1829.3 The lale Prosecnlious against the Press. 139 



Look back upon the annals of mankind^ and yon will discover in the 

 times of despotism, the names of the despots blackening in the pages of 

 the satirists and historians of their day. They earned the immortal 

 exaggeration of their infamies, by the attempt to crush the publication 

 of their vices. Had they permitted public writers to chronicle things 

 truljr, there would have been less acrimony and more truth in the 

 records. It was the abortive rage of the tyrant that aroused the inven- 

 tive retaliation of his defamers. Who believes in half the guilt that is 

 attributed to the Romaii emperors .'' The tales of their iniquities are 

 magnified beyond all reasonable credence. On the other hand, can a 

 single case be produced in vv'hich the slanderer, in a free age, made a 

 convert to his opinions — unless, indeed, when the slandered permitted 

 his intemperance to arm itself in the terrors of the law, to do that which, 

 if he had been unjustly slandered, the voice of the nation would have 

 done for him ? Theti, indeed, people are wont to think that where there 

 was so much smoke, there must have been some fire. Did Pitt repel the 

 grossness of his defamers — and who had more of the senseless and brutish 

 class — by appealing to the strong arm of legal redress ? Did Eldon 

 ever connnit the monstrous folly of admitting that the punishment of 

 the accuser wovdd disprove and blot out the accusation .-' Did the late 

 Lord Londonderry ever enter a court of justice with a lachrymose 

 petition pinned to his character ? — No : — their reputation was deeply 

 seated j sustained with honour, through evil reports and good ; and not 

 to be redeemed by the verdict of twelve men, because it was obtained 

 from the universal suffrage of millions. 



We have been led into these observations by the recent prosecutions 

 instituted by the Lord Chancellor against two public journals, for the 

 insertion of statements alleged to contain libels upon his lordship. It is 

 worthy of notice that the journals in question are totally dissimilar in 

 character and principles ; the one, the Morning Journal, being distin- 

 guished for its uncompromising advocacy of the Protestant constitution; 

 the other, the Atlas, being either wholly neutral upon political questions, 

 or, if tinged by partiality, being disposed the other way. In both these 

 journals obscure paragraphs appeared which Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst 

 took to himself, and proceeded upon. Had his lordship paused to con- 

 sider, we suspect he would have been slow to appropriate the imputed 

 libellous properties of the vague inuendos upon which he has founded 

 a claim for legal redress, because one half of the country did not under- 

 stand them, and the other half never thought of his lordship when they 

 perused thera. By the hasty interposition of the Attorney- General, 

 however, universal attention has been called to the subject, and all 

 Europe is now discussing the probabilities of a presumption which his 

 lordship himself first awakened. His lordship and Lady Lyndhurst have 

 sworn that the imputations said to be thrown out by the newspapers are 

 false ; and the wondering public are only astonished that such distin- 

 guished personages should deem it necessary to vindicate themselves 

 from a charge which had never been distinctly, or directly made against 

 them. Even had a positive accusation been unadvisedly brought 

 forward by a newspaper, we should have thought that the dignity of 

 his lordship's character, his elevation in the councils of the state, the 

 weight of his name, and his consciousness of the integrity of his 

 conduct, would have induced him to treat the sneers or malice of his 

 enemies, if he have any, with silent contempt. We should have expected 



T 2 



