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+ float: left; + margin-right: 1em } + +.align-right { clear: right; + float: right; + margin-left: 1em } + +.align-center { margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto } + +div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } + +/* SECTIONS */ + +body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } + +/* compact list items containing just one p */ +li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } + +.first { margin-top: 0 !important; + text-indent: 0 !important } +.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } + +.dropcap { float: left; } +span.dropcap { margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } +img.dropcap { margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; } +span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } +.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } + +/* PAGINATION */ + +@media screen { + .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage + { margin: 10% 0; } + + div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage + { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } + + .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } +} + +@media print { + div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } + div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } + + .vfill { margin-top: 20% } + h2.title { margin-top: 20% } +} + +</style> +<title>THE TRIAL OF HENRY HETHERINGTON</title> +<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> +<meta name="PG.Title" content="The Trial of Henry Hetherington" /> +<meta name="PG.Producer" content="David Widger" /> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Henry Hetherington" /> +<meta name="DC.Created" content="1840" /> +<meta name="PG.Id" content="39055" /> +<meta name="PG.Released" content="2012-03-05" /> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="The Trial of Henry Hetherington" /> + +<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> +<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> +<meta content="The Trial of Henry Hetherington" name="DCTERMS.title" /> +<meta content="trial.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> +<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> +<meta content="2012-03-05T17:34:09.818222+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> +<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> +<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39055" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> +<meta content="Henry Hetherington" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> +<meta content="2012-03-05" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> +<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> +<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> +<style type="text/css"> +.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; } +.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; } +.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.toc-pageref { float: right } +pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39055 ***</div> +<div class="document" id="the-trial-of-henry-hetherington"> +<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">THE TRIAL OF HENRY HETHERINGTON</h1> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by David Widger.</span></p> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> +</div> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 70%"> +<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/cover.jpg" /> +</div> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost"> +<div class="line"><span class="bold x-large">THE TRIAL OF HENRY HETHERINGTON</span></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">By</cite></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"><span class="bold x-large">Henry Hetherington</span></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">On an Indictment for Blasphemy</span></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="id1"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="container contents" id="id2"> +<ul class="compact simple toc-list"> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#a-full-report-of-the-trial-of-henry-hetherington" id="id3">A FULL REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF HENRY HETHERINGTON</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-trial" id="id4">THE TRIAL</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#indictment" id="id5">INDICTMENT</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#second-count" id="id6">Second Count:</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#third-count" id="id7">Third Count:</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#mr-bult-opened-the-proceedings" id="id8">Mr. Bult opened the proceedings</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#defence" id="id9">DEFENCE</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#observations" id="id10">OBSERVATIONS</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#extract-from-the-sun-newspaper" id="id11">Extract from The Sun Newspaper</a></li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><a class="reference internal" href="#to-lord-denman-on-the-late-prosecution-for-blasphemy" id="id12">"TO LORD DENMAN, ON THE LATE PROSECUTION FOR BLASPHEMY</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +</div> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="a-full-report-of-the-trial-of-henry-hetherington"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">A FULL REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF HENRY HETHERINGTON</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">ON AN INDICTMENT FOR BLASPHEMY,</p> +<p class="pnext">LORD DENMAN AND A SPECIAL JURY,</p> +<p class="pnext">ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1840;</p> +<p class="pnext">FOR SELLING HASLAM'S LETTERS TO THE CLERGY TO ALL DENOMINATIONS:</p> +<p class="pnext">THE WHOLE OF THE AUTHORITIES CITED IN THE DEFENCE, AT FULL LENGTH.</p> +<p class="pnext">LONDON:</p> +<p class="pnext">PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HENRY HETHERINGTON, 1-26, STRAND;</p> +<p class="pnext">AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.</p> +<p class="pnext">1840</p> +<p class="pnext">Price Sixpence.</p> +<p class="pnext">To</p> +<p class="pnext">JAMES WATSON,</p> +<p class="pnext">BOOKSELLER,</p> +<p class="pnext">THE FRIEND OF TRUTH, THE INFIDEL TO ERROR, AND THE LOVER OF LIBERTY,</p> +<p class="pnext">THIS TRIAL</p> +<p class="pnext">IS DEDICATED,</p> +<p class="pnext">IN PROOF OF THE AFFECTIONATE ATTACHMENT THAT SUBSISTS BETWEEN TWO +FRIENDS, WHO FULLY RECOGNISE AND ACT UPON THE PRINCIPLES AVOWED AND +CONTENDED FOR IN THE FOLLOWING DEFENCE; AND AS A TRIBUTE OF ESTEEM,</p> +<p class="pnext">TO GOD'S NOBLEST WORK--AN HONEST MAN!</p> +<p class="pnext">BY HIS FAITHFUL FRIEND,</p> +<p class="pnext">HENRY HETHERINGTON.</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="the-trial"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">THE TRIAL</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, December 8, 1840.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sittings at Nisi Prius at Westminster, before Lord DENMAN and a +Middlesex Special Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">PROSECUTION FOR BLASPHEMY.</p> +<p class="pnext">THE QUEEN Versus HETHERINGTON.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was a prosecution instituted by Her Majesty's Attorney-General, Sir +John Campbell, against Henry Hetherington, bookseller, of 126, Strand, +for the publication of a blasphemous libel.