ABSTRACT
The contrast between England and Scotland was obvious and notorious, and became the subject of debates in the spring of 1794 in both the Lords and the Commons. Before a special jury in King’s Bench, Thomas Erskine defended the three printers and proprietors of the Morning Chronicle against the charge of publishing a seditious libel. Erskine won the first procedural point, insisting that the original jury impaneled in the previous term of court hear the case rather than a new jury impaneled in the new court term. Both prosecution and defense agreed that freedom of the press was at issue, and that the case had unusual significance because it was the first to be tried "completely" upon the principles of Fox's Libel Law of 1792. The Attorney General argued that the fact of publication was evidence of evil intention. When later the Privy Council examined one who had been present, it was unusually interested in the toasts.
