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LIBEL. WORDS
A Man [zealous for the public good who with strong <add>becoming feelings of zeal</add>], who should enter into the discussion of this Title, with less
knowledge of the History and Texture of the [Common] Law than is sufficient to satisfy
him that the grossest absurdities may be maintained with the entire most perfect sincerity would
conclude 2 at 1 once, that this whole System, instead of being calculated to compensate and
prevent those mischiefs that one man may raise create to one against another, by reports to the prejudice
of his reputation, was nothing but a Scheme invented by Lawyers [to enable
them to] for drawing cuts for their fortunes. [instead of]
Did Men in general understand were the Law even as it stands at present generally understands men to they would be apt disposed to enter themselves of some profession for the sake of standing some chance of for that protection which the Law while it owes to all, [but] refuses to all except a favor'd few.
[The solemn pretence of deciding controversies of this sort by known rules of Law
rules which it is just as much in the power of those to understand comprehend whose fate is to be
governed by them as the Fatwas of the Mufti, is fit only to excite raise a smile on those who
look for reason & not for words.]
The weakness feebleness & instability of this was formerly such, as drove men to them settling as the only injuries to their property, to violence & Bloodshed it is still such, as drives them to the same course with respect to such as affect their reputation. The doctrine on this subject was once settled (if any thing could be settled which
wears the form of Common Law) into such a state of manifest absurdity, as spoken
to the People at large as plain as if it had been in so many words — think flatter not yourselves with
the hopes of any protection for your good name, for none are you to have
had it then rested One Rule was, established by decisions without number that the words which are in question were always to be taken in the mildest sense which
being interpreted is, that if the words are current are such, as can by any possibility be con
not to bear the of as bearing any other sense than that which they were intended to convey, they are not will not apper forward
adoption for an Action. Matters were brought to a pitch, by this
And it may with great [appearance of] reason probability be averred that much more might be done towards the suppression of this evil, of duels by the giving to this Title some form of utility and consistence, thereby a rigorous execution of an and sanguinary Law Jurisprudence to confound it with a crime to which, as has been already shewn except by this being either added by this sense physical phenomena it bears no relation which amends by extirpating does not so much as aim at compensation & which exerts itself in the view to of prevention by threatening a man with that very suffering punishment which by this supposition he continues. With all the malice that could be attributed to his intention, & all the success that could be expiated from the execution
An Offender Scandal-raiser by this means, could scarcely contrive his words to fall into under the censure of the Law
without taking instructions how to do it of some Pleader & fashioning them with
that design. Obliquity of insinuation is seen in every one's experience to be almost always
preferred as giving a sharper edge to a reason than is to be done put by in it any direct averment.
Another was, & is still, that if a man have an office or be of a Profession and
what is said carry any the most distant importation of insufficiency respecting with the
one or other it is actionable.
It is the same with respect to in the instance of a man in trade with respect to his solvency as well as to his
capacity and his integrity in carrying it on.
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Identifier: | JB/070/190/001 "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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190 |
libel words |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
c1 |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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23305 |
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