</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="indictment"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">INDICTMENT</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">O</span><span class="dropspan">f</span> Easter term, in the Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria. +Middlesex:--</p> +<p class="pnext">Be it remembered, that on Tuesday, the twenty-eighth day of April, in +the third year of the reign of our sovereign lady Victoria, by the +grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, +Defender of the Faith, in the court of our said lady the Queen, before +the Queen herself at Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, upon +the oath of twelve jurors, good and lawful men, of the said county of +Middlesex, now here sworn and charged to inquire for our said lady the +Queen for the body of the same county; it is presented as followeth, +that is to say, Middlesex to wit. The jurors for our lady the Queen upon +their oath present, that Henry Hetherington, late of Westminster, in +the county of Middlesex, bookseller, <em class="italics">being a wicked, impious, and +ill-disposed person</em>, and having no regard for the laws and religion of +this realm, but <em class="italics">most wickedly, blasphemously, impiously, and profanely +devising and intending to asperse and vilify that part of the Holy Bible +which is called the Old Testament</em>, on the third day of February, in the +third year of the reign of our sovereign lady Victoria, by the grace of +God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender +of the Faith, at Westminster aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, did +publish, and cause to be published, a certain scandalous, impious, and +blasphemous libel, of and concerning that part of the Holy Bible which +is called the Old Testament, containing therein, amongst other things, +divers scandalous, impious, and blasphemous matters of and concerning +that part of the Holy Bible which is called the Old Testament, according +to the tenor and effect following, that is to say, "What wretched stuff +this Bible (meaning that part of the Holy Bible which is called the +Old Testament) is, to be sure! What a random idiot its author must have +been! I would advise the human race to burn every Bible they have got. +Such a book is actually a disgrace to ourang outangs, much less to men. +I would advise them to burn it, in order that posterity may never +know we believed in such abominable trash. What must they think of our +intellects? What must they think of our incredible foolery? And we not +only believe it, but we actually look upon the book as the sacred word +of God, as a production of infinite wisdom. Was insanity ever more +complete? I for one, however, renounce the book; I renounce it as a vile +compound of filth, blasphemy, and nonsense, as a fraud and a cheat, <em class="italics">and +as an insult to God,"</em> to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the +great scandal, infamy, and contempt of that part of the Holy Bible which +is called the Old Testament, to the evil example of all others, and +against the peace of our said lady the Queen, her crown, and dignity.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="second-count"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">Second Count:</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">A</span><span class="dropspan">nd</span> the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, further present, +that the said Henry Hetherington, devising and intending as aforesaid, +on the eleventh day of February and year aforesaid, at Westminster +aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, did publish, and cause to be +published, a certain other scandalous, impious, and blasphemous libel, +of and concerning that part of the Holy Bible which is called the Old +Testament, containing therein, amongst other things, divers scandalous, +impious, and blasphemous matters of and concerning that part of the +Holy Bible which is called the Old Testament, according to the tenor and +effect following, that is to say, "One great question between you and me +is, 'Is the Bible (meaning that part of the Holy Bible which is called +the Old Testament) the word of God, or is it not? I assert that it is +not the word of God, and you assert that it is; and I not only assert +that it is not the word of God, but that it is a book containing more +blunders, more ignorance, and more nonsense, than any book to be found +in the universe," to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the great +scandal and contempt of that part of the Holy Bible which is called the +Old Testament, to the evil example of all others, and against the peace +of our lady the Queen, lier crown, and dignity.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="third-count"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">Third Count:</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">A</span><span class="dropspan">nd</span> the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, further present, +that the said Henry Hetherington, further devising and intending as +aforesaid, on the day and year last aforesaid, at Westminster aforesaid, +in the county aforesaid, did publish, and cause to be published, +a certain other scandalous, impious, and blasphemous libel of and +concerning that part of the Holy Bible which is called the Old +Testament, containing therein, among other things, divers scandalous, +impious, and blasphemous matters of and concerning that part of the Holy +Bible which is called the Old Testament, in one part thereof, according +to the tenor and effect following, that is to say, "My object, and I +fearlessly state it, is to expose this book (meaning that part of the +Holy Bible which is called the Old Testament) in such a manner, that the +children of the Stockport Sunday-school will reject it with contempt and +in another part thereof, according to the tenor and effect following, +that is to say,</p> +<p class="pnext">"Such a book (meaning that part of the Holy Bible which +is called the Old Testament) ought to be rejected by every one. The +human race have been too long gulled with such trash. Moses was the +inventor of this grand cheat; and although it may have done some little +towards frightening people into what is called morality, the purpose for +which Moses invented it is now out of date,</p> +<p class="pnext">"to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the great scandal and +contempt of that part of the Holy Bible which is called the Old +Testament, to the evil example of all others, and against the peace of +our lady the Queen, her crown, and dignity."</p> +<p class="pnext">[Witness] ALEXANDER KERR,</p> +<p class="pnext">One sworn in court.</p> +<p class="pnext">A true Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the names of the gentlemen summoned as Special Jurymen being called +over, only five answered to their names.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General prayed a tales, when the following were sworn:--</p> +<p class="pnext">The Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">Special--</p> +<p class="pnext">Robert Savage, Esq., 11, Montaguplace, Bloomsbury.</p> +<p class="pnext">James Arboine, merchant, 3, Brunswick-square.</p> +<p class="pnext">William Fechney Black, merchant, Wilton-place.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charles Frederick Barnwell, Esq., 44, Woburn-place.</p> +<p class="pnext">Robert Eglinton, merchant, 29, Woburn-square.</p> +<p class="pnext">Common Jurors--</p> +<p class="pnext">Charles Ricketts, stove-maker, 5, Agar-street, West Strand.</p> +<p class="pnext">William Polden, licensed victualler, Villiers-street, Strand.</p> +<p class="pnext">John Osborne, confectioner, 401, Strand.</p> +<p class="pnext">John Johnson Ruffell, painter, 24, Church-street, Soho.</p> +<p class="pnext">Thomas Reid, baker, 24, Old Compton-street, Soho.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charles Phillips, ivory brush-maicer, 20, King-street, Soho. J. Mahew, +baker, 84, Greek-street, Soho.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="mr-bult-opened-the-proceedings"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8">Mr. Bult opened the proceedings</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">T</span><span class="dropspan">he</span> Attorney-General said, this was an indictment found by the Grand +Jury of Middlesex, for the publication of certain blasphemous libels. +It appeared to him that all he should have to do, would be to prove +the publication of the libels in question. He had not hesitated for one +moment, when he found there were only five Special Jurymen, to pray a +tales, because it was to him a matter of perfect indifference from what +class of society the Jury was taken. It had frequently been laid down by +the Judges, that to insult and vilify Christianity was against the +law. Publications insulting religion, and addressed to the vulgar and +uneducated, were most dangerous. He would call a witness who purchased +these books in the defendant's shop, the defendant himself being +present; and he should prove that the defendant was rated to that house. +It gave him pain that it should be necessary for the Jury to hear such +shocking attacks as were contained in this publication. It consisted +of a series of letters, and each number was sold for a penny. It was +"Letters to the Clergy of all Denominations" and was, in fact, an attack +upon the Holy Scriptures, particularly on the Old Testament. He should +content himself with reading one extract.--(The learned Gentleman then +read an extract from Letter 8, contained in the first count of the +indictment.) Mr. Hetherington was in person to defend himself: they +would hear what he had to say, and then he (the Attorney-General) would +have an opportunity of again addressing them.</p> +<p class="pnext">The following witness was then called and examined by Sir F. Pollock.