1799-] 
alized? I wifhnotto exaggerate, but I 
believe I may affirm that that work was 
allowed an unchecked circulation during a 
period of fearcely lefs than two years. With- 
in that {pace it was printed in all forts of 
forms, difperfed by all methods, openly fold 
in all fhops, anfwered and commented up- 
on bynumerous writers, fothat, at lat, 
when profecuted and condemned as a 
libel, there was {carcely a bookfeller in the 
ifland who had not incurred the danger of 
being proceeded againft as a publifher ; 
nor, indeed, many private men in the king- 
dom, among thofe who were approvers of 
its general doctrines, who had not partici- 
pated inthe guilt of difperfion, by lending, 
recommending, or fome other overt ast. I 
do not in this inftance accufe minifters of 
defign in their long delay. I believe it 
was purely owing to hefitation and difference 
of opinion among themfelves. But the 
effect was fuch as I have ftated ; and after 
the work, through their own neglect, had 
done all the mifchief of which it was 
capable, a vaft number of innocent perfons 
were rendered obnoxious to punifhment. 
What then is the remedy againft this 
poflible, this atual evil? A Jury. This 
facred inftitution, the only fafe defence, 
perhaps, that human wifdom can devile 
again{t tyranny and oppreffion, is exprefsly 
defigued to limit that /wmmumjus, which 
is fo often fummainjuria. It is impoffible 
to-doubt, efpecially fince the late decifion” 
of the higheft legiflative authority, that a 
jury has a right in matter of libel to take 
to itfelf the confideration of the whole cafe, 
and make zwtentiow the interpreter of fad. 
The Attorney General fhall bring a man 
before them, and charge him in as grofs 
terms as he pleafes with being a wicked 
feditious perfon, becaufe he has fold a copy 
of a work deemed to bea libel. He fhall 
prove his facts; and with all the eloquence 
of real or affeéted regard tor public juitice, 
demand his victim. ‘* No’! the jury may 
fay-—“ the man you have chofen to bring 
tothe bar is not the real crimina!—he has 
no culpable intention about him to rendet 
him a proper fubjeét for the feverity of the 
Jaw. What he did was through mere in- 
advertence—indeed, it was a. neceflary 
confequence of his following his profeflion. 
We find him NOT GUILTY. 
IT am aware that fome late juries have 
not thought proper to determine in this 
manner. They feem to have conceived 
that the guilt of the vender followed as a 
corollary from the libellous charaéter of 
the work fold, however complete might be 
his juftification with refpeét to intention. 
They certainly had a right to decide 
Principles and Calculations of Falling Bodies. 
271 
according to their own ideas of the cafe, nor 
do I mean to caft the flighteft fufpicion on 
their integrity. But tt is manifeft that 
nothing les can follow an adherence to 
their principle, than the utter extin¢tion of 
the freedom of publication. _ Bookfellers 
will themfelves become cenfors or licenfers 
of the prefs. To every offer of concern in 
a work which they fufpeét may prove dif- 
agrecable to the exifting adminiftration, 
they willfay, ‘* How can you be fure that 
it will not be conftrued a libel, and that I 
fhall not be involved in its penalties ?’? 
Thus, none but the loweft in charaéter and 
circumftances will, be found ready to un- 
dertake the hazard of giving the public that 
infiruétion and thofe warnings on public 
topics which, under the beft adminiftered 
governments, it can never ceafe to want. 
The effeéts of this alarm are but too ap- 
parent at the prefent inftant; and works, 
the innocence of which it is alibel on the 
times to doubt, are inaétual want of a 
publither. 
I have dwelt moré upon the cafe of book- 
fellers than of authors, becaufe it feems to 
be the policy of the day rather to direét 
attacks againft the former than the latter. 
And indeed this is the true fpirit of doing 
bufinefs by whoiefale; fince one confider- 
able bookfeller heartily frightened, may 
render abortive the {chemes of a {core of 
adventurous writers. Tothein, therefore, 
the protection of the public fhould peculiar- 
ly be extended, if the public really with for 
a continuation of that rational freedom of 
the prefs, to which the conftitution of this 
country 1s fo much indebted. But if the. 
prevalence of alarm, and the habit of con- 
founding abufe with ule, and affociating 
bad caules with good, have taxen fuch poi- 
feffion of men’s minds as to makea ma- 
jority really defirous of abridging the ufual 
licenfe of difcuffion, ‘* actum efi de repub- 
lica,”” the caufe of liberty is at an end! and 
its votaries have nothing to do but to wait 
in filent expectation of the return ofa bet- 
ter fpirit. 
arenes STE a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE refult of M. Gulielmine’s experi- 
ments on falling Bodies as ftated in 
LALANDE’s hiftory of Aftronomy for the 
year1797, has beenanticipated I prefume 
for more than thirty years. Ina fmall quarto, 
publifhed in 1765, Mr. Dunn of London 
has laboured to prove the following obfer- 
vations. ‘That tho’ it has been the cuftom 
to adjuft all kind of inftruments for taking 
the altitudes of the fun, moon; or ftars, 
by 
