18) 1.] 
sion. For every thing that a man is not 
amenable to a grand jury, he is answer- 
able to no other tribunal than his own 
conscience, his domestic circle, and his 
God; and he, who designedly, and with 
out some imperious and paramount ob- 
ligation, propagates any information 
calculated to bring any private character 
into contempt, to injure his fortunes, or 
wound his feelings, ought to be punished 
as an infamous slanderer. 
What I have stated above, may suffice 
to shew that the crime of libelling one’s 
neiyhbour bas no proper connection with 
the truth or falsehood of the assertion. 
He who is libelled might be allowed to 
prove the falsehood in aggravation; but 
to attempt to justify a libel ona private 
person, is an evident aggravation of the 
original offence, and ought never to be 
encouraged or countenanced iD any court 
of Jaw, in which the attainnfent of justice 
is the primary object. 
I consider this distinction between 
public discussion on public topics, and 
the malignant slander of private persons, _ 
and private character, to be the best 
security of all that is really useful ina free 
press. Ecannot, therefore, proceed, with- 
ouc exhorting courts of law to protect 
those who seek legal remedies against 
private libels, from greater libels, and 
froin wisrepresentations far more gross, 
which appear in the pretended reports 
‘of such trials, in-our newspapers. He 
who thinks it worth his while to libel an- 
other man, and to oblige him to seek his 
remedy at law, will not scruple after the 
‘trial to obtain the circulation of his own 
yeport of the proceedings: hence it is 
that the most flagrant lbels constantly 
escape with impunity, their punishment 
becoming a question of expediency, rather 
than of justice. That libel which was 
originally circulated in a cotner, and 
which, if neglected, might possibly have 
produced no palpable injury, will, if pro- 
secuted, as these things are now con- 
ducted, be circulated with emphasis in 
every newspaper in the kingdom, 
attejided by the witticisms, insinuations, 
strained inferences, and scandalous as- 
sertions, of counsel; so that a@ man who 
secks his redress at law, for that injary 
to which no man of honour could sub- 
mit, frequently involves himself in great 
expence and anxiety, gets perhaps a 
shilling damages, finds bimself at first 
the laughing-stock of his neighbours, and 
js finally ruined in his fame and his for- 
qune! 
As these considerations may appear te 
the Liberty of the Press. 
523 
some persons to compromise that right 
of free discussion, which is of such vital 
importance to the civilization, happiness, 
and improvement, of human nature; it 
may be necessary for me to remark, 
that I conceive the occasions to be very 
few, in which privaté character has any 
inherent connection with the investiga- 
tion of valuable truths. Is he a minister 
who supports an unnecessary war by mis- 
leading the public reason, and giving a 
false direction to the passions of the 
people; write against that war, and also 
ayainst wars in general; expose their 
mischiefs, and prove their ‘incfiiciency 
froin reason and experience to effect the 
objects which they propose?—Js he @ 
judge who over-rules juries, and passes 
cruel and unusual sentences; write 
against such practices, and shew that 
such sentences are contrary to the Bill 
of Rights?—Is he a general who unmer- 
cifully flogs his soldiers? question the 
policy and efficacy of flogging soldiers.— 
Is ‘he a prince addicted to the vice of 
drunkenness? expose that vice and its 
Lonsequence to tke interests, honour, 
and health of those who indulge in it.— 
But in neither of these cases, or in any 
similar case, is it necessary to vilify the 
personal and private character of the 
parties! Every legitimate purpose of the 
press being to be etfected under this li-~ 
mitation; it involves the probability of 
rendering the press odious to society, to 
insist on the right of wantonly exhibiting . 
supposed or alleged defects of - private 
character, thereby arming -every cow- 
ardly anonymous assassin with the au- 
thority pertaining only to a Grand Jury, 
and enabling him by turns to denounce 
and put on their defence, every honour- 
able man* and virtuous woman in the 
country. 
The press, as a means of attaining 
truth and information, by the collision of 
various opinions, is preferable to all 
others. A people cannot possess a more 
effectual power of exposing mal-admi- 
nistration than a free press. That king 
or minister evinces little wisdom, and a 
small degree of respect for the people, _ 
who does not consult the press as the 
medium of their complaints, and who 
does not maintain its freedom, that their 
complaints may be free, and that he may 
avail himself of its suggestions. A wise 
prince will recollect an admirable ar- 
rangement of some Vathers ofthe Chinese 
people, who caused a letter-box to be 
afiixed ‘at the Palace gate, into which 
their subjects were invited to pat their 
complaints, 
