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vered in that case, and the particular circumstances which might occasion an extraordinary zeal and warmth in the court. The libel then condemned was a satirical ballad, (at least it is stated to be a composition in metre) upon an Archbishop of Canterbury, who was then dead,. and likewise on his successor. An Archbishop of Canterbury, in more modern times, would. probably have only laughed at it, or invited the author to dinner; but the then archbishop (under pretence of the insult on the memory. of his predecessor) brought the confitentem reum before that English Inquisition, the Star Chamber. The Archbishop was the first judge, from his rank at least, in this tyrannical court, and therefore an insult upon their president could not but excite their warmest indignation. As the libeller is stated to have. confessed both the writing and the publication of the libel, the only question before the Court must have been what fine or punishment they would inflict. The judges were however determined to lay down general rules, in order to suppress this growing evil, most of which will appear to be extra-judicial, or not to be maintained; and one of which Lord Coke himself contradicted on another occasion. The first rule is, that if the libel be against a magistrate it is a greater offence than against a private person. I do not mean to controvert the

reason upon which this rule was founded, but it was most clearly extra-judicial, as the Archbishop of Canterbury could not properly be called a magistrate. If, indeed, his seat in the Star Chamber is supposed to have given him a temporal office, it must be recollected that he sat there pro salute animæ of the criminals.

"The next rule was not extrajudicial, but can never be supported to the extent in which it is delivered, without a limitation of time. The rule is, that if the person libelled is dead at the time of its being written, the offender is equally punishable, as it may provoke the friends and relations of the deceased to revenge and breaches of the peace. There is something very quaint in what follows, that if the dead person libelled was a magistrate, it is a reflexion on government which never dies.

"The third rule is that it does not signify, whether the libel is true or not? This rule, in the first place is extrajudicial; as the, criminal confessed his offence, it is impossible that before that dreadful tribunal he could have insisted upon having asserted nothing which was not true. This would have prevented his only chance of mercy in an entire

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and implicit submission after a full confession. The propriety of this rule has been adopted by more modern determinations; but it is remarkable, that Sir Edward. Coke, in the case of Lake and Hutton, is said to have laid down the contrary doctrine.

"The next rule is that a person may be guilty of libel by drawing a ridiculous picture, or by raising a gallows opposite to a house; both these dicta are most clearly extrajudicial, and it is much doubted whether there was ever such a prosecution. The last rule is, that if a libel is found, and it relates to a private person, it must be either burnt, or delivered to a magistrate, and if it relates to a public person, it must not be burnt, but be delivered to a magistrate;-of this last rule it may be said not only to be extrajudicial, but absolutely impossible to be carried into execution. The reason of this, and the other absurdities contained in this case, arises from every one of these rules being borrowed from the civil law, which taking place before the invention of printing, made this last regulation at that time impossible. No one who was ever in a coffee-house will suppose it to be so at present." Barrington's. Observations on the Statutes. Page 70 to 74. 2nd Edition.

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From this account, it appears that the law of libel, as it prevails in England, originated in the Star Chamber: that the chief judge of that tyrannical court was the individual concerning whom the obnoxious ballad was written that the president gratified his own private resentment by inflicting punishment on the defendant, and that the rules laid down were arbitrary, extrajudicial, and dictated by personal revenge.

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The existence of society is maintained and secured by law: For the vices and passions of men require stronger coercion than the injunctions of morality and the precepts of religion. Therefore, the perpetration of crime is punished by penal enactments, varying in duration and intensity according to the degree of guilt. Offences, cognisable by human law, are of two kinds; mala in se, and mala prohibita. By the first are to be understood those violations of natural and innate justice, which are acknowledged both by savage and civilized nations to be worthy of punishment. Such is the crime of murder. Under the latter head may be enumerated all those acts, which the legislature has declared to be un

lawful. These of course differ in different countries. For instance; forgery in a commercial country is much more serious and dangerous to the community, than in another country, the welfare of which does not to the same extent depend on credit. For mercantile wealth is co-extensive with trade, and trade can only be carried on by mutual confidence: destroy this confidence, and you annihilate commercial enterprize.

There is no sounder principle in legislation than this; that the sole end of punishment is the prevention of crime; therefore punishment ought to be exemplary. Now, when any act is prohibited and declared illegal, it is incumbent upon those who make the law, to point out in the clearest possible terms, in what particular the illegality consists; otherwise it cannot deter by example.

Moreover, perspicuity in legislative enactments is vitally essential to the impartial administration of justice; for, unless the corpus delicti is marked out with precision, and made intelligible to common understandings, a door. is opened to the pernicious doctrine of construction, which necessarily throws a discretionary power into the hands of the judge.

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