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Can he know, when he sees Mr. | may think tending to bring the HONE acquitted for first publish- Parliament into contempt. There ing certain parodies; and when may be men to think, that what I he sees many poor men, in differ- am now writing has such tendenent parts of the country, convict-cy. To dispute any point with ed, and most severely punished the Parliament; and, especially, for selling those very same puro to dispute it with success; esdies? Can he know, when the pecially to show that the Parlia law does not tell him what blas- ment has done wrong, or fallen phemy is; when the dictionary into error. May there not be men tells him, that it is "the offering to think, that all such writing has of an indignity unto God him- a tendency to bring the Parlia" self," and when he sees men ment into contempt ? Is not the convicted of blasphemy, and most writer of every petition, which tremendously punished, though shall complain of any law; is not they have been most strenuous, every such man a "seditious eloquent and fervent in extolling libeller"? And, the Parliament the praise and glory of God, and having resolved and enacted, that have only expressed their disbe- the Bank shall pay in specie, must lief in the Christian Faith? Can not he be a seditious libeller, who he know, when the law (as it now proves to demonstration, that the stands) makes any thing a sediti- Bank never can pay in specie? ous libel, which has a TENDEN- Praise, then, is all we have left to CY to bring either House of Par-bestow. We may praise as long liament into contempt? Can he as Can he as we please, but, according to tell what shall have that ten- this law, we are free to do nodency? Can he know when thing but that. If we write at any Judge, or any twelve men, all, we must take care not to be or any one man, will think silent; for silence is one of the that any writing will writing will have most efficacious ways of showing such tendency? And yet, mon-contempt. "Better be damned strous to reiate, such writer, so than not be named at all." Praise, bounden, is compared, as to his praise, and that only is our safe state of restraint, to the ship- course. And, even here we must owner, who gives bonds, that he take care of ourselves; for, as the will not take smuggled goods on same poet informs us, we may board his ship! "damn with faint praise," more It is manifest to the plain un-effectually, perhaps, than with derstanding of every man, that censure. Unqualified and loud such a writer must be constantly praise is, therefore, now the only under restraint. He never can thing that can insure our safety. know when he is endangering his friends, unless he continually writes in favour of the Ministers and the Parliament; and this is a pretty state of degradation; this is a pretty thing to be called liberty of the press! It is impossible for any writer to know what others (and especially after every thing has been done to stretch his meaning)

Such is the state, in which every writer is placed by the previous restraint imposed upon him. But, far more powerful is another means of restraint imposed by this same Act of Parliament.

A writer (or a printer or pub lisher, which latter includes all sellers) may now, if any man, upon oath, inform a Justice of the

Peace, that the writer, for in-1 ances for his innocence! Nay, he stance, has written what the Jus tice may deem a seditious libel; a writer may instantly be held to bail, with sureties, to appear and answer the charge at the next quarter session. But, this is not all, the bonds are to include a condition to be of good behaviour in the meanwhile!

may be punished for his innocence; he may be legally punished on a charge proved to be fulse before a Grand Jury, by even a shorter process than that of obtaining a conviction for a second libel. A writer, bound over on a charge, which a Grand Jury declares to be false, may, before the meeting of the Sessions, commit an assault; may be engaged in riotous conduct; may be guilty of profane swearing. These are all breaches of the recognizances: and thus, though he had published no libel; though a Grand Jury had declared the charge, on which he was bound over, to be false; still he might be punished and even ruined, for the publication!

Now, then, what is the state of this famously free JOHN BULL with a pen in his hand! Any Justice can have a publication brought to him and sworn to. And, if he thinks it a seditious libel, he can, at once, bind the writer over, as above mentioned, or plunge him into a jail at once, upon his own authority and in consequence of his own uncontrouled opinion as to the tendency of the publication! To say, that the Parliament has Pretty well so far; but we passed such a law as this, may, must not stop here: if we do, we perhaps, be thought to have a shall not do a hundredth part of tendency to bring it into "hatred justice to this act of parliament. or contempt." But, must I, then, The Quarter Sessions arrive. A not say, that it has pass: d such a Bill of indictment is presented law? Or, must I praise such a law against this safety and firmly to the skies? Must I be a liar, or bounden writer. The Grand hold my tongue, lest I should be Jury throw out the Bill. They fined, imprisoned, or banished ? differ in opinion from the bind-Let those who have words to exing justice. They do not think the publication a seditious libel. But, the writer is not, perhaps, to go unpunished, merely because he was innocent. He was bound over, we will say, a month before the Sessions. A week before the Yet, there are men, who have Sessions he is bound over again assurance enough to assert, that for a second libel, upon which a even this; aye this, is consonant bill is found; and he is convicted with the spirit of the laws of Engon this second libel. Having been land! Nay; they have said, that so convicted, he has forfeited his is law, and always was law. I have first recognizances, he and his heard knavish, petty tyrants, in a sureties are sued for them, and Republic, assert the same thing. with a certainty of the crown's re- But (reserving this latter to be covering. So that, he is punished spoken of fully when I meet with with fine or imprisonment, or any Reformer who shall have both, for his guilt; and he is been misled into a love of repubpunished with forfeited recogniz-licanism), I defy the most

press their feelings here, express them: I have not. The whole vocabulary of our language affords not epithets and terms wherein justly to describe my feelings with regard to this law.