</p> +<p class="pnext">Alexander Kerr, a policeman, bought the "Letters to the Clergy," 5, +8, and 13, at the shop of the defendant, 126, Strand, on the 5th of +February last. A young man served him. Knows defendant--he was standing +on the threshold of the door at the time; has known him for the last +three years; has seen him repeatedly at the shop. Paid one penny each +for the letters.</p> +<p class="pnext">Cross-examined by Mr. Hetherington.--Did not come in his uniform to +purchase them. Came from directions he had received, not from any +reputation the work had acquired. Did not read the fifth number or +the eighth number of the book purchased at the shop. Stated at the Old +Bailey, at the trial of Mr. Cleave, that he had read a copy, but not the +one purchased of defendant. Curiosity induced him to read it. It did +not shake his opinion--it did not make him burn his Bible; quite the +opposite. He is a plainly-educated man. Was instructed to purchase all +he could get at defendant's shop. Purchased other numbers, but did not +read them. The work produced no effect on him to induce him to follow +the recommendations of the author.</p> +<p class="pnext">George Sherwill, collector of poor's-rate for the liberty of the Savoy, +proved that defendant was rated for No. 126.</p> +<p class="pnext">The libels were then put in and read: first, No. 8 of "Haslam's Letters +to the Clergy of all Denominations," then 5 of the same work, and then +18.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General said, that was the case for the prosecution.</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="defence"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9">DEFENCE</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">M</span><span class="dropspan">y</span> Lord--Gentlemen of the Jury,</p> +<p class="pnext">"In rising to vindicate myself from the charge preferred against me in +this indictment, I shall not attempt to justify the language alluded +to by the Attorney-General; but I cannot refrain from expressing my +surprise that the Government, after having encouraged the circulation +of cheap knowledge upon all subjects,--in Penny Magazines and Penny +Cyclopaedias,--should have placed me on my trial upon such a flimsy +charge as this--for flimsy it undoubtedly is, when, out of a work +comprising nearly 500 pages, the Attorney-General can only find one +passage,--that in the eighth Letter, which is, I admit, expressed in +very improper language,--whereon to found an indictment. I contend that +it is impossible to say where a person is to stop in his inquiries. If a +person is permitted to reject one tenet, another may reject another; and +there is no reason why another should not go on, and reject the +whole. In the whole work there is not one disrespectful word about +Christianity; it is a rejection of the miracles ascribed to Moses in the +Old Testament, which have been indignantly rejected by many learned men. +The work was not intended as a scurrilous attack, but as an inquiry into +the effects of the usages of society, founded upon the Old Testament. +The object of Mr. Haslam was benevolent; and however much he might err, +he was not criminal. He undertook to prove to the clergy that they +were all in error that the doctrines they are teaching to the people +are false, absurd, and irrational; that they are directly contrary to +reason; and that, so long as they are preached to the people, so long +will the people be vicious, wretched, and unhappy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The Attorney-General has only read the objectionable passages: I will +read a few passages from Mr. Haslam's first Letter, which will enable +the Jury to understand the nature of his work, and appreciate his +motives. Having frankly stated his object, he proceeds:--</p> +<p class="pnext">"You, no doubt, will feel concerned at this; you will very likely be +angry with me for this daring attempt; you will call me Deist, Atheist, +Infidel, and many other charitable epithets; you will feel unutterable +things towards me; and I shall, no doubt, be subject to the <em class="italics">extreme +charity</em> of your <em class="italics">pious</em> congregations, who profess to 'love their +neighbours as themselves,' and into whose minds you have crammed +absurdity after absurdity, until they have scarcely room for another. +I shall, no doubt, expose myself to all manner of ill-feeling and +uncharitableness, and to calumnies and lies of every description; but +shall these deter me from making known the convictions of iny mind? +Shall these hinder me from exposing the errors and absurdities which I +see interested men instilling into the minds of the people? Shall these +prevent me from telling the people that they are deceived and imposed +upon, and that their beggary, and want, and wretchedness, are the +consequences of it? Shall these, in short, stop me from exposing the +irrationalities which I see everywhere around me, and which occasion so +much misery and unhappiness to my fellow-men? No, I tell you they shall +not. That power which sent you into the world, sent me into the world +also; and if you have a right to think and speak, I have a right to +think and speak also. I have received an organization for the purpose as +well as any of you; and as long as that organization remains unimpaired, +so long will I tell the world what I think and feel.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why should any of you be angry with me? If I can prove your doctrines +to be false and erroneous, what occasion is there for anger? What +can you want with doctrines that are false? As honest men you ought +immediately to abandon them. Instead, therefore, of being angry with +me, you ought to have the very opposite feeling; for of what service can +error and nonsense be to any man, or any set of men?</p> +<p class="pnext">"But if I prove that your doctrines are not only false and erroneous, +but that they occasion a vast amount of mischief to the people; that +they occasion want and vice, and all manner of wickedness, and that, by +removing them from the minds of the people, and substituting truths, all +this want, and vice, and wickedness might be put an end to; if, I say, +I prove this, why should you be angry with me for doing it? Surely +you cannot wish the people to remain in a state of want, and vice, and +wickedness; and yet, if you do not, why should you be angry at me for +showing you the causes of them, and pointing out the means for their +removal?</p> +<p class="pnext">"You talk a great deal about morality and religion; you manifest in your +pulpits a great anxiety to spread them amongst the people; but who can +believe you to be sincere, when you resist every attempt to remove the +causes of immorality and irreligion? You must know that effects cannot +be removed without removing the causes of them, and by resisting the +removal of these causes, you evidently show a disposition to keep the +people in wickedness. This wickedness proceeds from certain causes. We +have pointed these causes out to you, and if you will not remove them, +does not that evidently show that you would rather that the people were +wicked? Can there be conclusions more logical? What ridiculous cant it +must be then to talk about morality and religion?</p> +<p class="pnext">"My assumption then is, that the belief of every man is given to him +<em class="italics">independently of his will</em>, and that, therefore, no just power can +punish him for it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Your assumption is the opposite of this; you assert that the belief of +every man depends upon his own will; <em class="italics">that he can either believe in the +Bible, or not believe in the Bible</em>; that he can either be Christian or +Jew, Mahomedan or Infidel, and that, therefore, God will punish him if +he do not believe in a particular manner.</p> +<p class="pnext">"These then, are our respective assumptions--and now let reason, 'the +grand prerogative of man,' determine between us.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Gentlemen, contrast the spirit of Mr. Haslam in this passage with the +spirit of my prosecutors. He invokes Reason, 'the grand prerogative of +man,' to determine between them; the Clergy, on the contrary, resort to +prosecution to crush a reasoning opponent.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I beg to inform you that I have read the Bible attentively, and that +the more I read it the more reason I see for disbelieving it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The Bible asserts things which the whole of my senses tell me are +false; and if my senses are independent of myself, how can I help +disbelieving it?