§ On the order of the day for the third reading of this bill,
§ Lord Erskinesaid, he could not suffer the bill to pass without declaring his opinion in a very few words, and putting it on the Journals by his protest. He felt as much as those who were the authors of the measure, the necessity of supporting the authority and of maintaining the dignity of parliament, but he was confident 1590 that a law so unnecessary and so inconsistent with the principles of public freedom, would produce a quite contrary effect. From the beginning of his life, he had uniformly exerted himself for the liberty of the press, having always considered the people as degraded whilst the government was contemptible and insecure, in proportion as it had been fettered; but the bill before them went beyond any attack upon it, which he ever expected to witness. What, for instance, could be said for the clause requiring recognizances, which seemed to consider every printer as a suspected and dangerous person? Could any thing but discontent and disaffection be expected to follow from such an unprecedented violation of the constitution? And after all the impolicy and injustice of this unaccountable innovation, it would, be of no manner of use, as the restraints, in many ways quite obvious, might and would be invaded, as the periods of the proscribed publications, and the number of sheets in them might be altered. Lord E. concluded by saying, that he was the more earnest that such a law should be rejected by the House of Lords, as it had been hitherto respected even by those who unfortunately distrusted and libelled the other House of Parliament. To have the confidence and affection of an enlightened people was the only possible way of securing their obedience.
The Earl of Liverpoolsaid, that the bill would only affect publications sold for sixpence or less. Those, therefore, that were of a higher price, were wholly exempt from its operation. As to the objection taken by the learned lord, that sureties had only hitherto been called upon to give security against a specific act, he would beg leave to observe, that with regard to a numerous and important class of persons, he meant the publicans, the principle of calling for security for their good behaviour had been long recognized and acted upon. Nor could he discover any objection to the measure of securities required under the present bill, considering the circumstances which had rendered it necessary. It was not directed against the respectable body of booksellers and printers, but against those persons who had intruded themselves into that class, and who, having neither property, respectability, nor responsibility, it became essentially necessary to prevent the mischievous consequences, that were daily increasing, of the publications sent 1591 forth by them, to call upon them imperatively for security for their good conduct.
Lord Ellenboroughagreed as to the necessity that existed for passing the present bill; a necessity arising from those mischievous publications which had been sent forth at a cheap rate to delude and deceive the lowest classes of the people. It was not against the respectable press that this bill was directed, but against a pauper press, which, administering to the prejudices and the passions of a mob, was converted to the basest purposes, which was an utter stranger to truth, and only sent forth a continual stream of falsehood and malignity, its virulence and its mischief heightening as it proceeded. If he was asked whether he would deprive the lowest classes of society of all political information? he would say, that he saw no possible good to be derived to the country from having statesmen at the loom and politicians at the spinning jenny. He differed from his learned friend in his view of this bill, considering it as imperatively called for by that mischievous abuse of the public press, those cheap publications, which were comparatively of modern date, and which had for a time derived impunity and increased in virulence and malignity, in consequence of the acquittal of Hone. The mischief arising from them in the deception and delusion practised upon the lowest classes, by means of the grossest and most malignant falsehoods, was such, that it threatened the most material injury to the best interests of the country, unless some means were devised of stemming its torrent. Conceiving that the regulations contained in this measure would have the effect of extinguishing this gross and flagrant abuse of the press, that he felt it his duty to support the bill.
§ The bill was passed.