of the French army will be assembled between Torres Vedras and the capital, in the course of a few days. I have the bonour to be, &c. (Signed) ARTHUR WELLESLEY.

Head-quarters, Maceira, Aug. 21, 1808. MY LORD-The report which I have the honour to inclose to your lordship, made at my request by lieut. gen. sir A. Wellesley, conveys information which cannot but prove highly gratifying to his majesty.-On my landing, this morning, I found that the enemy's attack had already commenced, and I was fortunate enough to reach the field of action in time to witness and approve of every disposition that had been, and was afterwards made by sir A., Wellesley; his comprehensive mind furnishing a ready resource in every emergency, and rendering it quite unnecessary to direct any alteration. I am happy, on this occasion, to bear testimony to the great spirit and good conduct displayed by all the troops composing this gallant army in this well contested action-I send this dispatch by Capt. Campbell, aid-de-camp to sir A. Wellesley, no person being better qualified to give your lordships information.I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) HARRY BURRARD, Lieut. General.-To the Rt. Hon. Lord Castlereagh, &c.

Vimiera, August 21, 1808.-Sir,-I have the honour to report to you, that the enemy attacked us in our position at Vimiera this morning-The village of Vimiera stands in a valley, through which runs the river Maceira; at the back, and to the westward and northward of this village is a mountain, the western point of which touches the sea, and the eastern is separated by a deep ravine from the heights, over which passes the road which leads from Lourinha, and the northward, to Vimiera. The greater part of the infantry, the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th and 8th bragades, where posted on this mountain, with eight pieces of artillery, maj. gen. Hill's brigade being on the right, maj. gen. Ferguson's on the left, having one battalion on the heights, separated from the mountain. On the eastern and southern side of the town is a hill which is entirely commanded, particularly on its right, by the mountain to the westward of the town, and commanding all the ground in the neighbourhood to the southward and eastward, on which brig. gen. Fane was posted with his riflemen and the 50th regiment, and brig. gen. Anstruther with his brigade, with half a brigade of six-pounders and half a brigade of nine-pounders, which had been

ordered to the position in the course of last night. The ground over which passes the road from Lourinha commanded the left of this height, and it had not been occupied, excepting by a piquet, as the camp had been taken up only for one night; and there was no water in the neighbourhood of this height.-The cavalry and the reserve of artillery were in the valley between the hills on which the infantry stood: both flanking and supporting brig. gen. Fane's advanced guard.-The enemy first appeared at eight o'clock in the morning, in large bodies of cavalry on our left upon the heights on the road to Lourinha; and it was soon obvious that the attack would be made upon our advanced guard, and the left of our position; and maj. gen. Ferguson's brigade was immediately moved across the ravine to the heights, on the road to Lourinha, with three pieces of cannon; he was followed successively by brig. gen. Nightingale with his brigade and three pieces of cannon; brig. gen. Ackland with his brigade, and brig gen. Bowes with his brigade. These troops were formed (maj. gen. Ferguson's brigade in the first line; brig. gen. Nightingale's in the second; and brig. gen. Bowe's and Ackland's, in columns in the rear) on those heights, with their right upon the valley which leads into Vimiera; and their left upon the other ravine, which separates these heights from the range which terminates at the landing-place at Maceira. On these last-mentioned heights, the Portuguese troops, which had been in the bottom near Vimiera, were posted in the first instance, and they were supported by brig. gen. Craufurd's brigade.-The troops of the advanced guard on the heights to the southward and eastward of the town were deemed sufficient for its defence, and maj. gen. Hill was moved to the centre of the mountain on which a great body of the infantry had been posted, as a support to these troops, and as a reserve to the whole army. In addition to this support these troops had that of the cavalry in the rear of their right.-The enemy's attack began inseveral columns on the whole of the troops on this height; on the left they advanced, notwithstanding the fire of the rifle-men, close to the 50th, and were checked and driven back only by the bayonets of that corps. The 2d battalion, 43d regiment, was likewise closely engaged with them in the road which leads into Vimiera; and part of that corps having been ordered into the church-yard to prevent them from penetrating into the town. On the right of the

