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LIBEL. Liberty and Licentiousness, indistinguishable
"As much as I am a friend to the Liberty; of the so much am I an Enemy to the Licentiousness
of the Press". How many declamations which set out from nothing, & end no where
have we not seen, prefaced with this declaration; the very quintessence, as it appeared to the declaimers, of all that is ever & [of Candor & Wisdom as says nothing, or says that which has no meaning.
it has appeared to the the declaimer.] each person, who has successively had occasion to take it up. make use]
I measured the Evils sustained by the Commonwealth, by the acuteness of the pain I suffer'd from my own pain the injustice done to characters I respected. a declaration which if we analyze it [at the same time] being analysed, will be found with to be either tautological
to have no meaning Liberty & Licentiousness, one 2 might 1 be say to such an one, are is either that which respected are be any who are enemies to what they think to be Liberty & or friends to what they think to be licenciousness, they are few
indeed; and there are none who say it so. The most servile there [are or profess to be as] your liberality & moderation therefore came to this, that make the same profession true or false of being
the most furious, of being as moderate, as you. [I mean of the speaking]
If it is Liberty such as a what the world in general means by Liberty that you are a friend to, & what the World in general
means by Licenciousness, that you are an enemy to you are confirming a friend and an Enemy to you know not &
(to console you) [to what] nobody knows what besides. It is never the same to a nation, & to that
which borders it, it is never the same to a man & to his neighbour, it is never the same to the same
man young & old, it is never often not the same to the same man before & after dinner.
To retain a Law by which without more explanation a man without may be punished for writing what is licentious, stand doing is just the same thing, as if removing laying aside at once all those specifications & restrictions in which the merit & the Glory of our Law consist, we were to make a Law by which every man might be punished for writing doing what is immoral. Say therefore at once either that you are not a friend to Liberty, or that you are a
friend to so much of Licentiousness as if is inexpicably amalgamated along with it. If the
expression shocks you, you may palliate it if you please, by a mental abstraction, & distinguish
in Idea that in an indivisible subject which excites your approbation from that which excite
the contrary emotion: but for every practical purpose, if you say any thing, you must say as
I have said before.
A good deal in this Style was the famous provision in the Athenian Law, the [Tis in this In the same smooth strain of critical moderation that the Author of the Commentaries
concludes his disquisitions on that Title. "So true will it be found that to censure
the licentiousness, is to maintain the Liberty of the Press. When the boundaries between
libellous & not libellous are settled, And the period of which what is libellous is to be permitted. this passage [(which has now nothing but harmony)] will have a meaning
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Identifier: | JB/070/205/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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of laws in general |
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libel liberty and licentiousness indistinguishable |
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jeremy bentham |
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