[clx. 359]

1822 July 25

Constitut. Code Rationale

Securities

5 Moral Counterforce

Public Opinion Tribunal

Evidence etc

J.Bs cure to prevent secret suppression by Editors' veto

Defamation to the prejudice of ruling functionaries as such

Among the consequences of the restrictions imposed in the ordinary form on the press one is the efficiency thus given to false reports in their most mischievous shape: false and mischievous reports as such, whosoever may be the parties on whom the evil produced by them falls

In the first place let the situation be that of the ruling functionaries, and in particular those of the highest degree /rank/ in the scale of subordination. Defamation in the written shape it is possible to keep suppressed. Defamation to the same effect in an oral shape it is not possible to keep suppressed. You may keep a watch upon all presses: you can not keep a watch upon all tongues. When it is in a printed shape it is in a determinate shape: and whatever be the shape of it in other respects being in a determinate and that an enduring shape, any one who is /feels/ disposed to make answer to it, knows what it is he answers, and where to find it. In whatever shape it first makes its appearance, in that shape it remains it can not by the author or by the adopter be altered from shape to shape in a manner repugnant /contrary/ to truth and justice, just as occasion calls. It may be met and it may opposed in whatsoever manner is best adapted to the nature of it: is it in any way false? it may be opposed by simple denial: it may be opposed by the statement of the opposite truth: is it not only false but improbable? the arguments demonstrative of the improbability may be opposed to it: is it injurious is it mischievous? the mischievousness of it may be exposed /laid open to view/, and shame /reproach/ proportioned to the evil be poured down upon the head of the author and his accomplices, or prepared and kept in readiness to be poured down upon them in proportion as they are discovered. /presented to view./