date

nd [wm 1794] Inserenda Observations
nd [wm 1794]

Inserenda

Observations

VI. Miscellanea

§. 45

Anonymous

*8

One case there is, it must be confessed, in which anonymous information, if false as well as anonymous, is productive of incalculable mischief, and that is where the public at large is the tribunal is the Court to which it is given: anonymous accusation, convey’d for example, through the channel of a newspaper. – Why? – because the public at large is a Court composed of Judges, a great part of whom are always ready to convict, and to punish to the extent (which is not inconsiderable) of their powers of punishment, without any better or further evidence. Here is a real grievance: but this is not the grievance which lies heavy upon the minds of those on whose part the clamour against anonymous information is apt to be most vehement: what the grievance is that presses upon them will be mentioned presently. Here the mischief of the information is not only aggravated but in great measure /most instances/ constituted by its being anonymous, that is by the circumstance of the author’s being concealed /unknown/: for as long as the author is unknown, there is no case of falshood – neither adequate means of defence for the party accused, nor means of bringing down punishment on the wrong doer: and hence the propensity to inflict such injuries, by such means, and the unhappy frequency with which they are inflicted.
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    VI. Miscellanea

    § 45

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    Anonymous

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    {152}

    In the next place, whence comes the mischief of anonymous information, where it happens to be mischievous? – not solely from its being anonymous – not merely from the author’s being unknown: – to convert the danger into real mischief in any case, three circumstances more are requisite – viz: – that it be false as well as anonymous – and that it be acted upon – and acted upon to the prejudice of some individual, – as if it were true.
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    VI. Miscellanea

    §. 45

    Anonymous

    10

    In this country and in these days, the /but a few years back,/ a particular conjunction arose, which gave particular occasion, and acrimony to the clamour against anonymous information. This was the Association at the Crown and Anchor. The benefits which that association may have been productive of , how considerable soever, are not here in question. In this instance it seems not altogether improbable, that the receipt of anonymous information may have been productive of some mischief. – From what cause? from the same cause from /in virtue of/ which anonymous newspaper information is apt to be productive of {so much} mischief. The association, being so numerous, formed a little public of themselves; judging, part of them of course with the same precipitancy and partiality and levity that characterizes the judgments of the public at large. Not that it was in the power of this or any other association had its suffrages been unanimous, to cause them to be followed by punishment properly so called. But what was in their power was to cause a man through the medium of his reputation, to suffer damage and thence injury, in a variety of shapes, by prejudicing him in the opinion of those on whom his increase or continuance of his prosperity might come /happen/ to depend. A man whose complaint /antipathy/ were confined to certain persons members of the government or to certain measures, or at the worst to certain parts of the government in themselves or in his eyes easily susceptible of alteration, would perhaps be set down, on the information of some person whose

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  • Title: [nd [wm 1794] Inserenda Observations]
    Description: nd [wm 1794]

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    Observations

    VI. Miscellanea

    §. 45

    Anonymous

    7

    witness that he can be either convicted put upon his trial arrested or called to account in any shape: – if he is guilty, it is much more favourable to him than it would be if the informant declared himself, because in that case conviction, as above mentioned, might take place at once, without either the trouble of looking out for further evidence, or the danger of not getting it. In what way could anonymous information be more prejudicial to him than information from a person known, or so much as equally prejudicial? No Magistrate, no Board, no Jury ever yet convicted upon such evidence as the bare allegation of an unknown informant, or of any number of unknown informants: – to ground a conviction, there must be evidence given by an individual known, examined in person, upon oath and in presence of the party charged. So sure as a Magistrate presumed presumed to convict without the concurrence of any of these requisites ( confession, which supersedes them all being here out of the question) so thereby would he himself be convicted and punished on application to the Court of King’s Bench. In every point of view it is so much the better for the party whose supposed practices or designs form the subject matter of the information, that the informant should be unknown. If the informant were known, conviction and punishment would be the probable consequence. But so long as the informant is unknown, conviction without some other evidence is impossible, and the worst that can happen to a plotter is the frustration of his plot.