Position they were repulsed by the bayonets of the 97th regiment, which corps was suc. cessfully suported by the 2d battalion 52d regiment, which, by an advance in column, took the enemy in flank -Besides this opposition given to the attack of the enemy on our advanced guard by their own exertions, they were attacked in flank by brig. gen. Ackland's brigade in its advance to its position on the heights on the left, and a cannonade was kept up on the flank of the enemy's columns, by the artillery on those heights. At length, after a most desperate contest, the enemy was driven back in confusion from this attack with the loss of seven pieces of cannon, many prisoners, and a great number of officers and soldiers killed and wounded. He was pursued by the detachment of the 20th light dragoons, but the enemy's cavalry were so much superior in numbers, that this detachment has suffered much, and lieut. col. Taylor was unfortu nately killed.--Nearly at the same time the enemy's attack commenced upon the heights on the road to Lourinha. This attack was supported by a large body of cavalry, and was made with the usual impetuosity of the French troops.

It was received with steadi

ness by maj. gen. Ferguson's brigade, consisting of the 30th, 40th, and 71st regiments; and these corps charged, as soon as the enemy approached them, who gave way, and they continued to advance upon him, supported by the 82d, one of the corps of brig. gen. Nightingale's brigade, which, as the ground extended, afterwards formed a part of the first line; by the 29th regiment, and by brig. gen. Bowe's and Ackland's brigades, while brig. gen. Craufurd's brigade, and the Portuguese troops, in two lines, advanced along the height on the left. In the advance of maj. gen. Ferguson's brigade, six pieces of cannon were taken from the enemy, with many prisoners, and vast numbers were killed and wounded.The enemy afterwards made an attempt to recover a part of his artillery, by attacking the 71st and 824 regiments, which were halted in a valley in which it had been taken. These regiments retired from the low grounds in the valley to the heights, were they halted, faced about, fired, and advanced upon the enemy, who had, by that time, arrived in the low ground, and they thus obliged him again to retire with great loss.-In this action, in which the whole of the French force in Portugal was employed under the command of the Duke D'Abrantes (General

Junot) in person, in which the enemy was certainly superior in cavalry and artillery, and in which not more than half of the British army was actually engaged, he has sustained a signal defeat, and has lost 13 pieces of canuon, and 23 ammunition waggons, with powder, shells, stores of all descriptions, and twenty thousand round, of musket ammunition. One general officer (Beniere) has been wounded and taken prisoner, and a great many officers and soldiers have been killed, wounded, and taken.The valour and discipline of his majesty's troops have been conspicuous upon this occasion, as you, who witnessed the greatest part of the action, must have observed; but it is a justice to the folowing corps to draw your notice to them in a particular manuer, viz. the royal artillery, commanded by lieut. col. Robe; the 20th dragoons which had been commanded by lient. col. Taylor; the 50th regiment, commanded by Cel. Walker: the 2d battallion 95th foot, commanded by maj Travers; the 5th battalion, 60th regiment, commanded by maj. Davy; the second battallion 43d, commanded by maj. Hull; the 2d battalion 52d, commanded by lieut. col. Ross; the 97th regiment, commanded by lieut. col. Lyon; the 36th regiment, commanded by col. Borne; the 40th, commanded by col Kemmis; the 71st, commanded by lieut. col Pack; and the 82d regiment, commanded by maj. Eyre. In mentioning col. Burne, and the 36th regiment to you upon this occasion, I cannot avoid to add, that the regular and orderly conduct of this corps, throughout this service, and their gallantry and discipline. in action have been conspicuous.-I must take this opportunity of acknowledging my obligations to the general and staff officers of the army. I was much indebted to maj. gen. Spencer's judgement and experience, in the decision which I formed, with respect to the number of troops allotted to each point of defence; and for his advice and assistance throughout the action.-In the position taken up by maj. gen. Ferguson's brigade, and in its advance upon the enemy, that officer shewed equal bravery and judgment; and much praise is due to brig. gen. Fane, and brig. gen. Anstruther, for their gallant defence of their position in front of Vimiera, and to brig. gen. Nightingale, for the manner in which he supported the attack upon the enemy, made by major-gen. Ferguson.-(To be continued)

417]

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD ELLENBOROUGH, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH.

