FOOTNOTES:
[31:A] Avater is the Hindoo expression for a divinity assuming the human form, and residing on earth.
[40:A] Mr. Denman has since been created "Sir Thomas," and, at the period of our writing this, holds the office of attorney-general. On the 21st of May, 1832, Lord Stormont brought forward a motion in the House of Commons relative to a general crusade against the press, for what his lordship pleased to term "infamous, obscene, and scandalous libels." It must ever be gratifying to patriots when public men openly confess their errors; and we are, therefore, most happy to record the following extract from Sir Thomas Denman's speech, delivered on the above occasion, relative to the prosecution upon which we have so freely commented:
"In May, 1822, he (Sir Thomas Denman) first sat as common-sergeant, and was called upon to try a case of most atrocious libel in 'The Republican:' it contained a summing up of all the blasphemies which had ever been promulgated in that paper, and direct incitements to insurrection. The prosecution was instituted by a constitutional association, which thought the attorney-general was negligent of his duty; but he believed that that association obtained but little credit for thus undertaking his functions. There were two aldermen upon the bench, one of whom thought that two years' imprisonment was the least that could be awarded as a punishment, while the other thought that one year would be sufficient. The middle course was pursued, and the man was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. Though this was the mildest punishment which had been awarded on any case of a similar description at that time, yet he (the attorney-general) had been held up to odium as a cruel judge. The public, it was clear, had reaped no benefit whatever, and he (the attorney-general) had experienced some pain during the whole of the eighteen months that that man was in prison; for he felt a strong disinclination to proceed against any man who was fairly stating his opinions. The young man was twenty-one years of age, and what he was doing was certainly mischievous; but when his imprisonment expired, he could assure the House that it was to himself a great comfort. The liberty of the press was established in this country, and that alone was enough to induce people to publish those opinions; and that liberty would make him extremely cautious of prosecuting merely for opinion. During periods of public excitement, the classes from which juries were taken gave no encouragement to prosecutions, and if only one juryman stood out upon a case, the prosecution was obliged to be dropped. He, therefore, except some very atrocious circumstances should occur, did not think it expedient to proceed. In striking special juries, it was impossible to go into the heart of society, and act as spies in families to ascertain the sentiments of jurymen. It was necessary to submit to a great deal, lest by legal proceedings bad should be made worse. Prosecutions against the press were better left alone."
The last sentence of this speech contains advice which we hope to see practised by all future attorney-generals. In the case of Sir Thomas Denman, however, it is only adopted through necessity; for he freely confesses his wish to prosecute, if he could only insure the verdict of a jury! It is, indeed, a gratifying truth, that attorney-generals cannot controul the decisions of juries; and it is well for the people of England that they cannot. Were it otherwise, the press would soon become worse than useless, and every independent writer speedily be consigned to a prison. We cannot, consequently, join Sir Thomas Denman in his lamentation; and we regret that a gentleman of such lofty pretensions to liberality and patriotism should have tarnished his fame by thus exposing himself to the censure of his countrymen. While upon this subject, we would give a word of advice to Lord Stormont. His lordship has been described as a young man of considerable natural abilities, which have been highly improved by a liberal education. How, then, can he be so blind to the spirit of the present age as to suppose himself capable of restoring the very worst part of Toryism,—that of undermining the glorious LIBERTY OF THE PRESS? His noble father (who was educated in the Pitt school of politics) may have impressed him with an idea of its practicability; but the people are now changed, the age is changed, and we warn him not to expose himself to the disgust of the English people, by making futile attempts to destroy the grand palladium of national liberty. As well, indeed, might he essay to execute Herod's commands to slay the innocents, as to restore, by such means, the absolute power which the Tories so unfortunately exercised during the last two reigns!
[68:A] The following is a translation of the letter above referred to:
"Rocheford, 13th July, 1815.
"Your Royal Highness,
"A victim to the factions which distract my country, and to the enmity of the greatest powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British people. I put myself under the protection of their laws, which I claim from your royal highness, as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies.
"Napoleon."
[88:A] However tyrannical the orders of Lord Castlereagh might have been, we cannot help remarking on the petty pleasure Sir Hudson took in executing them, even to the very letter. It was this kind of conduct in Napoleon's jailer that gave rise to the following distich:
"Sir Hudson Lowe, Sir Hudson Lowe,
By name, and ah! BY NATURE SO!"