</p> +<p class="pnext">"I know that God gave me my senses; but how can I believe God made the +Bible, when it is directly opposed to these senses? To believe that God +is the author of both, is to believe that God commits absurdities like +yourselves; and to ascribe such a paltry and blundering performance as +the Bible to that power which governs the universe is to dishonour that +power, if any thing can dishonour it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But a man's belief is not only formed independently of his will, but +it is often formed in direct opposition to it. I, for instance, once +believed that the principles which I now hold were false; I used +to argue against them, and even write against them, and my will to +disbelieve them was so strong, owing to their apparent absurdity, that +I used to be delighted when I imagined I had discovered a fresh argument +with which I might overturn them. Continuing, however, to argue, I began +to see their truth; I saw the principles more clearly; I found I had +mistaken them very much; and at last I saw into them as clearly, as +Cobbett used to say, as the sun at noon-day.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now here, you see, my will was to disbelieve these principles; but, +after the process of reasoning was over, I was compelled to alter my +will. This, then, being the case, was that will free? Could I have +continued to disbelieve them, when my convictions told me they were +true? And if I could not, where, I again ask, was my free will?</p> +<p class="pnext">"Here, then, is reasoning enough to prove the truth of my assumption; +and now I beg to call your attention to its peculiar effect upon your +various systems of religion.</p> +<p class="pnext">"In conclusion, therefore, I beg to call upon you to defend your +doctrines from the serious charges I have here made, and shall continue +to make against them. You may either do it by writing, or by verbal +discussion, whichever you please. But do not continue to act so meanly +and dishonourably, as to preach doctrines to the people which have over +and over again been proved to be false and absurd, and which none of you +are able to defend."</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, you will see by these passages that Mr. Haslam appeals to +reason. He calls upon the Clergy to defend their doctrines, telling +them they may either do it "by writing, or by verbal discussion." The +Government, however, disregarded this appeal; they ought to have called +upon the Bishop of Exeter, and other well-paid bigots of his class, to +come forward and confute Mr. Haslam. But instead of this they prosecute +a bookseller, who had never read a line of the book until this +prosecution. They ought to meet Mr. Haslam with his own weapons; and +it is disgraceful to the Government, which has always advocated the +diffusion of cheap knowledge, to submit to the taunts of the Bishop of +Exeter, and other bigots like him, by instituting these prosecutions for +blasphemy. However we may disapprove of Haslam's doctrines, we cannot +but perceive that he is sincere in his belief.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I will, as I proceed, prove to you that the convictions of +a tat which he now believes to be true to have been false. Gentlemen, +I readily admit that the passage in the eighth number is offensively +worded; but I will prove that the free exercise of the right of inquiry +is not, and ought not to be, an offence in law. I will also call your +attention to the hardship of a general bookseller being held responsible +for every book that he sells, and will call your attention to the +oath you have taken, and claim from you that acquittal to which I am +entitled. I claim no exemption from punishment if I sell any obscene +publication,--anything calculated to corrupt or demoralize society,--or +any attacks upon a man's private character; but in cases of the +discussion of abstract truths, is a man to be punished for the +convictions of his mind, which are not in the power of his will? It +is too bad to bring a man into a court of justice on account of a few +solitary passages in a work of this nature.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen of the Jury, our great and popular moralist, Dr. Johnson, has +declared that "Truth is the basis of all excellence." This axiom is so +clear and indisputable, that no intelligent man can hesitate to adopt +it. How, then, can the truth, upon the various subjects interesting to +human beings, be elicited? Not by letting interested men think for us, +but by judging for ourselves--by collecting and examining facts +and arguments, and communicating to society the impressions they +respectively make upon our minds. There is no effectual mode of arriving +at truth, but by the exercise of the right of free inquiry, and the +unrestricted publication of the result of such inquiry. This right has +been deemed of pre-eminent importance from time immemorial, and by men +of all sects and parties; and although corrupt and tyrannical rulers in +the past ages of the world have prosecuted honest men, and endeavoured +to suppress the truth, you will find that in every case to which I shall +call your attention, the intrepid advocates of truth have ultimately +triumphed. Now, Gentlemen of the Jury, I will proceed at once to fortify +myself with a few authorities,--not that I think truth depends upon +great names, however numerous and illustrious they may be, but because +I am determined to advance nothing that is not, in my opinion, strictly +true, and sanctioned and maintained by the greatest intellects of the +age.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I will begin with a Bishop.</p> +<p class="pnext">"God has given us rational faculties to guide and direct us, and we must +make the most of them that we can; we must judge with our own reasons, +as well as see with our own eyes; and it would-be very <em class="italics">rash, unmanly, +and base</em> in us to muffle up our own understandings, and deliver +our reason and faith over to others blindfold."--<em class="italics">Bishop Burnett's +Thirty-nine Articles</em>, A. 39.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Gentlemen of the Jury, will you, by your verdict, consign a man to +a dungeon, because he is too honest and independent to act a '<em class="italics">rash, +unmanly, and base</em>' part? Will you declare, by your verdict, that +henceforth we shall not '<em class="italics">judge</em> with our own reasons, nor <em class="italics">see</em> with +our <em class="italics">own eyes</em>?' I feel confident you will not.</p> +<p class="pnext">"<em class="italics">Dr. Whitby</em>, in his <em class="italics">Last Thoughts</em>, tells us, "that belief or +disbelief can neither be a virtue or a crime, in any one who uses the +best means in his power of being informed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"If a proposition is <em class="italics">evident</em>, we cannot avoid believing it; <em class="italics">and where +is the merit or piety of a necessary assent?</em> If it is <em class="italics">not evident</em>, we +cannot help rejecting it, or doubting of it; <em class="italics">and where is the crime of +not performing impossibilities, or not believing what does not appear to +us to be true?</em>"</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen of the Jury, can you dispute the truth of the passage I have +quoted from Dr. Whitby? Will you, by your verdict, pronounce it to be +"<em class="italics">a crime</em> not to perform <em class="italics">impossibilities</em>, and endeavour to <em class="italics">force +us to believe</em> what does not appear to us to be true?" Gentlemen, you +cannot do it. Let us briefly trace the operations of the human mind, and +we shall find that the mind is governed by a law of necessity. Are we +not definitely and necessarily' affected by the circumstances which +surround us? Have we power to avoid receiving impressions from the +objects presented to us? If we have not, which is now universally +admitted by intelligent men, then the act of <em class="italics">perceiving</em>, or <em class="italics">forming +ideas</em>, is a necessary mental operation. Can we, for instance, have an +idea of a man when a monkey is presented to us? Or of colours other than +those which are placed before our visual organs? We cannot, if the eye +be not diseased, perceive red to be green, or green red. The power of +<em class="italics">perception</em>, therefore, appears to be perfectly involuntary--it is +governed by a law of necessity.