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Ch. 33.

1793

TRIAL OF DUFFIN AND LLOYD.

or I intended to escape from the prison ?'- No; I never heard so.'

'Or that we excited others to escape or break the prison ?'-'No.'

'Did you think that we, or any of the prisoners, ever contemplated such a measure.''No; otherwise than as I inferred from the handbill which had been stuck up. I thought the paper might have that tendency.'

This evidence ought to have put an end to the case. It was ridiculous to say, that a paper published by the defendants themselves was evidence of a conspiracy to effect their own escape; and as it was proved that none of the other prisoners saw the paper, it could hardly have incited them to break out of prison. The absurdity of two men conspiring to break through a jail, strongly guarded, surrounded by a wall forty feet high and six feet thick, and giving notice of their conspiracy by a written placard, was too gross for argument; and, as to the second part of the charge, that the defendants had published the placard in pursuance of a conspiracy to incite their fellow-prisoners, there was no proof that anybody had been tampered with, or that the paper had been stuck up as a signal for insurrection. But these poor debtors had not the means of retaining Erskine to protect them from an attack which was prompted more by a foolish panic than by wanton tyranny. They defended themselves; and, like most persons ⚫ who are so unfortunate, or so injudicious, as to

SEVERITY OF THE SENTENCE.

undertake such a task, they urged topics which were either irrelevant or injurious to their interests. Duffin attacked the officers, and exposed the mismanagement of the prison. Lloyd, who described himself as a citizen of the United States, wearied the Court by a long dissertation on imprisonment for debt, and exasperated the Judge by reminding the jury that they had a right to draw their own conclusion from the facts without any regard to the opinion of the bench. A special jury of the City of London under the direction of Lord Kenyon, found both the defendants guilty. They were brought up for judgment in the following term; but there was a marked difference in their sentences. Lloyd was condemned to imprisonment in Newgate for three years, to stand in the pillory, and to find security for good behaviour for five years. Duffin was let off with the comparatively milder sentence of two years' imprisonment in the Counter, with security for good behaviour during two years more. Nothing appeared on the trial to warrant this distinction. Whether the Court were of opinion that Lloyd drew up the paper, and that Duffin was no more than his agent, or that they were influenced, as is stated in a contemporary publication," by the demeanour of the defendants at and since the trial, the whole proceeding, from first to last, was equally a disgrace

■ Annual Register, 1793, p. 6. Chronicle for report of the trial, see State Trials, vol. 22.

Ch. 33.

1793

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Ch. 33

1793

against the

Press.

FUTILITY OF LEGAL

to the Government, and to the administration of justice.

The proceedings against the press were conducted Proceedings in a spirit which seemed to aim at the suppression of all freedom of opinion. It is always a question whether the prosecution of political libels is not the best advertisement they can receive. A work of literary merit, however faulty in doctrine, requires a confutation of a different kind from that which the Attorney-General is prepared to offer. Fine and imprisonment have never yet put down opinions which the public is willing to discuss. I do not here advert to publications addressed to ignorance and vice. These, whether they assume a political, or moral disguise, are dealt with as a matter of police; and, when they acquire sufficient notoriety to become a nuisance and a scandal, are crushed by the strong hand of the law. But the systematic attack upon political writers and printers, in which the Government had engaged, was as much at variance with the spirit of our institutions, as it was unnecessary for their protection. The test of sound popular Government is the liberty of speaking and writing. No despotic rule, no hollow form of a liberal constitution, no simulated democracy can endure the temperature of a free press. But institutions which had been the growth of centuries, and which had, by common consent, nearly, if not quite, ascertained the mean between liberty and order, were surely not so frail that they must give way before the shock of foreign opinions,

PROSECUTIONS OF THE PRESS.

unless sustained by ex-officio information and indictments at Quarter Sessions. Such, however, seemed to be the apprehension of the ministers of the Crown; unless, indeed, which was probably the truth, they weakly yielded to the panic of their supporters. However this may be, the censure which attaches to their conduct is equal in either case; and it is impossible to record, without shame and regret, that an administration, of which William Pitt was the head, could lend itself to proceedings so cruel, so wanton, and so unconstitutional as those which have been described, and to others which remain to be mentioned.

Ch. 33.

1793

Publishers.

During the last century, and up to a period London within living memory, it was the fashion to frequent the shops of the principal London booksellers, as the morning rooms of the principal clubs are now frequented. Men of letters, members of Parliament, and the numerous loungers of a luxurious capital, assembled there, to discuss the new publications, political topics, and the gossip of the town. It was at the shop of Davis the bookseller, that Johnson first met his biographer, Boswell; and fifty years later,- at Murray's, in Albemarle Street, such men as Hallam, Byron, Rogers, and Moore were daily visitors.

The

London booksellers were formerly, to a greater extent, perhaps, than at present, men of education and attainments, living on terms of friendship and social equality, not only with their authors, but with many of the most accomplished

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Ch. 33.

1793

Ridgway's

sentence.

INDISCRIMINATE PROSECUTIONS

persons of the day. The names of Tonson and Lintot are as familiar nearly as those of Addison and Pope. Such men as Miller and Strahan, and the two Davies's, were no less known and esteemed in succeeding generations. I might easily extend the line to the present day; so numerous is the list of publishers who have not dealt with literature merely as a sordid trade, but are entitled to be placed in the ranks of its discriminating friends and liberal patrons.

6

Among the booksellers, whose shop was thronged by men of wit and fashion about town, was Ridgway, of Piccadilly. His business lay chiefly in the publication of pamphlets and political works in connection with the Whig and popular party. Among the publications which lay on Ridgway's counter, were Paine's 'Rights of Man,' and his 'Address to the Addressers,' together with a rather heavy but very harmless political satire called, the Jockey Club.' In selling these three books, Ridgway was subjected to as many prosecutions in the King's Bench, was convicted, fined £200, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Several other booksellers, both in London and in the country, were prosecuted for similar offences, and punished with more or less severity. One Holt, the printer of an obscure newspaper, called the Newark Herald,' was thought worthy of a criminal information, because, in addition to having sold Paine's book, he had printed in his newspaper, an address to its readers, on the subject of

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