THE FRIEND. No. 5, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1809. might remove from the ear of the Public, and expose in their own fiendish shape those Reptiles, which inspiring zenom and forging illusions as they list, thence raise, At least distemper'd discontented thoughts, PARADISE LOST. The comparison of the English with the AngloAmerican Newspapers, will best evince the difference between a lawless Press (lawless at least in practice and by connivance) and a Press at once protected and restrained by Law. But with all this the government of Charles was the government of a Conqueror, that is splendid abroad and fearfully oppressive at home What a grievance must it not have been for the People that Charles for forty years together dragged them now to the Elbe, then to the Ebro, after this to the Po, and from thence back again to the Elbe, and this not to check an invading Enemy, but to make conquests which little profited the French Nation! This must prove too much, at length, for a hired Soldier: how much more for Conscripts, who did not live only to fight, but who were Fathers of Families, Citizens, and Proprietors? But above all, is it to be wondered at, that a Nation like the French, should suffer themselves to be used as Charles used them. But the People no longer possessed any considerable share of influence. All depended on the great Chieftains, who gave their willing suffrage for endless Wars, by which they were always sure to win. They found the best opportunity, under such circumstances, to make themselves great and mighty at the expence of the Freeman resident within the circle of their baronial Courts; and when Conquests were made, it was far more for their advantage than that of the Monarchy. In the conquered Provinces there was a necessity for Dukes, Vassal Kings, and different high offices: all this fell to their share. I would not say this if we did not possess incontrovertible original documents of those times, which prove clearly to us that Charles's government was an unhappy one for the People, and that this great Man, by his actions, laboured to the direct subversion of his first principles. It was his first pretext to establish a greater equality among the members of his vast community, and to make all free and equal Subjects under a common Sovereign. And from the necessity occasioned by continual War, the exact contrary took place. Nothing gives us a better notion of the interior state of the French Monarchy, than the third capitular of the year 811. (compare with this the four or five quarto vols. of the present French Conscript Code). All is full of complaint, the Bishops and Earls clamouring against the Freeholders, and these in their turn against the Bishops and Earls. And in truth the Free How then shall we solve this Problem? Its Solution is to be found in that spirit which, like the universal menstruum sought for by the old Alchemists, can blend and harmonize the most discordant Elements-it is to be found in the spirit of a rational Freedom diffused and become national, in the consequent influence and controul of public opinion, and in its' most precious organ, the Jury. It is to be found, wherever Juries are sufficiently enlightened to perceive the difference, and to comprehend the origin and necessity of the difference, between Libels and other criminal overt-acts, and are sufficiently independent to act upon the conviction, that in a charge of Libel the Degree, the Circumstances, and the Intention, constitute (not merely modify), the offence, give it its' Being, and determine its' legal name. The words "maliciously and advisedly," must here have a force of their own, and a proof of their own. They will consequently consider the written Law as a blank power provided for the punishment of the Offender, not as a light by which they are to determine and discriminate the offence. The understanding and Conscience of the Jury are the Judges, in toto: the statute a blank congé d' elire. The Statute is the Clay and those holders had no small reason to be discontented and to resist, as far as they dared, even the Imperial Levies. A Dependar.t must be content to follow his Lord without further questioning: for he was paid for it. But a free Citizen, who lived wholly on his own property, might reasonably object to suffer himself to be dragged about in all quarters of the World, at the fancies of his Lord: especially as there was so much injustice intermixed. Those who gave up their properties entirely, or in part, of their own accord, were left undisturbed at home, while those, who refused to do this, were forced so often into service, that at length, becoming impoverished, they were compelled by want to give up, or dispose of their free tenures to the Bishops or Earls (It would require no great ingenuity to discover parallels, or at least equivalent hardships to these, in the treatment of, and regulations concerning, the reluctant Conscripts. There is, I understand, an interesting article on this Subject in a late Number of the Edinburgh Review, which I regret, that I have not had an opportunity of perusing.) It almost surpasses belief to what a height, at length, the aversion to War Jose in the French Nation, from the multitude of the Campaigns and the grievances connected with them. The national vanity was now satiated by the frequences of Victories: and the Plunder which fell to the lot of Individuals, made but a poor compensation for the Losses and Burthens sustained by their Families at home. Some, in order to become exempt from military service, sought for menial employments in the Establishments of the Bishops, Abbots, Abbesses, and Earls. Others made over their free property to be come tenants at will of such Lords as from their Age, or other circumstances, they thought would be called to no further military services. Others, even privately took away the life of their Mothers, Aunts, or other of their Relatives, in order that no family Residents might remain through whom their Names might be known, and themselves traced; others voluntarily made slaves of themselves, in order thus to render themselves incapable of the military rank. the Potter's wheel. Shame fall on that Man, who shall labour to confound what reason and nature have put asunder, and who at once, as far as in him lies, would render the Press ineffectual and the Law odious; would lock up the main river, the Thames, of our intellectual commerce: would throw a bar across the stream, that must render its' navigation dangerous or partial, using as his materials the very banks, that were intended to deepen its' channel and guard against its' inundations! Shame fall on him, and a participation in the infamy of those, who misled an English Jury to the murder of