The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-04 00:00:00

OLD BATLEY.-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

This -day, shortly atter ten o'clOck, Mr. Justice JAMES
PARKE took his seat ou the bench.
John Cronie, aged 48, described in the calendar as a shoe-
maker, was put upon his trial 9n an indictment charging him
with maliciously stabbing Thomas Fuller, with intent to murder
him.

Thomas Fuller examined—On the `2•2d of April last he was a
new Policeman of the E division, and was on duty in Red
Lion-street, Holborn. He knew the prisoner for some time,
he having had him in custody three or four times, since
which he has frequently threatened him with bodily harm ;
on the afternoon named in the indictment, he saw him lurking
about the corner of Red Lion-street and Theobald's-road, and
as usual he commenced abusing and threatening him. The pri-
soner remained lurking about his beat till nearly five o'clock,
when he proceeded down Theoliald's-road towards Gray's Inn,
and he lost sight of him till near seven o'clock, when
he saw him again near the corner of Red Lion-street,
Holborn, and resumed his abuse. Witness then went
towards him and desired him to go about his busi-
ness, as he wished to have no altercation with him. The
prisoner said nothing, but walked on for about 30 yards and
witness followed, when he (the prisoner) stopped and drew a
knife from his trowsers pocket which he brandished, and said,
If you come near me I'll do for you." Witness pulled out his
staff and advanced towards him, and the prisoner made a step to-
wards him • witness kept his staff close to his breast, and with
his lets hand he caught a* the prisoner's right, which had the
knife, but missed his grasp, and the prisoner then threw his left
arm round his neck, and stabbed him with a knife on the left
breast, he withdrew it and again stabbed him. Witness then
struggled with the prisoner, who stabbed him a third time. He
then struck him over the head with his staff' for th.a first time,
and finding that he could not overpower him, he called out
murder, and endeavoured to make his escape towards Holborn.
The prisoner pursued him for about 10 or 12 yards, and again
stabbed him in the back. Witness became very weak from the
loss of blood, and staggered across Holborn, when he fell from
exhaustion ; upon which the prisoner ran down Holborn, and
witness was carried to the hospital, where he remained five
weeks, and he, still felt the effects of the'wounds and should
be disabled for lite.

In his cross-examination by Mr. ADOLPHUS, the witness
denied having called the prisoner an old cuckold, and that he
knew his wife as well as he did.
George Ryley, another policeman of the E division, saw the
prisoner running down Holborn, and assisted to secure him,
when he heard him say, " I hope the -- is dead; I
went home on purpose to sharpen the knife to do for him, and if
I am committed and tried for it I shall die happy, as I have had
my revenge, for he called me an old cuckold." The prisoner had
been drinking, but he knew well what he was about.
Several witnesses gave the prisoner a good character as a kind
and inoffensive man.
The Learned JUDGE then summed up the evidence, and the
Jury returned a verdict of

SURREY SESSIONS.-(THIS DAY.)

