ck of burnworthy books. The
older custom had perhaps a certain picturesqueness which was lost
with it. It was a bit of old English life, reaching far back into
history--a custom that would have been not unworthy of the brush
of Hogarth. For all that we cannot regret it. The practice became
so common, and lent itself so readily to abuse by its
indiscriminate application in the interests of religious bigotry
or political partisanship, that the lesson of history is one of
warning against it. Such a practice is only defensible or
impressive in proportion to the rarity of its use. Applied not
oftener than once or twice in a generation, in the case of some
work that flagrantly shocked or injured the national conscience,
the book-fire might have retained, or might still recover, its
place in the economy of well-organised States; and the stigma it
failed of by reason of its frequency might still attach to it by
reason of its rarity.

If, then, it were possible (as it surely would be) so to regulate
and restrict its use that it should serve only as the last
expression of the indignation of an offended community instead of
the ready weapon of a party or a clique, one can conceive its
revival being not without utility. To take an illustration. With
the ordinary daily libels of the public press the community as
such has no concern; there is no need to grudge them their
traditional impunity. But supposing a newspaper, availing itself
of an earlier reputation and a wide circulation, to publish as
truths, highly damaging to individuals, what it knows or might
know to be forgeries, the limit has clearly been overstepped of
the bearable liberty of the press; the cause of the injured
individual becomes the cause of the injured community, insulted
by the unscrupulous advantage that has been taken of its
trustfulness and of its inability to judge soundly where all the
data for a sound judgment are studiously withheld. Such an action
is as much and as flagrant a crime or offence against the
community as an act of robbery or murder, which, though primarily
an injury to the individual, is primarily avenged as an injury to
the State. As such it calls for punishment, nor could any
punishment be more appropriate than one which caused the
offending newspaper to atone by dishonour for the dishonour it
sought to inflict. Condemnation by Parliament to the flames would
exactly meet the exigencies of a case so rare and exceptional,
and would succe