Star.
London, England, 1819-10-13 00:00:00

MR. CARLILE'S TRIAL.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, GUILDHALL
FIRST DAY.—(Continued frotri the Slaa of yesterday.)
When Mr. Carthice ended the reading the First
Part of the Age of Reason, he observed, 4. Gentlemen
of the Jury, I have now concluded the First Part of
'the Age of Reason ; and I think I have upheld the
position I stated in the commencement of my de-
fence, viz. that in this work, for the publication of
which I am this day brought to trial, there is neither
an immoral thought nor word. Nay, more, I venture
to assert, that it contains more moral truth, more
just sentiments of reverence for the DEITY, than can
be collected from all the detached precepts and moral
injunctions to be found in the voluminous pages of
the work of which it is an investigation. I shall now
proceed to read the Second Part of the Age of Rea-
son, from which the Learned Attorney-General has
selected passages to form distinct counts of the In-
formation." He then proceeded to read the com-
ments of Mr. Paine, on the murders, atrocities, and
assassination of infants, which the Bible states Moses
to have committed by the order of GoD. " Why, in
the name of that GOD, Ids the Attorney-General
selected these passages?• But why, Gentlemen, I
ask you to consider, is it, that when he selected these
passages, he has not ventured, nay, most studiously
abstained from speaking a single word upon them.
As I am proceeding to read that part of Mr. Paine's
works, where, out of the Bible itself, he proves the
contradictions of the Bible, I have, for the•serviie
of the Jury, a Bible near me, in order to enable
them, if they think proper, to compare the extracts
with the original." Mr. Carlile proceeded to read the
following extracts from Mr. Paine, as taken from
'the Book of Numbers, Chap. 31st :
" Is. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the
spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the cengre-
.gation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of
Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
" 13. And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes
of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
" 14. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host,
with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds,
which came from the battle.

" 15. And Moe, said unto them, Have ye saved all the
women alive?

" 16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through
the counsel of Balsam, to commit trespass against the Lord In
the matter of Peor, and there was a plague anions the congre-
gation of the Lord. _ _ _

" 17. Now therefore kill every male among the little oats,
and kill every woman that bath known man by lying with him.

" 18. But all the women children that have not known a
man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
" If," said Mr. CARLILE, " I had written such
blasphemy—if I had published it,.and imputed it to
the orders of ALMIGIITY GOD, how 'could I appear
before you to ask your favourable interpretation of
my motives? with what severity of invective would
my objects and my moral feelings have been im-
peached, even by the very persons who now prose-
cute me ?"

When Mr. CARLILE reached that part of the dis-
quisition of Paine which denied the Book of Job to
be a Jewish production, he observed, that in the Li-
brary of the East India Company, in Leadenhall-
street. there was a Persian manuscript, which, in the
shape of a drama, gave the Book of Job—a proof
which coincided with the internal evidence, that it
was a Gentile, and not a Hebrew production. •
At About half-past tire o'clock, when the candles
were about to be lighted, Mr. CARLILE appealed to
his Lordship to relieve him in his exhausted state,
either by adjourning the Court or permitting some
person to read for him, as he found It impossible to
proceed.
The CHIEF JUSTICE replied, that it was then toe
early to adjourn ; but suggested, that if be (Mr. Car-
lile) wanted to take refrfthment, lie might retire for
a short while.

Mr. CARLILY then withdrew, accompanied by Mr.
HUNT, and in a-few moments returned, and resumed
his task of reading the Age of Reason.
-Mr. HUNT entered the Court some time after, and
sat by his sidc as before. He was loudly applauded
by the crowd ateembled in the Hall, as he passed
in and out.

Mr. CARLILE, after reading the passages which re-
fer to the Nativity, observed- to the Jury, that the
Attorney-General had laid considerable stress upon
that part of the subject in the course of his address.
It was not a little extraordinary that he should have
done so, as he was an Unitarian himself; and as the
Unitarians spoke of it in the same tone which Mr.
Paine had then adopted, he did not see why Paine
should not use the same language which the Unita-
rians were protected in using by the authority of an
Act of Parliament. At another part of the Work
which repeats the charge of fabulous invention
against the statements of Sacred History, he alluded
to the Attorney-General's assertion, that Paine was,
in private, a believer in the doctrines whose founda-
tion he disputed publicly. He defended the consis-
tency of Paine, by stating that he had no reason, and
could have no motive, for contradicting his own be.
lief. He was in confinement at the time—he was
every day expecting to be brought to the guillotine,
and, under such circumstances, had writtejs the

