1827.] The Re-assembling of Parliament. 167 



the profession can make their most successful and murderous inroads; and 

 no matter how black may be the character of the party which the press 

 has had the honesty to expose, or how unequal he may be to the payment 

 of a single six-and-eight-perice, there is always to be found some heartless 

 and hungry attorney, who will undertake the case for a share of the plun- 

 der. We need not go far back into the annals of pettifogging, or probe 

 into the darkness of ignorant ages, to find instances of this legal and moral 

 abuse. We could quote them, recent almost as the last new moon, were it 

 not that the quotation would also be libel ; and, instead of exposing the 

 villains, we would be made to pay the wages of their villany. 



The proposal to which we allude will, if carried into effect (and he 

 who means to propose it has great confidence of its success), not tend 

 to take away or to mitigate the punishment of libel in cases where it is 

 malignant; but it will enable the jury to decide upon the case itself, and 

 not, as they do at present, upon an ex-parte statement, framed by the one 

 party to answer his own purposes. It will place the criminality in the 

 obvious intention the only thing in which there can be much crime ; and 

 thus, while the press will still be restrained from doing violence to the 

 innocent, it will be left to operate in a full, wholesome, and efficient man- 

 ner for the correction or punishment of the guilty. The substance of the 

 proposal lies in these few words : " the evidence of the truth of the matter 

 stated shall, in all cases, go to the jury; and if it be satisfactory, and no 

 malignant purpose be shewn, then the verdict shall be for the defendant : 

 but if the proof fail, or if malignant intention be apparent, then the verdict 

 shall be for the prosecutor." This would we hope it will make the law 

 of libel as wholesome as it is at present pernicious ; and the man who brings 

 it forward will have his name recorded among those who have devoted their 

 talents to the honest service of mankind. 



Such are a few of the topics which will come before the senate at its 

 meeting ; and, if it shall dispose of them in a proper manner, it may bo 

 reckoned one of the best parliaments that ever met. If not, the public 

 will bear in mind, when time or chance shall send the hon. members back 

 again to the hustings, who did and who did not take the liberal side. 



MR. GIFFORD. 



THE life of a literary man, must, in general, be looked for in his literary 

 successes. If he has done nothing that impressed his name on the public 

 mind, he has failed in his purpose of life ; he has virtually not lived at all. 



But the circumstances of Mr. Giffbrd's life have some peculiarities more 

 favourable to memory than the dubious and perishing merits of author- 

 ship. He began the world in the humblest condition. By activity of 

 mind, seconded by an instance of remarkable good fortune, he was placed 

 on that fair level of society from which our ablest men start. By integrity 

 of spirit, and by unwearied diligence, he still forced his way upwards, until 

 from poverty he had risen to competence. He continued till an advanced 

 period of life, to labour with the same industry which had bean the habit 

 of his early years, and at the age of 71, and withdrawn from all official 

 occupation, he died almost with the pen in his hand. 



Of the character of a man who had so long identified himself with a 

 party, exaggeration on both sides may be expected. Whatever virtues or 



