The Massachusetts
court issued them in the nature of the writs of assistance issued
from the Exchequer court in England, but had issued them routinely
instead of requiring the showing of probable cause based on sworn
information that the Exchequer court required. Few judges in the
other American colonies granted the writ.
Seditious libel trials in England and the colonies were followed
closely and their defendants broadly supported. John Wilkes, a
member of the House of Commons, published a criticism of a new
minister in 1763. He called King George's speech on a treaty "the
most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted
to be imposed on mankind". After being found guilty of seditious
libel, he again ran for the House of Commons, and was repeatedly
elected and expelled. He was subsequently elected alderman,
sheriff, and mayor of London. In 1770, Alexander MacDougall was
voted guilty of seditious libel by the New York Colonial Assembly
for authoring a handbill which denounced a collusive agreement by
which the assembly voted to furnish supplies for the British
troops in New York in exchange for the royal governor's signature
to a paper-money bill. When he was arrested, the Sons of Liberty
rallied to his support, demanding freedom of the press. Benjamin
Franklin's brother had been imprisoned for a month by the
Massachusetts assembly for printing in his newspaper criticisms of
the assembly.
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