date

1820. Octr. 13 Spanish liberticide measures
1820. Octr. 13 Spanish liberticide measures 4 §. 2. Press violation Reasons

against libel law

Any such liberty It may be said, and has been said is unnecessary. For that in

the case of inaptitude through delinquency, the delinquency will, on the part of

some portion of the body of public functionaries those who will be able willing

and ready to perform their respective parts towards the opposing to the

delinquency /repressive/ measures of repression, in the shape of punishment in

so far as needful, and in all other needful shapes: and that as to inaptitude

clear of delinquency, either it will not have place it will have place only for

a short time, at the end of which it will in some way or other be removed.

To this again the answers are {short} {plain} and conclusive.

I. First as to inaptitude as evidenced by delinquency. 1. In the first place

there can not under any Monarchy be any such necessary concurrence. In the next

place, if there could be and were it could neither /could it/ be equally

effectual nor could the remedy applied by it be applied at so cheap a rate.

II. So likewise in the case of inaptitude clear of delinquency. 1. In the case of

inaptitude as evidenced by delinquency. 1. In the case /situation/ of rulers in

chief – rulers who see none above them in the scale of power, none capable of

operating upon them by means of punishment or any other repressive instrument of

repression the absurdity of any such expectation is palpable. A man will not

concurr in imposing pain /evil/ /suffering/ in the shape of punishment or any

other repressive shape on himself. The supposition is a self contradictory one.

2. In the case /situation/ of any functionary subordinate to them, the case is

still the same. If there is misrule it is by the will and for the benefit of the

rulers in chief that it has place. If it be to their own prejudice /the

prejudice of those same rulers/ that the transgression committed by the

subordinate has been committed, yes in that case they will be ready enough to

punish for it: but if it be not to their prejudice, if it be only to the

prejudice of the people at large, they will not meddle /interfere/ with it: much

less if they themselves be in any degree participators in the profit which in

any shape is looked for from the offence.
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    As whether in this advantageous /distinguished/ situation or not, any act

    tending to the prejudice of his /a man’s/ reputation in any point will naturally

    be apt to call forth his displeasure, so in the case of a man /on the part of a

    man/ by whom any such advantageous situation is occupied a natural object of his

    endeavours will be – to prevent and so far as that is not possible /endeavour

    fails/ to avenge every injury or supposed injury done or endeavoured to be done

    to him in that provoking /galling/ shape: and where power has not been wanting

    the death of the offender has very commonly been regarded as a means not too

    expensive to be employed in the prosecution of this end.

    The more consummate the inaptitude, and thence in case of criminality, the more

    intense and extensive the evil of which the /his/ criminal conduct has been

    productive, the greater the evil which the functionary has to apprehend from the

    disclosure of it, and thence the heavier the punishment with which it will be

    his endeavour to visit the offender to visit all persons concerned in the

    casting of the imputation the greater in a word the quantity of force /power/ in

    all shapes which it will be his interest and endeavour to employ towards the

    repression of it: in the case of an imputation not yet cast but apprehended,

    self-preservation will in proportion to the magnitude of his guilt be earnest in

    applying to this purpose the utmost quantity of force possible: in the case of

    an imputation already cast, the care of self preservation will dictate the

    employing of this same quantity of force against all such offences /evils/

    apprehended in future, to which the desire of vengeance will add its claims in

    satisfaction for what is past.
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    2. Prosecution if practicable /in these cases employable/ and commonly practised

    /employed/ would not in any degree approaching to equality be effectual or

    applied /employed/ in any thing like so small an expence. In any and every such

    case, if punishment be the instrument employed, prosecution must precede it,

    prosecution with its delay vexation and expence. Not to speak of private

    business, from the interruption given to public business the mischief is

    considerable considerable in the course of the year or term of years even where

    the instances are few. How much more considerable if prosecution had place in

    every instance where in any of the situations in question delinquency has /had/

    place?

    In the case where it is by the liberty of the press that the check to misrule is

    applied the judicatory before which the matter is brought is the tribunal of

    public opinion the tribunal of the moral or popular sanction. Expence none: pay

    to actors in the drama /the dramatis personae/, prosecutors, witnesses, judges,

    none: delay, of that factitious kind in the manufacture of which judicatories in

    general have hitherto been so successfully industrious none: vexation, except to

    the accused none: and to him the vexation /suffering from it/ rises in

    proportion to delinquency and be it what it may, takes the place and operates in

    lieu of, and spares /saves/ the expence of punishment.

    In both cases the greatest multitude of appropriate facts and with it arguments

    applying to them capable of being brought to view without the help of this

    liberty is as nothing in comparison of what may be and naturally will be brought

    to view under favour of and by this liberty.
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    As on each particular instance /occasion/ every functionary who in the shape of

    criminality or in any other feels in himself symptoms of inaptitude will in the

    way /shape/ of punishment and all other shapes by argument as well as all other

    means do what depends upon him /employ his exertions in the endeavour/ to

    prevent the disclosure of it, so under every system of governmnet under which

    for the benefit of the sharers in it misrule is exercised and supported: all

    such arguments as present themselves as affording a chance of their producing

    the desired impression on those to whom /those minds on which/ they are

    employed, will of course be anxiously looked out for and collected and made the

    most of. But by /among/ all who are partakers in any sinister every argument,

    how absurd and weak so ever in itself, that is presented to them in that

    character every argument how absurd and weak so ever in itself: just as among

    persons concerned in the making profit of forged /counterfeit/ paper money the

    knowledge of its being counterfeit /what it is/ does not prevent the circulation

    of it.

    But with the exception of the government of the Anglo-American United States, no

    government that hath as yet been in existence /known/ has had for its actual end

    and object had any thing better than the furtherance of the narrow interest of

    those /the ruling few/ by whom it has been constituted and carried on, at the

    expence and to the sacrifice of the public many: in other words, to the extent

    of the sacrifice thus made, every such known government has ever been a

    purposely organized system of misrule: and therefore to preserve from disclosure

    all the particulars of all such misrule, and to that end in conjunction with all

    other means to employ in support of misrule in general, and against the

    disclosure of it such arguments as could be devised has been among the most

    constant and most anxious of their cares and their endeavours.