The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-03-18 00:00:00

rim:an:Rß SPRING ASSIZES, MAtcH 16.

sentrio.v.—TlC ZINO V. 'LOIN.
Mr. Liman/ma stated, that this was a prosecution
a must the defendant, fur publishing a seditious libel,
with intent to bring into hatred and contempt his Ma-
iistv's person and tiowernment,
Mr. SCARIATT having addressed the Jury, the ful-
lowing evidence was called
J. tkvertev proved that he had purchased the pamphlet
of the defenasnt, Mimi, who is a political bookseller in
brig-gate, Leeds, on the 29t1i of July last. The de-
fendant took them out of a parcel containing tummy
others. Witness had applied before, when Mrs. Mann
said they had been all sold, but expected a parcel of
them by the roach that day.
On kis cross-examination he admitted he hail been ex-
chided, that he had been expelled from a society for neg.
.le.:•ing to give up some money that he held, and that lie
was in consequence advertised.
Mr. Wm. nunnery, chief-constable of Leeds, knew the
defendant, whose business was to sell political publics-
. lions of a cheap nature. lie corroborated what hail been
stated by the former witness relative to the residence of
the defendant. In front of the window a number of
pt wards were posted, announcing the publication of
Hfa.k Pfearj: Cobbett's Register, The Mechem, &c.
on the publication being read by the Clerk of the
Lours,
Mr. Serjoant 1111.1.Loca rose and addressed the Jury
on the part of tile defendant. He contended the ques-
tion was whether his client had been guilty of the pub-
lication in the manner, and with the intention, imputed
IJ him. He admitted that the pamphlet was an inde-
e ent and improper composition, yet It was not of that
severe and inflammatory nature which his Learned',
Friend had asserted it to be, nor did he think it called''

tor a prosecution of this sort—the language was merely
low, scurrilous abuse, and vulgar ribaldry. ikfore
the Jury proceeded to their verdict, they twist be
.t.vtisfied with the evidence produced ; they must el-
s., believe the publication was completed* with a
i sr to excite discontent, and produce dissatisfac-
t ',thin. and to vilify the character of the Sovereign of
t,,e realm. The object of Government, he thooght,
old have been much better answered by the prosecu-
t.oti of Sherwin, the guilty author. He concluded that
ow object of Beverley's first visit to Mann's house was
el Aridly to entrap him, by entering the book, which
as procured in conformity with his request, and but
Lie his enter, the pamphlet would never again have
Iti; way into Leeds.
Lir. KLETT, in te, observed, that enough bad
trsnspired to shew that Mann was the regular publisher
ut publications like the present; an.l, as for Short, in, if
l.e euul.l he had from -his turking.hole, he would cer-
tsioly be brought before a Jury of his country. Mann
wee not selling these pamphlets for the first time ; he
t,i,l not send up for them merely to supply Beverley ;
1.. was not ignorant of their contents; but even
thltagh hr were, even if be were in the predicament of
utiering and selling a hook containing a libel, but of
n hieh he was ignorant, still he was liable to be pn-
n.vhett for such a sale, that sale being a publication.
at as true, that on Beverley's first asking for the pamph-
let, which is the subject of the present charge, he was
tuld they then had none for sale; but it was added, that
tissry expected more. Beverley, on his second call a few
days after, bought three of the Registers, of the matter
of which complaint was now made. It was said that a
trap was Laid by Beverley for Mann, but if that were the
case, Mann could have produced evidence to *hew
hether or not be hail only sold those copies of the
l.bel which had been purchased by Beverley. Mann, on
this ocraaion, was not taken unwarily or unwittingly, for
asnally sells aml advertise the sale of political pamph-
lets. That Mann sold the publication could not be
doubted, and that it was of a grossly libellous nature was
Irate as clear. If. under all the circumstances of the
ram, the Jury believed the evidence, they must pro-
nounce a verdict of guilty.
Me. Justice BATLEY charged the Jury, and said, that
the indictment they had to try was for the publication ofa
libel. tending to bring into contempt the Government
of the country and the person of his Royal Highness
the Prince Regent. It was also added, that this was
stone with a malicious intention. If the publication
lit l manually that tendency, the conclusion should be.
t!,,t unless the libel was published under circum-
stances of innocence, its publication was a wrong.—
'll.e libel contained what lawyers called inuentioes,
amongst which were souse respecting the Parliament
ahi the Regent. His Royal Highness was designated
as an over-grown pauper. It was most properly eon-.
ceded by the tisfusisaVe Coastsel. that this wail a
ittsel I indeed, no lawyer could state the contrary,
nor could any injnry result to his client from that ad-
ni:ssion. Every man in this country had a right to dis-
cuss
freely, and with decency, the measures pursued
L) Government ; but no man Lad a right to !snick out
into vilification and abuse, under the cloak of free discus-
s-on. Yon have a right, Gentlemen of the Jury, to pro-
nounce your opinion as to the nature and the intention of
the libel, and as you have all the circumstances before
lon, you will not fail to consider them with attention.
The great question for your consideration is, first, did
the defendant publish the pamphlet; and, secondly, if
Le did so with the malicious intention charged against
Linn.
la It was rated why this man was singled out, and
Sberwin suffered to go unpunished. Bet the fact was,
tt.e latter could not be come at; and though, as the
anther, he was more guilty than the perms who pub-
l!shed his writings, still the only di fferenee was as
to the geohtpos of guilt and the pstmetuns of punish-
ments. 'the evidence of Beverley was not only confirmed,
but the absence of evidence which might have been
brought forward by the defendant, still further corrobo-
teJ it. Herr the Learned Judge recapitulated the evidence
as above, and added, that the evidence of Beverley was not
necessarily to be discredited because of his dismissal
from the situation of secretary to a siek society. If the
bay were satisfied that the defendant sold the libel,
they would be wroarfee a mouseet to agnate the ques-
was of Shatirin's being punished or not. They might
often ley their his epos a libellous publication,vrben
they. maid ant 110
guilty stator. On the
No on it.
whole,
sbr owsi*sto Ise the Jo was, did the defendant
ems tie issa • of for Ilse purpose of

