itself. Thus he left the case in the hands of the Jury in the full confidence that they would give a verdict compatible with truth and justice.
Mr. Eglinton asked permission for Mr. Long to read a statement, to which Mr. Peterson objected.
The Court considered it irregular to allow it be read, but recommended Mr. Eglinton to read it as part of his speech. Mr. Peterson was quite willing that it should be read, but if it contained any new facts he should consider himself entitled to a reply.
Mr. Eglinton then declined to read it.
No witnesses were produced for the defence.
His Lordship then addressed the Jury, telling them that now the case for the defendant had closed, it remained for them to determine the question of guilty or not guilty. He had never felt deeper anxiety in the discharge of his judicial duties because a question was involved in the consideration of this case, which had been but faintly glanced at by the learned Counsel on either side. The question he alluded to was a great constitutional one, being of the liberty of the press and the freedom of discussion in public writing; and the remarks he would make on that subject would not have been left unsaid by a Single Judge in England, and he felt convinced, would meet the views of the learned Chief Justice of that Court. It was the first lime such a question had been submitted to a Jury in India, for this was the first prosecution of the kind, as he believed, that had taken place in India, and it therefore behoved the Jury to consider not the history of India but that of England, to see how Juries had dealt with this all-important question; important to the body of men who alleged that they had been most cruelly slandered, important to the reverend defendant, important to every human being throughout the length and breadth of this country, because it concerned every man; a question that, it should never be said, had been lightly passed over by the presiding Judge of this Court. He would not rely on his own personal opinions, but those which had been well established and accepted as authorities at Westminster Hall. The Indictment contained two counts. He would first deal with the first count, and then come to the all-important question involved in the second. The first count deserved the most serious attention, and His Lordship could not agree with
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