1 8 '24.] 



Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



cffecled only by liberal funds, contribu- 

 tions are necessary from all persons who 

 at once combine wealth with just senti- 

 mtnls of humanity. We hope therefore 

 that this notice will not be lost on every 

 reader of the Monthly Magazine who 

 lias a pound, or a five pound, to spare, 

 in aid of one of the most legitimate 

 objects that ever addressed itself to bis 

 attention. Man has heretofore vied in 

 his practices, towards every creature in 

 his power, with the hyena, with the vul- 

 ture, and the shark, without the obliga- 

 tion of their necessities ; and has used 

 his own superior cunning merely for the 

 purpose of refining his cruelties, and 

 rendering his devastations more exten- 

 sive. Let us hope, therefore, that some 

 modifications of his absurd power will 

 result from the exertions of this chari- 

 table and praiseworthy society. 



We bad hoped that no fresh wounds 

 on the liberty of the press, and the free 

 energies of the human mind, would have 

 resulted from the scandalous publication 

 of the author of " Wat Tyler," in 

 which, for the purpose of extolling some 

 worthies of bis own making, he thought 

 proper to libel ail the genuine virtue of 

 the last age. The j)ublisher of Lord 

 Byron's indignant, though ill-judged. 

 Parody on that indecent and intemperate 

 production, has however been brought 

 up to receive the judgment of the Court 

 of King's Bench ; and has been sen- 

 tenced to pay a fine of 100/. and to give 

 security for bis good behaviour for five 

 years in 2000/. That able barrister Mr. 

 ScARLKTT, previously to the judgment, 

 moved, without success, for a new trial, 

 and, in the course of his speech, intro- 

 duced the following very important 

 observations on the principle of this 

 prosecution, which we consider it our 

 duly to preserve, as they appeared in the 

 Observer newspaper, for the honour of 

 tJie age in which such a proceeding took 

 place, and succeeded : — 



•* Conceding, as no doubt he must, that a 

 king on the throne is endui-d with the feel- 

 ings of ordinary men, (though he was 

 bound to declare that those were not the 

 best applicable to the monarch of a coun- 

 try,) yet his feelings woidd be naturally 

 tempered with a due regard to his ovvn 

 station, and to the necessity and propriety 

 of public opinion and feeling respecting 

 )iig deceased predecessor; and theiefore 

 he was not placed in such a situation as to 

 be affected by any representation of the 

 character and rondiict of liis immediate 

 ancestor, as a private individual inij:ht be. 

 lie niuiit own, as his c.uidid and sincere 



Monthly Mag. No. ay7. 



535 



opinion, that, by placing this indictment' 

 on the files of the Court, the prosecutors 

 had offered one of the greatest insults to 

 the king of this country that was ever 

 offered to any monarch. It was a states 

 ment on record, by private prosecutors, 

 who had taken upon themselves the pro- 

 tection of the reigning family of this coun- 

 try, tliat his late Majesty's reign wa* 

 attended with much bloodshed and waste' 

 of treasine, and that such a representation 

 of the character of that reign gave yreat 

 •pain to the present sovereign and his 

 family ; it was statini: that private feeling* 

 were mixed up with his late Majesty's po- 

 litical conduct; it was stating that it was 

 a high offence to their reigning soveiei^u, 

 that any man in the realm of England 

 should presume to give any opinion re- 

 specting the political history of his prede- 

 cessor's reign, and that any observation 

 which approximated to any thing like 

 blame or imputation upon his father, was 

 so offensive to him, that he was desirous of 

 punishing the offender by the strong arm 

 of the law. Such a description of the 

 feelings and character of the reigning sove- 

 reign, as his true character, he must say, 

 was a gross imputation upon the king. He 

 would lay down no rule as to the limits 

 in which a writer might range in discus- 

 sing the character of a deceased sovereign ; 

 but this he would venture to affirm, that 

 if a discussion upon the character of a dead 

 king was criminal, because it wounded 

 the feelings of a living monarch, alt history, 

 as well as all poetry, must cease. Such a 

 consequence would deeply affect the in- 

 terests of mankind ; it would be produc- 

 tive of tlie greatest calamities to the haman 

 race. If the successor of a sovereign is 

 to be placed in such a situation as that his 

 ear is to hear nothing of the private cha- 

 racter of his predecessor, or of the opinion 

 which his subjects entertain of it, then all 

 history must be panegyric and fulsome 

 flattery. Should a rule be laid down, that 

 whatever is incidentally calculated to give 

 pain to a living monarch is criminal, it 

 was impossible to say where that rule was 

 to have a limit. Where was the licence 

 of history to commence? If not with the 

 father of a king, the prohibition would ex- 

 tend to his grandfather, and greatgrand- 

 father, or any remote ancestor." 



It has been our practice never to 

 withhold praise where a fair pretext 

 existed for aj)plying it ; but to bestow it 

 indiscriminately, or without accurate 

 discrimination, is at all times to render 

 it useless, if not worse than useless. Our 

 pages have proved that we have been 

 among the foremost to exalt the merits 

 of the late Mr., Watt, but wc never 

 failed to temper our praise by treating 

 of hiiH, nut us fbo inventor and father 

 3 Z of 



