raised by the wisdom and virtues of our fathers still stands. It stands,
thanks be to God! solid and entire--but it stands alone, and it stands
amid ruins. Believing, then, as I do, that we are on the eve of a great
struggle--that this is only the first of a long series of conflicts between
reason and power that you have now in your hands committed to your trust,
the protection of the only Free Press remaining in Europe, now confined to
this kingdom; and addressing you therefore as the guardians of the most
important interests of mankind--convinced that the unfettered exercise of
reason depends more on your present verdict than on any other that was ever
delivered by a jury,--I trust I may rely with confidence on the issue--I
trust that you will consider yourselves as the advanced guard of
Liberty--as having this day to fight the first battle of free discussion
against the most formidable enemy that it ever encountered!
J. Mackintosh.


CLIII.

THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

The liberty of the press, on general subjects, comprehends and implies as
much strict observance of positive law as is consistent with perfect purity
of intention, and equal and useful society. What that latitude is, cannot
be promulgated in the abstract, but must be judged in the particular
instance, and consequently, upon this occasion, must be judged of by you
without forming any possible precedent for any other case.

If gentlemen, you are firmly persuaded of the singleness and purity of the
author's intentions, you are not bound to subject him to infamy, because in
the zealous career of a just and animated composition, he happens to