LONDON:
SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 19, 1910.
-ow--

The public mind cannot fail to he filled with the
events which art now about to be laid open to it, nut
merely with what relates peculiarly to our own country.,
but also to other countries, which will, and must ofl
course, have a bearing more or less on all the Govern-
ments of Europe. A vast portion of the globe, more
than twenty times as large as all England, about to
throw olf its shackles of dominion, which nothing but
a combination of insupportable tyranny and degrading
superstition could hate so long held together, is sufficient
to create as large a charge on the face of the moral
world, as the rising of an island of the same space from
the bed of the Great South Sea could be supposed to pro-
duce on the natural. Tile Government which, by a prodigy
of concurrent circumstances, has held such anomalous par-
tidies together about to moulder into dine, f tr wantof that
cement by which popular opinion his Ihir.iculuusly held it
together, is a sublime sight. These affairs we are now
beholding and contemplating in Old and New Spain.
The people of them are in fermentation from the wrongs
they ha% too long erdured ; the KING in consternation
from the despotic sway he has too long exercised over
them. While they call orit with an irresistible voice fur
freedom and justice, be, with a tomporising language,
asks for information and advice. what he shall do to
swam stook slisquiettales aad satisfy their just draitilds.

Alas, it iw ton late to trine : Statesmen are no longer ►e-
garded a• patriarchs or prophets. Hiplontastlo not confer
science nor wisdom. The people every where are about to
demand what Mr. lire promised to the British nation,
Os. “ Indemnity for the past and security for the future."
Human nature, unpolluted by Government, is nearly the
same in ail climates on the face of the earth. The 's-
ample of one great event in scorner of it, front the rapid
information and contmunication of ideas to other parts,
is soon made known, and therefore as the fate of France
last year may be that of Spain this, and of England the
neat, we are all of necessity, as well as by reason, called
to bear a part in the great hnsiness of human nature.

The humbled tone of the Proclamation of FeammaND
of S►am contains the seeds of important history, which
cannot fail hnt germinate rapidly by the genial urruith
of the sun of cultivated reason and political science,
which has lately been felt over the civilized world.
But the local circumstances of our own country, arising
out of the same great and fruitful source of evils, viz.
the encroachments of, and abuses practised by. the insti-
tutions of the flovernment, will necessarily arrest an
attention in preference to foreign matter; though we
shall endeavour to pay a proper attention to all.
INK TRIALK have cominenced, and among other per-
sons of less note, some of the, •NONTNIES Or THIt
mot are about to be called to give account, like
criminals at the bar of a Court of Justice, of
those very actions which have raised them to the en-
viable public esteem they possess. Tenacity towards
abuses, and hostility to their adversaries, cannot he
carried to a higher pitch, in any bat the most bar-
barian nation on the earth, than in this. The aged, the
sick, are equally prosecuted and imprisoned by the AT-
TORNITAIZAIIIAL; their very infirmities are woad at
by buffoons I. thialregisiature ; sad men who might for
their knowledge be ranked with the Gaortcaten,she.Pnes..
and the%.►rTaLs of the present era. though
of eighty years of age, are to be hurried, after a fifty
years' reputation as patriots, to the distance of a many
leagues from their home, to be tried for sedition !
(leavens and earth, what a people are we become! (he,
country will indeed be stigmatised with the epithet of
little Britain, if we proceed thus. It will be difficult to
say in what we shall be found great. except in folly.
Even during the delirious part of the fever of the French
Revolution, into which the aggravating interference
of foreign nations had plunged that suffering
,people,
they had regard to the venerable from age. M. BAR.
Tautens. senior, the author of Le Jerre AserAarsie,
was by a precipitate order thrown into the Madden-
tutees, with many others, as a measure of public sera.
rity but upon his person, age, and talents being men-
tioned at the bar of the Convention, he was instantly
released ►y acclamation, with the declaration, that it,
was not in eatere that a man enjoying suck a repetition
in his country. would. at his age. become its enemy
through any temptation whatever.

Extract of a letter from an Eagliah merchant
at Angostura, Dee. ll.
Dttpateltes embed hove from Gess& Bolivar, aa•,