High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Case of the Dean of St Asaph, formally R v Shipley, was the 1784 trial of William Shipley, the Dean of St Asaph, for seditious libel. In the aftermath of the American War of Independence, electoral reform had become a substantial issue, and William Pitt the Younger attempted to bring a Bill before Parliament to reform the electoral system. In its support Shipley republished a pamphlet written by his son-in-law, Sir William Jones, which noted the defects of the existing system and argued in support of Pitt`s reforms. Thomas FitzMaurice, the brother of the Earl of Shelburne, reacted by indicting Shipley for seditious libel, a criminal offence which acted as "the government`s chief weapon against criticism", since merely publishing something that an individual judge interpreted as libel was enough for a conviction; a jury was prohibited from deciding whether or not the material was actually libellous. The law was widely seen as unfair, and a Society for Constitutional Information was formed to pay Shipley`s legal fees. With financial backing from the society Shipley was able to secure the services of Thomas Erskine KC as his barrister.