" "ministers and the opposition have the same 66 "formal inquiry where there is no formal "charge? Why should the ignorance or influence, NOT TO SAY AUTHORITY; "malignity of the daily papers be raised "over them as if they were THE ACTUAL "into the consequence and dignity of "EDITORS. Has any instance ever ochaving called forth an official inquiry? "curred, in which a billet from Downing "If any thing has been said or written "street has been refused admission, and if re"against your royal highness, of which"quired, an ample confirmatory comment; "all his majesty's ministers must solemn- "through all the Treasury papers? And "ly disavow even any knowledge, the "will any, either of the ministry or the Attorney General should be ordered" opposition, declare, upon their honour forthwith to comnience a prosecution; "as gentlemen, that they have no autho "and if your royal highness be unwilling" rity or weight with the public papers? "personally to give your instructions to Whence does it happen, that the honour "that officer of the crown, they may be given" of parties is not the same with that of "to the treasury, by your royal highness's se- "individuals, and that a party will assert " cretary. But his majesty's ministers" conjunctively, what every individual of "that party knows to be false? Why is "there not the same point of honour with "a party as with an individual?-The "indecent language in the daily papers, "is certainly not from the mouth of the "ministers. It is impossible that men of "honourable stations should descend to such terms, and to such anonymous acri"mony. We are persuaded that his royal highness most fully acquits his majesty's "ministers of any immediate participation "in such libels. But the encouragement, "the countenance, the impunity, of these li"bellers, is the efficient cause of the whole. "Would the Editors of the Daily Papers "thus write, unless they were persuaded that "would think themselves deficient in a "due sense of what they owed to their "own dignity as his majesty's counsellors, "if they adopted a popular rumour as "sufficient grounds for an official inquiry." 66 they were advocating a cause generally pleus"ing to their patrons? As to a legal remedy for this torrent of libel and invec"tive, though a jury of his countrymen "would visit the libellers with merited pu"nishment, his royal highness, we believe, "will not be lightly persuaded to intro"duce a practice which he has never -Well, this was pretty well, I think. What more did this writer wish them to do? He will tell us directly, in speaking" of what he says has been the conduct of the present ministry, upon a similar occasion. It may be urged, indeed, in reply to all that has been said above, "that the attacks complained of, have not "been made with the knowledge, and still "less with the consent or concurrence of "his majesty's ministers: that they are all "of them too honourable men to concur "in such a system of anonymous attack: "that such a system, moreover, could an"swer no conceivable purpose: that the "ministry are too strong in public opinion " and confidence, to require the assistance "of such unworthy arts. In a word, that "such a persecution, and so indirectly "put into operation, can have no purpose, "and therefore that it is a reasonable in"ference that it has no existence.To "this it must be answered, that when his "royal highness made similar representa"tions, under the late ministry, the an"swer was uniformly, that his majesty's "ministers were totally ignorant of the "very existence of the facts alleged; that "the law was open to his royal highness, " and that the Attorney General might be "instructed to prosecute; that they had "no influence or authority over the free press; and that they advised his royal highness to hold all such libellous accu"sation in the contempt which it merited. " " 66 approved. There have been perhaps. " already too many government prosecu"tions, and a precedent may thus be con"stituted, which, much to the injury of "the free press, may be hereafter acted upon. Add to this that there may be "innumerable allusions, inuendoes, and " even assertions, which may have sub"stance enough to wound, and that most deeply, but are not palpable enough for the "visitation of the law. The libellers of his royal highness have been too long prac"tised in their school, to commit them"selves to the hands of a jury. Let any "man of honest feelings read some of the "cold-blooded articles which have lately appeared in many of the daily papers, "and then answer, if his indignation be not moved by their savage malignity"yet are these libels conceived in terms so studiously picked and culled, as to clude -It is notorious, however, notwithstanding all this disavowal, that the free "press, as it is called, and as it should be," "is almost equally divided between the two "leading parties in the country, and that the " “the just vengeance of the law.How ma-him to the editors of the newspapers! "ny subjects, moreover, are there which, Foh! it is so rank, it so stinks of meanness, "however grossly offensive to all honour- that one's bowels are disordered at the able feeling, cannot be produced to the thought, especially when imputed to a publicity of a legal trial. Let any man modern" CORIOLANUS." I am not for "put it to his own mind-how many slan- appeals to the law, respecting matters of "derous reports are daily in circulation this sort; but, something should certainly "to the ruin of the peace and character be done by the real friends of the Duke of "of their unhappy object, but for which York, to convince the world, that this "the sufferer is yet unwilling to make his part at least, of the pamphleteer's state"appeals to the laws of his country. ments is false. I, for my part, shall anx"There is a necessary and indiscriminating iously wait for the contradiction, and shall publicity in law, from which a mind of any hasten to give it to the world. What! (I "DELICACY cannot but avert. His royal cannot get it out of my mind) go to the highness has indeed suffered much, but ministry to supplicate their interference "he will suffer still more, we should with the public papers! It is such an <<think, before he can persuade himself abominable story; such atrocious slander, "to call on the laws of his country."