things from any truth they have in
themselves, but from that aspect they have upon the
government; for there may be every tittle of a libel true,
and yet it may be a libel still_; so that I put no great
stress upon that objection, that the matter of it is not
false; and for sedition, it is that which every libel
carries in itself: and as every trespass implies _vi and
armis_, so every libel against the government carries in it
sedition, and all the other epithets that are in the
information. This is my opinion as to law in general. I will
not debate the prerogatives of the king, nor the privileges
of the subject; but as this fact is, I think these venerable
bishops did meddle with that which did not belong to them;
they took upon them, in a petitionary, to contradict the
actual exercise of the government, which I think no
particular persons, or singular body, may do."[37]

[Footnote 37: 12 St. Tr. 427, 428, 429.]

Listen, Gentlemen of the Jury, to the words of Attorney-General
Powis:--

"And I cannot omit here to take notice, that _there is not
any one thing that the law is more jealous of_, or does more
carefully provide for the prevention and punishment of,
_than all accusations and arraignments of the government. No
man is allowed to accuse even the most inferior magistrate
of any misbehavior in his office_, unless it be in a legal
course, _though the fact is true_. No man may say of a
justice of the peace, to his face, that he is unjust in his
office. _No man may tell a judge, either by word or
petition, you have given an unjust, or an ill judgment_, and
I will not obey it; _it is against the rules and laws of the
kingdom, or the like_. No man may say of the great men of
the nation, much less of the great officers of the kingdom,
that they do act unreasonably or unjustly, or the like;
least of all may any man say any such thing of the king; for
these matters tend to possess the people, that the
government is ill administered; and the consequence of that
is, to set them upon desiring a reformation; and what that
tends to, and will end in, we have all had a sad and too
dear bought experience."[38]

[Footnote 38: 12 St. Tr. 281.]

Hearken to the law of Solicitor-General Williams:--

"If any person have slandered the government in w