Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/219

209 an opportunity of confronting the witneſſes againſt him, for they are kept in the dark, as in the Spaniſh court of inquiſition. Nor is there any petty jury of his peers ſworn to try the truth of the charges. The proceedings are alſo ſometimes ſo rapid, that an honeſt good citizen may find himſelf ſuddenly and unexpectedly accuſed, and in the fame morning judged and condemned, and ſentence pronounced againſt him that he is a rogue and a villain. Yet if an officer of this court receives the ſlighteſt check for miſconduct in this his office, he claims immediately the rights of a free citizen by the conſtitution, and demands to know his accuſer, to confront the witneſſes, and to have a fair trial by a jury of his peers,

The foundation of its authority.

It is ſaid to be founded on an article in the ſtate conſtitution, which eſtabliſhed the liberty of the preſsa liberty which every Pennſylvanian would fight and die for, though few of us, I believe, have diſtinct ideas of its nature and extent. It ſeems, indeed, ſomewhat like the liberty of the preſs, that felons have, by the common law of England before conviction; that is, to be either preſſed to death or hanged. If, by the liberty of the preſs, were underſtood merely the liberty of diſcuſſing the propriety of public meaſures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you pleaſe; but if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating, and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myſelf willing to part with my ſhare of it, whenever our legiſlators ſhall pleaſe ſo to alter the law; and hall cheerfully conſent to exchange my liberty of abuſing others, for the privilege cf not being abuſed myſelf.