510 ANNUAL REGISTER, iSH. 



dupe or cajole tne, by men who 

 never meant to perforin them, or 

 who think they may at any time 

 be broken with impunity. For 

 the benefit, therefore, of all whom 

 it may concern, I here announce 

 my intention of submitting to the 

 public, iu a very slKirt time, two 

 or three volumes, which may be 

 followed by others as opportunity 

 fihall suit, or circumstances re- 

 quire." So that the whole world 

 were at the mercy of Mrs. Clarke's 

 opportunities and circumstances. 

 The Attorney-General hoped the 

 sentence of the Court would, at 

 least, teach her to hold her hand, 

 and to refrain from the publication 

 of future libels. 



Mr. Brougham then addressed 

 the Court in mitigation of the de- 

 fendant's punishment. 



Before the Court pronounced 

 judgment upon the defendant, 

 Mary Anne Clarke, the Attorney- 

 General thought it his duty to in- 

 timate that he had to pray judg- 

 ment against Wm. Mitchell, who 

 had suffered it by default, underan 

 indictment for printiiig the fore- 

 mentioned libel. At the sHine 

 time the Attorney-General believ- 

 ed him to be the ignorant agent of 

 other persons whose names he re- 

 fused to give up, and he had no- 

 thing to urge against him beyond 

 the mere fact of his being the 

 printer of this atrocious libel. The 

 defendant said that he was seventy 

 years of age, and had never receiv- 

 ed any profit from the sale of the 

 libel." 



Mr. Justice Le Blanc pronounced 

 the judgment of the Court upon 

 both defendants, who, he said, had 

 acknowledged themselves guilty, 

 the one of being the author and 

 publisher, and the other the printer 

 and circulator of a libel against a 



private individual, of so foul a na» 

 ture, that the Court would not re- 

 peat it; the charges, if true, would 

 render the prosecutor unfit for the 

 situation he holds, or, indeed, for 

 any other. There was no doubt 

 of the libellous tendency of this 

 publication ; and there could be as 

 little that the motive in which it 

 originated, and which induced the 

 threat of those other volumes which 

 the defendant, Mary Anne Clarke, 

 stated herself to have in medita- 

 tion, was the desire to raise money 

 by the purchase of their suppres- 

 sion. His Loidshi|) hoped this 

 would be a warning to the world, 

 how they formed hasty and impru- 

 dent connexions ; and for the de- 

 fendant herself, he trusted the so- 

 litude and confinement to which 

 it would be the duty of the Court 

 to sentence her, would induce her 

 to review her pa?t life, and repent 

 of those errors which had brought 

 her to her present situation. It 

 was always painful to be obliged 

 to visit the sins of the fathers upon 

 the children; but in some cases 

 the separation of the latter from 

 the former might be attended with 

 beneficial results : whether that 

 might be the case in this instance, 

 it was not for the Court to inquire. 

 Taking all the circumstances into 

 its consideration, the Court did 

 order and adjudge, that the defen- 

 dant, Mary Anne Clarke, should 

 be committed to the custody of the 

 Marshal of the Marshalsea (the 

 King's Bench prison) for the space 

 of nine calendar months, and at the 

 end of that period enter into secu- 

 rity to keep the peace for three 

 years, in a recognizance, herself in 

 200/. and two sureties in 100/. 

 each, and be further imprisoned 

 till that security be given ; and 

 that the defendant, William 



