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A Treatise on the Law of Libel and the Liberty of the Press
A Treatise on the Law of Libel and the Liberty of the Press Author:Thomas Cooper Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE, BY AN UNKNOWN FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR. From the earliest history of civilization to the present day, a doctrine has been sedulously inculcated, and p... more »erseveringly enforced, that certain subjects are too momentous for discussion ; that the opinions of our rulers respecting them are to be adopted with reverential submission, and without farther inquiry; that they are to be approached (in the language of an English dignitary, the present Bishop of London,) " with humble prostration of the intellect," and that the public discussion of doctrines that ought to be received implicitly on the authority of our superiors, is itself a crime. The side of the question maintained in the following pages, was first maintained abstractedly, so far as I know, by John Milton, in his Areo- pagita, or treatise on free and unlicensed printing. Afterwards, by Aktho- Nt Collins, in the preface to his Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion ; 1724. Next, by Thomas Cooper, of Manchester, in page 167 of a volume of Tracts, printed 1787. Then by the Reverend Mr. Robert Hall, in an Apology for the Freedom of the Press; London, 1821. Latterly, with great force of reasoning, in an Essay on the Formation and Publication of Opinions; second edition, London, 1828. And very recently, though incidentally, in an able pamphlet, published in New-York, entitled the Demurrer, by Thomas Herttell, 1828. The author of the present tract has adopted the views on the necessary, not voluntary, character of belief; first distinctly, though briefly, stated by Mr. Locke, but very forcibly urged in the Essay on the Formation and Publication of Opinioni. All this has not only been taught, but enforced by the pains and penalties of the law, by politicians and theologians from time immemorial. It is the prevaili...« less