re much more
formidable than that which here so suddenly snapped, and with such
damage to the assassinating hand.

(1.) In 1792, John Lambert and two others published an advertisement
in the London Morning Chronicle, with which they were connected as
printers or proprietors, addressed "to the friends of free inquiry and
the general good," inviting them in a peaceful, calm, and unbiased
manner to endeavor to improve the public morals in respect to law,
taxation, representation, and political administration. They were
prosecuted, on _ex officio_ information, for a "false, wicked,
scandalous, and seditious libel." The government made every effort to
secure their conviction. But it failed.[129]

[Footnote 129: 22 St. Tr. 923.]

(2.) The same year, Duffin and Lloyd, two debtors in the Fleet Prison,
one an American citizen, wrote on the door of the prison chapel "this
house to let; peaceable possession will be given by the present
tenants on or before the first day of January, 1793, being the
commencement of liberty in Great Britain. The republic of France
having rooted out despotism, their glorious example and success
against tyrants renders infamous Bastiles no longer necessary in
Europe." They also were indicted for a "wicked, infamous, and
seditious libel," and found guilty. Lloyd was put in the pillory![130]

[Footnote 130: 2 St. Tr. 1793.]

(3.) In 1793, Rev. William Frend, of the University of Cambridge,
published a harmless pamphlet entitled "Peace and Union recommended to
the associated bodies of Republicans and anti-Republicans." He was
brought to trial, represented as a "heretic, deist, infidel, and
atheist," and by sentence of the court banished from the
university.[131]

[Footnote 131: 22 St. Tr. 523.--So late as 1820, the chief justice
punished an editor with a fine of L500, for publishing an account of a
trial for high treason. See 33 St. Tr. 1564, also 22 St. Tr. 298; 2
Campbell, Justices, 363, 371 _et al._]

(4.) The same year, John Frost, Esq., "a gentleman" and attorney, when
slightly intoxicated after dinner, and provoked by others, said, "I am
for equality. I see no reason why any man should not be upon a footing
with another; it is every man's birthright." And when asked if he
would have no king, he answered, "Yes, no king; the constitution of
this country is a bad one." This took place in a random talk at a
tavern in London. He was indicted as a person of a "depraved, impious,
and disquiet min