The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-18 00:00:00

Lion is not only co.
-rupt but nonsensical, is not a blasphe-
mous libel ! Thank You, my Lord Judge ; better late than
never. That judg
• w
true bilan
l. The Grand Jury
as
abetter than would have been
the Grand Jury's finc;ing 1.
just John Joseph Lawson,
returned it ES no true bill a,ga
• was ever known to be
—the first fcr blasphemc us libel tha.
-er the hedge.
so returned. So true is t.he old prover:- that one man may
steal a horse, but another must not Icok o. -•on, when
This will be no bad authority for Hethering be-
called up for judgment, only' it was a smuggled an. -n
twecn the Judge and the Grand Jury. All that I c..
vouch for by witness is, that this was instantly reported by
certain parties who were present. This I and others beard.
I know not the frame of Hetherington's indictment ; but
I have by me in a report of a trial, one that a London
,Grand Jury found about twenty years ago, in the case of
the King against Mary Ann Carlile, the sister of that
Richard Carlile who was then imprisoned with his wife for
similar libels, in Dorchester gaol. The sister, on the im-
prisonment of the wife, took to the management of her
brother's business, and was instnntly prosecuted by a new
Society, formed for the purpose of carrying on such pro-
secutions, in Bridge-street, Blackfriars, calling itself the
Constitutional Association ! A more unconstitutional one
was never formed, even as a direct violation of statute laws,
as a conspiracy to harrass certain individuals. The sub-
scription for the purpose was six thousand pounds; the Duke
of Wellington put his name and money at the head of it,
the most disgraceful act of his life. Mary Ann Carlile
found an honest Juryman on that her first trial, in Philip
Jacob, a merchant, who kept the Jury out 19 hours; and
withholding a verdict of guilty, struck a death-blow at the
whole Association. She was immediately pounced upon
by another Association, miscalling itself a Society for the
Suppression of Vice. Here, her defence was suppressed
by the Judge, the present Lord Wynford, 'nether honest
juryman was wanting, she was condemned, unheard, as
guilty, sentenced to one year's imprisonment in Dorches-
ter gaol, with a fine of five hundred pounds, and kept there
two sears, because she could not pay the fine ! She has
since gone into society unstained in character, has been
since twice respectably married, in the last case, to a Cap-
tain of the army of high character. After Baron Parke's
opinion of what does not constitute a blasphemous libel,
you will not be afraid to reprint that for which Mary Ann
Carlile suffered two years' imprisonment in Dorchester
gaol, where she was worse treated than a felon; because,
in their ward, in one of their cells, separately and solita-
rily, she was locked up apart from them, while they asso-
ciated by day and night, under the magisterially declared
caution, that she might not corrupt the female felons
These were the palmy days of blasphemous and seditious
libel, under Castlereagh, Sidmouth, Eldon, and Liverpool.
It was a small piece of Thomas Paine's writing copied
from an American newspaper, and with other pieces mule
into an eighteen-penny pamphlet, for which she was
prosecuted. Before I make the extract, I will premise,
that Mr. Paine was no theologian, and never ought to have
written on the sabjcct of religion. He was entirely ig-
norant of the force and meaning of ancient theological
language, and applied his strong common sense to a bad
translation of it. In the paragraph about to be quoted, he
was decidedly wrong in his statement about the prophecies
of the Old Testament not applying to Jesus Christ, but then
it was not a wrong of his own originating, but cf the
translators. Dr. Lansle, in his Hebrew Hieroglyphics,
will set any reader right on this subject. I say this, that
it may not be supposed that you or I support his senti-
ments. We arc dealing only with a publicjudicial record,
the indictment of Mary Ann Carlile, in the Court of
King's Bench, in the Easter Term of the second year
of George the Fourth, 1821. I need not copy the
special pleader's verbiage, it is similar to that in the Bill
drawn against Laysun. I confine myself to the lan-
guage indicted. Here it is and this is all !—" Arch-
bishop Tiliotson says, The difference between the style
of the Old and New Testament is so very remark-
able, that one of the greatest sects in the primi-
tive times did upon this very ground found their heresy of
two Gods, the one evil, fierce and cruel, whom they called
the God of the Old Testament; the other was good, kind,
and merciful, whom they called the God of the New Tes-
tament, so great a difference is there between the repre-
sentations that are given of God in the Books of the Jewish
and Christian Religion, as to give at least sonic colour and
pretence to an imagination of two Gods." Thus far
Tillotson.

[We must decline publishing Paine's remarks, because
they refer not to a detective translation, but to the religion
and montle inculcated in the sacred volume itself, and that,
too, in language which will benefit none, but on the con-
trary, give just cause of offence to every sincere Christian."
That is the whole of the blasphemous libel, for the sale
of a copy of which Mary Ann Carlile suffered two full
years of imprisonment in Dorchester gaol. In another
twenty years it will read like one of the trials for witch..
craft. There will be an appearance of romance in the
matter, in future ages, and a difficulty to persuade a rising
generation that such prosecutions were instituted against
women in the nineteenth century.

Drop what is cited from the Archbishop Tillotson, for
surely that is not part of the blasphemous libel; then sepa-
rate what is applied to the Popish Clergy as good matter
for the Stowell's and 111'Neiles of the day, who say much
bitterer things of them ; then contrast what Mr. Baron
Parke says is not a libel in the Times newspaper, with the
remainder. It is worth a double column :

" No libel, to say the B ible " To say, that, because it
is corrupt and nonsensical inlis full of contradictions and
two-thirds of its translation,lwickedness, we dishonour
withholding the divine truths'God by ascribing it to him,
from the people." deserves two year's imprison-
Times and Baron Parke. ment !"—Lord Tenterdcn.

