Trial of Mr. J. Richardson, for an alleged libel against the Roman Catholic religion

Abstract

Introductory remarks to the trial of Mr J. Richardson.

The Ordinance enacted by the Governor of Malta, with the advice and consent of the Council of Government, for abolishing the censorship which had existed for about a year previous in these islands, and for providing against abuses of the consequent liberty of publishing printed writings, was promulgated on the 15th. March of the current year. Whatever may have been the general impression on the public mind produced by the publication of this new code of laws, but a few days elapsed before an alleged infringement took place, and consequently it was not to be expected that any well digested remarks, favourable or unfavourable, could have preceded it from the press. The legal investigations into this case, however, and the decision passed thereon by the Criminal Court, an account of which will be given in the following pages, have served to explain the spirit of the enactments made in the Ordinance with a far greater clearness than the forty-one pages of folio annotations appended to it, and give us a much surer basis on which to form our observations and draw our conclusions, than mere hypothesis on the theoretical constitution of the law. It is on this account that we regard the subject before us as important, because it may establish a precedent which possibly may carry with it the most weighty results, destructive of that liberty which the law is bound to protect, and which every man claims as a right of his moral nature - the liberty of publicly professing that faith which he in conscience believes to be right, of defending it against the insinuations or open attacks of those who may conscientiously differ from him, and of manifesting its truth and purity against error or imposture... [Excerpt]