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"to excite any animofities as to the management of it. "This has been always looked-upon as a crime; and no "Government can be fafe unless it be punished. Now, 66 you are to confider, whether those words I have read to you do not tend to beget an ill opinion of the Admi "niftration of the Government?" Here, we find this able Chief Justice expreffly directing the Jury to confider the tendency of the papers in queftion-to wit, "whether, "they do not tend to beget an ill opinion of the administration of the Government?" instead of telling them, (as modern Judges have often done) that this tendency is a mere inference of law, which the Judges only have a right to make, without any concurrence of the Jury. And to this most reasonable and valuable right of confidering both the tendency of the papers complained-of, and the intention of the writer, or publisher, in publishing them, which is ufaally an inference of reafon, or common fenfe, not of law, to be drawn from the tendency of them; (though fometimes it happens, that this intention may even be proved, by the pofitive teftimony of witneffes, which is an additional mark of its being a matter of fact, and not e matter of law). I hope, the Juries of this country will now be restored, by the laudable and patriotick efforts of Mr. Fox and Mr. Erskine in the course of the approaching debate.

PHILELEUTHERUS.

F. M.

THE

THE BILL PROPOSED BY MR. FOX AND MR. ERSKINE IN SUPPORT OF THE RIGHT OF JURIES TO DETERMINE THE WHOLE MATTER IN ISSUE IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS FOR PUBLISHING LIBELS.

From the PUBLIC ADVERTISER, Feb. 15, 1792.

UPON a fubject in which every Englishman is fo materially interested as in the power of a jury, our readers may be gratified by a perusal of Mr. Fox's Bill, patriotically brought into Parliament to remove DOUBTS refpecting the FUNCTIONS of JURIES, in cases of LIBEL.

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The bill was yesterday read a third time, and paffed to the Lords; it is extremely fhort, and, verbatim, as follows. "Whereas doubts have arisen, whether, on the trial of an Indictment or Information for the making or publishing "any libel, where an iffue or iffues are joined between the "King and the defendant or defendants, on the plea of "Not "Guilty" pleaded, it be competent to the Jury, impannel"led to try the fame, to give their verdict upon the whole "matter in iffue :

"Be it therefore declared and enacted, by the King's "Moft Excellent Majefty, by and with the advice and "confent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com"mons, in this prefent Parliament affembled, and by the

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authority of the fame, That, on every fuch trial, the jury fworn to try the iffue, may give a general verdict of "GUILTY OF NOT GUILTY, upon the whole matter put in

iffue upon fuch Indictment or Information; and shall not "be required, or directed, by the Court, or Judge, before "whom fuch Indictment, or Information, shall be tried, to

find

"find the defendant, or defendants, guilty, merely on the "proof of the publication by fuch defendant, or defendants, "of the paper charged to be a libel, and of the fenfe afcribed "to the fame in fuch Indictment or Information: Provided "always, that on every fuch trial, the court, or judge, before "whom fuch Indictment, or Information, fhall be tried,

fhall, according to their, or his, difcretion, give their, or "his, opinion and directions to the Jury, on the matter in "iffue between the King and the defendant, or defendants, "in like manner as in other criminal cafes: Provided also, "that nothing herein contained fhall extend, to prevent "the Jury from finding a fpecial verdict, in their difcre❝tion, as in other criminal cafes: Provided also, that, in "cafe the Jury fhall find the defendant, or defendants, "guilty, it shall and may be lawful for the faid defendant, "or defendants, to move in arreft of judgment, on fuch

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ground, and in fuch manner, as, by law, he, or they, "might have done before the paffing of this act; any thing "herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.”

AREO

AREOPAGITICA:

A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED

PRINTING,

TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND.

Published in November, 1644,

BY JOHN MILTON, THE AUTHOR OF PARADISE LOST.

Ταλέυθερον δ' ἐκεῖνο, ἔι τις θέλει πόλει
Χρησόν τι βέλευμ' εις μέσον φέρειν, ἔχων.
Καὶ ταῦθ ̓ ὁ χρήζων, λαμπρὸς ἔσθ': ὁ μὴ θέλων,
Σιγά τί τέτων ἔςιν ἰσαίτερον πόλει ;

This is true Liberty, when freeborn men,

Euripid. Hicetid.

Having to advise the public, may speak free,

Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace;

What can be juster in a state than this?

Euripid. Hicetid.

THEY, who to States and Governors of the commonwealth direct their fpeech, High Court of Parliament ! or, wanting fuch accefs, in a private condition, write that which they foresee may advance the publick good; I fuppofe them, as at the beginning of no mean endeavour, not a little altered and moved inwardly in their minds; fome with doubt of what will be the fuccefs, others with fear of what will be the cenfure; fome with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speak. And me perhaps each of these difpofitions, as the fubject was whereon I entered, may have at other times variously affected; and likely might in these foremost expreffions now alfo difclofe which of them fwayed moft, but that the very attempt of this addrefs thus made, and the thought of whom it hath recourfe to, hath got the power within me to a paffion,

far

far more welcome than incidental to a preface. Which though I ftay not to confefs ere any ask, I shall be blameless, if it be no other, than the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who with and promote their country's liberty; whereof this whole difcourse proposed will be a certain teftimony, if not a trophy. For this is not the liberty which we can hope, "that no grievance ever should arise in the commonwealth :" That let no man in this world expect. But, when complaints are freely heard, deeply confidered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained, that wise men look-for. To which if I now manifeft, by the very found of this which I shall utter, that we are already in good part arrived; and yet from fuch a steep difadvantage of tyranny and fuperftition grounded into our principles, as was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery; it will be attributed first, as is moft due, to the strong affiftance of God, our Deliverer; next, to your faithful guidance and undaunted wisdom, Lords and Commons of England! Neither is it in God's efteem, the diminution of his glory, when honourable things are spoken of good men, and worthy magiftrates; which if I now first fhould begin to do, after fo fair a progrefs of your laudable deeds, and fuch a long obligement upon the whole realm to your indefatigable virtues, I might be justly reckoned among the tardiest, and the unwillingest, of them that praise ye. Nevertheless there being three principal things, without which all praifing is but courtship and flattery, firft, when that only is praised which is folidly worch praife; next, when the greatest likelihoods are brought, that fuch things are truely and really in those perfons, to whom they are afcribed; the other, when he who praifes, by fhowing that fuch

his

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