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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 14.: THE MISCHIEVOUSNESS OF AN OATH MORNING CHRONICLE, 15 AUG., 1823, P. 3 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

14.: THE MISCHIEVOUSNESS OF AN OATH MORNING CHRONICLE, 15 AUG., 1823, P. 3 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I [1822]

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The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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14.

THE MISCHIEVOUSNESS OF AN OATH

MORNING CHRONICLE, 15 AUG., 1823, P. 3

Mill here continues the argument of “Judicial Oaths” (No. 11), to which he refers in the opening sentence, by citing a case reported in the Police News of the Morning Chronicle, 14 Aug., 1823, p. 4. The letter, headed “To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle,” is described in Mill’s bibliography as “A short letter signed A Lover of Caution pointing out a case of the mischievousness of an oath in the Chronicle of 15th August 1823” (MacMinn, p. 2). As is evident in the text, the letter is actually signed “A Friend to Caution.”

sir,—

In a Letter signed “No Lawyer,” which you inserted in your Paper of the 23d July, among the many ill effects of the ceremony of an oath, considerable stress was laid upon the false estimate which it occasions of the credibility of witnesses. When they speak the truth, it is not because they have sworn (for if that were the reason Custom House and University oaths would be observed), but because they fear the shame and the penalties of perjury.1 It is, however, too commonly believed, that if a man has sworn, no other security is required.

An instance of this appeared in your Paper of August 14. A gentleman who complained of a fraud practised on him at a mock auction in Lime-street, stated that he had neglected to make himself acquainted with the name of the auctioneer, because he presumed, that all auctioneers being sworn, were therefore respectable.2 Yet it must appear to all unprejudiced minds, that if the other circumstances were insufficient to remove the possibility of suspicion, the circumstance of the oath added nothing to the security. If there were motives sufficient for fraud, they were sufficient for fraud and perjury both.

A Friend To Caution

[1 ]For background, see No. 6.

[2 ]For auctioneers’ oaths, see 19 George III, c. 56, sect. 7 (1779).