ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 32, 25 November 1843, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Law of Libel. It is quite plain that there must exist great difficulty in determining the limits within which the license- of the tongue' and pen should

be confined,"" particularly in such a country as ours. The "Liberty of the Press" has ever been one of our foremost national watchwords J nor is the right to condemn aught which may seem objectionable, by the exercise of tho tongue, less dear to the inhabitants of this our beloved land. Undeniably, these are privileges without which national freedom would be a mockery. As was well said by a writer from whom the .readers of the Scotsman have' often received instruction, "How are grievances to be redressed, if they are not stated? How are laws to be amended, if their tendency and expediency cannot be considered and discussed ?" Those queries are applicable equally to private and public matters. But the point is, where is the priviledge of free remark to stop ! How is it to be prevented from injuriously affecting public and private interests ? For' a long" period of time our statesmen and legislators have been conscious that tho libel law of the land has been, to say tho least of it, on a most obscure and improper* • footing, and many attempts have beenvinad© to amend it. Lord Brougham andMr.O^Ckflfe nell took* up the task recently, but did not' succeed in unravelling 1 this puzzling knot.The subject, however, has more lately galled forth the attention of one, who, less distinguished as he may be for brilliancy of talent, is yet more likely to effect a beneficial change in this particular instance. Lord Campbell, acting as reporter for a recently appointed committee of the Lords, gave on Thursday night an outline of a measure which he proposed to found upon their investigations. The noble and learned lord stated, that the committee did not think it proper to interfere with public prosecutions for libel, cases of this kind having been so unfrequent lately as to show no necessity for a change. Whether this be correct or not, other parts of Lord Campbell's scheme are certainly worthy of all approbation. He scouted "the monstrous anomaly that truth is a libel, and that ih'e greater the truth the greater the libel." His lordship at the same time said, however, that the supposed libellous matter were proved true, " it should be left to the jury and the judge to say whether the occasion was a proper one to publish the truth." We do not like these references to the will of jury and judge ; but if Lord Campbell abolishes practically the monstrous anomaly of holding truth a libel, he will have made a great improvement on the statute-book. Lord Campbell divided libels, in private cases, into three classes — namely, those issued with the view of extorting money, those promulgated with a knowledge that the assertions are false, and those published from malice, though without the consciousness of their being untrue. Separate and graduated penalties were proposed for these offences. Lord Campbell also suggested steps of relief for public journalists, and perhaps we may be excused for thinking this a very important portion of his intended measure. He proposes to secure journalists against all injurious consequences, when they but report fairly what they have heard in public courts or assemblies, or repeat what lias been published by others. His lordship pointed to several additional improvements in regard to the bearing of the libel law on public journals. If one takes into consideration that heavy damages may be at present exacted from any newspaper, simply because it copies some particular statement of a contemporary, and that the law has been again and again brought into play in this respect within these few years, it will be obvious how greatly an improvement of the statutes is here demanded. We trust that Lord CampbelTwill go on with his projected measuse, and he may feel assured of the warmest thanks of the country should he succeed in at last setting to rights this difficult but important subject. — Scotsman.