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1 Trial of Peter Zenger 1957

handle is hein.trials/abyr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Numb. XVL THE New -York Weekly JOURNAL Containing ibe frc/left Advices, Foreig,, and Do,,eflick. MUND. r February 18, 1733. Mr. Znrt',r I beg you seillgije 1b. follvoing Xextgments of CATO, a l utsie in ' Ur wcekliyjlu-- r'l. and you'll okig ee or 4f )oar Sub- fer~keri. W itho Freedom of ThougIt, there can be no fuch Thing as Wifilom, and no fisch Thin, as public Liberty. with- out Frecdoni of',Specch, which is the Right of every Man, as fr asbov it he does not hurt or controul the Right of anther : And this is the only Check it ought to fnf- fee, an the only Bounds it ou.;ht to know. This. acred Privilelge is o effential to free Gvernmenti, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech a!- wals go together; and in thofe wretchel Countries where a Man cannot eall his T,,ngiie his own he can fcarce call any Thing elfe his own. Whoever would over- throw the Liberty of a Nation muff begin bv fobduing the Freenefs of Speech ' a Thing terrible to publick Traytors This Piert was fo well known, to the Court if Kirig Cbarles the Firft, that his wicked Mioiflry procured a Proclamation to forbiA the People to talk of Parliaments, which thofe Traytors had laid afide. To aflert the undoubted Right of the Subje&, and defend hi, Alajcffy's legal Prergative, was called Difaflfeion, and puniflied as Sedition. That Men ought to fpeak well of their Governours, is true, while their Gover- nours deferve to be well Spoken of, but to do publick Mifehief without Hearing of it is only the Prerogative and Felicity of Tyranny a free People will be (hewing that they are fo, by their Freedom of Speech. The Adminifiration of Government, is nothing elfe but the Attendance of the Truftecs of the People upon the lntereff, and Affairs of the People. And it is the Part and Bufinefs cf the People, fr whole Sake alone all publick Matters are or ought to be tranfra~ed, to fee whether they be well or ill trantfkled j fo it is the Intereft, and ought to be the Ambition of all ho- neff Magiftrates, to have their Deeds open. ly examined and publickly fcanned. Freedom of Speech is ever the Symp- tom as well as the f of good Govern- ment. In old Rome all was left to the Judgment and Pleafure of the People, who examined the public Proceedings with fuch Difcretinn, and cenfured thofe who adminifired them with fuch Equity and Mildnfs, that in the Space of three Hun- dred Years, not five public Miniffers fuf. fered unjuffly. Indeedwhenever the Com- mons proceeded to Violence, the great ones had been the Agreffors. Guilt only dreads Liberty of Speech; which drags it out of its Lurking Holes and expofes its Deformity and horror to to Day light j the beft Princes have ever incouraged and promoted freedom of Speech they know that upright Meafures would dtfcnd themfelves and that all up- right Men would defend them q7rritur f'peaking of the Reign of good Princes fays with extafy , .4 blrffird Time, haen you mSbt think what you soRld, aizd Speak wat you 7T'0nght. I doubt not but old Sprocer and his Soni who were the chief Miniflers asid Betray. ers of Edward the Second would have been glad to have ftopt the Mouths of all the honeft Men in England. They drea. ded to be called Traytors becaufe they were Traytors. And I dare fay Queen Elizabelk,

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