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try, wedded to it as they are, are in danger when this language is publicly held: I say it is fit, as between the Attorney General and such persons, that a Jury of the country should say, whether such words shall be spoken with absolute impunity? It does appear to me that they ought not to escape with absolute impunity; but if you have doubt in your minds, you will find a verdict for the Defendant.

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Lord KENYON having summed up the evidence, the Jury retired for an hour and a half, and then returned with a verdict,

:

GUILTY.

TRIAL

OF

MR. PERRY AND MR. LAMBERT,

EDITOR AND PRINTER

OF

THE MORNING CHRONICLE,

FOR

A Libel.

SUBJECT, &c.

THE following Speech for Mr. Perry and Mr. Lambert, the editor and printer of the Morning Chronicle, strongly illustrates our observation in the Preface, concerning the difficulty of access to genuine trials at distant periods.

These Gentlemen were tried for the publication of a libel, on the information of the Attorney General, on the 9th of December, A. D. 1793, and the trial was at the time in very general circulation. Yet it was so wholly out of print, that it made no part of the present work, as originally prepared for the press; but on its being referred to by Mr. Perry in his able defence of himself on a subsequent trial, we procured from him the copy (the only one to be found), from which we have printed the following passages.

The Attorney General's Information charged the Defendants, Mr. Perry and Mr. Lambert, as editor and printer of the Morning Chronicle, with publishing an Address of a society for political information, held at the Talbot Inn, at Derby, which had been sent to the Morning Chronicle for insertion, in the ordinary course of business; neither Mr. Perry nor Mr. Lambert having had any kind of connexion or correspondence with the authors.

This trial being the first after the passing of the Libel Act, we have thought it best to print the whole of it, as originally published, with the Advertisement prefixed to it, by Mr. Perry.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN presenting the following Trial to the public, at a period the most critical, perhaps, with respect to prosecutions, that ever occurred in the annals of this country, the editor was chiefly influenced by two considerations:

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First, the question, which, arose in an early stage of the proceedings, with respect to juries, determined a very important rule of practice, namely, that the first special jury, struck and reduced according to law, must try the issue joined between parties. This decision of a controverted point, in the manner most. consistent with common sense, and, as appeared from the pleadings, agreeable to the ancient practice of the Courts, and founded upon the statute law of the realm, is certainly to be estimated as an acquisition of no common magnitude to the subject.

Secondly, this is the first trial, since the Libel Bill passed into a law, completely conducted upon the principles of that bill, and may serve as the best illustration of the wise and excellent provisions of the law, as it now stands, with respect to libel: a law admirably calculated to remove obscurity, to defeat improper influence, to facilitate the ends of justice, by simplifying its operations, and to afford additional security for the full enjoyment of the most valuable privilege of Englishmen.

Impressed then with the view of this trial, as connected with great principles, and involving consequences the most important, both to the present age and to posterity, I have been anxious to render the following statement of the proceedings as full and correct as possible. Fidelity and accuracy are the only merits of a reporter; these I have carefully studied; it is not allowed to him who transmits the sentiments of others, to boast of his labours, or to claim the reward of public approbation in this instance, I find myself sufficiently repaid, with the pleasing reflection that I have been called, in an age of prosecutions, to record one verdict gained to the cause of freedom.

We print the parts of the Address selected by the Attorney General from the Information itself, with the innuendos, which run as follow:

"We" (meaning the society aforesaid) "feel "too much not to believe that deep and alarming

"abuses exist in the British government" (meaning His said Majesty's government of this kingdom);

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yet we are at the same time fully sensible that our "situation is comfortable compared with that of the "people of many European kingdoms, and that as "the times are, in some degree, moderate, they ought to be free from riot and confusion. III. Yet "we think there is sufficient cause to inquire into "the necessity of the payment of seventeen millions "of annual taxes, exclusive of poor rates, county rates, expenses of collection, &c. &c. by seven "millions of people: we think that these expenses may be reduced, without lessening the true dignity "of the nation" (meaning this kingdom) "or the "government" (meaning the government of this kingdom), "and therefore wish for satisfaction in "this important matter. IV. We view with con"cern the frequency of wars" (meaning, amongst others, the wars of His said Majesty and his subjects with foreign powers); "we are persuaded that the "interests of the poor can never be promoted by "accession of territory, when bought at the ex86 pense of their labour and blood; and we must say, "in the language of a celebrated author, we who "are only the people, but who pay for wars with 66 our substance and our blood, will not cease to tell kings or governments, that to them alone wars are profitable; that the true and just conquests are "those which each makes at home by comforting the peasantry, by promoting agriculture and manufac"tories, by multiplying men and the other productions

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