d, and of a seditious disposition, and contriving,
practising, and maliciously, turbulently, and seditiously intending
the peace and common tranquillity of our lord the king and his laws to
disturb," "to the evil example of all others in like case offending."
He was sentenced to six months in Newgate, and one hour in the
pillory! He must find sureties for good behavior for five years,
himself in L500, two others in L100 each, be imprisoned until the
sureties were found, and be struck from the list of attornies![132]
[Footnote 132: 22 St. Tr. 471.]
(5.) Rev. William Winterbotham, the same year, in two sermons, exposed
some of the evils in the constitution and administration of England,
and for that was fined L200, and sentenced to jail for four years,--a
good deal more than $300 and twelve months' imprisonment.[133]
[Footnote 133: Ibid. 823.]
(6.) The same year, Thomas Briellat, a London pump-maker, in a private
conversation said, "A reformation cannot be effected without a
revolution; we have no occasion for kings; there never will be any
good time until all kings are abolished from the face of the earth; it
is my wish that there were no kings at all." "I wish the French would
land 500,000 men to fight the government party." He was tried, found
guilty, and sentenced to a fine of L100, and sent to jail for a
year.[134]
[Footnote 134: Ib. 909.]
(7.) Richard Phillips, afterwards Sheriff of London, was sent to jail
for eighteen months for selling Paine's Rights of Man; for the same
offence two other booksellers were fined and sent to Newgate _for four
years_! A surgeon and a physician were sent to Newgate for two years
for having "_seditious libels in their possession_." Thirteen persons
were indicted at once.[135]
[Footnote 135: Ibid. 471. Wade, Brit. Hist. (1847), 582, _et seq._]
(8.) In 1793 a charge was brought against the Rev. Thomas Fyshe
Palmer, formerly a Senior Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, and
then a Unitarian minister at Dundee. Mr. Palmer wrote an Address which
was adopted at a meeting of the Friends of Liberty and published by
them, which, in moderate language, called on the People "to join us in
our exertions for the preservation of our perishing liberty, and the
recovery of our long lost rights." He distributed copies of this
address. He was prosecuted for "Leasing-making," for publishing a
"seditious and inflammatory writing." The (Scotch) jury found him
guilty, and the judges sente
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