"Speeches."

556. Liberty of the Press; Law and Prison Reforms; Abolition of the
Slave Trade.

Since the discontinuance of the censorship of the press (S498), though
newspapers were nominally free to discuss public affairs, yet the
Government had no intention of permitting any severe criticism. On
the other hand, there were men who were determined to speak their
minds through the press on political as on all other matters. In the
early part of the reign, John Wilkes, an able but scurrilous writer,
attacked the policy of the Crown in violent terms (1763). Some years
later (1769), a writer, who signed himself "Junius," began a series of
letters in a daily paper, in which he handled the King and the "King's
friends" still more roughly. An attempt was made by the Government to
punish Wilkes and the publisher of the "Junius" letters, but it
signally failed in both cases. Public feeling was plainly in favor of
the freest political expression,[2] which was eventually conceded.

[2] Later, during the excitement caused by the French Revolution,
there was a reaction from this feeling, but it was only temporary.

Up to this time parliamentary debates had rarely been reported. In
fact, under the Tudors and the Stuarts, members of Parliament would
have run the risk of imprisonment if their criticisms of royalty had
been made public; but now, in 1771, the papers began to contain the
speeches and votes of both Houses on important questions. Every
effort was made to suppress these reports, but again the press gained
the day. Henceforth the nation could learn how far its
representatives really represented the will of the people, and so
could hold them strictly accountable,--a matter of vital importance in
every free government.[3]

[3] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxvi,
S30.

Another field of reform was also found. The times were brutal. The
pillory still stood in the center of London;[4] and if the unfortunate
offender who was put in it escaped with a shower of mud and other
unsavory missiles, instead of clubs and brickbats, he was lucky
indeed. Gentlemen of fashion arranged pleasure parties to visit the
penitentiaries for women to see the wretched inmates whipped. The
whole code of criminal law was savagely vindictive. Capital
punishment was inflicted for about two hundred offenses, many of which
would now be thought to be sufficiently punished by one or two months'
imprisonment