MY LORD;

Either that liberty, of which we have boasted, and do boast, so much, is a mere sound, invented by poliucisas for purposes resembling those for which priests invented relicks and penances, and for which methodist preachers pretend to inspiration; either the whole thing is, in short, a specious and delusive fraud, or the result of the Action, recently tried before your lordship, in the case of Carr against Hood and Sharpe, is not only of greater importance to the mation than the recent victories over the French, in Portugal, but of greater importance than would be a series of victories, by which Baonaparte should be overthrown. For, what do we promise ourselves, as the fruit of such victories? Why, the secure enjoyment of our lives and property; security from that oppression, which we should, in all probability, experience at his hands. This, after all, is the sole end of all our sacrifices and of the dangers and sufferings of our countrymen who are in arms. There is no other rational purpose that we can have in view. This being the case, I am pretty confident, that the public, when they duly reflect upon the matter, will be convinced, that, on the 25th of July last, a greater victory was gain ed for England under your lordship, than has been gained, by laud or sea, for many years past.

The doctrines, laid down by your lordship, upon this memorable occasion, seem, indeed, to have been restricted as to their application. They seem to have been, rather carefully, confined to "authors and their "works;" but, in pursuance of the purpose for which alone I now address you, I shall, I think, succeed in convincing your lordship, that this restriction cannot subsist, consistently with reason and justice. I have, below, given an abridgment of the Report of the Trial, in which I have retained all that was said by your lordship; but, that

-[418

we may have the matter fairly before us, I will here shortly state the substance of your doctrines, supposing what you said to have been correctly reported; for, as to myself, I, of course, who was not present at the trial, can state nothing from my own knowledge. I take this report as I find it; I lay it before my readers as being a report given, in print, by another person; I take it up, I treat it as a book; and, if it be what it professes to be, it contains the words uttered by you upon the occasion referred to.

The first of these words I have taken for my motto. The next time you speak, you say, that we must really not cramp observations upon authors and their works; that they should be liable to exposure, to criticism, and even to ridicule, if their works be ridiculous;that, otherwise, the first who writes a book upon any subject, will maintain a monopoly of sentiment upon it; that thus vice and error will be perpetuated, and so we should go on to the end of time; and that you cannot conceive that an action is maintainable on such ground. Upon Mr. Garrow's observing, that, though an author's book might be ridiculed, the critics had no right to endeavour to destroy him altogether as an author, your lordship said, that you did not know that; that, (speaking in the interrogative form) suppose a man publihsed a book injurious to public morals, of infinite mischief to the public taste, containing bad maxim: of government, or any thing else that ought to be decried, are we not at liberty to expose that work? Aye, and expose the author of it too, as far as he is connected with the work, and that in the most pointed language of wit, humour, or ridicale; that, a critic, in such case conferred a benefit on the public; that the destruction of the author's reputation was nothing; that it was a reputation which ought to be destroyed; that it was idle to talk of the liberty of the press, if one man might not write freely upon the work of another; that, if there had been an attack upon the moral character of the author, or any attack on his character unconnected with his work, the law would have afforded him protec tion. Upon Mr. Garrow's saying, that the defendama had not destroyed Carr's reputa

