hout giving it my opposition. A good Government, a
free Government, has nothing to apprehend, and everything to hope
from the liberty of the press; it reflects a lustre upon all its
actions, and fosters every virtue. But despotism courts shade and
obscurity, and dreads the scrutinizing eye of liberty, the freedom
of the press, which pries into its secret recesses, discovering it
in its lurking holes, and drags it forth to public detestation. If
a tyrannically disposed prince, supported by an unprincipled,
profligate minister, backed by a notoriously corrupt Parliament,
were to cast about for means to secure such a triple tyranny, I
know of no means he could devise so effectual for that purpose as
the bill now upon the table.'

Spite, however, of this vigorous opposition, the bill passed, and among
other coercive measures it decreed heavy penalties against any
infringement of the stamp act, such as: 'Every person who shall
knowingly and wilfully retain or keep in custody any newspaper not duly
stamped, shall forfeit twenty pounds for each, such unstamped newspaper
he shall so have in custody'--'every person who shall knowingly or
wilfully, directly or indirectly, send or carry or cause to be sent or
carried out of Great Britain any unstamped newspaper, shall forfeit one
hundred pounds,' and 'every person during the present war who shall send
any newspaper out of Great Britain into any country not in amity with
his Majesty, shall forfeit five hundred pounds.' Stringent measures
these, with a vengeance! The onslaught initiated by Parliament was well
seconded by the judges, and Lord Kenyon especially distinguished himself
as an unscrupulous (the word is not one whit too strong) foe to the
press. To such an extent was this persecution carried, that the printer,
publisher, and proprietor of _The Courier_ were fined and imprisoned for
the following 'libel' upon the Emperor Paul: 'The Emperor of Russia is
rendering himself obnoxious to his subjects by various acts of tyranny,
and ridiculous in the eyes of Europe by his inconsistency. He has now
passed an edict prohibiting the exportation of timber deal,' etc. To
fine a man L100 and imprison him for six months for this was a little
overstepping the mark, and a reaction soon followed, as a proof of which
may be noticed the act 39th and 40th George III., cap. 72, which allows
the newspaper to be increased from the old regulatio