tending and contriving to disturb the laws of gravitation, and to create great disorder and mutiny amongst the planets, had printed and published that Saturn had no dependance on the Sun, and was not governed in his orbit by its influence; with another count for publishing that he had only four satellites, whereas in truth, and in fact, he had five. Gentlemen, this may be thought a ridiculous parallel, as the laws of nature could not be changed by a paragraph in a newspaper, but so neither can any relations amongst states that are worth preserving. The only thing the resemblance fails in, is that Saturn does not send an Ambassador to the earth; but I have already said, and I am ready to prove, that the Russian ambassador has neither directly nor indirectly interfered. I have already, gentlemen, or rather with the most tiresome tautology very frequently, admitted that none of the cases I have troubled you with by way of illustration and example apply to cases of malicious falsehood; but where a jury can plainly see that the writing, however severe, was intended to be real history and observation, it does not fall, upon any just or useful principle, under the acceptation of a libel. Since the Libel act, the judge cannot say what is a libel as a judgment of law; he can only give his opinion as I have, upon general principles, though with the high authority of his station; but the jury after all are bound upon their oaths, to decide from all the circumstances of the case, and I feel myself obliged to say cannot in the present, instance decide against the defendants without manifest injustice. Writers, in all times, have not only written with impunity on such subjects, but the press has literally teemed with then without censure or question. Paragraphs, ten times more severe than the present, against the emperor and king of Prussia have been in great circulation within these few hours past, which the Times and True Briton have reprinted, and I confess I see no fault in it; but, be that as it may, I will for a most trifling premium underwrite their security, because they are truths which nobody can deny, and which all England has an interest in exposing. Mr. Erskine here read the letters from Mr. Sharp, the British consul at St. Petersburgh, to the governor of the Russia Company, to prove that the edict was in fact issued and existed as represented in the Courier by the article in question, and made a forcible appeal to the feelings of the jury upon the injustice of subjecting innocent men perhaps to an ignominious punishment, as the punishment was discretionary, and the judgment of the Court when a humiliating sacrifice was to be made to a supposed insult upon a foreign ally on the principle adverted to, might not be easily satisfied. I do not wish, continued Mr. Erskine, to see the laws relaxed; but it would be still worse to see them strained for any foreign power, however deserving, in op position to the liberal policy of our ancestors, and the freedom of the British constitution, both of which would be grossly violated by a verdict against any of the defendants. Mr. Parry I know personally to be a liberal gentleman incapable of malicious falsehood, and it has been candidly admitted by the Attorney-general himself, as well as established by proof, that the paragraph was a literal narration of a fact extremely important to be generally known, and which had therefore been circulated by the Russia Company, for the express purpose of communicating it to the mercantile world. Thus, what related to the edict was strictly the fact, not enlarged upon in any manner whatsoever; and as to the introduction so much com plained of, it was general and just observation, quite within the scope of history upon the transactions of the great political world; for who ever heard of a history which confined itself to facts only, without the qualities and characters which belonged to them? Justice too, should be impartially adminis tered; the matter complained of did not originate with the Courier, but notoriously came to it from the Caledonian Mercury, whose proprietors or publishers have never been questioned by the Crown. If, there fore, the proprietor, printer, or publisher now before you are to be held responsible and deprived of their liberty on such an account as this, our boasted liberty of the press is but an empty sound. EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENDANTS. Mr. Forster the governor of the Russia Company was called to prove Mr. Sharp's letters; which were brought by the waiter of Batson's coffee-house, where they had been sent for the information of merchants. The Attorney General objected to their admissibility, but said he waved the objection. Lord Kenyon, however, disapproving of the production of the papers, the admission was therefore taken, without reading the letters. REPLY. Mr. Attorney General.