a

tion fairly, your lordship said that he must show that it was not fairly done; and, upon his replying, that the caricature was proof of unfairness, your lordship bade him go on with his case.- -In your charge, after having repeated your sentiment respecting the public utility of writing down bad books, you said, that this, however, was applicable to fair and candid criticism; that, as to the loss sustained by an author from such a cause, it was what you, in the law, called damnum absque injariâ, a loss which the law does not consider as an injury, because it is a loss which he ought to sustain, a loss of fame and profits to which he was never entitled; that, if it were otherwise, you did not know where we were to stop; that you knew of nothing that more threatened the liberty of the press, in the days in which we live, than to give encourage ment to this species of action; that, however, you wished not to be misunderstood, for that, if there had been any thing in the criticism, of a libellous tendency, wholly foreign to the work, or unconnected with the author of it, as embodied in it, the action was maintainable; that neither yourself nor the jury had ever appeared before the world in the character of an author, or at least you never had; that, if you had, you should not think yourself entitled to maintain an action against any body else, who ridiculed your work, and proved it to be ridiculous; that, in fine, if the jury thought, that the criticism was upon the work, aud upon the author as connected with the work, and not written by way of calumny upon him as an individual, you were of opinion that the action was not maintainable; that if, on the contrary, they should be of opinion, that the criticism was written against the author, as a man, and unconnected with his work, then you thought the action was maintainable. After the verdict was given, your lordship (a thing not very common, I believe) thought it necessary to caution the audience against a misunderstanding of what had passed. "I hope nobody will understand, from the "result of this trial, that there is the least "countenance given to slander, or to ridi"cule any author, any more than any other “individual, unless such ridicule be con"nected with his works, and the author is "embodied with his work; for courts of "justice are as tender of the moral charac"ters of all men, whether they be authors

or not, as they are firm in the mainte nance of the right of every individual, to give a free opinion, on every publication of a literary work.”

It is, my lord, into the reasonableness

and the justice of these reservations and re strictions that I now propose to inquire. FIRST, as to the qualification of the word "criticism." Your lordship would have it to be fair, and, in one place, it would seem, that you insist upon its being candid as well as fair. I always thought, that the words were synonymous; but, whatever be their meaning, they express that quality which you hold to be necessary, in order to justify the criticism, though the author be embodied in his work. But, my lord, be this quality what it may, who is to tell us whe ther it exist or not? Evidence can be given as to truth or falsehood; as to the obedience or disobedience of any law; as to the performance or breach of any 'well known moral du'y; as to any thing, in short, that is clearly defined and settled. About what is fair who can say that any thing has been settled? Where is the standard whereby we are to judge of fairness? It is evident that there can be no such standard, and that the point must always turn upon mere opinion. What would this question of, fairness come under, then, the law or the fact of the case? Who would settle the point, the judge or the jury?" One of the jury" upon this trial, appeared to have a great desire to shew himself learned in the law; but, it will hardly be contended, that juries, or that courts of justice, can be, or ought to be, made into supervisors of the taste of the press. A tyrannical judge in Ameria added the quality "decent," as essential to publications to be tolerated. Who was to be the jadge of the decency? There is a maxim, which says, "miserable are those "who are subjected to laws of uncertain "operation." Indeed, where the operation is not uniform, and where the principle is not clearly laid down and well known, it is an abuse of words to call the thing law, which always implies something whereby a man's duties or rights are defined. About this reservation, however, I think we need not be very uneasy, as the result of the trial, together with the opinions of your lordship, decidedly in favour of that result, enables us to proceed to the length of impu ting to a man (no, not a man, an author) all sorts of folly; to exhibit him as a fool, a lunatic and a vagabond in point of property; and, lest our pages of letter-press should fail, to call in the distorting aid of the pencil to effect our purpose. This has been deemed fair criticism; and, therefore, it will, I imagine, be very difficult for us to make use of any, that can, without departing from the principles, upon which this case was decided, be deemed unfair

