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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0611 and id is 1 raw text is: HORNE V. R. [1778] rV BROWN.
it was greatly to be lamented, that it [367] could not be brought judicially before
tile House on this occasion: the real truth of the case being no more than this, that
by the order of the Attorney General, a summons was directed to be applied for,
after issue joined and before the trial, from one, of the judges of the Court, in the usual
course of business; and a summons was accordingly applied for, and obtained from
the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, for an attendance to shew cause why the infor-
mation should not be amended, by altering the word purport to that of tenor,
throughout the information, except in the first place; which, upon such attendance
by the clerks in Court on both sides, was ordered accordingly, and the amendment
made. Mr. Wilkes's counsel made no objection to this on the trial, nor in the
ensuing Term, as might have been done, nor until Trinity Term 1768, when that
amendment was made one ground of a motion in arrest of judgment; but as such
an objection could not be regularly made in arrest of judgment, the Court were
pleased to give him leave to make it upon a motion for a new trial: the same was
accordingly made; when it clearly appearing, that the amendment was made in con-
formity to a multitude of precedents, and the constant usage of the Court; that it
was not nor could be of any prejudice to the defendant, and that he himself, instead
of complaining of it, had acquiesced under it; the Court unanimously over-ruled
the objection, as a point on which no doubt could be entertained.
After hearing counsel on these writs of error, the following questions were put
to the Judges: I. Whether an information filed by the King's Solicitor General,
during the vacancy of the office of the King's Attorney General, is good in law?
II. Whether in such a case, it is necessary in point of law, to aver upon the record,
that the Attorney General's office was vacant? III. Whether a judgment of im-
prisonment against a defendant, to'commence from and after the determination of
an imprisonment to which he was before sentenced for another offence, is good in
law? And the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas having conferred
with the rest of the judges, delivered their unanimous opinion, upon the first and
third questions in the affirmative, and upon the second in the negative. Whereupon
it was ORDERED and ADJUDGED, that the judgments of the Court of King's Bench
should be affirmed; and that the records should be remitted, to the end such pro-
ceedings might be had thereupon, as if no such writs of error had been brought
into the House. (M.S. Jour. sub anno 1768-9, p. 310.)
[368] CASE 2.-JOHN Ho0RNE,-Plaintiff; The KING,-Defendant (in Error)
[11th May 1778].
[See Bradlaugh v. Reg. 1878, 3 Q.B.D., 631: R. v. Burdett 1820, 4 B. and Ald.
95, 316.]
[How far an rinuendo or averment is, or is not, necessary to support a charge of
a libel, consisting in opprobrious words or signs.]
* JUDGMENT of the Court of King's Bench AFFIRMED.**
Cowp. 672: 11 St. Tr. 264.** [20 St. Tr. 651.]
In Michaelmas Term 1776, an information was filed in the Court of King's Bench
against the plaintiff, by his Majesty's Attorney-General, on behalf of his Majesty,
for writing, printing, and publishing two seditious libels.
The first count in the information stated, That the said John Horne, being a
wicked, malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person, and being greatly disaffected
to our said present Sovereign Lord the King, and to his administration of the
government of this kingdom, and the dominions thereunto belonging, and wickedly,
maliciously, and seditiously intending, devising, and contriving to stir up and
excite discontents and seditions amongst his Majesty's subjects, and to alienate and
withdraw the affection, fidelity, and allegiance of his said Majesty's subjects from
his said Majesty, and to insinuate and cause it to be believed, that divers of his
Majesty's innocent and deserving subjects had been inhumanly murdered by his said
Majesty's troops, in the province, colony, or plantation of the Massachuset's Bay in
New England in America, belonging to the crown of Great Britain, and unlawfullv
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