-Gentlemen of the Jury; It is plain that I have not much embarrassed my learned friend, by bespeaking from him a brilliant speech. After twenty years experience of him, I knew I might safely do it; I knew also his clients had' bespoke it, and were not likely to be disappointed. I never desire to deprive defendants of their defences, and the argument of their learned counsel is entitled to attention; but I trust, that you, gentlemen, will distinguish between the charges which the councils of nations may have against each other, and the unauthorized invectives of newspapers. These libels might produce the very coldness and indifferences complained of. The ques- tion is just what I stated it in the opening to be, namely whether the paragraph is a libel, and whether the defendants printed and published it. In the case of Mr. Reeves, perhaps, I hardly conducted myself as I ought to have done, having from delicacy abstained in the House of Commons, from taking any share in the debate; whereas, I ought rather to have followed the example of lord Hardwicke, and have spoken my sentiments upon it, and after the address was voted, have begged that his majesty might command the alleged libel to be prosecuted by some other of his servants. I admit the paragraph complained of in the book of Mr. Reeves was improper, but upon reading the whole of it, I thought it manifest, that the author had no evil intention. In the present case I have no doubt, gentlemen, that you will decide according to the sound rule and principle of law, and rather take the noble and learned judge for your guide in that respect than either Mr. Erskine, or myself. As to the punishment, it does not follow that it must be severe. The conviction is the legal consequence of the offence against the law; but the ambassador of the emperor at our court, is a man of mild and amiable manners, concerned of course for the dignity of his sovereign, but greatly attached to the subjects of Great Britain; and proper representations might obtain for the defendants what the law in its just administration could not possibly confer. SUMMING-UP. Lord Chief Justice Kenyon.-Gentlemen of the Jury; I shall make no apology for any punishment which the Court of King's-bench has ever ordered any individual to undergo, during the time I have been one of its judges. They, and all their proceedings, are before the public; they may be brought before parliament, and they are liable to punishment themselves in case of misbehaviour. They are bound by their oaths to discharge their duty to the king and his subjects, and to discharge it conscientiously, as the king himself is bound to do, who by his coronation oath is sworn in the most solemn manner to administer justice in mercy. I shall say nothing, therefore, on the anticipation of justice from the judges; I trust they are fully conscious of having always discharged their duty. The learned counsel for the defendants has told you, that the situation of the country is critical and aweful; and I am afraid he has drawn too faithful a picture of some of the causes to which it may be ascribed. That the contest is left chiefly to our own exertions, and that our nearest and dearest interests are embarked in it, is most true. What remains at the foot of this account I know not, but the whole seems now to rest upon the emperor of Russia and ourselves. See it, antè, vol. 26, p. 529. !་ The learned counsel has very properly avoided all political discussions unconnected with the subject, and I shall follow his example. Courts of justice have nothing to do with them, but I admit that his observations as they regard the princes of Europe, were relevant to the cause, and open to him to enlarge on, as illustrations that the press could not be free it discussions of that nature were held to be illegal; but it is pretty plain to me that the learned counsel presented with great dexterity-and indeed who is more dextrous?—the best part of his case, concealing from you that which was vulnerable, drawing his arguments from materials so very near the subject as to appear convincing, though differing in fact, when you had freed yourselves from the delusion. What could. have induced the princes of Europe to the conduct some of them have pursued, I will not venture to investigate; but sitting in a court of law, I am bound to say that it does not absolve states from enforcing a decent respect to the magistracies of each other, and to the persons of sovereigns executing the law, &c. A breach of these rules might produce discord. In the last century, when there was less connection between us and the powers of the continent, and when perhaps the assistance of the court of Russia was less important, the legislature thought it wise to interpose. In the reign of queen Anne, if I mistake not, when an ambassador had been detained on a civil suit, which was complained of as contrary to the law of nations, an act of parliament was not only passed to protect the persons of foreign ministers from detention against civil demands, but the act was sent over to the capital of that kingdom. All governments rest mainly on public opinion, and to that of his own subjects every wise sovereign will look. The opinion of his subjects will force a sovereign to do his duty, and by that opinion will he be exalted or de pressed in the politics of the world. Our papers, it is well known, are not only circulated over Europe, but much farther; and the sentiments they contain are interesting and popular, so that if poison appears in them without its antidote, the effect might be fatal to ourselves; as it might be reasonably concluded, that if government winked at or slumbered over such a publication, it was disposed to adopt it. Letters from the consul to the Russia Company were produced; and it was proposed, on the part of the defendants, that they should be received. They were not however read, and it was well for the government/ of that company that they were not; they were state papers, and were very improperly brought into court. They related to the interests of a great commercial company, whose concerns no person charged with having committed a mis See the case of Lord George Gordon, ante, vol. 22, p.213; and that of Peltier, a« p»° 1803, infrà. demeanor, had any business to