On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
g-iven rise both in and oat of Parliament-It has been contended on the one hand , that the use of spies is improper ; and , on the other , that whatever may be said of the morality of the practice , there was no government yet , which under certain circumstances , did not employ them . It is not necessary to enter into the arguments
used by either party . If we allow that there are times when the use of spies may become expedient , this is a very different thing * from Espionage being" the allowed and general practice ; much less does it justify spies not to discover an evil , but to excite persons to acts of sedition or
treason . There is a great difference between a government occasionally using a base instrument on an extraordinary emergency and making it their regular and settled practice . The question , and an awful question it is , What did the circumstances of the times really require ?
The outrages in London that attended one of the meetings in Spa-fields have given occasion for a trial for high treason , on whose fate depended that of several others . The Court of King ' s Bench was employed seven days in the investigation , and the foundation of the charge rested on the -evidence of a man to whom no credit could
be given . Such a scene of folly was ^ scarcely ever exhibited in a court of justice , so that the verdict of acquittal was received with universal approbation . The Attorney-General in consequence withdrew his charges against the other
prisoners . A little before , the Attorney-General had been equally unsuccessful in two charges for libel , which were attended with some extraordinary circumstances . On the first charge a verdict was given of guilty , with the reserve , that if truth was a libel this was the case , and the verdict was taken by
the judge of guilty , without seeing the jury and knowing whether they agreed in their verdict . On the second charge the accused was found not guilty . On the following day the judge , who tried these causes , gave aa account of the whole proceeding in the Court of King ' s Bench , allowing that he did not see all the jury ,
and was not certain , in consequence , whether they agreed in the verdict . Of course the verdict of guilty was set aside , and the question is , whether the accused is to be brought to trial again for this offence . He defended himself in the most eloquent manner , justifying * all he said in his
publication , and maintaining that it was a political question in which the legal talents of the Attorney-General could be of no avail . The judge was asked , in the course of the first trial , whether truth was a libel , and be maintained , on authorities , that it was ao ; and this answer merits serious inves-
Untitled Article
tigation . If we put it into plain language it must mean this , that the speaking- of truth may deserve punishment . Now this is a had doctrine to teach our children , for in general every good parent considers that the speaking of truth is a great setoff against that punishment , which the case really required . We may conceive a case where an individual may imagine himself
very much aggrieved by the publication of a truth , through which he is highly disgraced . For example , suppose him to be a minister of state , and to have been guilty of employing the public money in trafficking for seats of Parliament , or suppose him to have received presents from foreign powers , by which the interests of the country have been deserted ; is the person who declares these truths to be considered
a proper object of punishment ? What harm can arise to the state , if , when the facts are allowed , the declaration of these facts should be pronounced innocent ? Whatever may be the maxim of the law courts , there is something- so abhorrent to the general feelings ' of humanity in
treating truth in this manner , that it can never be admitted to be punishable without some appropriate epithets of malice 5 and , perhaps , the old language is the besr , that every libel , which means only a little boolr or writing , should be set out as false , scandalous and malicious
The Habeas Corpus Act has been again suspended . The question has been discussed most fully , both in and out of Parliament . Several cities and counties have petitioned against it . It is a melancholy thing , that such a deprivation of the rights of Englishmen should be deemed necessary by any party , and it is some satisfaction to
think , that even the causes alleged for it by its warmest advocates , do not reach the great body of the people ; and that the places where disturbances have arisen , are those where , from the stagnation of manufacturing employment , great distress has
been occasioned and severely felt . Where also this distress has prevailed , there is too much reason to apprehend , that it has been aggravated by ill-designing persons , and measures have been suggested to the people labouring under them , which would not otherwise have occurred to their minds .
At the end of such a harassing war , and after an untoward season , difficulties were to be expected . Whether the wisest method has been taken to obviate them , time must discover ; but , if Englishmen should once cease to esteem the Habeas Corpus Act as of little consequence , they must learn to bear the consequences of its absence . Commerce and manufactures will not flourish
but on a soil where liberty exists 5 and it is to commerce and manufactures , that England is indebted for ils past greatness .
Untitled Article
State of Public Affairs . 447
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 447, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/71/
-