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LIBELS.
If any one should be not who is not for the utter interdiction of the pen in matters of Government
and yet be will still stickle for the suppression of what are called Libels, I should be glad to see his scheme
for party-writing — let him take for his example the conduct of some that public man
who is most obnoxious to him, or say even of another who is but little, so little as so as just to come within the verge
of his disapprobation. As for my part, I know that In this work 1, there is very decent matter enough for some scores of very defensible informations, such as if the Court of King's Bench should refuse to grant [have to file] I should be at a loss to know what to say for it. Let him compose his essay. Then will I produce [on my part] some
sentence which has been censured as libellous by the Law, like to which I do not say shall in point of scandal
shall not b the same squarely to as this his shall [appear] to be equal for that would be to suppose that to be which
there is not, a measure) but between which and his there should be no assignable & expressible
difference distraction. At the worst, I would produce 3 or 4 uncontradicted dictums of great
men, sitting where they ought to sit, & judging of what came before them, giving a description of what is libel which should include
his as well as any other. involve his under the appellation.
Bookseller being a person of evil disposed mind, & ill affected to his Majesty's person & Government for not having read these two large quarto Vols, & who keeps open his shop for no other purpose than to rend out of it what may excite sedition & traitorous insurrections against the same The Attorney Genl of the time with grave space and solemn pathetic elocution inform the Court of what they know as well as he, & protest that all is lost, if such enormities are suffer'd to go unpunished. I find in the accounts of them or argument of one of the Council for the Crown trusting for safety protection, not to the Law which affords me none, but to the spirit of the times: a spirit which I hope the latest posterity of those that grieve at it will dye before they see extinguished. in the cross motions in the case of the
King & Woodfall, as reported in a pamphlet on the subject of Libels, Another Letter to Mr Almon in matter of Libel p. 154 a singular concession if enough be
a true genuine one, that the paper which was the subject of that Information, would not be Libellous it
affected anybody else than the King. This must be meant to relate to of every each paragraph taken singly: for taking
the whole together; it would could have no sense as applied to any body else. If this Gentleman
could shew any more explicit foundation for saying so than such a man as this, that he, the speaker should not as
applied to any other object, think it very improper, that it would not have transgressed the bound of
decency & moderation & so forth, he would solve this important & as it seems to me unsolvable problem I
who have not that honour, could not take upon me to profess any such thing, or not being able to tell knowing what is
not a libel: or if I were compelled to give my opinion profess something one way or other about the matter, should rather profess the contrary
that it would be a libel, taking this depiction of a libel to be competent, if any, that it is that published of
.... to reduce the operations within these some sphere of moderation bounds of practical utility the operations of a System, which under its
as at present constituted constitution, aiming at unbounded universal efficacy and triumph, terminates in at universal impotence of
defeat, which never exerted itself, but to double the evil it thought to subdue guilt to add double fierceness to the flame it th made a shew of quenching
The guilt such as it is, of publication is so widely and equally distributed, that as to have realized
over & over the pleasant conceit started in the time of H. 8th of a sweeping offence, with a King for the party injured offended and the whole
notion in a lump for the offender.
Another Some Jo Dudley, to appear in such a conjunction, a conjunction too which promises to be perpetuated + + by pursuing the maxim fuit Justitia rual calum as far as it will go. It is possible that there may be some man to whom this scene of confusion may be less unpleasing than a plan of composure which bounded while it scoured — this may snatch from out of those troubled waters now & then a draught of arbitrary vengeance, more sweet than any compensation which a smooth & well-regulated current of Justice would afford them. I hope, however, the number of these if there are any such, is not great: and that such dispositions however they may be in their hearts, will have to manifest themselves in their might turn this universal delinquency to very good account: & in a very few years
put his Majesty, supposing him the reverse of what he is, in a way to save his People the trouble of coming
into Parliament to give him money.
It is not without with some pain that I dwell on these extravagancies: but I do entreat the any reader to point shew
to himself if he can, that line in the course of the Law legal plan of prosecution for State Libels which shall exclude them.
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Identifier: | JB/070/195/002 "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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195 |
scandal libels |
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002 |
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text sheet |
2 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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23310 |
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