260 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

The victim of either may bring a civil action and obtain damages,
and if the libel is so outrageous that it might provoke a breach ol
the peace, a prosecution for criminal libel may be instituted. The
law is complicated by the various defences which may be put up,
A reviewer may say that his words were fair comment; the words
may have been uttered in a privileged place, e.g., Parliament, so
that no action will lie; or it may be argued that the statement was
true, and that it was in the public interest to make it. The
uncertainty, and the heavy damages sometimes awarded, can
cause great expense to people who publish statements in good
faith, and in these respects the law could with advantage be
reformed. Political controversies are, however, saved from the
scurrility which attends them in countries where the law of libel
is less strict. The effect of the laws has been summarised in the
saying that anything may be written or said which a jury thinks
fit to be written or said.

In cases of blasphemy, indecency, and sedition, the deciding
authority is more frequently a magistrate than a jury. The
definition of the first two offences is so vague that the law can
have inequitable and absurd results. A learned agnostic, writing
in literary language to prove all religions impostures, will probably
be immune; the same view expressed in the cruder speech of the
street corner, would lead to prosecution. On more than one
occasion books have been condemned as immoral by a magistrate
after hearing selections read by a police officer, evidence in favour
of the book by writers of known standing being ignored. Nor is
the definition of sedition, as applied to speech and writing any
more satisfactory. Incitements to people to resist the law by
force, to attempt alterations in Government policy, or the remedy
of social injustice, by unlawful means, are justifiably forbidden.
But the most vigorous criticism of the Government or the Con-
stitution, or the class structure of society, and the rousing of
opinion to alter them according to law, should be permitted,
and it is generally supposed that they are permitted. Legally,
however, it is seditious to stir up ill-will between classes,