- that surely it will be speedily contradictSo, here we have an expression of this ed. Such is the passage, and such writer's wishes. He seems to allow, that were my remarks upon it at the time. nothing has been said of the Duke that To this the writer added, in a very positive even our libel law can lay its fangs upon, and peremptory tone, that the ministry or, at least, with a fair chance of success; and opposition, must, when parliament and, therefore, as the newspapers are, as he met, both DISAVOW the attacks of the says, as completely at the command of the press upon the Duke. How far this positive two parties, as if the leaders of those parties prediction, not to call it a threat, has been were the actual editors; and as, with re- fulfilled, I leave the people to judge, when gard to the Treasury papers," a billet they have again carefully looked over from Downing Street is never refused the debate upon Mr. Wardle's Charges, "admittance, accompained, if required, by bearing in mind, at the same time, the "an ample confirmatory comment," he disavowal of Mr. W. Smith, in the name of would have had orders issued from Down- his party, the anger of Mr. Whitbread, ing Street, to those papers, to insert cer- at being suspected to have given encoutain billets and to refuse others, relating to ragement to Mr. Wardle, and the declarathe Duke of York. -This writer must be tion of Mr. Sheridan, relative to a foul an enemy of the Duke, under the mask of "conspiracy."Here then, People of friendship; for is it possible to form an England, you have seen the origin of all idea of any thing more low, more mean, these complaints against the press; I mean more shabby, more scurvy, more dirty, the first formal published complaint. Since more base, than going to a ministry, and that publication MAJOR HOGAN'S Pamphlet asking them to obtain the publication or edited by the able pen of Mr. Finnerty, the suppression of paragraphs, respecting has appeared. In consequence of that him, in prints, which he must regard as pamphlet many prosecutions by the Atbeing edited by the most venal of man- torney General have been commenced. kind? As if he had said to himself: no; Major Hogan's pamphlet boldly speaks of the law will not do; the law cannot find petticoat promotions; it states, that the any hold in the publications against me, Major, who is proved, by letters from most and beside I do not like the publicity of respectable superiors, to be a man of long law; I will, therefore, have recourse to and very meritorious services, told the corruption; I will, by the means of influ- Duke, that his long-sought promotion ence purchased with the public money, might have been obtained, at a reduced get a good word from those whom I despise. price, if he had, like others, chosen to disThis is what this writer imputes to the grace himself by applying to petticoat Duke of York, and this he does under the influence; that the Major was ready to mask of friendly compassion. This he does produce to the Duke proof that promotions under the pretence of defending the royal were thus disposed of; that the Duke chieftain against the attacks of his calum- made no answer to him; and that he (Major niators. I do not believe that any act more Hogan) has never been called on for his proof. base was ever before imputed to any human There could be no harm at all in the Mabeing. What, go sneaking to the ministry jor's saying, that he stated this to the to beg of them to speak a good word for Duke; the harm consisted in his stating, Diluents. Hi settled scheme for writing and talking down the Duke of York, the army, and all the establishments in the country; withthe severest censure upon the press, the recent "licentiousness" of which was represented as surpassing that of all former times, and the benefits of the freedom of which were, in the opinions of very good men, overbalanced by the evils of its licentiousness; with representations of the difficulty of producing convictions for obvious libels. Nor, must we fail to keep fresh in our minds, that, just before the parliament met, and while so many persons were under government-prosecution for alledged libels upon the Duke of York, we saw daily advertised in all the news-papers, "THOUGHTS ON LIBELS, on JURIES, and on "the DIFFICULTIES of PRODUCING CONVIC"TION in the case of libel," which Thoughts were "dedicated to the Duke of York and " Albany," and published by EGERTON, the Horse-Guards bookseller. At the same time, just upon the eve of the meeting of parliament, a person of the name of WHARTON, said to be the same who is Chairman of the Committee of the House of Commons, published a pamphlet entitled, "Remarks on the Jacobinical ten that the Duke made him no answer, and never called for his proofs; and, if this statement was false, it was very wicked and richly deserving of punishment; because the direct and inevitable tendency of it was to cause it to be believed, that such villainous influence, influence so manifestly disgraceful and injurious to both the army and the public, was used with the knowledge and connivance of the Duke, than which a heavier charge could not have been preferred against mortal existing. -It must be confessed, that this pamphlet had a wonderfully great effect all over the country. I recommended it to the attention of my