ALFRED NAR OR A ARRATIVE O F THE DARING AND ILLEGAL MEASURES TO SUPPRESS STRICTURES ON THE DECLARATION O F HORNE TOOKE, Esq. RESPECTING "HER.. ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS OF WALES," COMMONLY CALLED MRS. FITZHERBERT. WITH INTERESTING REMARKS ON A REGENCY; ************************* The Narrative contains a Reference to thofe Parts of the Pamphlet P. Withers THIRD EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD AT No. 9, M,DCC,LXXXIX. [PRICE, ONE SHILLING AND SIXPENCE.] CXJCXJCXCXCX0 0X0 EXOR DIU M. A Man, in a state of nature, has no Supe rior but the God who made him. Life, Liberty, and the Produce of his labors are exempt from human controul. * If he conceive it conducive to happiness to fubmit to the restraints of Society, it is his duty to repel-by force of arms, if neceffary --all attacks on the DIGNITY and SACRED RIGHTS of man. He is not to be intimidated by the threats of a TYRANT, nor awed into captivity by a prefumptuous appeal to the DIVINE inheritance of Kings. On all great emergencies, he is to revert to the first principles of focial life. In concert with his fellow-citizens, he is to vindicate the original and facred compact of Society. What OUGHT to be is the only queftion, which freemen can condefcend to agitate. Whatever has been obtained by fraud or violence, they will disregard or repeal. * Remaks on the Regency. Hence Hence the importance of public intercourfe of a pure, unfettered fource of communication. The moment the hand of power prevails over the freedom of the prefs, we are a RUINED PEOPLE. It has been faid, TRUTH is a LIBELand, the greater the truth, the greater the libel. I hope, for the honor of human nature, this doctrine has no existence but in the breast of Lord Mansfield. Gracious Heaven! if fact and falfhood be equally criminal, we are doomed to ETERNAL SILENCE!! The prefs, inftead of being confecrated to freedom, will be the degraded vehicle of the Eulogium of a Minister, or the Panegyric of a Tyrant!! I am not ambitious of popular applaufe. Satisfied with the approbation of confcience, I neither court the fmiles, nor dread the frowns of any created Being; * but I folemnly pledge myself to encounter imprisonment and even death, rather than fubmit to * The first edition of this pamphlet was without the Author's name; but when Mr. Ridgway declined the fale, the Author was reduced to the alternative of publishing his own name, or of expofing honeft men to the resentments of the PARTY, for, by act of Parliament, there is a heavy penalty for publishing without fome refponfi ble perfon's name. a bondage a bondage too abject to be endured. And if any thing which I can do, or fuffer, be ultimately ferviceable to the cause of freedom, or tend to emancipate my country from arbitrary violence, I shall be abundantly rewarded by the confcious rectitude of my intentions, and the success of the enterprize. If I have paffed the limits of modera tion, or inadvertently expreffed my fentiments in terms of TREASON, OF DEFAMATION, I fhall embrace the opportunity of evincing my reverence for the laws, by a dutiful fubmiffion to the atonement they demand. But let a JURY of my PEERSthe Guardian Angels of the Realm--first pronounce me GUILTY. Let me be accufed, convicted, and condemned in the Procefs eftablished by the wisdom of our ancestors. Rather than permit a PRINCE of the BLOOD, or the PARTIZANS of a FACTION to ROB me of my property, and detain my Sentiments from public view, I will perish. The immediate confequences of the injuftice of which I complain are purely perfonal, but the remote and incidental will be general and alarming. If the mandate of a Prince of Wales be fuffered to intercept the productions of the Press, and ROB a Citizen with impunity |