curity for his good behavi years. It was merely an i the high-church party =

upon

tence was extremely iniquito

DE FOE was afterwards, in profecuted for another iron written to promote the intere of Hanover, and received libeller. After being fome tir he received a pardon from the second publication, but h greatly impaired by the ex profecution. De Foe was a

uncommon merit, and authe

of ingenious works. He experienced much ill treatment in his own time, and his character was unjustly calumniated after his death. He was nearly ruined by his zeal for the house of Hanover, but received not the least countenance from the princes of that family, after their acceffion to the throne, though places, penfions, and titles, were conferred on men who had rendered much inferior services. He was unjustly fatirized by Pope, and was falfely accused with having deprived Selkirk of his papers. He appears to have been a man of great integrity and great public fpirit; and was author of fome of the most popular works of imagination in the English language. But, during his whole life-time, he struggled with difficulties, and died in very. narrow circumftances.

IN 1717, Mr. Redmayne, a printer, was tried and convicted for publishing a libel,

tles,

ered juftly

ccufed

apers.

great

was

works

uage.

trug

very

I, was

libel,

nounced against libellers, o have been deemed to be fuc to fay the leaft, fufficiently they were fometimes more fe

than in appearance. They

with

great expences, and the fecution has been peculiarly

and oppreffive. It will hard by any impartial man, that libels, even in the present rei too much characterized by mildnefs. In 1777, Mr. J now Mr. HORNE Tooke, w

63 Chronological Hiftorian

court of King's Bench at

4

Guildhall, for

two libels, on an information filed againft him by the attorney-general. Thefe libels were advertisements published in the newspapers, in which it was ftated, that a subscription was entered into by fome members of the "Conftitutional Society 64," for raifing one hundred pounds for the widows, orphans, and aged parents of thofe Americans, who had been inhumanly "murdered by the king's troops at Lexing"ton." Mr. Horne defended himself with uncommon fpirit, acutenefs, and ability. The jury, however, thought proper to bring him in guilty; and he was fentenced to pay a fine of 200l. to be imprisoned for twelve months, and to find

4

* This was a different fociety from one fince eftablished under the title of the "Society for Conftitu*tional Information," and which has been frequently termed, the "Conftitutional Society;" but Mr. Horne was a member of both focieties.

fureties

fureties for his good behaviour for three years, himself in 400l. and two fureties in 2001. each ". The advertisements had been publifhed more than two years before Mr. Horne was brought to trial. Several printers had been before tried, and convicted, for the publication of the fame advertisements.

THE manifeft defign of the advertise ments published by Mr. Horne, was, to impress upon men's minds a conviction of the wickedness of that war, which we had then unhappily commenced against the Americans. Of the complicated iniquity and folly of that war, it is probable that few men now entertain a doubt: and if the nation, at its commencement, could have been excited, by publications from the prefs, to have put an immediate end to it, the confequences to Great Britain would have been beneficial in a very high degree.

State Trials, vol. XI. p. 294. Hargrave's edition.