Page:HKSAR v. Tong Ying Kit (Verdict).pdf/12

-12- The only encouragement and endeavor to persuade proved at the trial was the publication of the libel.

19. The defence argued that there was no evidence of any personal communication between the defendant and the persons he was alleged to have encouraged to murder the sovereigns and rulers of Europe and that the statute contemplated some personal communication between the parties, something more than the mere publication of a seditious or scandalous libel. The Attorney General, however, submitted it was clear that an orator addressing a crowd addressed the individuals of which that crowd was composed.

20. Lord Coleridge, CJ, when giving the judgment and affirming that the jury was properly directed, commented that the evidence proved that the publication was written, printed, and sold by the defendant and intended by him to be read by the subscribers/purchasers as well as that the publication was naturally and reasonably intended to incite and encourage, or to endeavour to persuade, persons who should read that article to murder the crowned and uncrowned heads of states.

21. It was further observed that “An endeavour to persuade or an encouragement is none the less an endeavour to persuade or an encouragement, because the person who so encourages or endeavours to persuade does not in the particular act of encouragement or persuasion personally address the number of people, the one or more persons, whom