Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1): From the Original Family DocumentsBuckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of
History
Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1): From the Original Family Documents
Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of
Great Britain -- History -- George IV, 1820-1830
On the other subject on which you write to me it is more difficult
to advise. The least troublesome course no doubt is that which I
have always pursued--to treat, and unaffectedly to consider, the
whole tribe of newspaper libellers as unworthy of the smallest
notice. And this was, on the first impression, the opinion which I
expressed the other day to my brother, who wrote to me on this
matter, in consequence of something your son had said to him. On
reflection I do not feel as sure as at first, that I was right in
this opinion, as applicable to your case and to the Aylesbury
paper. To any idea of a complaint against him in the House of Lords
I feel utterly averse. My recollection does not serve me to
remember any instance since Lord Sandwich and Bishop Warburton in
the beginning of the last reign, in which the House has interfered
in case of general libel. I myself brought a printer before them
for an attack on Bishop Watson, but then that, if I am not
mistaken, was a case of attack for words _spoken in Parliament_,
and not for general political conduct. If you prosecute, the right
course is certainly that of _information_ in the King's Bench; for
it would be most unseemly to allege that your character has really
been _endamaged_ by such ribaldry.
On the question itself, whether to prosecute or not, I really feel
myself incompetent to advise. I have already said that my first
impression was against it, but further consideration of the subject
has so shaken that opinion, that I should be sorry now you laid the
least stress upon it. Every man who goes into a court of law, and
especially every man who attacks a newspaper there, does, under our
blessed system of newspaper government, expose himself to a
lottery, the chances of which no man can foresee, and out of which
it would be much more desirable to keep himself. But, then, in this
as in other cases, one may be driven to the wall, and obliged to do
that which in itself one is far from wishing. That this is the case
in this instance, certainly seems probable, and if it is, the
decision is one which you alone can take for yourself; though if my
own judgment were fully satisfied either way, I would certainly not
hesitate to let you see it.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
House of Commons, May 23, 1822.
MY DEAR B----,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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