68 Letter on Affairs in general. [JAN. 



safety of trial by jury altogether what a paramount necessity does this 

 create for the most absolute freedom from prejudice the most cautious 

 moderation, always on the part of the judge ! And this point (with 

 which I must wind up) brings me to a few words upon the seeming incli- 

 nation of the Lord Chief Baron's mind upon the subject of LIBEL, as 

 expressed the other day, in the trial against the Times, in the Court of 

 Exchequer. 



In the first action, in the matter of the ideot Smith -tried against the 

 Birmingham Journal, at Gloucester the verdict was for the plaintiffs, 

 with damages 400. It struck most persons, I believe, as a very extra- 

 ordinary verdict ; not at all of necessity, because they believed "all the 

 circumstances which the paragraph complained of had stated against the 

 Smiths but because there was not the smallest ground for supposing 

 the existence of any malice in the defendant. On the "justification" set 

 up, it was sworn by Mr. Broughton, the magistrate, a man of considera- 

 tion, and a clergyman, and on whose veracity there could be no impeach- 

 ment, that he found the lunatic, at his first visit, in a most wretched 

 condition such as induced him immediately to order his removal to the 

 county asylum, where his health and condition very rapidly improved ; 

 and this statement was corroborated by two or three perfectly respectable 

 and apparently disinterested witnesses one of whom was the keeper of 

 the asylum, who fetched the patient from the house of his relatives. Now, 

 after these events, I should say it was the absolute duty of any journalist 

 if newspapers for any useful purpose ought to be permitted to exist 

 (which is a question that I will not stop to discuss here); that, having 

 before him so many unquestionable facts, any newspaper editor would 

 have exposed himself to a fair charge of cowardice and probably to 

 suspicion of corruption who had omitted to publish an account of the 

 case. If such a case was not to be published, to what end does a news- 

 paper exist ? I am far here from losing sight of the interests of the 

 Smiths. No case can be more pitiable than that of a family upon whom 

 (under such circumstances) the care of a human being bereft of reason 

 devolved. But we cannot lose sight of the common advantage. No per- 

 sons suffer a heavier affliction than those upon whom the keeping of luna- 

 tics devolves ; but all experience has shewn us, that there is no earthly 

 duty in which persons require more vigilance exercised over them, and 

 more attention. All people who have the guardianship of those who 

 have no means of resistance, live in danger of themselves. The cases 

 are endless every day recurring in which keepers of schools masters 

 of workhouses and prisons tradesmen taking parish-apprentices 

 masters of ships at sea possessors of slaves abroad and, more than all, 

 keepers of lunatics at home are found either offending, or negligent of 

 their duty. Now here is a case in which strange circumstances are pub- 

 licly reported : the newspaper writer is cognizant of some most important 

 and undisputed facts. If it so happens that he mixes up in his account 

 some incidents which turn out to be untrue is not the most that can be 

 fairly said, that he has made use of some reports which strict caution 

 would have avoided? And this is an error to have given against an 

 original writer 50 damages for ; not against a man who copied," in 

 the course of business, 400. 



But now hear the Chief Baron of the Exchequer : his Lordship is of 

 another way of thinking. The 400 damages gained against the Bir- 



