[The Attorney General's complaint, as Zenger reports, characterized him as "a seditious person and a frequent Printer and Publisher of false news and seditious Libels, and charged specifically that he] "did falsely, seditiously, and scandalously print and publish ... a certain false, malicious, seditious, scandalous Libel ... concerning His Excellency the Governour ... [in which publication he represented a former inhabitant explaining that he had left the colony, as he doubts not others will, because, among other reasons] They ... think ... that their LIBERTIES and PROPERTIES are precarious, and that SLAVERY is likely to be intailed on them and their Posterity if some past Things be not amended ... (meaning, the past Proceedings of his Excellency the Governor ...) ... [and] WE ... SEE MENS DEEDS DESTROYED, JUDGES ARBITRARILY DISPLACED, NEW COURTS ERECTED WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE LEGISLATURE.... "_Who then [can] call any Thing his own, or enjoy any Liberty ... longer than those in the Administration ... will condescend to let them?_" [This publication, the Attorney General charges, was] to the great disturbance of the Peace of the ... Province ... to the Great Scandal of Our said Lord the King, of His Excellency the Governor [etc]; whereupon the said Attorney General of Our said Lord the King, for Our said Lord the King, prays ... the due Process of the Law against him the said _John Peter Zenger_ ... in the Premises. [The Report continues:] To this Information the Defendant has pleaded _Not Guilty_, and we are ready to prove it.... Then Mr. _Hamilton_,[112] who at the Request of some of my Friends, was so kind as to come from _Philadelphia_ to assist me on the Tryal, spoke. Mr. _Hamilton_, "May it please your Honour; I am concerned in this Cause on the Part of Mr. _Zenger_ the Defendant. The Information against my Client was sent me, a few days before I left Home, with some Instructions to let me know how far I might rely upon the Truth of those Parts of the Papers set forth in the Information, and which are said to be libellous ... I cannot think it proper for me (without doing Violence to my own Principles) to deny the Publication of a Complaint, which I think is the Right of every free-born Subject to make, when the Matters so published can be supported with Truth; and therefore I'll save Mr. Attorney the Trouble of Examining his Witnesses to that Point; and I do (for my Client) confess, that he both printed and published the two News Papers set forth in the Information, and I hope in so doing he has committed no Crime. ..."