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Maxims and Opinions of Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington, Selected From His Writings and Speeches During a Public Life of More Than Half a Century by Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley
page 49 of 465 (10%)
Emancipation Bill was a series of prosecutions against the _Morning
Journal_ for libels on the Duke of Wellington, the Lord Chancellor, and
the government collectively. These prosecutions were conducted with
unusual acrimony by Sir James Scarlet, the Attorney-General; and the
Duke of Wellington came in for a very considerable share of public
censure for having authorised such prosecutions. Probably the Duke
intended to inflict another "great moral lesson," as he has always set
his face against the unrestrained license of the press; but, looking
back with calmer feelings to the events of that excited period, and
admitting that the language used by the editor was certainly too strong,
though faithfully representing the feelings of a large class of the
public, it is certainly difficult to avoid now coming to the conclusion
that Mr. Alexander, when sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in
Newgate and heavy fines, was treated with a severity scarcely
justifiable. It is probable that the Duke of Wellington, acting on his
rigid notions of the division of responsibility, after ordering the
prosecution, left the affair to Sir James Scarlet, and from that moment
declined to interfere.

Among the discussions to which the prosecutions gave rise, an amusing
speech of Sir Charles Wetherell, on the 2nd of March, 1830, in the House
of Commons, will repay perusal.

In a debate which took place in the House of Lords on the first night of
the session, upon the state of the country, the Duke of Wellington
delivered a speech upon the causes of the existing distress, which
proved (allowances being made for differences of opinion) that his
qualifications to deal with the most intricate questions involved in
civil government were very little inferior to his military talents.
Passages from that speech will be found in the following pages. At the
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