</p> +<p class="pnext">The next operation of the mind is to form a judgment of the things +perceived; and it is these two things--<em class="italics">perceiving</em> and <em class="italics">judging</em>--which +constitute a man's knowledge or experience. If two bodies of different +magnitudes are presented to our view, are we not compelled to judge of +them according to the impression they respectively make upon the mind? +It is precisely the same with <em class="italics">men, manners, and opinions</em>. Must we +not conclude that things are what they appear to be, till we know the +contrary? I would appeal to your own experience, Gentlemen, whether you +do not invariably and necessarily judge of men and things according to +their inherent or imaginary qualities? Some men, indeed, are puzzled +to account for the diversity of judgment observable where different men +examine the same subject, and from the same data; but this circumstance +is easily accounted for. It results simply from this fact, that men +judge of things precisely as they appear to them: and the different +judgments formed of the same things are ascribable wholly to the +different degrees of strength in the power of perception, and to the +extent and variety of knowledge previously acquired. <em class="italics">Perception and +judgment</em>, therefore, appear to be involuntary and necessary.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, if this be true, is a man who has arrived at conclusions +adverse to the <em class="italics">received opinions</em> of society a fit subject of +punishment? If not, how much less so is the bookseller who merely sells +his book?</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Haslam calls upon the Clergy to enter into the controversy with him, +and to let <em class="italics">reason</em> decide between them. Why do not the Government, and +the learned Attorney-General, adopt Mr. Haslam's recommendation, instead +of instituting a prosecution against a bookseller who never read a +line of the book till his attention was called to it by this +unjust prosecution? Why do not the Government,--who patronise penny +literature--who affect to be friendly to free discussion, call on +the Bishop of Exeter, and other well-paid bigots, to defend the Bible +against the assaults of Mr. Haslam? For the learned Attorney-General to +attempt to crush the free expression of opinion by prosecutions of this +nature, is most unjust and impolitic. I maintain that two out of the +three passages read would not support the indictment at all; and the +third passage--set forth in the first count of the indictment--so far +from being blasphemy, declares that the author <em class="italics">rejects the Bible, +because he looks upon it as containing statements that were insulting to +God</em>. In the passage immediately following that which is prosecuted, the +author admits that the book contains some good precepts, but declares +that he deems mere precepts to be useless. I will take the liberty of +reading the passage to the Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I allow that there are some good precepts in it, but I contend that +these precepts are useless. I contend that <em class="italics">all</em> precepts are useless. +Of what use have all the precepts in the world been to the human race? +Have they made man wiser, or better, or happier? Have they lessened the +amount of his vice and his misery? 1 contend that they have not. Vice +and misery have been increasing, although these precepts have been more +and more preached to the people. Precepts, reverend ministers of the +gospel, are mere wind; they are as empty as the vapour issuing from +the kettle's spout; they have no effect whatever in making man wise, or +good, or happy; the present wretchedness of the world is a proof of it. +The way, reverend sirs, to make man wise, and good, and happy, is, not +to preach precepts to the people, but to abolish the present irrational +system of individual property; to arrange society in such a manner that +the interest of one man will be the interest of the whole. Until this +be done, all the precepts in the world, preached, too, with all +the eloquence in the world, will never remove man from his present +deplorable condition."</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, you will perceive by this extract that the author is a +socialist. It is not necessary for me to maintain that he is right in +these opinions. All that I have to do is to show that these opinions +were sincerely believed by Mr. Haslam. I have clearly shown that belief +is involuntary. No man can tell one day what his belief will be the +next. In my own person I furnish an instance of this. I married +young, and having formed in my mind a standard of ideal perfection, I +determined that my children should equal that standard, as far as human +means could make them. I tried to effect my object by severity. Acting +upon wrong principles, of course, I failed; but at that time I was young +and ignorant, and believed myself to be right. However, a friend who +knew better than myself, and who had had much experience, lent me Miss +Williams's Letters on the Philosophy of Education, and the reading of +that book put new ideas into my mind. It produced, in fact, a mental +revolution;--I changed my opinion and my system, and did so with the +happiest success. From that time I banished coercion as a principle +of education. I repeat, then, that belief is not voluntary, and that +compulsion is not a good means of producing good belief or good conduct.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I will now quote the opinion of Bishop Marsh, as to the +importance of free inquiry. I quote from the Bishops as persons of +the greatest authority on this subject, far greater than the +Attorney-General, or any of his legal brethren.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Investigation, it is said, frequently leads to doubts where there were +none before. So much the better. If a thing is false, <em class="italics">it ought not +to be received</em>; if a thing is true, <em class="italics">it can never lose in the end by +inquiry</em>."--<em class="italics">Bishop Marsh's First Lecture</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, you have heard the opinion of Bishop Marsh. You cannot +suppose that the Bishops are adverse to the Church--they are great +supporters of it, and so, perhaps, might I be if I got so much by it--(a +laugh)--as like circumstances produce like effects. Well, Gentlemen, +Bishop Marsh maintains that "if a thing is <em class="italics">false</em>, it ought not to be +received; if it is true, it can never lose in the end by inquiry." Why, +then, should the Attorney-General prosecute a person who rejects a thing +that does not appear to him to be true?</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, let me now submit to your attention the opinion of Sir +William Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Sir William Temple</em> says, "They may make me do things which are in my +power, and depend on my will; but to believe <em class="italics">this</em> or <em class="italics">that</em> to be +true depends not on my will, but upon the light, and evidence, +and information which I have. And will civil discouragements and +incapacities, fines and confiscations, stripes and imprisonment, +enlighten the understanding, convince men's minds of error, and inform +them of the truth? Can they have any such efficacy as to make men change +the inward judgment they have framed of things? <em class="italics">Nothing can do this +but reason and argument</em>: this is what our minds and understandings will +naturally yield to, but they <em class="italics">cannot</em> be compelled to believe any thing +by outward force. So that the promoting of <em class="italics">true</em> religion is plainly +out of the magistrate's <em class="italics">reach</em>, as well as beside <em class="italics">his office</em>."</p> +<p class="pnext">Here, Gentlemen, you have the opinion of Sir William Temple, that men +cannot be forced to believe anything by outward force and persecution, +so that the promoting of true religion is out of the magistrate's +power, as well as beside his office. This is a most true and proper +declaration; and if the Attorney-General had reflected upon this +passage, I am sure he must have fully appreciated its truth, and then +this prosecution would not have been instituted. I appeal to the learned +Attorney-General, whether my being ruined and sent to a dungeon will +alter the state of things? Will it alter the opinion of Mr. Haslam? Will +it make me believe that I ought to be prosecuted for selling this book; +or that a man has not a right to promulgate his opinions? I am placed in +an awkward position in having to defend a man's right to publish, while +I dissent from some of Mr. Haslam's opinions, and the manner in which +he has thought proper to express them. I have been told that the +Attorney-General is a good kind of a man, who has no wish to press +severely upon persons in my situation; and some friends--not my true +friends--have urged me to forward a memorial to him on the subject of +this prosecution. Now what could I do? There was no way of inducing the +Attorney-General to stay this prosecution, but by pleading guilty; and +although I am well aware that your verdict, if adverse to me, will be +my ruin, yet I would rather terminate my existence on the floor of this +court than plead guilty to this lying indictment, or admit that I am +a wicked, malicious, and evil-disposed person, when I know that to +the best of my judgment and ability I am an upright, honest, +well-intentioned man. If I believed myself to be the man described, +in the indictment--which I must do before I could consent to plead +guilty--I would fly to the uttermost parts of the earth; for a man is +totally destroyed when he has lost all feeling of self-respect, and the +esteem and regard of his friends and associates.