left Dieppe,
oil Saturday evening, and arrived off Newhaven at
r . twelve last night; but was unable to enter the har-
bour until four this morning. She experienced very
rough weather in her passage. Several of the passengers
are arrived at this place, some of whom I have seen,
that quitted Paris on Friday evening, as late as ten
o'clock, up to which time every thing wore the ap-
pearance of perfect tranquillity in the Metropolis,
and it was thought that not more than 30 English
were left in the capital at that time. No embargo
had taken place at the time the Doggerbank sailed,
nor was it even expected by the inhabitants. Among
the passengers is a French merchant of great re-
spectability, who quitted Paris on Friday, who, on
his arrival here, called on Mr. 'Wigney, banker, of
this place, and informed him, that Bonaparte had
. not quitted Paris, but that lie had sent an army of
27,000 men towards Lisle, not with a view of attack-
ing the Allies, but to wait In attack, stating,. that
he would not be the first to declare wnr.
The weather yesterday was too boisterous for the
packets to leave the harbour, and has continued so
this day, blowing strong from the south, with II
!Wavy swell and much rain. Several passengers are
here waiting the sailing of the first packet, and as
soon as the weather moderates, three or four are ex-
pected to leave for the opposite coact ; so that we
are still in hopes that the communication between the
two countries will not be so speedily stopped as was
at first anticipated.