522] ANNUAL REGISTER, 17696. 
without restraint promulgated 
among al] ranks of society, expe- 
rience has proved the maxim to 
be false. Calling history to his 
aid, he thus argues : 
_* The republics of ancient 
Greece were undoubtedly free ; 
many carried freedom to excess ; 
yet the art of printing being then 
unknown, the communication of 
knowledge was necessarily confined 
toa few. Books were scarce andex- 
cessively dear, therefore beyond the 
reach of the multitude : and in mat- 
ters of religion, the most jealous and 
crue} inquisition was exercised over 
writers and teachers. The Swiss 
Cantons acquired their freedom at 
a period, when probably not one 
in a thousand could read or write ; 
they have continued to preserve it 
for centuries (many of the‘Cantons 
in the form of a pure democracy), 
without the aid of newspapers and 
political pamphlets, which their 
poverty banishcs much more ef. 
te€tually than any law could do. 
In ovr own country, almost in our 
own times, freedom, triumphed 
over monarchica! prerogative, both 
in the ara of Charies 1. and James 
TI. Yet from the former to the 
latter period, the communication 
of political knowledge was much 
confined by the disinclination or 
inability of she people to read. It 
is said, that now corruption and 
mismanagement are in the ex- 
treme, and we are directed to re- 
store the constitution to its former 
purity ; a good one, therefore, 
could subsist without this general 
diffusion of political knowledge, 
which, if it has not produced, at 
Jeast has not prevented the progress 
of corruption.’ 
He then goes on to animadvert 
on the advice given by those who 
desire that the public may not be 
alarmed at the want of restraint-on 
the press, for that truth and virtue 
will always  preponderate. ‘Ihe 
following observations on this head 
are just-and forcible : 
‘Let parents and tutors answer 
for the youth under their care; 
Ict us, if possible, rise above our 
own vices, and answer for our- 
selves. Have we not experienced, 
that the exhortation of the divine, 
the lecture of the moralist, though 
aided by the di¢tates of our own 
conscience, form but an insofii- 
cient barrier against the suggestions 
of passion, and the corruption 
which artful sophistry, flattering 
inclinations which we are secretly. 
ashamed of, pours into the heart ? 
In the declining age of Greece and) 
Rome, did the doétrines of Zeno 
or Epicurus make the greater num. 
ber of proselytes? In both nations 
there was no want of men, who 
by their writings, even by theex~ 
amples of their lives and aétions, 
endeavoured to uphold the cause 
of virtue; yet they scarcely re- 
tarded, they did not prevent, the 
rapid progress of vice, which pur. 
sued its triumphant course, until it 
expired in the ruins of a corrupted 
peopie.’ 
Having combated the opinions 
of others respetting the licentious- 
ness of the press, he thus delivers 
his own: ; 
‘ ‘The licentiousness of the press, 
such as is now permitted, ts in- 
compatible with national prospes 
rity ; it requires to be regulated ; 
but to ascertain the line which se- 
parates excess of liberty from im- 
proper restraint, and to determine 
where the power of enforcing the 
law sbould be placed, is a task 
which requises, if it does not éx- 
cced, 