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentleman of the Jury, I have yet a host of authorities before me, but +I will not waste time by quoting them; as I am convinced you must now be +quite satisfied, from what I have already adduced, that every Englishman +has an undoubted right to investigate all subjects--whether religious +or political--and to publish the result of the investigation for the +benefit of society at large; but, Gentlemen, in closing what I have to +say on this part of the subject, I beg to lay before you two striking +and convincing passages from Lord Brougham and Dr. Southwood Smith--two +of the most intellectual and eminent individuals of the present day.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the first passage I will quote is from Dr. Southwood Smith, +who strikingly and beautifully describes the proper boundary of human +investigation; and I beg the particular attention of the learned +Attorney-General to this passage.</p> +<p class="pnext">"There is no proper boundary to human investigation," says the doctor, +"but the capacity of the human mind. Whatever the faculties enable it to +understand, it ought to examine without any restraint on the freedom of +its inquiry, and without any other limit to its extent than that which +its great Author has fixed, by withholding from it the power to proceed +farther. When the means of conducting the human understanding to its +highest perfection shall have become generally understood, this freedom +of inquiry will not only be universally allowed, but early and anxiously +inculcated, <em class="italics">as a duty</em> of primary and essential obligation."</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I now beg you to listen to the extract I am about to read +from <em class="italics">Lord Brougham's Inaugural Address to the University of Glasgow</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">"As men will no longer suffer themselves to be led blindfold in +Ignorance, so will they no more yield to the vile principle of judging +and treating their fellow-creatures, not according to the intrinsic +merit of their actions, but according to the accidental and involuntary +coincidence of their opinions. The great truth has finally gone forth +to the ends of the earth, <em class="italics">that man shall no more render</em> ACCOUNT TO MAN +FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE HAS HIMSELF NO CONTROL.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Henceforward nothing shall prevail upon us to praise or to blame any one +for that which he can no more change than he can the hue of his skin or +the height of his stature. Henceforward, treating with entire respect +those who conscientiously differ from ourselves, the only practical +effect of the difference will be, to make us enlighten the ignorance, on +one side or the other, from which it springs, by instructing them, if it +be theirs, ourselves, if it be our own; to the end that the only kind of +unanimity may be produced which is desirable among rational +beings,--the agreement proceeding from full conviction after the freest +discussion."--<em class="italics">Lord Brougham.</em></p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, after hearing these splendid passages, will it be possible +for you to sanction a renewal of persecution to crush freedom of +opinion?</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen of the Jury,--I now come to the next point in the argument. +Having, I hope, successfully proved the right of free inquiry and the +free publication of opinions, I will proceed to show, by a reference +to past events, that it is highly important that this right should +be preserved, and handed down to our latest posterity unimpaired. +Gentlemen, it has been a uniform practice, from the earliest records of +time, to stigmatize those who introduce new truths, or who attack the +existing institutions of a country, as infidels, and to fix upon them +all sorts of opprobious epithets.</p> +<p class="pnext">"In all ages <em class="italics">new doctrines</em> have been branded as impious; and +Christianity itself has offered no exception to this rule. The Greeks +and Romans charged Christianity with 'impiety and novelty.' In <em class="italics">Cave's +Primitive Christianity</em> we are informed 'that the Christians were +everywhere accounted a pack of <em class="italics">Atheists</em>, and their religion <em class="italics">the +Atheism.</em>' <em class="italics">They were denominated; 'mountebank impostors,' and 'men of a +desperate and unlawful faction.' They were represented as 'destructive +and pernicious to human society,' and were accused of 'sacrilege, +sedition, and high treason.' The same system of misrepresentation and +abuse was practised by the Roman Catholics against the Protestants at +the Reformation. Some called their dogs Calvin; and others transformed +Calvin into Cain,' In France, 'the old stale calumnies, formerly +invented against the first Christians, were again revived by Demochares, +a doctor of the Sorbonne, pretending that all the disasters of the +state were to be attributed to Protestants alone.'"--*Combe on the +Constitution of Man</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">In our own enlightened country, where the importance of truth--and free +inquiry as a means of its attainment--is beginning to be appreciated, +a different practice should prevail. We ought not to persist in this +unmanly course. Recollect, Gentlemen, the Prophets of the Jews were +<em class="italics">blasphemers</em> against the established religions of their day. Did that +deter them from denouncing the idolatry and false religions of the +surrounding nations? Elijah is represented as ridiculing the God of the +Moabites in a most offensive manner: "<em class="italics">And it came to pass at noon, that +Elijah mocked them and said, 'Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is +talking f or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he +sleepeth and must be awaked.</em>'" 1 Kings xviii. 27. And in Judea, Jesus +and his Apostles were charged as blasphemers against Judaism, or the +religion established by Moses. We have a remarkable proof of this in the +case of Stephen, recorded in the 6th and 7th chapters of the Acts of the +Apostles.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he +spake.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak +<em class="italics">blasphemous</em> words against Moses, and against God.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and +came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,</p> +<p class="pnext">"And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak +blasphemous words against this holy place and the law:</p> +<p class="pnext">"For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy +this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered +us."--Acts vi, 10--14.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Stephen defending himself before the Council, boldly asks them,</p> +<p class="pnext">"Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have +slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; <em class="italics">of whom +ye have</em> BEEN NOW THE BETRAYERS AND MURDERERS.</p> +<p class="pnext">"When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they +gnashed at him with their teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran +upon him with one accord,</p> +<p class="pnext">"And cast him out of the city, and stoned him." Acts vii; 51, 52, +54,57,58.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, Gentlemen, is it just or politic that the proclaimers of new +truths, and new systems, should be treated in this manner? Would it not +be far more rational to hear what a man has to say, and answer him, than +to "gnash at him with the teeth," to "stop your ears," to "run at him +with one accord," and to "stone him to death?" Can you, Gentlemen, by +your verdict give your sanction to a course of proceeding similar to +that which deprived Stephen of life? All persecution is the same in +spirit--highly unjust and impolitic--whether it be exercised against the +Apostle Stephen, or the humble individual who now addresses you.