unravel. There national affront, if it passed unreprobated by was no power upon earth to force them here,utional our government and in our courts of justice, or without the consent of their owners, and most It is for you, gentlemen of the jury, who! strangely had they mistaken their duty in come out of that rank which enables you to producing them. There was no real interest judge of the interests of the commercial of any served by their production, and the world, to pronounce whether this is or is not interests of the company, and through theirs, a dangerous publication. I am bound by my those of the commercial world, might be ma- oath to declare my own opinion; and I should terially injured by it, if it became a pre- forget my duty, if I were not to say to you ing that it is a gross libel. cedent." As to the paragraph itself, gentlemen, you have heard it; the substance of it is, that the emperor of Russia is a tyrant to his own subjects, and ridiculous in the face of Europe. Between the sovereign and the people of every country there is an express or an implied compact for a government of justice; by which the former is most solemnly and emphatically bound not to be tyrannical or unjust: yet here he is wantonly said to be a transgressor against all decency in the administration of his trust. I can only say, that if one were so to offend another in private life in this country, it might be made the subject of an action; and when these papers went to Russia and held up this great sovereign as being a tyrant and ridiculous over Europe, it might tend to his calling for satisfaction as for a The Jury withdrew, and, after remaining out of court nearly an hour, returned a verdicts of Guilty against all the defendants. Court of King's Bench, May 30th, 1799. Sentence was this day passed upon the proprietor, the printer, and the publisher of the Courier newspaper for their libel on the emperor of Russia. The proprietor to be confined six months in the King's-bench prison, to pay a fine of 100l., and to give security for his good behaviour for five years, himself in 500l. and two sureties in 2501. each. The printer and the publisher to be confined one month in the same prison. 637. Proceedings on the Trial of JOHN CUTHELL, for publishing a Seditious Libel; tried in the Court of King's Bench, Westminster, by a Special Jury, before the Right Hon. Lloyd Lord Kenyon, on Thursday the 21st day of February: 39 GEORGE III. a. D. 1799., Sittings at Westminster, Feb. 21, 1799. INDICTMENT. Of Hilary Term in the thirty-eighth year of King George the Third. sons exercising the powers of government in France and the French to wit at the parish of Saint Andrew Holborn in the county of Middlesex And the jurors aforesaid upon Middleser BE it remembered that on Mon- the time of the printing and publishing of their oath aforesaid do further present that at day next after the Octave of the Purification the several scandalous malicious and seditious of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the thirty- libels hereinafter mentioned it was publicly eighth year of the reign of our sovereign lord rumoured and reported among the liege subGeorge the Third by the grace of God of Great jects of our said lord the king that the said Britain France and Ireland king defender of persons exercising the powers of government the faith &c in the court of our said lord the so ting enemies of our said lord the king did king before the king himself at Westminster intend and were preparing to invade this kingin the county of Middlesex upon the oath dom with an armed force and in an hostile of twelve jurors good and lawful men in manner to wit at the parish aforesaid in the the county of Middlesex now here sworn county aforesaid And the jurors aforesaid and charged to enquire for our said lord the upon their oath aforesaid do further present king for the body of the said county It is that John Cuthell late of the parish of Saint presented as followeth that is to say Middle-Andrew Holborn in the county of Middlesex sex to wit the jurors for our lord the king upon their bath present that at the time of printing and publishing of the several scandalous malicious and seditious libels hereinafter mentioned and long before there was and yet is an open and public war carried on between our said lord the king and the perVOL. XXVII. bookseller being a malicious seditious and ill disposed person and being greatly disaffected to our said sovereign lord the king and to the government and constitution of this kingdom and most unlawfully seditiously and maliciously contriving and intending to traduce vilify and bring into hatred and contempt 2 T among the Hege subjects of our said lord the the community and in another part thereof acking the government and constitution of this cording to the tenor and effect following that kingdom both in church and state and now by is to say (page 22) The established conduct of law established and also our said lord the these ministers (meaning persons employed king's administration of the government of by our said lord the king in the administration this kingdom and the persons employed by of the government of this kingdom) constiour said lord the king in the administration tutes an indubitable proof of their ill faith in of the government of this kingdom and this transaction and a proof deduced also from thereby to withdraw the affection and al- the immutable operation of human passions they legiance of the liege subjects of our said have burthened the country with an immense lord the king from our said lord the king overwhelming