1829.] and Liberty of the Press. 403 



the king's merci/, Mr. Prynne is not destroyed ! We have seen men con- 

 demned to die for less matters !" 



Then followed the Lord Chief Justice Richardson : — 

 He said, " Writing and printing of books grew every day worse and 

 worse. They were now troubled with a book, a monster (monstruin, 

 horrendum, informe, ingens), which was a most scandalous, infamous 

 libel against the king, queen, the lords, and all sorts of people : eye 

 never saw, nor ear ever heard the like. JMr. Prynne says, there are 

 above 40,000 play-books, more vendible than the choicest sermons ; 

 printed on far better paper than most octavo and quarto bibles ; and 

 'tis a year's time to peruse thein over. This monster is nothing but lies. 

 This man is not like the powder traitors, who would have blown iip all 

 at once, for he throweth down all at once into hell. He saith none are 

 gainers by stage plays but the devil and hell, and the souls of play- 

 haunters go to eternal torments ; that they are little better than incar- 

 nate devils, and unclean spirits. The writers, projectors, beholders, 

 dancers, and singers at plays, all damned : so many paces in a dance, 

 so many paces to hell ; the woman that singeth in the dance, is the 

 prioress of the devil ; those that answer, the clerks ; the beholders, pa- 

 rishioners ; the music, bells ; and the fiddlers, minstrels of the devil. 

 This is to take away the subjects' liearts from the king, and to bring him into 

 an ill opinion among his people." 



It is impossible, we think, not to be struck with the remarkable simi- 

 larity which pervades, at all times, the compendious logic of the law. 

 Who, but a lord chief justice (we do not mean by virtue of his office, 

 but by virtue of his training), could have arrived at such a satisfactory 

 conclusion from such premises ? So true it is, as Brathwaite quaintly 

 remarks in his English Gentleman, that " law, logic, and the Switzers 

 may be hired to fight on any side." One more specimen of Star-Cham- 

 ber justice in matters of libel, anno 1633, and we pass to the considera- 

 tion of libels and libellers, anno 1829. 



The Earl of Dorset was the most irate of all Mr. Prynne's accusers. 

 After terming him " Prophet Prynn, and Achan," his book " damna- 

 tion," himself " a schism-maker in the church, a sedition-sower in the 

 commonwealth, a wolf in sheep's clothing," and so forth, he concluded 

 in the following mild and gentle strain. He said, " he would no more 

 set him at liberty than a plagued man or a mad dog ; therefore con- 

 demned him to perpetual imprisonment, as those monsters that are no 

 longer fit to live amongst men, nor to see the light. For corporal 

 punishment, he questioned whether he should burn him in the forehead, 

 or slit him in the nose ; for Dr. Leighton's offence was less than ]Mr. 

 Prynn's, and why should Mr. Prynn have a less punishment ? For he 

 may hide the loss of his ears by a peruke, which he so much inveighs 

 against, or make use of lovelocks ; therefore, he would have him branded 

 in the forehead, slit in the nose, and his ears cropt too !" 



Does the reader pause here, to inquire the cni bono of these prece- 

 dents, derived from the worst and best period of our history — from the 

 worst, because such abominations had existence — from the best, because 

 then was the day spring of our liberties, whose meridian effulgence was 

 the revolution of 1688 ? Does he require to be told that we have wo Star- 

 Chamber now ; no cropping of ears, no slitting of noses, no repeated 

 pilloryings, no brandings, no enduring stigmas of ferocious tyranny ? 

 Docs he point to honest juries, incorruptible judges, fearless and 



3 F 2 



