XLVII. "He leaves heirs on many thrones "To all his vices, without what begot "Compassion for him—his tame virtues; drones Mr. ADOLPHUS addressed the Jury for the prosecution, urging the malignity and falsehood of the slanders in the poem against the memory of a good and pious King, the Father of his People, and contended that the Defendant had published a libel of the most gross, impious, and slanderous character. A man named Purton was called to prove the purchase of a copy of the Liberal at No. 22, Old Bond-street, and swore he bought it of the Defendant then in court. Mr. SCARLETT, for the Defendant, expressed his contempt and indignation at a prosecution of so impudent and arbitrary a character. He showed, that fair and impartial history would be at an end, if the characters of deceased monarchs were not allowed to be fully and unrestrictedly discussed, and opinions of all kinds, laudatory or hostile, expressed upon their conduct by their surviving contemporaries. He insisted, that the allegation in the indictment, that the alleged libel had wounded the feelings of his present Majesty, was best disproved by the fact, that the AttorneyGeneral had not proceeded against the defendant-that his Majesty's Ministers had advised no prosecution. The learned Counsel then took a review of the late reign,-its wars, its disasters, its enormous waste of blood and treasure; and contended, that any man might rationally express the opinion of it contained in the poem prosecuted. He further showed, that the alleged libel was principally a satire on a poem of Mr. Southey's under the same title, full of gross adulation of George the Third, which the present poem was calculated to expose and counteract. The CHIEF-JUSTICE (Sir Charles Abbott) in summing up, observed, that human nature was so constituted, that calumny against a father could not be published without wounding the feelings of a son; and he left it to the Jury to say, first, whether the publication indicted (of the general tone of which he expressed his abhorrence) was a libel on the late King; secondly, whether it was calculated to destroy the comfort and happiness of his present Majesty and the Royal Family. The Jury retired, and in about half an hour returned with a verdict of Guilty. This production is founded partly on the story of a Novel called "The Three Brothers," published many years ago, from which M. G. Lewis's "Wood Demon" was also takenand partly on the "Faust" of the great Goëthe. The present publication contains the two first Parts only, and the opening chorus of the third. The rest may perhaps appear hereafter. |