[Hayes, Sir George (1805-1869), Judge and Justice of the Queen's Bench]
[Attack on the Press] A Bill for the More effectual Prosecution of the War with Russia, and for securing the Liberty of the Press, and for other Purposes
London, William Stevens, Printer, 37, Bell Yard, Temple Bar, February 1855,
6pp, folio, blue paper in the manner of a Parliamentary Bill few folds, edge nicks and minor staining.
Hayes’s real target in this spoof bill can be seen from the headings to the various sections ‘Conduct of the war confided to “The Times newspaper’; Officers to hold commissions at the pleasure of “The Times’; ...’”The Times” enpowered to take Sebastopol’; ‘”The Times” empowered to displace Ministers and appoint Cabinet Commissioners. Cabinet Councils to be held in Printing-house Square’; ‘All Courts to give judgements according to the opinion of “The Times”’; etc... see [Edmund Macrory], Hayesiana, privately printed 1892 for an extended account of Hayes life and a reprinting of some of his private publications. Regarding the "Bill for the more effectual Prosecution of the War with Russia" reprinted in this volume Macrory notes [it] ‘was printed on blue foolscap paper, in the form of a Bill introduced into the House of Lords, and was printed (as the date on it proves) in February 1855, just at the time when the War in the Crimea was progressing not entirely in a satisfactory manner, and shortly after a second false report of the fall of Sebastopol had found its way into some of the daily newspapers, including The Times.
Hayes, second son of Sheedy Hayes, a West Indian proprietor, and Catherine, daughter of John Westgate, was born in Judd Place, Somers Town, London and educated at Highgate School and at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic college, near Ware. In 1830 he was called to the bar, in 1862 he was appointed Recorder of Leicester, and in 1868 he was named a justice of the court of queen's bench and knighted by the queen at Windsor Castle on 9 Dec.
£350
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