AND RELIGION 



and folly, and to strengthen and promote virtue and wisdom ; 

 and these only, are the uses of the press. I know it has been said, 

 for I have heard it said, that this is going too far : that it would 

 tend to lay open the private affairs of families. And what then ? 

 Wickedness and folly should meet their due measure of censure, 

 or ridicule, be they found where they may. If the faults of private 

 persons were too trifling to deserve public notice, the mention of 

 them would give the parties no pain, and the publisher would be 

 despised for his tittle-tattle ; that is all. And, if they were of a 

 nature so grave as for the exposure of them to give the parties 

 pain, the exposure would be useful, as a warning to others. 



419. Amongst the persons whom I have heard express a wish, 

 to see the press what they called free, and at the same time to 

 extend the restraints on it, with regard to persons in their private 

 life, beyond the obligation of adherence to truth, I have never, that 

 I know of, met with one, who had not some powerful motive of 

 his own for the wish, and who did not feel that he had some 

 vulnerable part about himself. The common observation of 

 these persons, is, that public men are fair game. Why public men 

 only ? Is it because their wickedness and folly affect the public ? 

 And, how long has it been, I should be glad to know, since bad 

 example in private life has been thought of no consequence to the 

 public ? The press is called &quot; the guardian of the public morals &quot; .* 

 but, if it is to meddle with none of the vices or follies of individuals 

 in private life, how is it to act as the guardian of the morals of the 

 whole community ? A press perfectly free, reaches these vices, 

 which the law cannot reach without putting too much power into 

 the hands of the magistrate. Extinguish the press, and you must 

 let the magistrate into every private house. The experience of the 

 world suggests this remark ; for, look where you will, you will see 

 virtue in all the walks of life hand in hand with freedom of dis 

 cussion, and vice hand in hand with censorships and other laws 

 to cramp the press. England, once so free, so virtuous and so 

 happy, has seen misery and crimes increase and the criminal laws 

 multiply in the exact proportion of the increase of the restraints 

 on the press and of the increase of the severity in punishing what 

 are called libels. And, if this had not taken place it would have 

 been very wonderful. Men who have the handling of the public 

 money, and who know that the parliament is such as to be silenced, 

 will be very apt to squander that money ; this squandering causes 

 heavy taxes ; these produce misery amongst the greater number of 

 the people ; this misery produces crimes ; to check these new 

 penal laws are passed. Thus it is in England, where new hanging 

 places, new and enlarged jails, prisons on the water, new modes of 

 transporting, a new species of peace officers, a new species of 

 Justices of the Peace, troops employed regularly in aid of the 

 magistrate, and at last, spies and blood-money bands, all proclaim 

 a real revolution in the nature of the government. If the press 

 had continued free, these sad effects of a waste of the public money 



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