356
LIBEL ON THE
length, the free press of this country, and with it the freedom itself, is to be destroyed—at least let not the heavy blow fall from your hands. Leave it to some profligate tyrant; leave it to a mercenary and effeminate Parliament—a hireling Army, degraded by the lash, and the readier instrument for enslaving its country ; leave it to a pampered House of Lords—a venal House of Commons—some vulgar minion, servant-of-allwork to an insolent Court—some unprincipled soldier, unknown, thank God! in our times, combining the talents of a usurper with the fame of a captain; leave to such desperate hands, and such fit tools, so horrid a work ! But you, an English jury, parent of the press, yet supported by it, and doomed to perish the instant its health and strength are gone—lift not you against it an unnatural hand. Prove to us that our rights are safe in your keeping; but maintain, above all things, the stability of our institutions, by well-guarding their corner-stone. Defend the Church from her worst enemies, who, to hide their own misdeeds, would veil her solid foundations in darkness; and proclaim to them by your verdict of acquittal, that henceforward, as heretofore, all the recesses of the sanctuary must be visited by the continual light of day, and by that light all its abuses be explored! [After the learned Judge had summed up to the Jury, they retired, and remained inclosed for above five hours. They then returned the following special verdict, viz.:—“ Guilty of so much of the matter in the first count as charges a libel upon the Clergy residing in and near the City of Durham, and the suburbs thereof, and as to the rest of the first count, and the other counts of the Information, Not Guilty.”]