Bridge-Street Banditti Versus the Press: Report of the Trial of Mary-Anne Carlile, for Publishing A New-year's Address to the Reformers of Great Britain Written by Richard Carlile : at the Instance of the Constitutional Association Before Mr. Justice Best and a Special Jury at the Court of King's Bench, Guildhall, London, July 24, 1821 : with the Noble and Effectual Speech of Mr. Cooper, in Defence, at LargeR. Carlile, 1821 - 53 pages |
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argument assert attitude is necessary Attorney avowed Bishop of Llandaff Britain called Carlile's charge Constitutional Association COOPER COOPER.-My Lord Court criminal declare Defendant Deist doctrine duty excite expression feel Fleet Street freedom Gentlemen Government Gurney Honorary honourable House of Commons indictment innocent insinuate intention judge judgment Jurors Jury Justice BEST Justice BEST.-I King's Bench Learned Counsel Learned Friend Legislature Letter libel liberty Locke Lord Chatham Lord Chesterfield Lord Erskine Lordship Manchester and Stockport MARY-ANNE CARLILE mean ment mind never noble notorious numbers observations occasion opinion pamphlet paper passage passive obedience persons petitioning attitude political writings practices prejudices Price prosecution prosecutor published punishment purchase question recollect Religion reproach Richard Carlile Society speech started with indignation style submit tell thing Thomas Paine thought tical tion trial verdict of Guilty VOLTAIRE writer Year's Address yourselves
Popular passages
Page 37 - ... that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of Civil Government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order...
Page 38 - People are not so easily got out of their old forms, as some are apt to suggest. They are hardly to be prevailed with to amend the acknowledged faults in the frame they have been accustomed to.
Page 39 - Nor is it to the common people less than a reproach ; for if we be so jealous over them, as that we dare not trust them with an English pamphlet, what do we but censure them for a giddy, vicious, and ungrounded people ; in such a sick and weak state of faith and discretion, as to be able to take nothing down but through the pipe of a licenser...
Page 44 - To this I reply, The people shall be judge; for who shall be judge whether his trustee or deputy acts well and according to the trust reposed in him, but he who deputes him and must, by having deputed him, have still a power to discard him when he fails in his trust? If this be reasonable in particular cases of private men, why...
Page 38 - To this perhaps it will be said that the people being ignorant and always discontented, to lay the foundation of government in the unsteady opinion and uncertain humour of the people is to expose it to certain ruin; and no government will be able long to subsist, if the people may set up a new legislative whenever they take offence at the old one.
Page 46 - One of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the greatest blessings a people can enjoy, is liberty. But every good in this life has its alloy of evil. Licentiousness is the alloy of liberty. It is an ebullition, an excrescence ; it is a speck upon the eye of the political body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand ; lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye, upon which it is apt to appear.
Page 46 - I can never touch 157 but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye upon which it is apt to appear. " There is such a connection between licentiousness and liberty, that it is not easy to correct the one without dangerously wounding the other: it is extremely hard to distinguish the true limit between them: like a changeable silk, we can easily see there are two different colors, but we cannot easily discover where the one ends, or where the other begins.
Page 44 - He alone, it is true, is Judge of the right; but every man is judge for himself, as in all other cases, so in this, whether another hath put himself into a state of war with him, and whether he should appeal to the Supreme Judge as Jephtha did.
Page 25 - To talk about the British constitution, is, in my opinion, a sure proof of dishonesty. Britain has no constitution. If we speak of the Spanish constitution, we have something tangible ; there is a substance and meaning as well as a sound.
Page 3 - A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Chandler, from the Writer of the History of the Man after God's own Heart (Peter AnnetO, 8vo.