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2 Libel
If no answer can be given to any of these questions, it is nugatory evident there can be no ground
to make the constan decision of the question "whether a paper is a libel or no" a
matter of Law competent to Judges rather than to a Jury; since neither can the Judges
here can devise in this case no advantage whatever from their knowledge of preadjudged past
nor any future Judges in any future case from the knowledge that in question of this;
If the Judges cannot tell why they determine this way rather than that, it will be difficult to say what advantage the subject can reap from a decision being [placed] in such hands rather than any other
the only grounds confessed of appropriating the decision of any question to
the Judges in preference rather than to a Jury. Every case being decided The decision in every case being grounded upon no
assig principles must be particular — and fortuitous whether in the one or the
other hands; it is in every case a matter of & whether a man shall be acquitted acq
or condemned.
If the answers are to be given to these questions, they can be but of two sort
N.B. to determine "what entire" is more proper for the Jury than the Judge; because the malignity mischief of the label depends 26 solely upon 2 whether the fact such as they understand it in that 1xsense.
either that the expression which the one pitches upon in the paper and the
other assigns substitutes for argument' sake charges the defendt plt with a specific in
or it the more will causes be deliver'd in any one of these expressions that some uppermost
or of a multitude of others of which no choice can be made, viz: that i
tends to his discredit, that it takes away his reputation, that it lessens in him
the esteem of the world, that it gives an unfavourable representation of his
character — that it is offensive to him I must stop here: for every body perceives there can be no
end of these egregious expressions thus far synonymous that no characteristic of forma
between them can be assigned. — which have been always used promiscuously, & which,
ought that can be said to distinguish them must continue to be so used.
Of the first answer I shall have say nothing, merely the consideration of it
by and <add>till I have disputed the former:by</add> a future occasion: observing only that it has no application to the case before
nor to the any more than to the whole doctrine of libels beside [in general], as every body will I believe without difficulty
allow —.
Of the second then, I must obscure it is easy to see that multiplied to infinity, they center amount to this
neither more nor less than this proposition, that a Libel as to it's matter is any thing that a [sensible] man would not
like to have said of him — If any one can find an expression more no that shall [instead] all
certain more specific more fit whereon to ground a definition, he shall have
LIBEL
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Identifier: | JB/070/175/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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175 |
libel |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
c2 |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[gr motif] [britannia with crown motif]]] |
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23290 |
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