Algernon Sidney! But though the virtuous intention of the Writer must be allowed a certain influence in facilitating his acquittal, the degree of his moral guilt is not the true index or mete-wand of his Condemnation. For Juries do not sit in a Court of Conscience, but of Law; they are not the Representatives of Religion, but the Guardians of external tranquillity. The leading Principle, the Pole Star, of the judgement in its' decision concerning the libellous nature of a published Writing, is its' more or less remote connection with after overt-acts, as the cause or occasion of the same. Thus the Publication of actual Facts may be and most often will be criminal and libellous, when directed against private Characters, not only because the charge will reach the minds of many who cannot be competent judges of the truth or falsehood of facts to which themselves were not witnesses, against a Man whom they do not know, or at best know imperfectly; but because such a Publication is of itself a very serious overt-act, by which the Author without authority and without trial, has inflicted punishment on a fellow subject, himself being Witness and Jury, Judge and Executioner. Of such Publications there can be no legal justification, though the wrong may be palliated by the circumstance that the injurious charges are not only true but wholly out of the reach of the Law. But in Libels on the Government there are two things to be balanced against each other, first the incomparably greater mischief of the overt-act s supposing them actually occasioned by the Libel-(as for instance the subversion of Government and Property, if the Principles taught by Thomas Paine had been realized, or if even an attempt had been made to realize them, by the many thousands of his Readers); and second, the very great improbability that such effects will be produced by such Writings. Government concerns all generally, and no one in particular. The facts are commonly as well known to the Readers, as to the Writer: and falsehood therefore easily detected. It is proved, likewise, by experience, that the frequency of open political discussion, with all its' blamable indiscretions, indisposes a Nation to overt acts of practical sedition or conspiracy. They talk ill, said Charles the fifth of his Belgian Provinces, but they suffer so much the better for it. His Successor thought differently: he determined to be Master of their Words and Opinions, as well as of their Actions, and in consequence lost one half of those Provinces, and retained the other half at an expence of strength and treasure greater than the original worth of the whole. An enlightened Jury, therefore, will require proofs of some more than ordinary malignity of intention, as furnished by the style, price, mode of circulation, and so forth; or of punishable indiscretion arising out of the state of the times, as of dearth for instance, or of whatever other calamity is likely to render the lower Classes turbulent and apt to be alienated from the Government of their Country. For the absence of a right disposition of mind must be considered both in Law and in Morals, as nearly equivalent to the presence of a wrong disposition. Under such circumstances the legal Paradox, that a Libel may be the more a Libel for being true, becomes strictly just, and as such ought to be acted upon. Concerning the right of punishing by Law the Authors of heretical or deistical Writings, I reserve my remarks for a future Number, in which I hope to state the grounds and limits. of Toleration more accurately than they seem to me to have been hitherto traced. I have thus endeavoured, with an anxiety which may perhaps have misled me into prolixity, to detail and ground the conditions under which the communication of Truth is commanded or forbidden to us as Individuals, by our Conscience; and those too, under which it is permissible by the Law which controls our Conduct as Members of the State. But is the Subject of sufficient importance to deserve so minute an examination? O that my Readers would look round the World, as it now is, and make to themselves a faithful Catalogue of its' many Miseries! From what do these proceed, and on what do they depend for their continuance? Assuredly for the greater part on the actions of Men, and those again on the want of a vital Principle of virtuous action. We live by Faith. The essence of Virtue subsists in the Principle. And the Reality of this, as well as its' Importance, is believed by all Men in Fact, few as there may be who, bring the Truth forward into the light of distinct Consciousness. Yet all Men feel, and at times acknowledge to themselves, the true cause of their misery. There is no man so base, but that at some time or other, and in some way or other, he admits that he is not what he ought to be, though by a curious art of self-delusion, by an effort to keep at peace with himself as long and as much as possible, he will throw off the blame from the amenable part of his nature, his moral principle, to that which is independent of his will, namely, the degree of his intellectual faculties. Hence, for once that a man exclaims, how dishonest I am, on what base and unworthy motives I act, we may hear a hundred times, what a Fool I am! curse on my Folly ?* and the like. Yet even this implies an obscure sentiment, that with clearer conceptions in the understanding, the Principle of Action would become purer in the Will. Thanks to the image of our Maker not wholly obliterated from any human Soul, we dare not purchase an exemption from guilt by an excuse, which would place our amelioration out of our own power. Thus the very man, who will abuse himself for a fool but not for a Villain, would rather, spite of the usual professions to the contrary, be condemned as a Rogue by other men, than be acquitted as a Blockhead. But be this as it may, out of himself, however, he sees plainly the true cause of our common complaints. Doubtless, there seem many physical causes of Distress, of Disease, of Poverty, and of Desolation— Tempests, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, wild or venomous Animals, barren soils, uncertain or tyrannous Climates, pestilential Swamps, and Death in the very Air we breathe. Yet when do we hear the general wretchedness of Mankind attributed to these? in Iceland, the Earth opened and sent forth three or more vast Rivers of Fire. We do not consider as exceptions the thousands that abuse themselves by rote in Lip-penitence, or the wild ravings of Fanaticism: for these Persons, at the very time they speak so vehemently of the wickedness and rottenness of their hearts, are then commonly the warmest in their own good opinion, covered round and comfortable in the Wrap-rascal of self-hypocrisy. |