But, the person ridiculed must, it would

seem from this report of your lordship's language, be not only an author of a written and published work, but, he must also embody himself in the work. What is meant by this embodying work I do not very clearly perceive. In other places it is said, that he is to be ridiculed no farther than be appears in connection with his work; and that, unconnected with his work, he is to be treated with all the tenderness which the law takes care to provide for the individual. But, my lord, who is to settle these nice points of connection and incorporation? How am I to know what is meant by this connecting and embodying? Suppose I were to take up a book written for the purpose of persuading me, that I am very wrong indeed in objecting to the ministry of the day; suppose this work has for its author some man who lives upon the taxes and whose wife lives upon them too; suppose the whole family to be chin-deep in sinecures and reversions; must I not speak of these; must I not expose the author's motives for his work; must I not, if my pen fail me, call in the aid of the pencil to exhibit this author in the act of picking John Bull's pocket with one hand, while he holds up, in the shape of a pair of winkers, his book in the other hand; must I not hang a label, marked plunder, out of his pocket; and must I not put his wife and children in the character of sturdy paupers, jeering those from whom they receive their daily bread? Assuredly I ought to do all this; and yet this author might so write his book as not to embody himself with it, in any shape whatever; and I might be told, perhaps, that his places and pensions had nothing at all to do with the merits or demerits of the ministry; that I had gone into a subject foreign to the book; and that, therefore, I ought to be punished as a libeller; whereas it would appear to me quite necessary to go into these matters in order to shew the motive of the author, and that for the purpose of preventing his book from doing public mischief. It is not at all necessary for an author to 'connect himself with his hook. He need not write in the form of such connection. He may, like the newspaper people and the reviewers, write in the style royal, and call himself we; or, he may unite in the impersonal altogether. There are very few instances, in which an author can be said to embody himself in his work.

It can, indeed, only be when he relates his own adventures, or gives an account of transactions, in which he has personally borne a part. And why, my lord; why, I beg leave to ask, should this

particular description of authors be exposed to ridicule more than any other description? Why is it so very necessary to expose their folly and destroy their reputation? Of what particular harm is their success? In what way is it entitled to any extraordinary quantity of legal reprobation? Why should these fools be outlawed any more than the rest? Your lordship may see a very suficient reason for the distinction; but, I confess that I can see no reason at all for it. Every man, who writes and publishes, challenges the criticisms of the world. The very act of writing the book embodies him with it. It is is his act. It belongs to him. It is the picture of his mind. It is a part of himself. The critic has a right to take the man and the book together, and to criticise them, and, if he pleases, ridicule, or endeavour to ridi cule them both. If he has not this right, he has no right at all; he is never safe; and he had better lay aside his pen. If he himself be foolish in his criticism; if he te unfair, or malignant, why, the world, who will soon perceive it, will not fail to punish him in the only suitable manner, without any of the aid of judges and juries.There was a still further qualification, too; not only must the man have published his acts, or his work; but, he must have embodied himself with the work, and the work must be ridiculous. All this must be seen to exist before the ridicule could be justified. But, here again we have our old difficulty; who is to determine, whether the work be ridiculous or not? The jury are to judge of the alledged offence under the direction of the judge; but, it will not be pretended that this is a tribunal, wherein to try the merits or demerits of a literary work. What, then, becomes of this qualification ? The critic will say, that the work is ridienlous; the author will say that it is not; even the public may be divided upon the point; and who in all the world is to settle it? Your lordship says, and very truly, that it is of great public utility to expose ridiculous works, and to destroy the reputa tation of their authors; but, if I should be engaged in an act of great public utility of this sort, how should I fare if your lordship and the jury should happen to think that not ridiculous, which I took for ridiculous? How am I to know that you will be of my opinion? And must I not, then, be continually in a state of uncertainty, and must not a press, thus shackled, be infinitely worse than no press at all? The tool or rogue runs no risk, either in his writings or publishings; while his critic is never safe for a moment. John Carr saw this, and, therefore, he

Sir