§ MR. WHALLEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the case of The Queen v. Hicklin, whereby the Court of Queen's Bench decided the pamphlet called "The Confessional Unmasked" to be an obscene publication within the meaning of the Act 20 and 21 Vic. (Lord Campbell's Act) and prohibited its sale and publication, Whether the Government will introduce a Bill declaring such Act "to apply exclusively to works written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth, &c." (as stated by Lord Campbell to be the intention of his Act)?
THE ATTOENEY GENERALIn reply to the Question of the hon. Member, I beg to state that on examination of the case referred to, "The Queen v. Hicklin," I find that the Recorder of Wolverhampton found that half The Confessional Unmasked was obscene, and that the indiscriminate publication of it was calculated to prejudice good morals; but that the defendant did 259 not keep or sell the copies of the work for gain, but to expose the Confessional. The Court of Queen's Bench on these findings held that, notwithstanding the object the defendant had in view, the publication in question was a misdemeanour, and that an indictment would lie. As the law stands, therefore, it would seem that the publication of an obscene book is an offence, though the person publishing it was not actuated by any desire to deprave, and the book was not written with that object. The law, in fact, desires to prevent the minds of the people being polluted, and is not careful to consider the motives of the polluter or the means to which he resorts. On the whole, the Government sees no necessity for any alteration in the law on this subject.