41. From 1694 to the Stamp Act of 1712 the only censure laws forbade treason, seditious libel and the reporting of Parliamentary proceedings. 42. On November 17 John Peter Zenger was arrested under a warrant of the Council for printing seditious libels in his " Journal ". 43. He was transferred to the Earl of Devonshire, and was the presiding judge at the trial of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel . 44. In particular the trial of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel led to fears that the Church of England itself was under threat. 45. Glynn represented Woodfall before Mansfield in the case of the Letters of Junius, of which a subset were alleged to constitute seditious libel . 46. Although the Zenger case did not entirely put an end to prosecutions for seditious libel , it set a precedent for freedom of the press. 47. Wilkes faced a charge of seditious libel over attacks on Paris Peace Treaty of 1763 at the opening of Parliament on 23 April 1763. 48. Andrew Hamilton represented Zenger and argued that truth should be a defense to the crime of seditious libel , but the court rejected this argument. 49. The government dropped charges of seditious libel against J . S . Woodsworth, whose crime was quoting in the strike bulletin from the Bible. 50. One form of speech that was widely restricted in England was seditious libel , and laws were in place that made criticizing the government a crime.
