PRINTED BY J. A. WILLIAMS; AND PUBLISHED BY RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY 1823. 6-8-50 Director 5.2150 70589 ADDRESS. In presenting to the public a complete, and so far as I have been able to make it, a correct account of the proceedings against me, for an alleged libel on the Clergy of the Established Church, I avail myself of this opportunity of expressing, as publicly as possible, my gratitude to the Learned Counsel who exerted themselves on my behalf. To Mr Brougham, in particular, I must ever feel most deeply indebted. Unsuccessful as his appeal was to a Special Jury, it has caused a sensation throughout the country which cannot but ultimately prove beneficial to the general interests of society. The impression it has made will be lasting, because that impression has been produced by unanswerable arguments-arguments founded on the best and most solid principles of civil and religious polity, and urged with a degree of ability and eloquence, rarely equalled, and never surpassed in ancient or modern times. The attention which has been attracted to these proceedings in every part of the country, the observations which they have elicited from the public press, and the general feeling of all classes with regard to the Clergy of the Established Church, render it totally unnecessary for me to offer any remarks upon the subject of the publication charged as libellous, even if this were a fit place for the discussion of such a question. Whatever may be the result of the blundering verdict of a Special Jury in this case, as far as regards myself, my secret prosecutors, whoever they may be, will have little reason to congratulate themselves upon the triumph they have obtained. It is not difficult to guess who they are, and the finger of public scorn is already immoveably pointed at the right quarter. JOHN AMBROSE WILLIAMS. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, Nov. 14, 1821. The King v. John Ambrose Williams. CRIMINAL INFORMATION. MR SCARLETT moved for a Rule to shew cause why a criminal informa tion should not be granted against John Ambrose Williams for libel. The Learned Counsel said that he should proceed to state the matter contained in the libel, and when their Lordships had heard it, he was convinced that no other affidavit would be required, except the one which he shewed, that the Defendant was proprietor and publisher of the newspaper in which the libel was contained. The CHIEF JUSTICE.-Mr Williams is proprietor of a newspaper? Mr SCARLETT.-Yes, my Lord, and in that newspaper, published in the County of Durham, August 18, 1821, are the following remarks, upon which I do not now stop to comment:— "So far as we have been able to judge from the accounts in the public papers, a mark of respect to her late Majesty has been almost universally paid throughout the kingdom, when the painful tidings of her decease were received by tolling the bells of the Cathedral and Churches. But there is one exception to this very creditable fact which demands especial notice. In this episcopal City, containing six Churches independently of the Cathedral, not a single bell announced the departure of the magnanimous spirit of the most injured of Queens-the most persecuted of women. Thus the brutal enmity of those who embittered her mortal existence pursues her in her shroud." Had the writer paused here, my Lords, he had, I think, gone far enough ; but still he was delivering an opinion which, perhaps, as a public journalist, he had a right to express; but he proceeds "We know not whether any actual orders were issued to prevent this customary sign of mourning; but the omission plainly indicates the kind B |