nd [wm 1794]

Inserenda

Observations

VI. Miscellanea

§. 45

Anonymous

6

The worst that can be said against anonymous information is, that to the public in respect of the interest it has in the prevention of the offence and the punishment of the offender, it is not generally speaking altogether upon a par in point of utility – equally serviceable with information from a person known, because it is not so certain of being adequate to the object of it, viz: the prevention of the offence, or the bringing the offender to punishment. If the man were known and forthcoming, you might get out from him every thing he knew: while he remains unknown you must be content with what he gives you. But whatever it is, it may be just so much more than you could have got at all, had it not been for the faculty which the informant reserved to himself of concealing himself: and if what it amounts to happens to prove sufficient to lead to the discovery of other evidence, affording a sufficient ground for conviction, it has then all the good effects that information from a known Informant could have had. To the /The[?]/ public therefore information from a person unknown is not quite so good /desirable/ as information from a person known: because in the latter case conviction may be obtained without further evidence or research which in the other case can not be. But to /But as to/ the /with a view to the/ person informed against, it is either more favourable to his interests than information from a person known, or at any rate not less so. If he is miscreant it is not the worse for him for being anonymous, for it is only upon evidence given by a known

witness