readers; because I foresaw, that, whether true or false, it must finally bring to an open discussion, that question, which had, for several years, been agitated in private, and of the importance of which question I from my correspondence, was better able to judge than the public in general.Prosecutions were now resorted to, in which prosecutions Mr. Finnerty, and the printer and venders of Major Hogan's pamphlet are involved, and of course, were so involved at the date of Mr. Wardle's bringing forward his charges. But, in the meanwhile, many people appear to have been busy" dency of the Edinburgh Review, in a letter in their inquiries; and, at last Mr. Wardle, who had been successful in his inquiries, comes before the parliament, and, without applying to any party for support, or assistance, boldly makes the complaint, and prefers the charges, in the name of a burdened, an injured, and insulted people.~ -Now, then, we come to the reception which those Charges met with upon their first appearance. They were stated with a degree of frankness un-safety of the country; to cause it to be paralleled. The accuser not only explicitly stated the nature of the several cases; he gave the details; and he even named his witnesses; leaving to the accused every possible advantage, especially if we consider of what description those witnesses were, what was their situation in life, and what was their manifest interest as connected with the cases whereon they were to be called, it being almost impossible that scarcely any one of them should support the charges, without, in the same breath, proclaiming their own infamy, or, at best, their meanness.- -This procedure, so frank, so honest, so manifestly free from all desire to take advantage, was met with observations on the "heavy responsibility" to which the accuser had exposed himself; with charges against unnamed " jacobin conspirators," who had formed a "to the Earl of Lonsdale;" in which stupid Letter the author talks of libels, and of settled schemes, on the part of the press, to overthrow the establishments of the country. Whereunto these publications tended was evident enough. Their natural tendency, supposing them to have answered the purpose for which they were written, was, first to create in the public mind, an alarm for the internal peace and believed, that, somewhere or other, there was a conspiracy brooding against the government; that this conspiracy was aided, in its diabolical views, by the press; that, of course, it was the duty of juries to get over the difficulties which had heretofore been experienced in the producing of conviction in cases of libel; and if all this should fail, to prepare the minds of the public for new, and still more severe laws, with respect to the press, providing a complete security for every great offender in future. That such was the tendency of these publications is quite clear, and, I think, there can be very little doubt of its having been their principal, if not their sole, object. This object has, by Mr. Wardle's exertions, been, for the present, at least, defeated. The Lord Chancellor has declared, in his place, in the House of There is one way; and that a most effectual one, of silencing the press; of silencing both writers and talkers; namely, by reforming; by taking from the people the grounds of complaint; by ceasing to wrong and to insult them. But, this is a way that never seems to have been thought of. It is all to be done by force; by the law, or by the bayonet. These may silence, but they never convince; they smother for a while, but they do not extinguish the fire of discontent; as the fate of all the old corrupt governments of the continent has clearly demonstrated. Lords, that the laws in existence, relative | posure; but, the press being enslaved so to the press, are a sufficient check upon far as not to dare to speak the truth; as it. And, well might he make the declara- not to dare to utter what might hurt the tion! For, what further checks can be de- feelings of any one, whether guilty or not; vised,what greater dangers a writer or pub- this being so notoriously the case, there lisher can be exposed to, without establish- was no danger of exposure, and, of course, ing, at once, an imprimatur, and the power the corruption and profligacy went on inof transportation without trial, such as they creasing, until they arrived at the pitch in have at Calcutta, I am at a loss to discover. which they now appear before us. We cannot now plead the truth in justification of what we write and publish. It has now been proved, thanks to Mr. Wardle, that there has, for years and years, been carried on a regular trade in military commissions and in appointments of all sorts. But, if I had happened to know, that French and Sandon gave money to Mrs. Clarke for their letter of service, and that, in consequence of that bribe; they obtained their levy from the Duke of York; if I had happened to know this; if I had stated it; and if I had been prosecuted by the Attorney General for the statement, I should not have been able, according to the pre-Conspiracy against the establishments, insent practice of the law, to produce, in my defence, the proof of the truth of my statement, nor would my accusers have been called upon for proof of their falshood. All that would have been requisite to my conviction would have been the proof that I was the proprietor of the paper, and a thorough opinion, in the minds of the jury, that my statement was of a sort to hurt the reputation, or even the feelings, of either of the parties; and, thus, I might have been torn from my family, and shut up in Gloucester or Dorchester jail for years, as a sacrifice to the wounded feelings of a peculating pimp. And yet, there are men, who have the assurance to tell us, that the press is still too