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.