Josiah Wedgwood, MP, protested in the House against the
institution by the Government of prosecutions of the Press. His speech was a
scathing attack on those who were intent on returning to the political
prosecutions of a century before. He noted that from 1832 to 1912 – Cobbett to
Bowman – prosecutions of the Press of this nature had ceased and that it was
from the trial of Cobbett that the freedom of the press really dated. 'The best
men in every age have been against such prosecutions', he observed, adding the
warning, 'there has always been some provocation, some fear inspiring
prosecution. The clamour of propertied classes has again and again deafened the
Government to the still, quiet voice of reason and liberty.'
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