free; and that the difficulties in the way of conviction, in cases of libel, are still too great!Had not this, such as I have described it, been the state of the press; had not the danger of publishing truth been so great; can any one believe, that the enormities, the atrocious deeds, that have now come to light, would have been carried on for so many years? Why, I have had hundreds of letters upon the subject; but, I had no taste for either Gloucester or Dorchester jail; and, therefore, the knowledge thus communicated to me, was confined to my own indignant breast, or, at most, extended a little by the means of conversation. If truth had not been a libel, those injuries to the nation would have been stopped in time, or, rather, they never would have had an existence. They would have been prevented by the dread of ex deed! No, no! There is no jacobinical this at their hands? The pamphlet entitled "A PLAIN STATEMENT, &c." says, indeed, that the late ministry made an attempt to abridge the power of the Duke, and that a stop was put to their project "by write down the army, through the Duke of York. What is the House of Commons at now? Is not it hard at work to pull down the reputation of the officers of the army? After this, is it possible, that the people should think, as they before thought," the immediate interference of the king;' of rank in the military profession? Nay, but, their duty was, to go to the king. is it possible, that the non-commissioned with a full and fair representation of the officers and soldiers should not have a quite reasons why they wished to abridge that new set of ideas respecting their officers? power. To state painful truths is what a Is it not shocking, that the backs of hun- faithful counsellor is wanted for. There dreds of our brave countrymen should be are always people enough about a court to committed to the power of a wretch, who flatter, and to tell what is pleasing to the has been base enough to purchase that ear of a king; and, how many kings have power with a bribe to a kept-mistress? we seen come tumbling from their thrones, The case of good and honourable men, in only a few weeks after their flatterers who hold offices in the army is very hard. had taught them to believe, that all was At present it is impossible to know, who safety!If the king had had wise and are the petticoat officers and who are not. upright advisers, should we have ever The suspicions of the public and the sol- seen a grant like that mentioned in the diers must be divided amongst the whole motto to this sheet? Such advisers would body of officers; and the whole body not have failed to perceive, and to point must suffer accordingly. Was it not then, out to their master, the bad impression with good reason, that SIR FRANCIS BUR- which such a grant of the public money, DETT, in the last session of parliament, at a time like the present, must have upon wished to provide some legal checks upon the minds of his people. Such advisers the power of the Commander in Chief? would have reminded him, that the people The same reasoning will still apply could not fail to ask what services this lady to the Royal Family itself. It is not pos- (though a virtuous person, and whose case sible, that the people should look upon is a very hard one) had performed for them, that Family with the same eyes that they or for the crown, to merit such an incomedid before this explosion took place. out of the public purse, at a time when the First, the Duke of York is one of that Captains of the Navy are supplicating for a family. Next, the question, how the rest small addition to their pay. Such adof the family never came to hear of any of visers would have pressed upon the king, these corruptions, must, and will, pass through who would, we must believe, have, at the mind of every man in the kingdom. once, followed their advice, to abstain from I wish to guard my readers, and, as far as all grants, either direct or indirect, to his I am able, the people in general, from own family, while his people were so any hasty suspicions of this sort. A fa- heavily burdened, and while fresh sacrither and mother are, generally, the last fices of their comforts, and even necessawho hear of the faults of their children. ries, were annually called for, upon the None of us would think it just to be sus- ground of their being wanted for the depected of participating in the vices of our fence of the country against a foreign insons and daughters. But, we may be vader. If the king had had wise and reasonably allowed to ask, what the ad- upright advisers, should we ever have seen visers of the king have been about all this the news-papers announcing, under the time? Where they have lived, what so- head of "court news," the movements of ciety they have frequented, that they Mrs. JORDAN and her family, backward and have never discovered the existence of forward, between Bushy Park and St. James's any part of all that, which has now been Palace? If the king had had wise and upbrought to light? If there was such a right advisers, should we ever have seen writing and such a talking against the Duke publications, like the following, circulated of York, was it not their duty to have in-through all the news-papers of the kingdom! quired into the matter? and, had they not "The Duke of Clarence's birth-day was all the means of coming at the truth? "celebrated with much splendour in Bushy When they saw the statements of Major Park, on Thursday. The grand hall was Hogan, ought they not to have sent for entirely new fitted up, with bronze pilasMajor Hogan, and have examined him. "ters, and various marble imitations; the upon the subject? Did not their duty to "ceiling very correctly clouded, and the the king, as his sworn advisers, demand "whole illuminated with some brilliant" 66 |