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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 431: BILL TO AMEND THE LAW ON LIBELS.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

BILL TO AMEND THE LAW ON LIBELS.

On the 20th of May, Fox brought in a bill for empowering juries to try the question of law as well as fact, in prosecutions for libel. This subject was debated as a constitutional right, and not as a party question, and having obtained the support of Pitt, it passed the commons with very little opposition. In the lords, however, it was objected to as an innovation on the laws of the kingdom, and though warmly supported by Lords Camden, Grenville, and Loughborough, the motion for the second reading was negatived.