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dustrious rummager into the records of misrule to find any decision, in the English Courts (except that of Star-Chamber) giving countenance to such an assertion; an assertion which is in itself, the foulest libel, on the law.

WILKES was prosecuted for an obscene and blasphemous libel. He was held to be bail (before convic tion) to be of good behaviour. He applied to the Court of King's Bench to release him from the bail, on the express ground, that bail could not legally be taken in case of libel, before conviction. LORD CAMDEN was the Chief Justice; and he delivered the opinion of the Court, which opinion was, that it was not lawful to demand bail for good behaviour, in cases of libel, before conviction! and that, there fore the bail must be discharged. And it was discharged accordingly. There is but one case, that I have ever heard of, in which bail, in case of libel, was insisted on. It was that of the Seven Bishops, in the reign of James the Second. They refused to give bail; they were sent to the Tower; three of the Judges were corrupt and decided against them; they were afterwards tried and acquitted; and their acquittal was the signal for the overthrow of the base and tyrannical king and councillors, who had thus stretched and violated the law. This precedent, therefore, is, one would think, a thing to be shunned and not to be followed.

But, if this binding over, in cases of libel, was always law, why did SIR VICKARY GIBBS bring in a bill, in 1808 (I think it was) to authorize the holding to bail to answer the charge, in cases of misdemeanour? Libel is a misdemeanour; if bail, in such cases,

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could be legally demanded before 1803, why did Sir Vicary bring in this Bill? Observe, too, that this Bill gave no one but a Judge this power of holding to bail, before trial, for misdemeanour. And, not even to a Judge, unless in very urgent cases, and with very pointed affidavits before him. If the present law were always the law, what was the sense of this Bill? Lord Sidmouth's CIRCU LAR first broached the doctrine, of a power in Justices of the Peace to hold to bail, on charges, of libel, even to answer the charge; and this Act, which we have now under examination, has completed the subjection and degradation of the press. For, according to this Act, every public writer, every printer, and every publisher, may now legally be held to bail, during the whole of his life, and, may be punished many, many times in every year, by the forfeitare of recognizances, given on charges of libel, though it may, at the same time, be legally proved, that not one of them has ever published any libel at all! Can an Imprimatur, can a Censorship: can any thing short of a halter actually tied round our necks, be, a greater restruint than this law?

It was my intention to pursue the subject into the other Acts, providing for confiscation of property and for banishment of person. But what is the value of any other property compared with the property which men have in the use of their talents, the thoughts of their mind, and the feelings of their hearts? And, as to banishment, where is the man, who would not regard it as a blessed escape. from this state of everlasting restraint?

And why have these laws been passed? Could not the press,

ninety-nine hundredths of which cultivating lands completely bar, =) is absolutely devoted to the Go-ren. vernment and the Church: could not the press have been left to correct itself? Could not the ninety-nine writers have been trusted to for a refutation of the hundredth; backed, as the former were, by the pulpit (sectarian as well as orthodox) and by the whole body of livers on the taxes?

The fact is, the Ministry finds itself surrounded with all sorts of difficulties; difficulties so great, so numerous, so complicated in their nature, and demanding in

These projects are so numerous, that to promise to notice. every one separately (especially when we consider the new ones that may spring forth) is much more than I dare venture. But, in the course of these papers, I' shall certainly notice such of them as appear to have attracted public attention and to have been able to produce any considerable por-. tion of public delusion.

WM. COBBETT.

LUMNY ON PAINE.

the way of remedy, measures so CURIOUS HISTORY OF A CAfar beyond the scope and compass of its mind, and especially of any thing that it feels itself able to propose or support, that it is, like a strong man in a state of delirium, laying about it, back stroke and fore stroke, not knowing or caring what class it destroys, or what wounds it inflicts upon the character of the country.

