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Dangerous publications. 37

may boldly charge him with forgetfulness of his promises; and he who beneath the appellation of a fool, would find redress in the courts of law, may have no appeal against the satirist, who derides him as a harmless and inoffensive character. By visiting therefore, the open and manly expression of British sentiment with the utmost severity of punishment, the "luminaries of the law" give birth to all the varieties of insidious sophistry: they compel the political writers of the age, to substitute the bowl for the dagger; and sentiments from which in their naked expression the minds of the young and the loyal, would have shrunk with abhorrence, are imbibed without suspicion in the disguise of amusing fiction, or unimpassioned philosophy. Instead, therefore, of hazarding his personal safety, by asserting in language that would shock the loyal, and deter the young, the kingly government is destructive of national happiness, the disciple of Condorcet instils into the mind of his unsuspecting reader, the most dangerous principles of political insubordination; the same malignant influence extends to every topic, and every department of literature; and while the bold and tangible Paine is visited with fine or banishment, the artful, wary, and insidious Gibbon. pursues his slow but inevitable triumph over the understandings of the simple and the ignorant.

With respect, indeed, to the publication of dangerous opinions on speculative subjects, it may be plausibly urged that there is no alternative between the prompt and immediate punishment of their authors or publishers, and an unlimited toleration of licentiousness. But in the case of personal satire, if any apology can be found for the ministers of justice, no other sentiments can be excited than surprise and abhorrence at the cruelty and impolicy of the law. In questions of personal libel, the truth can always be determined, and by the truth or falsehood of his charges should the innocence or the guilt of an author be decided. The privileges of virtue should no longer be possessed by the drunkard or adulterer, nor the warmth of honest indignation be visited