The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-08 00:00:00

ELECTIONS.

DOVER.
Second Day—State of the Poll—
Mr. Trant
Mr. Macomb 369
.
DURHAM.

' 4 5 ,t

'Fiist Day—State of the Poll—
. For Sir H. Hardinge
For Mr. Robertson 63

Majority

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

I

eeeer COURT OF KING'S BENCH, FEB. 7.
THE REV. R. TAYLOR.
The following was the judgment pronounced yess-
terday by Mr. Justice BAILEY 011 the Rev. ROBERT
TAYLOR, and which we gave in our Second Edition :
Mr. Justice BAILEY, in passing sentence, addressed Mr.
Taylor in the following terms :—Robert Taylor, it is my
duty to pass upon you the sentence of this Court. .You
have been convicted, and to my mind rightly convicted ;
I say not upon the testimony of an eye-witness only, ,but
upon the testimony of a witness who was speaking to
what had passed in the presence of a hundred and fifty or
two hundred persons, and therefore, if he did not snake a
true representation of that which passed, it would have been
easy for you to have called some one of the persons who were
there, in order to have controlled the judgment of the Jury,
and to have prevented them giving that verdict of guilty
which they did. Taking the verdict to he right, it seems
to me, that this is a prosecution rightly instituted for a
crime of a most serious description. There has been lan-
guage, I regret, used by you to-day, against those persona
by whom the prosecution was instituted, as if they were
actuated by a principle of persecution, as if they had angry
feelings of their own to satiate, and very strong and power-
ful language has been applied to their conduct. In my
mind, considering the nature of this case, they had a bounden
duty to discharge, not for the purpose of bringing down
punishment, but of preserving from contamination those
persons upon whom an attempt, wickedly to contaminate
them, might have been made, and to preserve in the minds
of the young and the thoughtless—and these incapable of
judging for themselves—those influences, those useful
guards, for the prevention of crime, which a sense of some
kind of religion or other is calculated to produce. No
man can doubt that some religion is necessary—it is your
own doctrine. You are for reverence to God—you are
also for the practice of moral righteousness ; but unless we
have our religion sanctioned, as it is, by the perfect convic-
tion of reward or punishment hereafter—unless we have
the comfort, which the hope of forgiveness is calculated to
produce—what feeling can we have, and what is the con-
dition of society? Remove the influence of religion, and
what is man? In the origin, prone to sin, requiring con-
until from time to time—and that controul is one of the
best influences of religion upon the mind. The object of
punishment is not to bring down weight upon the indivi-
dual to whom it is applied, but to guard others against
the commission of like crime, and to prevent the mischief
which such crime is calculated to protium The law of
this land I take to be liberal in principle in this respect,
beyond the example of all other countries. It suffers
every man, freely, soberly, and quietly, to enter into the
discussion of the most sacred and awful truths, and to
judge for himself whether they be true or not. Not as in
some countries, is the book kept from the eyes of the
public at large, but
.every individual has the power of
having it in his own possession, and of judging tOr him-
self. He has the power of canvassing the foundation on
which the religion of the country is based, and of enter-
taining that belief which a careful examination of the sub-
ject is fitted to produce.
I blame no man—the law blames no man for not com-
ing to the conclusion to which the established religion of
' the country comes. It may be said, that a man cannot
control his own belief—God alone may be able to influence
him in that respect, but no man has a right (by that which
was anticipated in prophecy would be the result of
future times) by sarcasm and sophistry to endeavour to
shake the faith of others. Sober and careful discussion
would choose its proper place and its proper audience,
who would be persons of talent, able to appreciate
honest, fair, and legitimate discussion ; but were you
are to push arguments beyond the level of the. capacity
of those to whom it is addressed—in many instances,
Ido not say in all,—the offence is aggravated. There
may he some men, grown up, who have examined the
subject; but when I find from the evidence there are
children there of ten, twelve, and fourteen years of age,
women, and many other persons, are they I would ask,
those to whom such discussion can with safety be ad-