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the supporters of the established religion in the days of the +Apostles, pursued the same course that the bigots of the present day are +pursuing. They applied to the High Priest, or to the Attorney-General +of that day, to prosecute Stephen for <em class="italics">blasphemy</em>, and stirred up the +people. In the present case the Bishop of Exeter did not stir up the +people, but he stirred up the Government. He sent a packet of papers to +Lord Normanby, who handed them to the Attorney-General, and he +appears to have considered it to be his duty to institute the present +prosecution. The learned Attorney-General, as was the case with the +priests and rulers of the Jews, would not allow any discussion to +take place that was likely to change existing customs. I will do the +Government the justice to say, however, that I do not believe they are +disposed to put a stop to the full investigation of any subject, if +conducted with decency. I readily admit that the passage in the +eighth number of Mr. Haslam's Letters is highly objectionable in +phraseology--it is in very bad taste--but is that a reason for sending +a bookseller to prison, because he has sold a book written in bad taste? +It cannot be--all published works must be left to the fiat of public +opinion to determine their merit.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the same spirit was evinced by the wicked and corrupt rulers +of the Jews against the founder of Christianity. They sought false +witnesses against him; but at length, Jesus having spoken out +explicitly, the High Priest rent his clothes, saying, "<em class="italics">He hath spoken +blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have +heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said</em>, <strong class="bold">HE is +guilty to death.</strong>" (Matt. 26; 65.) Will you, Gentlemen--a Christian +Jury--considering Christianity part and parcel of the law of the land, +by your verdict say, that Jesus was rightly treated by the Jews? Ought +the constituted authorities of that day to have obstructed the glorious +truths of Christianity, and have put to death the Messenger of Man's +salvation? Unless you deliver a verdict of acquittal, in my case, you +in effect sanction and justify all the cruelties exercised against Jesus +and his Apostles by the rulers of the Jews?</p> +<p class="pnext">The learned Counsel for the prosecution will, perhaps, think that there +is no analogy between the cases cited and my own case--that Jesus and +his Apostles introduced truths of the greatest magnitude and importance, +while I am indicted for selling a book that denies the truth of the +Jewish Scriptures. Why, Gentlemen, Dr. Adam Clarke says, "There is +some reason to fear that they (the Jews) <em class="italics">no longer consider the Old +Testament as divinely inspired, but believe that Moses had recourse +to pious frauds</em>." And, Gentlemen, Jesus and his Apostles denied the +<em class="italics">truth</em> of the Jewish Scriptures--<em class="italics">as understood by the rulers of the +Jews</em>,--and for denying the orthodox and received sense of the Jewish +Scriptures were accused of blasphemy, and received the fate of martyrs! +That cannot be disputed. Was it just, then,--was it politic, I ask, to +settle this controversy by force and cruelty? To <em class="italics">scourg or imprison, and +destroy</em> those glorious men who had important truths to impart to the +world? If England has embraced Christianity--and we are not a nation of +hypocrites--let us act upon the spirit of his religion. He says plainly +and emphatically, that we are not to root up error by force or cruelty.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the parable of the tares of the field, he sets forth our duty. "The +Kingdom of Heaven," he says, "is likened unto a man who sowed good seed +in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among +the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and +brought forth fruit, there appeared the tares also. So the servants of +the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good +seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares! He said unto them, An +enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we +go and gather them up? But he said, <em class="italics">Nay; lest while ye gather up the +tares, ye root up also the wheat with them</em>. <strong class="bold">Let both grow together +until the harvest.</strong>" Matt, xiii; 25--30.</p> +<p class="pnext">When his disciples demanded an explanation of this parable, he said, +"The field is the world: the good seed are the children of the Kingdom: +but the tares are the children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed +them in the devil: the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers +are the Angels. The Son of Man shall send forth his Angels, and They +shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which +do iniquity." Matt, xiii; 38, 39. 41.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, how unjust and impolitic, then, are these prosecutions. Do +they stop the progress of truth? Persecution for matters of opinion +is the same in every case--impolitic--for it never yet succeeded in +stopping the circulation of a correct opinion or a prohibited book? +Why should <em class="italics">Christians</em> prosecute men for disbelieving the <em class="italics">Jewish</em> +Scriptures, when, according to Dr. Adam Clarke, the Jews disbelieve +parts of the Old Testament themselves? Why should professed Christians +take up and defend that which the Jews themselves reject? Paul, himself, +teaches us that the Jewish law has been superseded by a superior system. +He tells us that the Jewish law "was our schoolmaster to bring us +unto Christ (or Christianity), but after that we are no longer under a +schoolmaster." Gal. iii; 24, 25.</p> +<p class="pnext">I can assure the Jury that if Haslam's Letters to the Clergy is an +improper book, it cannot be put down by prosecution; it is far better to +leave it to coldness and neglect. I could give many proofs of this. I +am myself an instance of the inefficacy of prosecution. I have been +prosecuted, as I think with great injustice, for the publication of a +paper called <em class="italics">The Poor Man's Guardian</em>. Five hundred men was imprisoned +for selling it; I was twice imprisoned, and the circulation of the +paper, thus prosecuted, more than paid my losses; but at last, in the +Court of Exchequer, before Lord Lyndhurst, the Jury found a verdict in +my favour, for I convinced the Jury that the publication was one which +was not against the law.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General: The Jury found that it was not a newspaper.</p> +<p class="pnext">Precisely so: and as soon as it was known that the <em class="italics">Guardian</em> was a +legal paper, it went down at once. I could not sell copies enough to pay +the expenses (a laugh). It has been just the same with these Letters; +they have remained unsold till this prosecution, but as soon as it was +known that they were prosecuted, the man who published them could not +print them fast enough.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the enlightened Christians of the present day, by sending out +Missionaries to propagate Christianity, are guilty of blasphemy against +the established religion of heathen countries. It would be considered +in England very unjust and cruel if the natives were to seize our +Missionaries, and imprison and ill-treat them. If in this country we +are in the habit of sending out Missionaries to proclaim new truths +to foreign countries--is it not grossly inconsistent and unjust, while +doing this, to punish persons for free investigation at home? In a +recent case, cannon have been fired upon the natives of one of the Tonga +Islands, because they would not receive these Missionaries. The argument +of these Christians is, that truth must be propagated all over +the world--but why stop inquiry at home, while suffering a British +man-of-war to fire upon these islanders, because they would not receive +the new truths of the Missionaries in the way they wished? Is it +wise--is it not highly impolitic, then, to attempt to check the progress +of intellect and human improvement? Can it be done by persecution and +imprisonment? No, Gentlemen, the spirit of inquiry is abroad among the +industrious millions--no subject is too sacred for their investigation. +The mind has burst the fetters imposed on it, in the days of by-gone +ignorance, by the cupidity of interested and hypocritical priests, who +are fully aware that their principles and practices cannot stand the +test of free inquiry. Even Mr. Wesley, the founder of Methodism, saw +that his darling system must ultimately fall before the searching eye of +philosophy and truth.</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">From the Life of the Rev. John Wesley, published in 1792</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dear Sir,--For your obliging letter, which I received this morning, I +return you thanks.