I pray you, Mr. Editor, to lend me a column tow and
then, to stay this public wickedness in the name of re.
ligion.

THE LITTLE STONE.

PUSEYISM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,--With reference to the question of your " young
Dissenting reader," (Sun, Dec. 8,) as to the meaning of
the reproachful term " Puseyite," applied to a very ex-
cellent and pious body of men, I, who am your much
older reader (since 1829), beg to offer a few remarks.
The doctrine of " Apostolical succession," to which
you give so much prominence in your sketch of their tenets,
they merely hold, in common with the great body of di-
vines of the Anglican Church, as well living as dead, and
among the former some of their fiercest opponents. They
would rejoice in any good resulting from the preaching of
unauthorized teachers, and would give them all the respect
due to their characters, as pious, though mistaken,
fellow-Christians, yet do they consider such teachers
as mere laymen, not ministers of Christ's Church ;
and are justified in so doing, inasmuch as the bare
fact of Ministerial success or personal piety can
form no criterion of the validity of ordination,
else were Mr. Wilberforce, or even Mrs. Fry, lawful mi-
nisters. Nor can Dissenters fairly charge them with ilii-
birality for their conscientious opinions. For, if your cor-
respondent be an Anabaptist Dissenter, he would not con-
cede to you or to me (nut having received adult baptism),
the name, a true Christian ; at least he would exclude us
from participating with his sect in what they deem the
Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. With respect to
what you term the " old Popish doctrine" that infants un-
b:-.ptised by a lawful minister cannot be saved, I beg de-
cidedly, but I hope nut uncourtcously, to deny that it is a
Popish doctrine, and certainly it is not an Anglican one.
Roman Catholics expressly allow the validity of baptism
by a layman, or even a woman, in case of necessity. Sense
members only, of the English Church, deny, the validity
of lay baptism, the greater number, of which I am one,
admit it in case of necessity ; but our Church pronounces
no opinion on the state of infants dying uubaptised, or of
heathen nations. Her Burial Service is, of course, adap-
ted only for baptised persons.
If you, or your Correspondent, really wishfor informs.
lion on the subject of Dr. Pusey's doctrines, you will find
subjoined the names of a few short pamphlets, which
will enable you to judge whether or not they
be " flat popery." But, believe me, I speak
from knowledge ; the persons you call "Puseyites"
have really introduced no new doctrines at all. They have
solely and simply revived forgotten truths, to be found in
the pages of Hooker and Hammond, and Jeremy Taylor,
and Hall, and a host of our elder divines. In the first
twelve sermons of good old Bishop Beveridge (recently
reprinted in a small volume), all their tenets as to the
Church, tradition, (not Popish oral tradition), and the Fa-
thers, &c., may be found more strongly asserted than by
themselves. Permit me to give you one hint. The persons
whom you sometimes revile under the name of " Puseyites,'
are not politieo.religious agitators, and therefore. not fair
marks foryour hostility. Reserve it for theiltNeiles,Stowelfs,
and Al' Ghees, who richly deserve it. The high-minded men

I speak of, have nothing to do with politics, they arc
quiet, retired students; men of personal piety and self-
denial. put forth few or no answers to opponents.
Moreover, they are NO GREAT FRIENDS TO RELIGIOVS P.S.
TABLISIIMENTS. They talk too much of " State incum-
brance" to please their bitter adversaries the Times and
Standard. They believe, and 1 have no doubt justly,
that their Church principles would gain immensely in
influence by the severance of State connection. Surely
you, !qr. Editor, occasionally so felicitous a critic on
poetry, cannot really think the author of that garden of
roses " The Christian Year," deserving of the coarse in-
vective you snactirnes bestow on what you call 6. Pu-
seyism." I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN ANGLO-CATHOLIC,

CAUTION TO COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS.--.
On Weduesday evening last a respectably-dmsed person
entered the Star Coffe-e-house, No. 103, Blackfriars-road,
and called for a cup of coffee, and, after sitting a quarter
of an hour, got up to leave
in payment. She th ega
first to
the proprietress hal)f-
a• crown
him two shillings in silver, mild' fiaymvepence in copper; uponv
which the vagabond said, 4. 01 if it is but a penny, I Can
give it you without changing ;" and whilst the mistress of
the house had gone into the back-room to get the 'sail-
crown, the fellow slipped in a rank bad shilling, instead of
one of ti e good ones, and, on receiving hi. half-crown,
gave it, with the other shilling and copper, to the person
from whom be at first received the change, who did not
discover the deception till the fellow had been gone from
the house some few minutes. —From a Currespondeid.
THE SECRETARY OF MACCHIA VELLI ; oa
THE SIEGE or FLORENCE.—The interest excited by the
P'
ot of this admirable historical fiction, has led its critics
for the most part, to pass by with slight notice, what 'ces
undoubtedly, its chief features of popular attraction
namely, the variety and intensity of the human passions it
depicts, and above all, the real characters of
it so vividly places before us. The death bi,storFy,,",,hoicAhr
that greatest spirit of the age in which he lived,c-d
.11acchiavelli, is alone sufficient to fix
aitlention on this
greatr4neesc°'
work. But the circumstance of its hero, being
the secretary and protege of the historical character
just named, is made the means of brining before the
reader many other of the most distinguished spirits of that c
particular its- admirable brichten, that wondrous
gcniuE, Michael Angelo Buonarotti, who plays a conspi-
cuous part in the domestic as well as the historical everts
of the sto: y.