The National Register. — London, England, 1814-09-11 00:00:00

SEPT. 11. TRIAL OT JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. " Jo A NOt'S books," says Mr. Lane, " are a cabinet of every thing that can augment the sum of infidelity, and strengthen the cause of popery. Vulgar dreams, vulgar in terpretations, vulgar , types and applications,--a complete stem of spurious, squalid matter ; hardly to be touched without contracting defilement, and sustaining,great injury• iv fine, the whole of her works nre a confused string of words, in the vilest doggerel verse, which have no other connection than what the vilest thiales have suggested ; and what she invents, her followers receive as the dictates of immediate inspiratiou Blush, Joanna ! fill'd with shame, Doom thy Writings to the flame ; Death will soon the chat 111 dispel, Se,led Fieods of Hell Conscious of the iniquitous nature of her pretensions, and the pernicious tendency of her writings, Joanna has all along been publicly hinting the certain approach of that per.od when the arm of justice would be compelled lo pre vent the completion of her projects. She cr.') forsee that there arc boon& beyond which she will not be suffered to go. Apprehensive of some interposition of this kind, she became much alarmed when she was informed that one of the newspapers was about to collect such details as might lay the foundation for proceedings against her ; and hence Th. Reece: as called in, and all at once, to ascertain and publish the reality of her pregnancy. That the prophetess is somewhat in dread of the sentence of the law, hauwing she has exposed herself to its tenors, may be inferred from the manner in which she deprecates its lash. Joanna has unequivocally betrayed her fears in the fdlow ing passage of her Third Book of Wonders. " As to pe!- secution," she makes the Spirit there say, " I now tell thee. if it were not fur the laws qfyour land, the persecution would row be as great as it was by Oie Jews, when they put their prophets to death, and when they clamoured for my (Chrst's) blood ; and thit, thou knowest, has been the desire of many, to see thee (Jeatina Southcott l) put to death, as 1 (Jesus Christ!) was : and, therefore, it is the laws of your land that inz:e made me defend this nation from the foreign enemy, while mine anger and indignation are kindled to bear the blasphemy throughout the land ; but now I will make the Bible plain before them, and prove the truth of my gospel by th e Yi,crn I have set." Panegyric and menaces are min . gied. bikt we are artfully praised for the indulgence %Vf' have extended to her, the prophetess takes care to apprise tom, at the same time. that it is solely on her account we hay.. escaped the enemy's long threatened invasion of our shore n ciuti that, accordingly, the least departnre.from leuity towaid ; •r, " the great Prophetess and Servant of God," as Mary alteman styles her, will certainly bring divit.e judginen on our guilty hearts, since the Almighty's 'f anger 11141 in dignation are " declared to be already " kindled to hear the blasphemy," against Jcanna t 1111 . 01)01CW Ole land r' THE NATIONAL. REGISTER. Whatever may be the extent of Joanna's knowledge in spiritual things, however, she appears to be little acquainted with the jurisprudence of thecountry ste has so commended. All impostures in religino, she ought to know, or falsely pretel ding to estraorlinary commissions from Ged, and icrri:/;.. /int er alarming the people with false denunciations of judgments, are, by our laws, puni,hable by the temporal Judges (net such Judges as met at the Neckinger-house !) with fine and imprisonment; and also such corporal and infamous punishment as to the Court, exercising its discretion, shall seem meet, excording to the heinousness of the crime ! Joanna and her preachers would, therefore, act wisely by paying more attention to the penalties with which their pro phecyings may yet be visited by the verdict of their country men. She at first prophecied of her end, and the treatment she should experience preparatory to it ; so that she naturally has recurrence to it now. Numbers are still looking for this result. tier enemies are to persecute her, and she is to be taken up. " Neither the prediction of this trial, however, nor its accomplishment, will be decisive of her mission. She had every reason to think, that, some time or other, such persecution mubt come on; and, therefore, it was policy to predict it." Joanna dwells much on the subject of her awful trig. " awful though glorious," when she assumes that her writ ings will I.e proved, and their truth be established ! She no longer talks, however, of her three days' trance, during the trial, and her subsequent resumptiod of life, to tell her lends what she has seen, before she dies. Whether " her death will convince more than her life," as matters at t)re sent arc, remains to be seen ; for she once promised that, at her death, the power of Satan would he titken away, and the working of Miracles be imparted to those who were Sealed ! But she now asserts she is not to be called forward in a pub lic trial before the Son is barn, spoken of in her late wri tings ; and that all mankind would have expected as much, although she did not comprehend the thing, so herself, " if men had understood whet they read." Seeing the great ad vantages that are to acct ue to the world whenevershe is tried, however. might it not he adviseable to bring it on without the least delay ? Since she admits the " possibility of her being deceived " respecting her state ; that her promised son may " prove not to be a child in the end ;" and " that the life within may faring death upon her," even while the feel ing of such life is greater than ever ; let it not be tegrette4 hat site has descended to the grave without her writings be ing put to the ordeal so long solicited by her. Physical dis section will not be forted satisfactory to individuris who vet . call for spiritual invest.gi&on. When our prophetess shall have suddenly "finished :lte work, which," she says, " God his given her to it k‘il! evidently' be ton late to examine into the nature of thlt wept k ; we shall he censured as having ' a question of vit.d impot tauct! to us all. A pplicaiolis ate stated to have been wade to the Arch bishop , if i'anterbo , y, by i he friends of Joaona Soothcott, that he would appoirt some person to attetid her accouch inept hich he hai declined to do, under the suipusition p, ; ~,,,,,~,,, 7 ... ~,,,.,~ ..~. ,