1829.] n7id Liberty of the Press. 405 



battery, at a prodigiously-increased expenditure of ammunition : in other 

 words, it is the national exchequer against a private purse ; and it woidd 

 be a certain game to play. A INIachiavel in politics, whose deliberate 

 purpose it might be to crush an opponent, per fas ct nefas, needs only take 

 this course ; for money is no less the sinews of law, than of war : he 

 would overthrow his opponent by the intolerable weight of his own 

 defensive armour. The price of justice would be beyond his means. In 

 vain truth, and honour, and virtue, might be on his side ; In vain, jury 

 after jury, might declare so, by their verdicts ; only persevere in driving 

 him to the necessity of seeking their verdicts, and he sinks, at last, a 

 helpless beggar at your feet. The law v/ill not leave him master of the 

 solitary sixpence sufficient to purchase the pen, ink, and paper, where- 

 •with to record the name and tyranny of his oppressor. 



Lastly, in such a case as we have supposed, the victim selected 

 would, of course, be the prominent one of his class ; the one most feared, 

 because most formidable ; the most dangerous, because most active, most 

 powerful, and most intrepid. We remember once hearing an Old Bailey 

 judge tell a culprit, who was sentenced to be hanged for sheep-stealing, 

 and Avho complained of the rigor of his sentence, that " he was not hung 

 for stealing sheep, but that sheep might not be stolen." Upon a some- 

 what similar principle, A. might be prosecuted for libel, that B. C. 

 and D., admonished by his fate, might not go on writing. Terror 

 Avould thus work the consequences of actual punishment ; and every 

 man who was not prepared to face poverty and a dungeon, would throw 

 his pen into the fire. Thus, too, the odium of a general crusade against 

 freedom of opinion would be avoided, while the treacherous blow that 

 annihilated it, would be effectually given. 



And here let the reader pause. Let him, for the sake of argument, 

 suppose the reality of such a case as we have assumed. Let him imagine 

 an individual singled out for multiplied prosecutions — let him calculate 

 the chances of escape from such fearfid odds ; let him, above all, 

 estimate the tremendous pecuniary sacrifice which must be made — even 

 though Westminster Hall rang with acclamations at his acquittal in 

 every one; and then ask himself, wherein such a proceeding, supposing 

 such a proceeding possible, would differ in its practical consequences, 

 from a Star-Chamber fine of five or ten thousand pounds ? But let 

 him go a little further. Let him suppose — and it is no violent suppo- 

 sition — that, in addition to this self-created, though involuntary, fine, 

 there should be one, two, or three verdicts of guilty ; let him imagine an 

 incorruptible judge, but a judge who has strong feelings upon the subject 

 of libels, a judge who looks wrathfully upon what he calls the licentious- 

 ness of the press, and in whose breast, after the juries have performed 

 their duty, lies the discretion of meteing out the due punishment of law to 

 the culprit; let him imagine a judicial penalty of one or two thousand 

 pounds, imprisonment in a distant gaol superadded, and that imprison- 

 ment continued till the fine l)e paid, though tlie offender, perhaps, has 

 been beggared in the struggle ; let him imagine those fines and this 

 imprisonment, accumulated by virtue of accumulated verdicts, each of 

 which must have its separate punishment ; let him, we say, suppose such 

 a case a.s this, and then trace the parallel with a court of Star-Chamber. 

 There is no slitting of noses, to be sure ; nor any cropping of ears, or 

 nailing them to the pillory ; we have reformed all that, we confess : but 

 what else have we reformed } 



