In England, says Lord Campbell,
the name and family of Scroggs are both extinct. So much the worse for
you and me, Gentlemen. The Scroggses came over to America; they
settled in Massachusetts, they thrive famously in Boston; only the
name is changed.

[Footnote 91: 7 St. Tr. 1127.]

In 1731 Sir Philip Yorke, attorney-general, solemnly declared that an
editor is "_not to publish any thing reflecting on the character and
reputation and administration of his Majesty or his Ministers_;" "if
he breaks that law, or exceeds that liberty of the press he is to _be
punished for it_." Where did he get his law--in the third year of
Edward I., in A.D. 1275! But that statute of the Dark Ages was held
good law in 1731; and it seems to be thought good law in 1855! And the
attorney who affirmed the atrocious principle, soon became Chief
Justice, a "consummate judge," a Peer, Lord Hardwicke, and Lord
Chancellor![92] Lord Mansfield had not a much higher opinion of the
liberty of the press; indeed, in all libel cases, he assumed it was
exclusively the function of the judges to determine whether the words
published contained malicious or seditious matter, the jury were only
to find the fact of publication.[93] Thus the party in power with
their Loughboroughs, their Thurlows, their Jeffreys, their
Scroggs--shall I add also American names--are the exclusive judges as
to what shall be published relating to the party in power--their
Loughboroughs, their Thurlows, their Jeffreys and their Scroggs, or
their analogous American names! It was the free press of
England--Elizabeth invoked it--which drove back the "invincible
Armada;" this which stayed the tide of Papal despotism; this which
dyked the tyranny of Louis XIV. out from Holland. Aye, it was this
which the Stuarts, with their host of attendants, sought to break down
and annihilate for ever;[94] which Thurlow and Mansfield so formidably
attacked, and which now in America--but the American aspect of the
matter must not now be looked in the face.

[Footnote 92: 17 St. Tr. 674; 5 Campbell, 57; Hildreth's Despotism,
199.]

[Footnote 93: 20 St. Tr. 900. But see 28 St. Tr. 595, and 16 Parl.
Hist. 1211.]

[Footnote 94: For the frequency of trials for words spoken in Charles
II.'s reign of terror, see the extracts from Narcissus Luttrel's Brief
Historical Relation, 10 St. Tr. 125.]

* * * * *

But spite of all these impediments in the way of liberty, the voic