American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-12-02


| calling into him one or two of the treemen, TO
warn or cal such person before him, and up
on sufficient proof, to pass sentence and levy
the said penalties, according to the usual order
of Justice in this Jurisdiction. But if any such
person be not able, or utterly refuse to pay the
aforementioned fines, or any of them, he shall in
such case be committed to the stocks, and for
the first offence shall continue there betwixt
one and two hours; for the second offence, be-
twixt three and four hours. But if the same
person, Notwithstanding the former proceed
ings, shall offend the third time, by such swear
ing, or cursing, he shall be whipped for his in
corigible prophaneness. But if swearing and
cursing 60 both together, or be accompanied
with other signal aggravations, such miscar-
riages shall be punished with higher fine, or
corporally with due severity, as the Court shal
Judge meet"
These curious enactments may be looked up
on as the over-zealous and unduly severe blue
law regulations of the Puritans; but we find
still more severe penalties for the same offences
in Maryland, as late as 1893, under the reign
of William and Mary; also, in the Island of
Barbados, penalties of milder character.
In Maryland it was enacted, that
elf any person whatsoever within this pro-
vince shall blaspheme, that is, curse God, deny
our Savior to be the Son of God, or deny the
Holy Trinity, or the Godhead of any of the
three persons, or the unity of the Godhead, or
shall utter any reproachiul words or language
concerning the Holy Trinity, or any Of the
three persons thereof, he or she shall, for the
first offence, be bored through the tongue and
fined go sterling to the king, towards defray-
ing the county charge where the offence was
committed. Or, if the party hath not an es-
tate sufficient to answer the sum, then TO suffer
six months imprisonment. For the second Of
fence, he or she shall be stigmatized in the
forehead with the letter B, and fined Gao ster-
ling to the uses aforesaid, or imprisonment for
one whole year. And for the third offence, he
or she so offending, and thereof legally convic-
ted, shall suffer death with coniscation of all
their goods and chattels to the King
In Barbados, in the same year. it was en-
acted that
"Whosoever shall swear or curse, shall pay
down. if freeman, lbs. of sugar; if servant,
lbs. of sugar, or be put in the stocks.''
Here is abundant evidence that all attempts
to control the tongue-that "unruly member"
are as vain as the efforts of the ancient war
riors to chastise the waves of the sea into ODE
dence; and, however pure and beneficial might
have been the intention of the law makers Of
the old time, their method of carrying out
their views only made that backer which was
black enough before. 1t was from contempt
of these very laws, that the wide spread prac-
tlce of swearing originated amosg us-a prac-
tice now so universal as to be one of our dis
tinctive national peculiarities, and TO be chro-
nicled by European travellers as native TO the
soil.
A REMARKABLE PHENOMENON. A remark
able psychological phnnomonon is brought to
public notice by an Ohio correspondent of the
New York Observer, "a reputable clergyman
in the case of lady of his congregation. His
account is subjoined;
Not very remote from Cadiz, Ohio, there
lives Mrs. B, member of the Presbyte-
rian Church in good standing This lady for
years past has inpoluntarily and unconsciou,ly
delivered religious discourse from one to
three hours in duration regularly on every
Sabbath at about the usual hour of the morn
ing service.
She generally appears somewhat unwell and
oppressed on the morning preceding these ex-
ercises; near the time commencing her dis
course she appears swooning away, from which
she appears to recover in some degree, still
frothing at the mouth, pale and deeply excr-
cised; she recliHes upon her couch, and regu-
larlv addresses an audience of from two to five
hundred persons. After SHE closes she appears
10 faint away with exhaustion-but is soon re-
stored to her ordinary health and spirits
Then she is totally unconscious of what she
has done or said, and can only remember what
occurred up to the time that she seemed to
pass under the control of this strange affection.
Her discourse s pious fervent strain of e1-
H. So t,1l. IL
not remarkable for repetition. She is de-
cided Calvinist and is sometimes severe in her
aninadversions upon the sins of the day.
Many people in the neighborhood think she
is inspired. Intelligent persons regard her af-
lection as very remarkable species of cata-
lepsy. There are some things about it that
are very difficult to explain. In some respects
the case appears analogous to that of the Ger
man servant girl, who under the delirium of
fever repeated correctly pages of Greek and
Hebrew, Of which languages she was totally
ignorant. 1t may be that the religious reading
of this lady and her devout meditations, to
which she IS inclined in her ordinary health,
furnish her with the materials for her Sabbath
discourses; and that these things are brought
up while laboring under her cataleptic affection
on the same principle on which the Hebrew
and Greek-which the servant girl had heard
read, came wildly to mind and got utterance
at her lips. But why these affections wholly
involuntary should be on the Sabbath and not
on a week day-why they should be every
other Sabbath and not every Sabbath or every
third Sabbath-and why they should be about
eleven o'clock in the morning and not at six
or nine or some other hour Of twenty-four?
shall leave to your wiser correspondents TO an
swer.
RAIN STORM. The rain on Thursday last
was very great at the east. In Boston, inch
es, 3-sths and l-l6th of water fell during the
day, an amount which has but seldom been
exceeded within the same number of hours in
IL :. aI..aa.a H. ...-.. --.---.-.--I -----.