APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



169 



if not to destroy, that reverential 

 awe with which the less-informed 

 lanks ought to approach their 

 Creator th.nn this blasphemous pa- 

 rody of the general supplication : 

 to comment upon it further was 

 wholly unnecessary ; the mere 

 perusal of the libel sufficiently 

 stamped its character, and dis- 

 closed its consequences. He hoped 

 that the defendant had not been 

 aware of its dangerous tendency, 

 yet it was scarcely possible to con- 

 ceive that any man should be so 

 blind and thoughtless. He admit- 

 ted, that circumstances were men- 

 tioned in the affidavits which de- 

 served attention, but tlie libel 

 spoke for itself, and the printer 

 and publisher being before the 

 Court, their Lordships would a- 

 ward a punishment adequate to 

 the high offence 



Mr. Robinson, on behalf of the 

 defendant, trusted, that their Lord- 

 ships would discover that there 

 were not here aggravations be- 

 yond what the offence itself sup- 

 plied. There was one circumstance 

 coimected with the libel, though 

 foreign to the particular case, that 

 especially forced itself upon his 

 attention, and which he hoped 

 would establish for the defendant 

 some claim to merciful consider- 

 ation : it was, that the defendant 

 was not the first offender, either 

 in the order of time or in the or- 

 der of criminality, though unfor- 

 tunately the first to receive the 

 punishment of the law. He did 

 not urge this circumstance in the 

 way of complaint. He was cer- 

 tain that it was undesigned on the 

 j)art of the Attorney-general, and 

 owing to circtunstances over which 

 he had no control, It was, never- 



theless, most important to the in- 

 dividual on the floor, for the first 

 blow always fell with the greatest 

 weight. In the administration of 

 penal justice, the first object was 

 tlie effect of a sentence upon the 

 public ; the next, the justice and 

 mercy due to the offender — for 

 mercy and justice in the latter 

 case were convertible terms. The 

 principal offenders were always 

 earliest made the subjects of pro- 

 secution : they were first sought 

 out, and upon theii- heads the 

 vengeance of the law first fell : 

 when they weie duly punished, 

 the mild and genial feeling, so 

 grateful to the Court, succeeded, 

 and sentences were sometimes 

 passed even more merciful than 

 the degree of delinquency, most 

 severely considered, might appear 

 to warrant. An honourable and 

 a memorable instance of the kind 

 had but recently occurred. If then 

 it should be obvious, that there 

 were behind, other offenders more 

 deserving the indigjiant infliction 

 of the law (though the defendant 

 should unhappily, even by the 

 effect of his own contrition, ap- 

 pear earlier before the Court), 

 it would not think it necessary to 

 make his punishment the precise 

 standard to what was due to such 

 crimes ; he had admitted judg- 

 ment to go by default j he had 

 done his utmost to acknowledge 

 his offence, and to show his con- 

 trition, and his situation might 

 well be contrasted witii those who 

 had added to their guilt by a dar- 

 ing and contumacious resistance 

 to the forms of the law. He had 

 not bid an audacious defiance to 

 the Attorney-general, or thrown 

 the gauntlet jn the face of the 



Court, 



