I cannot think that any one will be so unjust as to imagine, what I have here said is spoken with a Respect to any Party or Faction.  Every one who has in him the Sentiments either of a Christian or a Gentleman, cannot but be highly offended at this wicked and ungenerous Practice, which is so much in use among us at present, that it is become a kind of National Crime, and distinguishes us from all the Governments that lie about us.  I cannot but look upon the finest Strokes of Satyr which are aimed at particular Persons, and which are supported even with the Appearances of Truth, to be the Marks of an evil Mind, and highly Criminal in themselves.  Infamy, like other Punishments, is under the Direction and Distribution of the Magistrate, and not of any private Person.  Accordingly we learn from a Fragment of Cicero, that tho’ there were very few Capital Punishments in the twelve Tables, a Libel or Lampoon which took away the good Name of another, was to be punished by Death.  But this is far from being our Case.  Our Satyr is nothing but Ribaldry, and Billingsgate.  Scurrility passes for Wit; and he who can call Names in the greatest Variety of Phrases, is looked upon to have the shrewdest Pen.  By this Means the Honour of Families is ruined, the highest Posts and greatest Titles are render’d cheap and vile in the Sight of the People; the noblest Virtues, and most exalted Parts, exposed to the Contempt of the Vicious and the Ignorant.  Should a Foreigner, who knows nothing of our private Factions, or one who is to act his Part in the World when our present Heats and Animosities are forgot, should, I say, such an one form to himself a Notion of the greatest Men of all Sides in the British Nation, who are now living, from the Characters which are given them in some or other of those abominable Writings which are daily Published among us, what a Nation of Monsters must we appear!

As this cruel Practice tends to the utter Subversion of all Truth and Humanity among us, it deserves the utmost Detestation and Discouragement of all who have either the Love of their Country, or the Honour of their Religion at Heart.  I would therefore earnestly recommend it to the Consideration of those who deal in these pernicious Arts of Writing; and of those who take Pleasure in the Reading of them.  As for the first, I have spoken of them in former Papers, and have not stuck to rank them with the Murderer and Assassin.  Every honest Man sets as high a Value upon a good Name, as upon Life it self; and I cannot but think that those who privily assault the one, would destroy the other, might they do it with the same Secrecy and Impunity.

As for Persons who take Pleasure in the reading and dispersing of such detestable Libels, I am afraid they fall very little short of the Guilt of the first Composers.  By a Law of the Emperors Valentinian and Valens, it was made Death for any Person not only to write a Libel, but if he met with one by chance, not to tear or burn it.  But because I would not be thought singular in my Opinion of this Matter, I shall conclude my Paper with the Words of Monsieur Bayle, who was a Man of great Freedom of Thought, as well as of exquisite Learning and Judgment.