Page:The Scourge - Volume 5.djvu/50

3S Justifications of libel.

with the punishment that is due to unprincipled malignity.

His lordship laments, in " good set terms," the woeful condition of public men," condemned to vindicate themselves against anonymous libels, arising perhaps, from some imagination, or coined from the overflowing mind of slander;" but his lordship forgets that the very question which ought to be before the court is, whether they be the creation of ingenious malice? " If such (he continues) were to be the case, and we were compelled to resign the protection of the law for the exculpation of their character; what man, who has any sensibility in his nature, will accept office or rank in the ■country?'" To this we would reply, let the truth of a libel be its justification, and the consciously profligate will alone decline the possession of office The individuals whose characters are susceptible of legal protection, will become, according to his lordship's reasoning, the sole possessors of the courtly and ministerial offices, and a H will no longer insult the public, or contaminate the palace of his sovereign. "Gentlemen, (he proceeds) the performance of many of our duties, and the most important of them, depends upon the opinion we entertain of the person who is the object of them: many of the most important duties center in obedience to the person on whom the sovereign authority in the government is for the time cast" — and therefore a libel on a prince or a chief magistrate, whatever may be the truth of the accusations it contains, is deserving of exemplary punishment. In other words, whatever has a tendency to weaken the popular attachment to the government, whether it be true or false, whether it relate to the private or public conduct of the monarch and his ministers, whether it be directed against an Antoninus or a Caligula, against a Lewis or a Robespierre, against a George the Third or a Napoleon, is in the highest degree offensive to the higher powers, and therefore deeply criminal. It is the duty of the people of England to refrain from any asser*