terest of the country is
at stake." "We see men's deeds destroyed, judges arbitrarily
displaced, new courts erected without consent of the legislature, by
which, it seems to me, trials by juries are taken away when a Governor
pleases." "Who, then, in that province can call any thing his own, or
enjoy any liberty longer than those in the administration will
condescend to let him do it?"

[Footnote 147: 3 Doc. Hist. N.Y. p. 340, 341.]

In October, 1734, Chief Justice de Lancey gave a charge to the
Grand-Jury, urging them to indict Mr. Zenger for a libel. He says, "It
is a very high aggravation of a libel that it tends to scandalize the
government by _reflecting on those who are intrusted with the
administration of public affairs_, which ... has a direct tendency to
breed in the public a dislike of their Governors." "If he who hath
either read a libel himself, or hath heard it read by another, _do
afterwards_ maliciously _read or report any part of it in the presence
of others_, or _lend or show it to another, he is guilty of an
unlawful publication of it._"

But the Judge had not packed the Grand-Jury with sufficient care, and
so no bill was found. Thereupon the Governor's Council sent a message
to the General Assembly of New York, complaining of Mr. Zenger's
Journal as tending "to alienate the affections of the people of this
province from his majesty's government," and asking them to inquire
into the said papers and the authors thereof; the Council required
that the obnoxious numbers might "be _burned by the hands of the
common hangman or whipper, near the pillory_." The Assembly let them
lie on the table. The Court of Quarter-sessions was applied to to burn
the papers; but as that body refused, the sheriff "delivered them unto
the hands of _his own negro_, and ordered him to put them into the
fire, which he did."

Mr. Zenger was imprisoned by a warrant from the Governor, a _lettre de
cachet_, and "for several days denied the use of pen, ink, and paper,
and the liberty of speech with any person." An _ex officio_
information was brought against him, charging him with "malicious and
seditious libel." His counsel, Messrs. Alexander and Smith, took
exceptions to the proceedings. The Chief Justice would neither hear
nor allow the exceptions, "for" said he, "you thought to have gained a
great deal of applause and popularity by opposing this court ... but
you have brought it to that point, that either we must go from the