The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-12-05 00:00:00

PROSECUTION FOR BLASPHEMY.

A prosecution for blasphemy is to be heard at the
Hampshire assizes, which commence on Friday. A
man nanisl John Thompson perambulated the streets
of Southampton, carrying a hoard, on one side of
which was printed, "The general resurrection and the
enrolment of the saints commenced. Tracts one
penny ;" and on the other, "The emend coming of
the Son of Man personally proved to have taken
place." The police of the town took Thompson before
the local magistrates on the ground that complaints
had been made of his having sold " improper publica-
tions in the street." Thompson protested that he had
been arrested contrary to law, and demanded to be
discharged, refusing to allow the magistrates to see
his publication. One of the magistrates offered to buy
one, which was consented to and he was told by the
prisoner that he was indictable for having purchased a
blasphemous publication. Eventually the prisoner was
discharged only to work the more zealously in deluging
the town with his publications.
The Rev. Arthur Bradely, rector of All Saints, pur-
chased a pennyworth of papers, and appearing before the
magistrates, gave it as his opinion that one of them
contains '1 a scandalous, impious, and profane libel of
and smeerning the Holy Scriptures and the Christian
ftligion," the following being the tpassage specially
alluded to The enrolment of the saints.—The
enrolment of the saints commenced on the anniversary
of the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacle of
the year 1868—that is, on the Ali day of October, 1868.
The following is the declaration to be made and
signed : I believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the
Messiah at his first coming as the antitypical pasehal
lamb who died for sins in alleprv, and I believe John
Cochran, of Glasgow, to be the Messiah at hie second
coming, and the antitypical high priest who has taken
away sin in reality.' The above declaration is to be
signed with the name of the saint in full. and dated,
the order of signature being the order of enrolment,
and to be transmitted to the address of John
Thompson, 114, Chancery-lane,. London, W.C."
Up ni this opinbat being given, the mayor told
the defendant that he would Is committed for
and its said, in his di fence, that the
charce was absurd. He should coot:.' his auswtr to
two points :—" lat. That the publications throughout
admit and assume the truth of Holy Ser:pture, and
therefore that a blasphemy of those Scriptures or the
mysteries f the Christian faith is, in these publica-
tions, an impossibilii y. 2nd. That even if they be
blasphemous within the nrianing of the statute, that
statute is virtually a dead letter, inasmuch as the press
teems with publications of the most intense blasphemy,
within the meaning of the statute, to the suppression
of which publications the statute is not applia"
lle
added that he believed that court to be one of perse-
cution, whereupon, the local journals inform us, the
mayor said, "I'll have nothing of that. If you have
anything to urge with regard to bail, well hear it. but
if you introduce anything foreign to the question ru
tell the policeman to take you below at once," and
below he was accordingly taken.
The trial is looked forward to with a good deal of
interest.