debt by an unexampled prodigality and his government and also most unlawfully of the public money they have reduced thousands maliciously and seditiously devising and in- and tens of thousands to wretchedness and begtending to dissuade and discourage the liege gary they have occasioned a devastation of the subjects of our said lord the king from resist- human species infinitely tremendous beyond the ing and opposing the said enemies of our said most merciless tyrants of ancient or modern lord the king in case the said enemies should times the death of a fellow-creature is no more make an hostile invasion into this kingdom to them than the fall of an autumnal leaf in the on the third day of February in the thirty- pathless desart land and sea is covered with the eighth year of the reign of our said sovereign carcasses of their slain they have engendered lord George the Third king of Great Britain sham plots false alarms and visionary assassina&c at the parish of Saint Andrew Holborn in tions for the purposes of deluding the unwary the county of Middlesex wickedly maliciously and to establish their own power by a military and seditiously did publish and cause to be despotism in due time over England like that published a certain scandalous malicious and which now tramples bleeding Ireland to the seditious libel containing therein among other earth they have persecuted unto death they have things divers scandalous malicious and sedi- exiled to the ends of the world and they now tious matters of and concerning the people emprison (meaning imprison) with inconceiv nobles ecclesiastical dignitaries government able rigour (I speak what I have seen and know) and constitution of this kingdom and of and their fellow citizens for trivial and venial of concerning the administration of the govern- fences against every principle of constitutional ment of this kingdom by our said lord the law pure justice and sound policy After a long king and of and concerning the persons em- course of these and other enormities can such ployed by our said lord the king in the admi- men Iask in an instant become benevolent pacific nistration of the government of this kingdom haters of bloodshed and lovers of their country and also of and concerning an hostile invasion (Page 35) Add not insult to our sufferings On into this kingdom to be made by the said the contrary I am fully satisfied that if the enemies of our said lord the king in one part French (meaning the aforesaid enemies of our thereof to the tenor and effect following that said lord the king) could land a considerable army is to say (page 10) Undoubtedly if the contest in this country to the number suppose of 60,000 to be presumed to subsist between one ministry (meaning sixty thousand) or 70,000 (meaning and another the bishop of Llandaff may be seventy thousand) men (which nevertheless deemed as much as any man similarly situated appears to me utterly impracticable with our an independent man but in a more extended present naval superiority) the kingdom would view of this appellation and agreeable to some be lost for ever the same cause which has faciliremarks already advanced in the preceding tated the progress of the republicans on the pages this independence cannot be so easily con- continent would operate as powerfully for them ceded to him For in fact very fortunately for in this country also namely a degree of poverty the cause of liberty and human happiness the and wretchedness in the lower orders of the competition is no longer partial and unimpor- community which especially in their present tant between two parties in and out of place state of depravity and ignorance will render but is become a contest of principles of a general the chances even from confusion of any change and most interesting kind between corruption desirable I believe from my soul that within and reformation The present ministry (mean three miles of the house where I am writing ing the persons employed by our said lord the these pages there is a much greater number of king in the administration of the government starving miserable human beings the hopeless of this kingdom) therefore and the abuses in victims of penury and distress than on any equal church and state (meaning the church and portion of ground through the habitable globe a state of this kingdom) are indivisibly inter- fuble of our old friend Esop is extremely apwoven with each other and every man alive who posite on this occasion (which I shall present profits by these enormous inequalities can by no to the reader in the simple style of Croxall means be esteemed independent but must be con-Plain truth dear Murray needs no flowers of sidered in the eye of reason as an interested supporter of our existing forms (meaning the existing forms of the government of this kingdom) forms which I with many others regard as utterly inconsistent with the true welfare of speech so take it in the very words of Creech The Sensible Ass-An old fellow was feeding an ass in a fine green meadow and being alarmed with the sudden approach of the enemy was im patient with the ass to put himself forward and fly with all the speed that he was able The ass asked him whether or no he thought the enemy would clap two pair of panniers upon his back The man said no there was no fear of that Why then says the ass I will not stir an inch for what is it to me who my master is since I shall but carry my panniers as usual The application of this fable shows us how much in the wrong the poorer sort of people most commonly are when they are under any concern about the