the marked and striking difference between the writing before you, and I may venture to say almost every other, that has been the subject of argument on a Rule for a criminal Information.

The writings or publications, which have been brought before this Court, or before Grand Juries, as libels on individuals, have been attacks on the characters of private men, by writers stimulated sometimes by resentment, sometimes, perhaps, by a mistaken zeal; or they have been severe and unfounded strictures on the characters of public men, proceeding from officious persons taking upon themselves the censorial office, without temperance or due information, and without any call of duty to examine into the particular department, of which they choose to become the voluntary guardians: a guardianship which they generally content themselves with holding in a newspaper for two or three posts, and then, with a generosity which shines on all mankind alike, correct every department of the state, and find at the end of their lucubrations, that they themselves are the only honest men in the community. When men of this description suffer, however we may be occasionally sorry for their misdirected zeal, it is impossible to argue against the law that censures them.

But I beseech your Lordship to compare these men and their works, with my Client, and the publication before the Court.

Who is he ?-What is his duty? What has he written ?To whom has he written ?—And what motive induced him to write?

He is Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Hospital of Greenwich, a palace built for the reception of aged and disabled men, who have maintained the empire of England on the seas, and into the offices and emoluments of which, by the express words of the Charter, as well as by the evident spirit of the institution, no Landmen are to be admitted.

His DUTY-in the treble capacity of Lieutenant Governor, Director, and a General Governor, is, in conjunction with others, to watch over the internal economy of this sacred charity, to see that the setting days of these brave and godlike men are spent in comfort and peace, and that the ample revenues, appropriated by this generous nation to their support, are not perverted and misapplied.

HE HAS WRITTEN, that this benevolent and politic institution has degenerated from the system established by its wise and munificent founders ;-that its Governors consist indeed of a great number of illustrious names and reverend charac

ters, but whose different labours and destinations in the most important offices of civil life rendered a deputation indispensably necessary for the ordinary Government of the Hospital; that the difficulty of convening this splendid corporation had gradually brought the management of its affairs more particularly under the direction of the Admiralty-that a new Charter has been surreptitiously obtained, in repugnance to the original institution, which enlarges and confirms that dependence; that the present First Lord of the Admiralty (who, for reasons sufficiently obvious, does not appear publicly in this prosecution) has, to serve the base and worthless purposes of corruption, introduced his prostituted freeholders of Huntingdon into places destined for the honest freeholders of the seas;-that these men (among whom are the prosecutors) are not only Landmen, in defiance of the Charter, and wholly dependent on the Admiralty in their views and situations, but, to the reproach of all order and government, are suffered to act as Directors and Officers of Greenwich, while they themselves hold the very subordinate offices, the control of which is the object of that direction ;-and inferring from thence (as a general proposition) that men in such situations cannot, as human nature is constituted, act with that freedom and singleness which their duty requires, he justly attributes to these causes the grievances which his gallant brethren actually suffer, and which are the generous subject of his complaint.

He has written this, my Lord, not to the public at large, which has no jurisdiction to reform the abuses he complains of, but to those only whose express duty it is to hear and to correct them, and I trust they will be solemnly heard and corrected. He has not PUBLISHED, but only distributed his book among the Governors, to produce inquiry and not to calumniate.

THE MOTIVE WHICH INDUCED HIM TO WRITE, and to which I shall by and by claim the more particular attention of the Court, was to produce reformation ;-a reformation which it was his most pointed duty to attempt, which he has laboured with the most indefatigable zeal to accomplish, and against which every other channel was blocked up.

My Lord, I will point to the proof of all this: I will show your Lordship that it was his duty to investigate ;that the abuses he has investigated do really exist, and arise from the ascribed causes ;-that he has presented them to a competent jurisdiction, and not to the public;-and that he was under the indispensable necessity of taking the step he has done to save Greenwich Hospital from ruin.org

Your Lordship will observe by this subdivision, that I do not wish to form a specious desultory defence: because, feeling that every link of such subdivision will in the investigation produce both law and fact in my favour, I have spread the subject open before the eye of the Court, and invite the strictest scrutiny. Your Lordship will likewise observe by this arrangement, that I mean to confine myself to the general lines of his defence; the various affidavits have already been so ably and judiciously commented on by my learned leaders, to whom I am sure Captain Baillie must ever feel himself under the highest obligations, that my duty has become narrowed to the province of throwing his defence within the closest compass, that it may leave a distinct and decided impression.