This has been the true cause of the late month of angry legislation. Let us hope, that the six weeks, as it were taken to cool, will have produced a change of tone and a change of temper. The general disease of the country, is, a want of reform; the immediately pressing complaint, the misery of the people; of the whole of the people, the very rich and those who live upon the taxes excepted. To remove this distress, and to restore the nation to prosperity, require measures, which, thus far, no man, in either house, has had the courage to propose. We have projects enough, high and low, from the seizure of the estates of the great down to the allotment of plots of ground to the poor: from the scheme for diminishing the quantity of food by Corn Bills down to the augmenting of it by

It is a part of the business of a press, sold to the CAUSE OF CORRUPTION, to calumniate those, dead or alive, who have most effectually laboured against that cause; and, as PAINE was the most powerful and effectual of those

labourers, so to calumniate him has been an object of their peculiar atten said against this famous man, is, that tion and care. Amongst other things he recanted before he died; and, that, in his last illness, he discovered horrible fears of death. This is, to be sure, a very good answer to what these same persons say about his hardened infidelity. But, it is a pure, unadulterated falshood. This falskood, which I shall presently trace to its origin (the heart of a profound hypocrile) was cried about the streets of Liverpool, when I landed there in November last. Thence it found its way to the grand receptacle and distributor of falshood and calumny, the, London préss, which has sent it all over this kingdom. One Country pa is foul and mean, affects to possess per, however, pre-eminent in all that original matter and authentic infor mation on the subject; and, indeed it pledges itself for the character of the " gentleman" from whom it says it has received the pretended authentic account. The Country-paper I al

lude to is, the Norwich Mercury, | principal visitor, said, “ you see what miserprinted and published by one BURKS; able comforters I have." An unhappy female, and the article on PAINE is as fol-mented her sud case, observing, for this man who had accompanied him from France, lalows:

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The following statement has been handed to us by a Gentleman, whose character is a sufficient pledge that he would not put forth any article which he had not the best reason to believe to be true :

THOMAS PAINE.-The following is an extract of an American letter, the writer of which is of the most unquestionable respectubility, and appears recently to have obtained the information it contains from authority equally entitled to credit :-The latter had resided in a family in the neighbourhood of the celebated Thomas Paine, which, during his last illness, bad contributed to his comfort by occasionally preparing and sending in food and refreshment better adapted to his situation than he usually enjoyed. Of these the informant chose to be the bearer to his bedside, although his personal circumstances were so deplorable that the air of his chamber could scarcely be endured, and in performing this humane office had the opportunities of conversation with him, which authorized the writer's belief, that he exhibited another proof of Dr. Young's assertion, "that men may live fools, but fools they cannot die." The letter proceeds to say, that she found him frequently writing, and believed, from what she saw and heard, that

I have given up my family and friends—my property and my religion; judge then of my distress, when he tells me that the principles he has taught me will not bear me out."

The Norwich Mercury did not imagine, that any one would take the pains to expose this tissue of falshoods. In the first place, why does he not name his " gentleman" of such excel

lent character? How these informers skulk! Mr. Burks can pledge himself for the character of the "gentleman" informer; but, where are we to get a pledge for the character of Mr. Burks, who, if we are to judge from this act of his, stands in need of very good sponsors.

Let us look, a little, at the internal evidence of the falshood of this story. Mr. PAINE possessed, at his death, an unencumbered estate of two hundred and fifty acres of land, not more than twenty miles from New York. He possessed a considerable when his pains permitted he was always so Will any one believe, that he was, on sum besides. These he left by will. employed, or in prayer, in the attitude of which she more than once saw him when he his dying bed, in want of proper thought himself alone. One day he enquired nourishment, and that he was in a deof her if she had ever read the " Age of Rea-plorable state as to apartments and ne

son;" and on being answered in the affirma

tive, desired to know her opinion of that

book. She replied that she was but a child when she read it, and that he probably would not like to know what she thought of it; upon which he said, if old enough to read, she was capable of forming some opinion, and that from her he expected a candid statement of what that opinion had been. She then said, she thought it the most dangerous insinuating book she had ever read; that the more she read the more she wished to read, and the more she found her mind estranged from all that is good; and that from a conviction of its evil tendency she had burnt it, without knowing to

whom it belonged.-Paine replied to this,

that he wished all who had read it had been as wise as she; and added, "if ever the Devil had an agent on earth, I have been one." At another time, when she was in his chamber, and the master of her family was sitting by his bed side, one of Paine's former companions came in; but seeing them, hastily went out, drawing the door after him with violence, and saying, “ Mr. Paine, you have lived like a man I hope you will die like one." Upon which, Paine, turning to his

cessaries? Then, was it likely, that when a neighbour's maid servant went to carry him a little present of sweetmeats, or the like, that he would begin a conversation on theology with her? And, is it not monstrous to suppose, that he would call himself the devil's agent to HER, and not leave behind him any recantation at all, though he had such ample time for doing it; and thought his confidant was so ready to receive it and take care of of it; and, nothing but a simpleton, it! The story is false upon the face or something a great deal worse, would have given it circulation and affected to believe it to be true.

I happen to know the origin of this story; and I possess the real, original document, whence have proceeded the divers editions of the falshood, of the very invention of which I was, perhaps, myself, the innocent cause!

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