bite it off. Mr. Hamilton
replied:--

"This of leaving it to the judgment of the court whether the
words are libellous or not, in effect renders Juries useless
(to say no worse), in many cases." "If the faults, mistakes,
nay even the vices of such a person be private and personal,
and don't affect the peace of the public, or the liberty or
property of our neighbor, it is unmanly and unmannerly to
expose them, either by word or writing. But, when a ruler of
the people brings his personal failings, but much more his
vices, into his administration, and the people find
themselves affected by them, either in their liberties or
properties, that will alter the case mightily; and all the
high things that are said in favor of rulers and of
deputies, and upon the side of power, will not be able to
stop people's mouths when they feel themselves oppressed, I
mean in a free government. It is true _in times past it was
a crime to speak truth_; and in that terrible court of
Star-Chamber many worthy and brave men suffered for so
doing; and yet even in that court, and in those bad times, a
great and good man durst say, what I hope will not be taken
amiss of me to say in this place, namely, 'The practice of
informations for libels is a sword in the hands of a wicked
king, and an arrant coward, to cut down and destroy the
innocent; the one cannot because of his high station, and
the other dares not, because of his want of courage, redress
himself in another manner.'

"It is a right which all persons claim and are entitled to,
to complain when they are hurt; they have a right publicly
to remonstrate against the abuses of power, in the strongest
terms; to put their neighbors upon their guard against the
craft or open violence of men in authority; and to assert
with courage the sense they have of the blessings of
liberty, the value they put upon it, and their resolution at
all hazards to preserve it as one of the greatest blessings
Heaven can bestow." "It is a duty which all good men owe to
their country, to guard against the unhappy influence of ill
men when intrusted with power, and especially against their
creatures and dependants, who as they are generally more
necessitous, are surely more covetous and cruel."

According to the Judge the Jury ha