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    puWs ^ ed , tMs latter point is fully made w& . WewefatQiMr * JBvereUk ^ aSftf © pe ^ * In his * atew * rf public liberty in Great Britain he is led to treat ef this particular , and he asserts that there is less Deism in the United

    States of America than here , and no prosecutions ! The assertion is the more entitled to respect , because Mr . Everett approves the principle of civil penalties in religious matters , and though a Republican by country , seems to hold the British Government

    m profound respect . < € If , however , without being biassed by the opinions df statesmen , or the prejudices of parties , we look in detail into the present state . of the principal political institutions of tfce country , we shall find them , I think , in a great measure , sound

    and healtfey . The Habeas Corpus Act , and the trial by jury , which are the legal securities of personal liberty iu its several branches , includiog the freedom of the press , are still in full vigour ; nor is there any danger of their being attacked * It

    is true , that the Habeas Corpm Act ffe sometitnes suspended , perhaps unneces-^ arlly ; and we hear decagonal conlplaints of packed and special juries , whidh are , probably , not Wholly without foundation . But from the frequency with

    which verdicts are given against the go * vero merit in political cases , it is evident enough that the spirit of the institution still exists . The liberty of the press , though nominally restrained somewhat more than it is in the United States , is , iu practice , equally extensive , as is clear

    from the fact > that the abuses of it are Infinitely greater than with us . There lias never been any appearance in the United States of the blasphemy and sedition which , for several years past , have inundated the British osJaiid ? ia cheap and popular forms . The suppression of such publi <^ tiona is , undoubtedly , an aqt

    of substantial justice ; atid , as it is also done according to the forms of law , there is no ground tp regard it as oppression . It seems to be more reprehensible on the score of policy ; for the great sensation and scancla ] , created by these prosecutions , do more , pefchaps , to give currency to the infamous productions in question , than any intrinsic attraction belonging to

    * Europe ; or , a General Survey of the ; l > tesent Situation of tfce Principal Powers , with Conjectures on their Future Pro-« pects v Bf Alexander H . Everett , Charge lYAfTuhw o # tte United States ofAme-* ica ^ it the Court of the Netherlands . 8 vo . i

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    them , since they can * ardly be written with talent . Itie works of ^ PtKjw p ^ MQ may serve as an example * It appeats from the proceedings at the trial of the bookseller Catiile , that two or three editions of them have been printed in ihfe

    United States ; a fact which I stionlcl not liave known without , ; for I never ' sa ^^ a copy of them in a booksellerV shop iti America , and very few In private collections . There is no law , however * to prohibit the printHig t > r the selling them

    there ; nor would any attempt be made to molest a printer who should undert alc ^ it . la point of fact , tjiey are never heard of amongst us , and exejite no interest Their existence would probably liave been forgotten , were it not that from time tf > time an account arriTes In the British

    papers , of the trial of & bookseller fdr selling the Age pf Reason . I ^ e ip cause why a similar system shonW iwft produce the aame effect mGr ^ at Britlra i and the operation of the contrary cate is far from being equally fortiumte . 1 ! be book , by being continually kept lit view ,

    retains its hold upon the public attention . It is read by ^ he people more because the printer has been prpsecuted , than for any other reason , Jkk f ^ y ^® sh i' * ?^? ^? most scandalous inatWfe w ^ d ia defence ; which must be eith ^ i ! r ^ ri ? $ . sed iy a very unpopular exertion of aiithoritj ,

    or be tolerated , with much greater damage to the public than could ever arise from the work itself . Not $ nly this , tfut the most obnoxious passages of the Wok form a part of the defence , and are reprinted , upon these occasions , in all the newspapers , and obtain more publicity by

    this means in a single day , than they could have obtained in a century in their ordinary form . If , by this process , the work were finally suppressed , more might be said in favour of it ; but the next bookseller of daring character and / desperate fortunes reprints it , and must be

    indicted with farther scandal , and another publication in the newspapers * Can it be seriously maintained , that this is the best way of diverting the public attention from a dangerous work ? At the same time , J acquit the British government of tyrannical intention in these proceedings . Such excesses are , in fact , far more dangerous to liberty , than they are tojpower . The freedom of the press * within dad

    even beyond the bounds of decency , is unfettered . Journals and books are daily published without notice , which , In Prance or Germany , would plunge their iauthors into a dungeon , or bring them to ike block . The plan of a preliminary inspection of manuscripts would , I am persuaded , be rejected with as much contempt by the government , as ^ y the

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    Tf& Prmed Inqfaoiiey ty Prifceeuti&g TXnbcUevers * 03

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1824, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2521/page/29/