This morning these sessions commenced before R. HEDGER,
Esq. (Chairman) and a great number of magistrates.
The Court was exceedingly crowded in consequence of the trial
of the Rev. Robert Taylor, of Rotunda notoriety, for uttering
blasphemous expressions in his discourses in that building. Mr.
Taylor appeared in Court habited in his robes as a clergyman of
the Church of England. He had a celestial globe and several
parcels, apparently containing books and papers. The prosecu-
tion was instituted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
At the request of the defendant the indictment was read at
length. It charged the defendant, that he being an evil disposed
persons, bAlalinspihgenmtyouGsloyd, uttered
jesn:cnrist, certain
the
eHolyperson, and intending to bring the Christian religion into disbe-
lief and contempt, on the Ist and 3d of April, in the presence of
moreexpres-
sions thano fd
an 300 c
Bible, and the Christian religion. The indictment contained
npceerrsnoi
eight counts, charging him with having uttered various blas-
phemous expressions in his discourses on Good Friday and Easter
Sunday.
Mr. CHAMBERS opened the case.
Mr. THESSIGER said, the unusual course pursued by the de-
fendan t'i nyequirin g the whole of the indictment to be read, and the
clear and distinct nature of the charges therein stated, rendered
it unnecessary for him to enter into them at any very great
length. In rising to discharge his duty as Counsel for the prose-
cution, he was not insensible to the importance of the task im-
posed upon him. The proceedings of this day were looked to
with intense interest, though he was sorry to say that some few
persons were looking to them with exultation—those few who
were followers of the defendant, and who awaited with some
anxiety to hear a display that their leader was expected to make.
It was, however, fortunate that the law was strong enough to
punish the propagators of doctrines, whose object it was to over-
throw the happiness and the peace of mankind. To those who
had heard before of the discourses of the defendant it would, in-
deed be a matter of some surprise that he should so long have
been allowed to go on with impunity. The passages now
selected for prosecution were parts of two discourses which
were delivered by the defendantat the Rotunda, on Good Fri-
day and Easter Monday last, to audiences of about four hundred
persons ; they were delivered on days appointed by the Protestant
church to commemorate the suffering and resurrection of the
Saviour, and they were selected by the defendant with equal
taste and feeling to ridicule those sufferings on which the whole
fabric of Christianity was founded. At this theatre of blasphemy
persons were admitted on the payment of a certain sum, and al.
though the style of the defendant exceeded in vulgarity the attacks
of the most vulgar enemies of Christianity, the Jury would judge
of the effect by the bursts of applause, laughter, and ribaldry, with
which it was accompanied. If the defendant chose to bring for-
ward other parts of his discourse, for which he was not indicted,
the Jury would perceive, that in the selection for prosecution
the prosecutors had not been partial. He, Mr. Thessiger, need
not argue that Christianity was a part of the law of the land, nor
would he in such a case discuss the policy or propriety of calling
persons to account for expressing their religious °pin ions. It being
an offence to villify and degrade the Christian religion, all the
Court and Jury had to do was to see whether the defendant had
transgressed the law ; they were living under a system of reli-
gion, which to him (Mr. Thessiger) appeared the best and purest
ever vouchsafed to man ; the law permitted to every man the
free exercise of his own religion, only exacting in return a de-
cent respect for the established religion of the country, and
a forbearance to those laws of which it is the foun-
dation. Should any man entertain any reasonable doubt
respecting this religion, the sincerity of that doubt would
be ascertained in the decent manner of his description of it, and
in the deference paid to so sacred a subject ; but, no man could
be deceived in his estimate of the intentons of a speaker or
writer, when he finds the coarsest ribaldry used instead of fair
and decent argument. On both of the occasions selected
for the present prosecution, the language used by the de-
fendant would be proved by two respectable persons, who would
vouch for each other's accuracy—one of whom was sent
to the Rotunda, for the purpose of this prosecution, and the
other was there by accident, and took down the defendant's
words. If any doubt existed as to their accuracy, the defendant
had supplied the deficiency, for he had published a pamphlet
(which the Learned Counsel held up) containing the discourse.
Mr. Taylor here exclaimed, he did not publish it.
Mr. THESSIGER proceeded---If it were not published by the
defendant, the Jury would judge whether it was not done by his
directions. On the first occasion, the witnesses on entering the
Rotunda saw a young man commence the business by giving
out as the first lesson for the evening, a chapter from " Vol-
ney's Ruiiis of Empires," evidently intended as a ridicule of
the service of the Church.' The defendant afterwards appeared
and went up to a cross that was suspended, exclaimed—" if this
be the King of Isreal let him come down and I will worship
him." Then words were made the vehicle or introduction to
that daring and desperate attack on the Protestant faith which
was now complained
of. The defendant then proceeded to use
a variety of expressions in his discourse, the first of which
that was selected for prosecution ran thus :