And first, my Lord, as to its being his particular duty to inquire into the different matters which are the subject of his publication, and of the prosecutors' complaint: I believe, my Lords, I need say little on this head to convince your Lordships, who are yourselves Governors of Greenwich Hospital, that the defendant, in the double capacity of Lieutenant Governor and Director, is most indispensably bound to superintend every thing that can affect the prosperity of the institution, either in internal economy, or appropriation of revenue; but I cannot help reading two copies of letters from the Admiralty in the year 1742;-I read them from the publication, because their authenticity is sworn to by the defendant in his affidavit ;-and I read them to show the sense of that Board with regard to the right of inquiry and complaint in all officers of the Hospital, even in the departments not allotted to them by their commissions.

"To Sir John Jennings, Governor of Greenwich Hospital. Admiralty Office, April 19, 1742.

“SIR,

"The Directors of Greenwich Hospital having acquaint"ed my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, upon complaint made to them that the men have been defrauded of "part of their just allowance of broth and pease-soup, by the smallness of the pewter dishes, which in their opinion "have been artificially beaten flat, and that there are other "frauds and abuses attending this affair, to the prejudice of "the poor men; I am commanded by their Lordships to de"sire you to call the Officers together in Council, and to let "them know, that their Lordships think them very blame

"able for suffering such abuses to be practised, which could not "have been done without their extreme indolence in not looking "into the affairs of the Hospital; that their own establish"ment in the Hospital is for the care and protection of the "poor men, and that it is their duty to look daily into every "thing, and to remedy every disorder; and not to discharge "themselves by throwing it upon the under Officers and Ser"vants; and that their Lordships being determined to go to "the bottom of this complaint, do charge them to find out and "inform them at whose door the fraud ought to be laid, that "their Lordships may give such directions herein as they "shall judge proper.

SIR,

"I am, Sir,

"Your most obedient servant,

"THO. CORBET."

Admiralty Office, May 7th, 1742.

"My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having re"ferred to the Directors of Greenwich Hospital the Report "made by yourself and Officers of the said Hospital in "Council, dated the 23d past, relating to the flatness of the "pewter dishes made use of to hold the broth and poase-pot66 tage served out to the Pensioners; the said Directors have "returned hither a reply, a copy of which I am ordered to "send you enclosed: they have herein set forth a fact which "has a very fraudulent appearance, and it imports little by "what means the dishes became shallow; but if it be true, " what they assert, that the dishes hold but little more than "half the quantity they ought to do, the poor men must have "been greatly injured; and the allegations in the Officers' "Report, that the Pensioners have made no complaint, does "rather aggravate their conduct, in suffering the men's pa"tience to be so long imposed upon.

"My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty do com"mand me, to express myself in such a manner as may show "their wrath and displeasure at such a proceeding. You "will please to communicate this to the Officers of the House "in Council.

"Their Lordships do very well know that the Directors "have no power but in the management of the revenue and "estates of the Hospital, and in carrying on the works of the "building, nor did they assume any on this occasion; but "their Lordships shall always take well of them any infor

"mations, that tend to rectify any mistakes or omissions "whatsoever, concerning the state of the Hospital.

"I am, Sir,

"To Sir John Jennings,

"Your obedient servant,

"THO. CORBET.

al."}

"Governor of Greenwich Hospital.'

From these passages it is plain, that the Admiralty then was sensible of the danger of abuses in so extensive an institution, that it encouraged complaints from all quarters, and instantly redressed them; for although Corruption was not then an infant, yet the idea of making a job of Greenwich Hospital never entered her head; and indeed if it had, she could hardly have found at that time of day, a man with a heart callous enough to consent to such a scheme, or with forehead enough to carry it into public execution.

Secondly, my Lord, that the abuses he has investigated do in truth exist, and arise from the ascribed causes.

And, at the word TRUTH, I must pause a little to consider, how far it is a defence on a rule of this kind, and what evidence of the falsehood of the supposed libel the Court expects from prosecutors, before it will allow the information to be filed, even where no affidavits are produced by the defendant in his exculpation.

That a libel upon an individual is not the less so for being true, I do not, under certain restrictions, deny to be law; nor is it necessary for me to deny it, because this is not a complaint in the ORDINARY COURSE OF LAW, but an application to the Court to exert an ECCENTRIC, EXTRAORDINARY, VOLUNTARY JURISDICTION, BEYOND THE ORDINARY COURSE

OF JUSTICE;-a jurisdiction which I am authorized from the best authority to say, this Court will not exercise, unless the prosecutors come PURE AND UNPOLLUTED; denying upon oath the truth of every word and sentence which they complain of as injurious: for although, in common cases, the matter may be not the less libellous, because true, yet the Court will not interfere by information, for guilty or even equivocal characters, but will leave them to its ordinary process. If the Court does not see palpable MALICE and FALSEHOOD on the part of the defendant, and clear innocence on the part of the prosecutor, it will not stir ;-it will say, This may be a Libel ;-this may deserve punishment ;-but go tor a Grand Jury, or bring your actions :-all men are equally entitled to the protection of the laws, but all men are not