The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-10-15 00:00:00

ing of a religion% opinion in the present Men, yet
as certain Dissenters conceived thewarelees liable to
applsed
at it wag
ollobaniiei:voeLfrodettglotlio:ltatPl!lirlii,:el)(l:TouisailkderenelePriLrel.:oyflousirtt:stlontol:B.P t do that
Y'r
which may he destructive of your own object; take
care thst you don't repeal thaw twits of the statute
of all established religion. If this ware die*, three
wou el he an end of every religitm consoled ess
'
hinny." They felt, they were rr" ti
iiite of the u.
jection, and a part only of the +Lime was repeal.
ed. The Established Church is founded on elms-
tianity, Christianity is iota of the. Lew of the Lie'
it it a religion of tuleretion—but whole the Saw td,..
!ewes freedom of opinion, and (vim mut wiumill
discussion, is cannot permit Noy 'Lug insulting',
reviling the tostionul faith. In Puppert of this pee
position, I will quote an author referred to by the
Defendant himself, and one of the most resp ect.
able authorities on the law, Sir Wnliant Black-
stone. He observes, though it is dear that i„,
restraint should be Lid upon satirical and dopes-
.innate discussions of the rectitude Huai propriety,
of the establi‘lied mode of worship. yet contarnelg.
and contempt are what no, OtahlivAmeat can kw..
The systems and cerrinunies of all C ~
a5i404,,,,,,
were tolerated in the moat ektensive *rose 1,1 the
law of EnKiend; blot it koedd not tolerate that
the Bible should be called an alivordloy sod futile,
and Christianity all I.:1)11:7:14d
hiaisodui4f:flu'epi•uiuTite
Learned Gentleman the!, cee,lared the pertinacity
of the Defendant. in
the law to that of the Judge, patiently old fr.
pettedly pronounced. Ile declared siert the asser-
tions of the Defendant respecting himself were oat
justified by soy thing within his (Ise Athwart-
General's) knowledge, and repelled the charge of
being a bigot or a persecutor, frelitig, as he dui,
pity, instead of resentment, monist the Defetelaut,
es he was inclined to consider him, iiiiceitiornid.
itig his own assertions, an itestrumecit
I of others. Iles only motive in instiliwiie, h., yr*,
secution had bees. to discharge the duty die °sea
to the public, and to protect the estolanhed reli-
I from taunts and insult. He called on the
Jury to follow the examples set them its taokl asst
1102, to find the Deleodasat guilty, sad put a
11101/ to the dis-enticiditiois of what would usesetile
the faith and corrupt the tnorals of the lower unleri.
The Defendant was charged in the information with
having printed sod published, 111111 cloyed to he
printed slid published, a certain sealelalous, ias-
PI pious, and hlatotheitiosis libel, of and einweruisig,
that part of the Holy Bible called the Old Tort.-
meat. There was A similar count with pipet* to
the New Testament. Such was the charge—the
question for them was, had he dune so or sat
The answer was srmple, for he hail avowed hinteehl
that he was well acquidinted with the coincide. The
I Learned Gentleman then read certain extinct, from
the work, to whew its manifest intent, arid itiferreii,
that the aim ofevery page and hoe of it was to re-
vile, defame, sod blaspheme the [lcily Scriptures.
After a variety of other observations, the Learned
Gentleman proceeded as follows Gentlemen,
you have a must solemn,serious.weighty, but a most
easy duty to perform : 1 say easy, because the pas-
sages in the information are sustained be the MM.
berlen passages in the work. If such hr the fang,
and it is clear to any unprejudiced mare don't
mind what scoffs or taunts may be levelled against
you on account of your verdict—obey the die.
tales of your coilacieisce—do your duty without
looking 'to the right hand or the left. If I
thought the discharge of your duly would LA
to the acquittal of the Defendant, I shouhl br
the last man to ask you to find I
but if the whole course pursued by him, boils be-
fore and during the trial, leads to no other cumin.
lion than that he did what be has done aid! Ins
eyes open. and conscious of tide
quences which might result from it to vociety--rie
the conclusion, in short, that he is guilty—if etult
must he the inference of every tattoos!, siospiejii-
diced. moral man, then adhere to the verdict vole-
yourit—cogiiitee drym
that
,
se
consciences,
v
nt
olont
eentwei pointsheelittileiunt
mwsaweitlretlpor rvcoseoebrniati fr
you
filled
yourt oats
lots the
e
circumstances of this day, and which will far ever
prevent the commission of acts tesultitg to sub.
vert the very foundatimi of society, and to dissolve
all those moral ties and obligations by which it is
held together."
The Chief Justice then proceeded to charge the
Jury.—This was an isiforanaliou chasging lie De-
fetsdrost with a blasphemous libel 1111 The holy
Scriptures, not in any vague loose manner,
but by the.poi e.l; ic
.cat.o of a certain vulpine hay-
ing a certain object—alit' theist:l of publa aunts had
been proved. The isdformetion charged the offence
in somewhat different ways—first, that the !Men-
data being a wicked, insidious, and
person. did print mind pubhah, and unite to lie
printed mid published, I certaiti scandaleus. ion-
- pious, and blasphemous libel, of and coocervisie
that part of the Holy Scriptures called the 0111
Testament—sod then it quoted a ceriaits part of
the work. There were sober counts 1411111)iiqt the
charge to the New Testament. There was one snore
comprehensive one, the sixth—it only iticltided tlw
words wickedly and profanely, omitting blasphe-
mously. In other counts, tire object of the west
was alleged to be to defense and vilify the Christian%
religion. This was the general nature of are
charge, uml on it they were to decade. In -Me
course of whit hail beers differed by way of dic;*encs:
much hut' been said, 01 which every moderate 111411
must di.spiirove ; 11111 they weer 114)t, on that 41..
1:0111/1. to 1.113er their 'Moils to fall into any elisitselis
tiotion to exaiiilue the teal questiost for their consi-
deration. First, the I)elentlatit asserted, that all
the matter contained its his work was justifiable,
and fit and proper, and if he haul loco permitted
he would have read various passages bons mini
Deistical »414: Atheistical write's, similar iii
priuct-
ples, thou.:li slot su atrong its their expressimis as
the one in qoestion. The Dsfendant wished su
call oittiesses to detail the riotous difference% be.
tiveen the different Christiau sects in belief and
pi-active, which tukalit juitife ham its sating that
what they all believed was &lee; hut he (the Chief
Justice) leh himself bouud to refuse such evidences
because he felt that they were not come there to
try the truth of the Christian reloaion, and thst
was not competent loony maw cowing low an Eng-
holt Coma to pay the Christian religion was not
trite. It would be most extreordivary dale truth of