Napoleon himself said of this governor, "I have had to do with men of all countries; I never saw any who had so bad a physiognomy, and a more execrable conversation. He writes with the intention of being amicable. That is a contrast to the ignoble vexations that are daily imagined. There is something sinister in all this." Without contradicting the repeated asseverations of Sir Hudson Lowe, that he only acted according to instructions, we must say, that any man of honour should rather have resigned his office than have executed them; for they were not only unnecessary to the security of Napoleon, but they were also ILLEGAL. But Sir Hudson did not possess moral courage; he was captious and mistrustful, and was not at all calculated for the delicate offices he had to perform; he created his own fears, and lost his understanding in endeavouring to foresee misfortune. Count Lascases thus writes of him:
"The noble-minded English beside us," says the Count, "as well as those who merely visited the island, used to say that our treatment would experience a great and blessed change when the new governor appeared, &c. &c. This new Messiah at length came; but, gracious God!—the word escapes involuntarily from my pen,—it was an executioner, a gens-d'arme, whom they had sent. On his appearance, every thing assumed a dark and gloomy aspect; every appearance of external respect, and all the forms prescribed by a due regard to decency, which had hitherto been observed, at once disappeared; every day since has been to us a day of greater pain and more insulting treatment; he has narrowed still farther the boundaries prescribed to us, and even endeavoured to interfere with our domestic economy; he has strictly interdicted all intercourse with the natives, and even prohibited all society with officers of his own nation; he has ordered our residence to be surrounded with ditches and palisades; he has increased the number of soldiers, and endeavoured to make prisons within prisons; he has surrounded us with objects of affright, and reduced us to close custody. The emperor remains almost always in his prison, and no longer leaves his apartment. The few audiences which he has given to that officer have been highly disagreeable and oppressive to him; he has put an end to them, and determined not to see the governor any more. 'I had just grounds,' he observed, 'to complain of the Admiral, though he had at least a heart; but this man has not even a vestige of the character of an Englishman, he is nothing but a low Sicilian sbirro.' Sir Hudson Lowe pleads the instructions of his minister in justification of himself, with respect to all these complaints; if this justification is well founded, his instructions are most barbarous; but he can bear witness, at the same time, that he endeavours to carry them into execution in a barbarous manner."
[94:A] Sir Hudson Lowe is, doubtless, the person here alluded to by the emperor; but he would not have dared to act as he did if such tyrannical and unfeeling conduct had been against Lord Castlereagh's approbation.
[94:B] Particularly his eloquent and manly "Appeal to the Parliament of Great Britain, on the case of the Emperor Napoleon."
[97:A] Plutarch assigns him three different deaths; but Livy tells us, that Hannibal drank poison, which he always carried about with him, in case he should be taken by surprise.
[107:A] More particularly the affair of the bondholders. His lordship also strenuously exerted himself to prevent any public inquiry into the cruel death of the Princess Charlotte.
[116:A] The treatment and death of Napoleon, the funeral of the late queen, the conduct of the ministers and soldiers on that occasion, the murders at Cumberland Gate, the dismissal of Sir Robert Wilson for an attempt to stop the scene of bloodshed, formed but a portion of the black catalogue of their misdeeds.
[187:A] How well has part of this prediction been fulfilled by the people of 1832! May the rest be speedily accomplished!
[188:A] See motion for a new writ for the Borough of St. Mawes, in the room of Francis Horner, esq., deceased.
[240:A] How lamentably is this fact illustrated by the present Whig minister,—the disinterested Earl Grey,—who has added to the burdens of his country, by places and pensions to his own family alone, more than sixty-two thousand pounds annually!!!
THE END.
Printed by W. H. Stevenson, 5, Whiskin Street, Clerkenwell.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Page 2 is blank in the original.
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page 1: Of meaner vice and villains[original has villians]
Page 47: When the queen came from Dover[original has Dovor] to town
Page 138: In the month of April, Mr.[period missing in original] Brougham
Page 144: 'behind the arras,'[original has double quote]
Page 149: [quotation mark missing in original]"Then," modestly added the president
Page 161: amongst the nymphs of Berkeley-row[original has Berkely-row]
Page 191: Sir,—You[original has Yor] are requested
Page 214: where[original has were] it was supposed he had been wounded
Page 219: the Bishop of Llandaff (Dr. Copleston),[comma missing in original] the prebends
Page 228: bank of Ransom, Morland, and Hammersley[original has Hammersly]
Page 263: presented this anomalous, inconsistent[original has inconsistant]
[94:A] had been against Lord Castlereagh's[original has Castereagh's]