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Untitled Article
least , not to sayrof so questionable a character , published to the world in the middle of Jury , by a » fc of the J > artie » concerned , and made the subject of ; severe strictureB bv the Press immediately afterwards . ; and of this aet , Lord Althorp , ( by whose department it must have been sanctioned , ) on August the 4 th , the question . being put to him by Mr . Hume , denied that he had
any knowledge . Mr . Francis Baring-, the Secretary to the Treasury , added that , neither had he any knowledge of it ; and Mr . Spring Rice volunteered his testimony , that he had been Secretary to the Treasury at the time of the prosecution , and that , to the best of his knowledge , no such fact had taken place . The very day after , Lord Althorp returned to the subject , admitted the fact , and justified it !
Now , mark the singularity of these facts . An act of so much importance as a prosecution for libel , is authorized , and the public money drawn upon for the purpose , by the Home Minister , and of course through the Treasury . All the Sussex magistrates knew this , * but two Cabinet Ministers , whose peculiar department is the expenditure of the public money , and one of them the organ of Government in the House of Commons , have never heard of it . A motion , in condemnation of the prosecution , is made and discussed in the House of Commons , and still these Ministers
have never heard that the Government are concerned in it . But at length , when they must have heard of it , —when the other parties concerned have published the fact , —when it has been carried through all England by the newspapers , and made the subject of severe censures upon the Ministry by their political opponents for three whole weeks—not even curiosity prompts these
singular specimens of rulers of the nation to step across Downingstreet and ask their colleague whether the assertion is true . Is it possible not to believe that they voluntarily refrained from asking the question , in order that , when it was put to them , they might be unable to answer it ? They did , however ^ answer it , — answered it with a virtual denial ; which they were forced to change the next day into an admission and vindication . As to the vindication , we shall leave the ' Examiner * to deal
with it : — * In admitting the fact , Lord Althorp coolly observed , that the circumstance was not new , and that several instances were on record . No doubt ; it would be difficult to strike out anything new in nusgovernfoent or abuse of powers , after the long course of Tory sway ; but we were promised , under the Reform Ministry , a renouncement of these old ways . If the present Ministers are to justify- acts of oppression ,
simply by saying that the Tories did the same before then ) , we should like to know in what respect they are better than the Tories , in wliose steps they follow ; and why their government should bo preferred 1 Mr . Warburton expressed his conviction that the noble lord would not * ° n principle , defend such a case . What matters it , if he pleads practice a a sufficient justification ? The plain fact ia , that the Home Office conspired with the Sussex magistrates to ruin Mr . Cohen . '
