342 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



the authority of Lord Ellen- 

 borough in maintaining. 



Mr. Justice Burrough. — Lord 

 Ellenborough never could talk 

 such nonsense, or assert that a 

 man in a judicial office, may be 

 charged with bribery and corrup- 

 tion by any person who thinks 

 proper to publish such a state- 

 ment to the world. I am sorry 

 to see you transgressing the law 

 at every step, from a false notion 

 of moral right. Many gentlemen 

 at this bar would have been happy 

 to assist you, and would, I am 

 sure, have advised a very different 

 sort of defence. 



Miss Tucker continued, and 

 begged leave to read a clause of 

 the act of the S2nd of George the 

 Third, by which the jury, in a 

 case of libel, are empowered to 

 give a verdict on the whole matter, 

 and on the genei-al issue of guilty 

 or not guilty. 



Mr. Justice Burrough. — This 

 act was never construed to enable 

 a defendant, upon an indictment, 

 to justify by proving the truth of 

 the libel. 



Miss Tucker proceeded, and 

 remarked, that the essence of the 

 indictment consisted in the evil 

 tendency of the publication. This 

 tendency she was prepared to 

 show was good, and would con- 

 tend that resentment might exist 

 without malice. The celebrated 

 Mr. Locke had quoted an expres- 

 sion from St. Paul to this efiect 

 — " Be ye angry ; but sin not." 

 If the law of libel really was 

 what she had heard it interpreted 

 to be, a new system of ethics 

 ought to be prefixed to it. No 

 lawyer or legislator could intend 

 to punish where there was no 

 walicious motive or intentional 



provocation. The falsehood and 

 malignity were all on the other 

 side ; and she hoped no legal 

 sophistry would induce the jury 

 to convict her of an offence where 

 her object was meritorious. 



Mr. Justice Burrough then 

 charged the jury, expressing his 

 decided opinion that the publica- 

 tion in question was libellous in 

 the highest degree. 



The jury retired for about half 

 an hour, and delivered a verdict 

 of Not Guilty at the Judge's 

 lodgings. 



COURT OF EXCHEQUER. 



Imitation Tea. 



The Attorney Generalf .Palmer. 

 — This was an information filed by 

 the Attorney General against the 

 defendant, which charged him, 

 being a dealer in, and seller of, 

 tea, with having in his possession 

 a quantity of sloe-leaves and 

 whitethorn leaves, fabricated into 

 an imitation of tea, whereby he 

 forfeited 10/. for every pound's 

 weight of such imitation. There 

 were other counts charging the 

 offence differently, to all of which 

 the defendant pleaded not guilty, 



Mr. Dauncey stated the case to 

 the jury, and observed that the 

 universal use of tea made this 

 question of universal importance. 

 It was lamentable,' to think, that 

 in this great town there were 

 persons who were in the daily 

 habit of selling deleterious drugs, 

 under different masks ; and that 

 while the public were imagining 

 they were drinking at their meals 

 nutritious beverages, they were 

 in fact swallowing a slow but cer* 

 tain poison. They had already 



heard, 