revolutions of a government all the alteration which they can feel is perhaps in the name of their sovereign or some such important trifle but they cannot well be poorer or made to work harder than they did before Thus far Dr. Crorall (meaning and insinuating thereby that the poorer sort of liege subjects of our said lord the king would not be prejudiced by a revolution in the government of this kingdom effected and brought to pass by the said enemies of our said lord the king and that the said last-mentioned liege subjects would be in the wrong if they should resist the said enemies of our said lord the king in case of an hostile invasion by them made into this kingdom And in another part thereof according to the tenor and effect following that is to say (p. 38) It follows I think most unquestionably that no distinctions in society should prevail but what arise from personal merit and public services that the futher's honours which have been justly paid him should be regularly transmitted in connexion with various privileges and immunities to his undeserving children is a stupidity I should think which few will be forward to defend but so circumstanced are the aristocratical dignities of this country something alas! besides virtue is nobility in England an advocate for inequality like this shall receive no commendations at my hands he deserves well neither of humanity nor the gospel and in another part thereof according to the tenor and effect following (page 39)—As to an ecclesiastical establishment in alliance with the state or rather dependent on it I consider such a confederacy as a monstrous solecism in Christian | polity as a fraudulent usurpation over that liberty" with which Christ has made us free" as an impious prostitution of the simplicity and sincerity of the gospel a scheme of universal philanthropy and freedom to secular and interested purposes in short as the prominent characteristic of that Anti-christian" tyranny_mhich is now ripe for summary vengeance and eternal extirpation I regard (to use great plainness of speech) your archbishops bishops deacons canons prebendaries and all the muster roll of ecclesiastical aristocracy (meaning the archbishops bishops deans canons prebendaries and all the dignitaries of the church of this kingdom) as the despicable trumpery of priestcraft and superstition and a grievous domination over the meek principles of evangelical sobriety but I am utterly incapable as God is my witnews of the least disaffection to the persons of these churchmen or of the slightest wish to injure them because their opinions are not con sonant to mine and in another part thereof according to the tenor and effect following that is to say (page 43) If the French (mean ing the aforesaid enemies of our said lord the king) come (meaning come into this kingdom in an hostile manner) they shall find me at my post a watchful centinel in my proper box my study among the venerable dead sometimes investigating the origin of man and primeval history by turning the dark lanthorn of heathen records or trimming the everlasting lamp of Moses sometimes musing with the divine professors of the tuneful art on subjects of taste and fancy and sometimes meditating with the men of Galilee on mortality-No systems of "the many made for one" no zeal in support of frontless corruption and “ every evil work" shall dip my hands in the blood of men! Non res Romana perituraque regna Let those who have an interest in these fooleries and sins Let those who have brought us to this most alarming crisis step forwards in the day of danger und fight the battles of their Baal and their Mammon Let these I say buckle on their panoply in defence of monarchy (meaning the monarchy of this kingdom) against republicanism and stand up for domestic robbers against a foreign spoiler We sons of peace or sec or think we see a gleam of glory through the mist which now envelops our horizon great' revolutions are accomplishing a gencral fermentation is working for the purpose of a general refinement through the universe incipient magni procedere menses—we will wait the event " through evil report and good report" in defiance of penalties and pains of persecutions imprisonments and deaths with trembling hope but with a firm and tranquil resignation "Know now whether this be thy son's coat or not" A minister and believer of the gospel should be well assured of the rectitude of his cause before he becomes crusader under the pretended banners of order and religion If I saw a government whether monarchical or republican devoted solely to the moral and intellectual melioration of its subjects steadily and systematically bent on the promotion of their temporal comfort and accommodation by beneficent and equal laws that government should find me as zealous and uniform in its support as the most forward of its champions but when I see all consideration of the public welfare swallowed up in a domineering profligacy venality and selfishness When I behold the most hideous crimes daringly perpetrated under the pretence of preserving regularity and subordination When I see religion employed as a state engine of despotism and murder by a set of men who are worse than heathens and infidels in their lives When I observe these and other enormities which the time would fail me to enumerate committed without scruple and without remorse to maintain forsooth a degenerate constitution (meaning the constitution of this kingdom) of ideal excellence and practical depravity and am called upon to defend it against invaders I revolt at such an audacious impo |