Excerpt from The Revised Reports, Vol. 23: Being a Republication of Such Cases in the English Court of Common Law and Equity, From the Year 1785, as Are Still of Practical Utility; 1821-1822 Another case which shews the controversial tension of the time is R. V. Burdett, p. 284, a prosecution for libel on the Government in comments on the Peterloo afiair. In modern times comments quite as severe, and probably less founded in fact, have often been publicly made with impunity. Yet the Court, in this very case, declared the essential principles of public law and criminal justice in terms to which no exception can be taken. The argument is not that the Government may not be attacked because it is the Government; not that it is wrong in itself to bring the gravest charges against the King's servants, so that they may be brought to proof in the common course of justice; but that the defendant's statement amounts to nothing less than a charge of murder, and the Court cannot, in fairness to the persons so charged, try the truth of the matter on affidavits. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.