" Oh, awful mystery, oh, love divine, there you behold the Al-
mighty God, like a felon at the bar of Pilate, him only who bath
immortality, tried for his life; Jesus Christ the righteous found
guilty, the author of nature suffers, the immortal God expires,
the everlasting ceased to be, the Eternal God was no snore, the
living God was dead, there was a radical reform in the kingdom
of Heaven, the boroughmongers were turned out; God, over all,
was put under ; the blessed for ever more was no more blessed ;
and the Holy, Holy, Holy, was wholly kicked out."
The Jury would perceive the miserable play upon a word in the
conclusion of the sentence, The defendant then went on to re_
vive the old story, that it was not our Saviour who suffered on
the cross, but Christ for him, and then taking occasion from the
modern use of the word passion (the use made of it in common
conversation) he proceed to say—
" All that Christ was to do, was not to suffer on the cross, but
to get Simon to do It for him. It was not the nail that was in
his hand but the hammer; he did not suffer but triumphed on
the cross. It is not said in any part of the Gospel that Christ
showed himself alive after his death ; the strongest passage is
that in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is represented as show-
ing himself alive after his passion ; what was to hinder him 9
Nothing. If he put himself into a passion, he might pot himself
out again with breaking a blood,vessel :"
Then, as the Jury would reasonably expect, the defendant fop-
Then,
lowed it up by this expression :
" The Psalmist (meaning King David) says, ' For ever, Oh
Lord, thy word is true in Heaven and so it ls, but it was never
true on earth, and none but a fool and a dunce would ever have
dreamed it,"
Then were the particular passages extracted from a greater
quantity of nonsense, uttered by the defendant on Good
need more
Friday. To him (Mr Thessiger) they appe like
the ravings of insanity than the thoughts or sentiments of
a sane man ; he did not know whether or not the de,
defendant would to-day attempt farther to revile the Christian
religion ; if he did there was a power in the Court who would
instantly suppress such a gross outrage on propriety. In the
Sermon on Easter Sunday the defendant seemed
even to have
outdone himself in indecent and disgusting conduct. On that
day the business was commenced with a chapter from the Book
of Good Sense, in which the object of the writer clearly was to
revile all religions, but particularly the Christian religion, and
to bring it into contempt
When the defendant appeared qn the platform, he covered his
face with his hands, and pretended to be adoring that gross which
it had been his study all his life to revile. He began his sermon
thus ;:
.1 Wherefore should it be that God should forgive our sins be-
cause of Christ's blood? What reason can our Clergy give?
The reason why the blood of Christ does induce God to forgive
our sins is that he likes a drop of the cralur as well as we do;
that puts him into a good humour, and then he is not so parti-
cular about us."
In that paragraph the word cratur occurred, avulgar word, the
meaning of which was well known •he then wee :pan
. „
walking with God, and said
" How could any one walk With God, when God cannot walk
himself? 'He would be at his journey's end before he set out.;
and as he (meaning Almighty God) fills all space, he must Pt
still in all space like a gouty old man in his arm-chair, and stay
at home through all eternity."
Then, the avowed purpose of his wild discourse being to bring
the greatest mysteries and the holiest offices in the church into
ridicule, he filled a glass of wine and drank it off, exclaiming
" This soul-reviving wine,
Pear Saviour, is shy b 100,4 ;
And no*'l drink my Saviour's blood,
This is the same blood in wine or swipes—
'Tis God's own blood we know—
And when we feel it in our tripes
We feel we don't know how."
" Finishing the paragraph, he imitated a person intoxicated. He,
Mr. Thessiger, had now performed almost with loathing the dis-
gusting task of laying before the Jury those passages reserved for
prosecution, and he ought not to waste their time by a single
argument, to show that the tendency of cicd language was to
bring the Christian religion into contempt anti disbelief.
No ex-
pressions could be used of a more indecent or offensive character,
and what motive this unhappy.man— . . •
Mr. Taylor, declared he would not be insulted; he was not
unhappy.
The CHAIRMAN said the defendant was not insulted by that
expression.
Mr. THESSI G El{ onscrved that he pitied the defendant the
Learned' Counsel, iii along exordium besought the Jury not tn
permit such dangerous doctrines as those to be propagated with
impunity ; if they honoured their religion or the laws of their
country, or if they valued their hopes hereafter, lie begged them
to consider the effects of such language, and to do their dutT
God and their country by returning a verdict of O'AiltY, • '
Mr. Joseph Stephens—On Coo Frids,y, April 1,; he attended
the Rotunda, in TliaOicsials,tesad ; Was about seven o'clock ;
on payingitxpenee he went into the boxes. The building was
like a theatre, with a platferm in it for. stage; there was across
suspended over a table which'was furnished in the rclaitie4
celebrating' the Eucharist ; there wasnlis,;•e Pieee4.6` read ;
a sort ofbacchanaliar, cop, and a,biettle, die ,whole covered with
a white cloth. In,a short time a young man came upon the stage
and read the 23d ,'or artp of the Hid 'chapter of Volney's Buins,l
Empiret. Wittess•took short-hand notes in the Rotunda. "1„b
man' gave that chapter as " The first lesson for tala
Evening's Service," He read for about half alt syhesl