dressed ? Whoever chooses, :for the price of one shilling,
is to be at liberty to enter, for the purpose Nf seeing a
display, and hearing what they may suppose to .be the
doctrine of a person in a clerical gasb„and may; by possi-
bility, go there for the purpose of learning Christian truth.
_things of ultimate advantage to them here and here-
after ; but, instead of that, they may find every good
principle prechided from arising in their minds for the fu-
ture period of their lives, by the manner in which a scoffer
has treated the subject, which persons of sober minds, and
who conscientiously believe that there is an hereafter.
and that every one will be punished according to his acts—
would shudder to hear, and which the removing would
never be, able to obliterate, Now it is stated that this has
been the ninety-third oration, as it is called. This shows
What i
makesw
there has been a continuance of this conduct. Why, was
it fit for the authorities of the city of London, when they
found this was going on for the ninety-third
time, that they should not interfere ? It was
their bounden duty to. have taken care that at least
somebody should have gone to have seen the nature
and character of the address made at this place,
and also what was the appearance of the persons who
met there from time to timeould a ask what
freenha ftraorn:
vicetbise passionssanctions
What
n of
and to do every thing calculated to prevent his
being mischevious to society, and wanting in his duty to his
God? It is his belief iu religion—destroy iahkuesm hainni life
endeavour ?
to be innocent, to control
h
the Christian
religion, and what is man ? Destroy the principle which
from the weak the reverence which religion
in
religion iuculcates, and every man is to make a religion for
hoimsupsiraesk
lf.,e away
ylonu doing
this you destroy all the bonds of society,
Yexpose the poor to the oppression of the rich,
and annihilate all that a due and proper sense of religion,
is calculated to afford. It is with that view--and that
view only—that punishment is to be inflicted. Consider
for one moment, if Christianity be right, and that it is, it
has powerful arguments to support it, from pro-
phecy, from miracles also, but from prophecy cer-
tainly, from the lives of the persons who first pro-
mulgated it, and from the precepts it inculcates no man
in his right4mind can reasonably doubt. Its precepts are
pure, and calculated to advance, and to promote the inte-
rests of society—and that they are calculated to repress
every thing that would injure society, every man who
has a Christian feeling must admit. The Court can-
not but regret that it has a person of education, and
of some degree of talent before it, upon which its sentence
must be passed. He has unfortunately either from the
inclination of his own opinion, or from the persuasion of
other men, become the instrument of doing that, which
may have sapped the influence of others. Consider for
yourself if that be so, for what a heavy weight have you
to answer ! If the Christian religion be true—about
which I entertain no doubt—and you have in any
one instance salved the belief of a isingle person
and induced him to commit crimes and forfeit an
influence which, but for the removal of the restraints
of religion, he never would have practiced, who is respon-
sible for that? The sentence of this Court is, that you
imprisonedtlandforOne in the gaol of Oakham, in the county of
Year ; and that at the expiration of that
time you And sureties for your good behaviour for the space
of five years,
yourself in Five Hundred Pounds, and two
sufficient
persons Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds each ;
and that in
the mean time you be committed into the ens-
tody of
the Marshal.
.' BIRTHS
On the 30th ult. at Kaines Castle, Bute, the lady of
Lieut.-General Sir John Hope, G.C.H. of a daughter.
u
Rb
On the 6th inst. at Hadley, the lady of Captain John
Angelo, of the 3d Bengal Light Cavalry, of a daughter.
On the sth inst. at the Parsonage, Daresbury, Cheshire,
the lady of the Rev. Charles Dodgsen, of a daughter.
On the 7th inst. Mrs. Charles B. Harman, of Wine'
office-court, of a son. .

MARRIED.
On the 6th inst. at Fetchany, by the Rev. C. V. 14
Sumner, W. Hohne Sumner, Esq. to Mary Barnard'
daughter of J. B. Hankeil Esq. of Fetcham Park, tiurre)

DIED.
On the '7th inst. George Vaughan, Esq. of Gravel-10e'
Southwark, in the 73d year of his age.
On the 7th inst. at Hertingfordbury, after a few ds):(
illness, Nicholas Segar Parry, Esq. in the 69th year
his age.

Pronto and PUSLISNED by M. YOUNG, at tl
SUN OflloE, N.. 112, Strand.

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