Work in question. He further took occaionfo vin-
dicate his moral character, by an anecdote, which,
he thought, would prove, according to his own as-
sertion, that he never returned evil for evil. The
anecdote was as follows :—One day, while Mr. Paine
was in France, having entered one of the Coffee-
houses, where he found a number of Gentlemen, aqd
among the rest, an Officer of the English Army...
he joined the conversation, and spoke his opinions
freely. The English Officer took offence at some of
his expressions against the gnpsh Government, and
proceeded even so far as to strike him a blow. The
offence would, if prosecuted, have exposed the Offi-
cer to the punishment of death, (or Mr. Paine was at
that time a Member of the National Convention/
The populace were outrageous at the insult, but Mr.
Paine interfered himself in behalf of the Officer, and
even assisted him with Money to return to England.
Mr. Carlile having read for a considerable time
longer, made another pause; after which he exclaimed,
" Give me the Age of Reason, And allow me to
preach from it, and the Attorney-tkneral may 'do
What he likes with the Bible. Why, then should he
bring me here? Why should he require of you, Gen-
tiem Pr the Jury, to hrpwt me into thf hands of
—to destroy my prospects, to ruin my family,
o leave me at the mercy of those who nay per-
ill
laps throw me into a dungeon to rot and Perish, and
that mead/ for publishing this boot ? After all the

declamation of the Attorney-General„ I say, give me
thismb°o°ukr respective
—igtl)
im
h texts,avetlhaentibileee—wlhetonws Whin
dlakprea:s
thech
I
'most converts r—On comic; to those passages in
Third Part of the Publication which allude to Mn,
Whiston, he related the following anecdote of that
Gentleman:—Being a favourite with Queen-Cato-
line, the wife of George I. he walked with her Ma-
jesty one day, while a prosecution was depending
against him for some comments on the Bible. The
Queen remarked to him—" Mr. Whiston, whatever
your religious opinions may be, I think you had bet-
ter keep them to yourself, and not make such a stir
about them."—" Ah r replied Mr. Whiston, " if Lu-
ther and Chlvin, and other Reformers, had kept taeir
opinions to themselves, and made no stir about them,
where would your Majesty be now?" The Queen
was satisfied by this appeal—she saw the propriety
of permitAkg every man to speak his own fair opi-
nion, and the prosecution was dropped soon after.
—About ten o'clock Mr. CARGILL finished reading
the Age of Reason, together with the Appendia, hav-
ing been ergaged in reading it for nearly eleven
hours. His voice was clear, and distinct to the end,
and his physical power (for there was no other exer-
ted) seemed as fresh as ever. His manner of reading
was generally unemphatic and monotonous, and his
pronunciation, in a great variety of instances, ex-
tremely faulty. The Bench and Jury paid the ut-
most attention to every thing which he read or deli-
vered.—" I have now," be concluded, " presented to
you the whole of the Work on which the informa-
tion is founded. The .entiments and opinions of Mr.
Paine on the subjects under discussion are also mine.
—This work contains a body of truth to which I
subscribe. It could not be proved to have any im-
moral tendency ; it evinced an enlarged and liberal
mind. The author had said, that be could not be
complaisant to error and falsehood, and as he consi-
dered the Old and New Testament as replete with
falsehood, he treated them with little respect. I now
feel myself exhausted, and beg your Lordship (ad-
dressing the Chief-Justice) to adjourn the Court till
to-morrow."

The CHIEF-JUSTICE—Have you much more to say
in defence ?

The Defendant—lf my bodily strength would per-
mit, I could go on till Saturday.
The CniEr4usrica--As I would not willingly
curtail your defence, if you request me, I shall now
adjourn till to-morrow.
Defendant—l request it, my Lord.
The Csitur-JusTica, addressing the Jury, said, that
he was not desirous of imposing upon them any re-
straints. They would, of course, tare care not to
hold communicatidns with any persons on the subject
under trial. His Lordship then left the Court.
The Jury, of course, were permitted to separate.
The immense crowd which filled the Hall, in the
early part of the day, remained till the last ; and
when Mr. Carlile left Court, he was greeted with
clapping and other marks of encouragement. He
took some slight refreshment at the Guildhall Coffee-
house, and was accompanied home in a coach by
Mr. Hunt, who during the whole trial sat by him
in Court.

The Archbishop of CANTERIURY, attired in his
Canonicals, waited in the parlour behind the Bench
during the greater part of the day, in expectation of
being called. It is said that four of the Bench of
Bishops were also in attendance in the neighbourhood.