ON THE INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY OF THE PUBLIC PRESS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 5, 14 March 1868, Page 3

ON THE INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY OF THE PUBLIC PRESS.

(Communicated. ) A free otrntrj. is +•-'>•>' [;i v.l.' l^ rot

••" i r tv ""'ire "ucl r> «:<■>*., nrfcv <Ji f-'vury hull-"' viciuai, "-::t .\n re).ui'*-j, \!*o- „-liicb is often dearer to him than both. — are secured by efficient laws. That country ik, not the land of perfect liberty, however it may arrogate the name, in which the character of every member may be traduced at pleasure in the most public manner without redress, and without possibility of an adequate exculpation. Opr pression of the people may proceed from a part of the people, aa well as from the throne. The liberty of the press is pregnant with advantages; but the licentiousness of it teems with evils which' almost counterbalan^. them. It is true that the liberty of th'j p-v?&e is essential to civil liberty. But why do we estimate the engagement of civil liberty :„?. orw <•* the greatest of human blessings >. Confessedly because it allows the natural a reasonable possession of all rights and privileges of man in the state of society ; because it secures to him the enjoyment of all which God, and reason, and natura, and his relative situation have taught I him to hold dear. That kind and degree, therefore, of liberty which cannot "be" secured without endangering all tlrcse, certainly frustrates the primary purpose of a free Constitution. Liberty under such circumstances operates on human happiness with all the malignant influence of real despotisms Our own country is, constitutionally, the first on the face of the globe ; yet, there is a species of oppression arising from its freedom peculiarly cruel and unjust, as *it often falls heaviest on the good^ v peaceable, and inoffensive. It is true, incleed, that in. this free country we have laws for the punishment of defamation ; But nothing is more easy than to evade them. They sometimes prevent an open attack.; but they cannot preclude those various and indirect methods of disseminating calumny which ingenuity, stimulated by malice, or the hope of gain, can easily invent.

From the earliest to the latest period of the public press evidently shows how deep a sense is entertained of its malignant influence on the happiness of society. Our laws are, indeed, less severe ; we are justly proud of our liberty. Far be it from me to suggest an idea which can tend to the infringement of that liberty. lam grateful to P/rfvidence for having placed me in a country where it so gloriously prevails. -There is no sacrifice, consistent with innocence, which a good man wouldUnot make to hand down the blessings derived from his father* undiminished to his children. What I I now say tends mostfeffectually to preserve* them inviolate ; for,;fco express my idea* ( in the words of the "learned Blackstono^. j " to censure the licentiousness is to mtintain the liberty of the pre§s> Let, there- , fore, the laws remain unaltered, if thc^ alteration is atten^-^h danger jla/

peal to the^^^^^PlWlPMßftfi, , ac understaiyiil^rfthe readers-^oV . -ssay ' for the voluntary reformati- which I would effect ; a reformation to oegin and complete by themselves ; and which, in-stead-of infringing on civil liberty, will enlarge its boundaries, and render it a effusive good, almost unalloyed with evil : a rare condition of human felicity. With respect to the writers .and publishers of newspaper calumny, they have usually but one of two objects in view : either the gratification of malice, or^ tlio earning of a morsel of bread. But hunger and passion are powerful incitements. The whispers of reason, and justice; ,aft<l * humanity will scarcely be heard amidst the clamor of assailants so importunate ; from them, therefore, we seek not redress

(To be concluded in our next.)