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Our opinions, for the most part, perfectly coincide respecting the +stability of the connexion after my head is laid in the dust. This, +however, is a subject about which I am not so anxious as you seem to +imagine; on the contrary, it is a matter of the utmost indifference to +me, as I have-long foreseen that a division must necessarily ensue, +from causes so various, unavoidable, and certain, that I have long +since given up all thoughts and hopes of settling it on a permanent +foundation. You do not seem to be aware of the most effective cause that +will bring about a division. You apprehend the most serious consequences +from a struggle between the preachers for power and pre-eminence, and +there being none among them of sufficient authority or abilities to +support the dignity, or command the respect, and exact the implicit +obedience, which is so necessary to uphold our constitution on its +present principles. This, most undoubtedly, is one thing that will +operate very powerfully against unity in the connexion, and is, perhaps, +what I might possibly have prevented, had not a still greater difficulty +arisen in my mind. I have often wished for some person of abilities to +succeed me as the head of the church I have, with such indefatigable +pains and astonishing success, established; but, convinced that none +but very superior abilities would be equal to the undertaking, was I +to adopt a successor of this description, I fear he might gain so much +influence among the people as to usurp a share, if not the whole, of +that absolute and uncontrollable power which I have hitherto, and am +determined I will maintain so long as I live: never will I bear a rival +near my throne. You, no doubt, see the policy of continually changing +the preachers from one circuit to another, at short periods: for should +any of them become popular with their different congregations, and +insinuate themselves into the favour of their hearers, they might +possibly obtain such influence as to establish themselves independently +of me and the general connexion. Besides, the novelty of the continual +change excites curiosity, and is the more necessary, as few of our +preachers have abilities to render themselves in any degree tolerable +any longer than they are now.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The principal cause which will inevitably effect a diminution and +division in the connexion after my death, wilt be the failure of +subscriptions and contributions towards the support of the cause; for +money is as much the sinews of religious as of military power. If it +is with the greatest difficulty that even I can keep them together, for +want of this very necessary article, I think no one else can. Another +cause, which, with others, will effect the division, is the disputes and +contentions that will arise between the preachers and the parties that +will espouse their several causes; by which means much truth will be +brought to light, which will reflect so much to their disadvantage, +that the eyes of the people will be opened to see their motives and +principles; nor will they any longer contribute to their support, when +they find all their pretensions to sanctity and love are founded on +motives of interest and ambition. The consequence of which will be, +a few of the most popular will establish themselves in the respective +places where they have gained sufficient influence over the minds of the +people: the rest must revert to their original humble callings. But +this no way concerns me: I have attained the object of my views, by +establishing a name that will not soon perish from the face of the +earth; I have founded a sect which will boast my name long after my +discipline and doctrines are forgotten.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My character and reputation for sanctity is now beyond the reach of +calumny; nor will any thing that may hereafter come to light, or be said +concerning me, to my prejudice, however true, gain credit.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">"'My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life,</cite></div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">Will vouch against it,</cite></div> +</div> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">And so the accusation overweigh</cite></div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">That it will stifle in its own report,</cite></div> +</div> +<div class="line"><cite class="italics">And smell of calumny.'</cite></div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">"Another cause that will operate more powerfully and effectually than +any of the preceding is, the rays of Philosophy, which begin now to +pervade all ranks, rapidly dispelling the mists of ignorance, which +have been long, in a great degree, the mother of devotion, of slavish +prejudice, and the enthusiastic bigotry of religious opinions. The +decline of the Papal power is owing to the same irresistible cause; nor +can it be supposed that Methodism can stand its ground when brought to +the test of Truth, Reason, and Philosophy."</p> +<p class="pnext">"City-road, Thursday morning. J. W." (1)</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<p class="pfirst">1. As my defence had extended to a great length, I was +anxious to spare the time of the Jury, and did not, +therefore, trouble them with the whole of this letter. I +merely described the nature of it, and read the last +paragraph, being the only portion applicable to my purpose; +but as I deem the letter a valuable curiosity, and worthy of +preservation, I have inserted it entire.</p> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Gentlemen, you see Mr. Wesley anticipated that his system must yield +to philosophy, and do you believe the Church of England can stand when +brought to the test of "truth, reason* and philosophy?" A church that +will keep a man in prison nearly two years for 5s. 6d. church-rates? If +you suppress Biblical examination, and the free publication of opinion, +the next step will be to stop inquiry into the <em class="italics">practices</em> of the +Church, and to make us all the fettered slaves of the priesthood. No, +Gentlemen; Methodism and Church-of-Englandism are doomed to fall; and +such will be the fate of all systems not based upon the rock of truth. +But, Gentlemen, that is no reason for suppressing inquiry, because the +more the truth is investigated, the more beautiful it will appear.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, has not our country raised itself to the highest pinnacle +of human greatness as regards civilization and the arts? What rapid +strides--what useful discoveries it has made in the arts and sciences! +Consider its vast achievements in steam navigation--in railroad +travelling--in the improvement of machinery. To such perfection have +they brought machinery, that it is now almost capable of superseding +human labour altogether. If all these magnificent improvements in the +arts and sciences are good to society, and have resulted from free +inquiry--why hesitate to apply it to social, religious, and political +subjects? Are we ever to remain drivellers in religion? The true crime +is that Haslam's Letters are sold at a penny. Why should two-guinea +blasphemers be tolerated and penny ones prosecuted? How can the learned +Attorney-General, whose shelves are, doubtless, adorned with Drummond's +Academical Questions, Voltaire, Gibbon, Volney, and Shelley, uphold this +prosecution; and what must that law be which can find the crime, not in +the contents of the book, but in the fact of its being sold for a penny? +They might for two guineas buy a magnificent book full of blasphemy. +The Attorney-General, in his opening speech, had told the Jury that +such works were "dangerous to society if addressed to the <em class="italics">vulgar, the +uneducated</em>, and the <em class="italics">unthinking</em>" but I will appeal to his own witness, +who had read the book, and on whom, an uneducated man, it had proved +inoperative. It had done no mischief: and I hope the Jury will not +consign me to a dungeon for having sold a book which it has been proved +by his own witness has done no mischief. Paul said the Bæreans were more +noble than those of Thessalonica, because they searched the Scriptures +daily to see whether these things were so or not. The Attorney-General +is about to punish me for doing the same thing. Christ himself said, the +truth shall make you free; but the Attorney-General says the truth--or +that which you believe to be the truth--shall make you a prisoner. +In the parable of the tares, to which I have already referred, Jesus +expressly forbade the rooting up of the tares, lest the wheat should be +rooted up also. He did not recommend persecution, but said let them both +grow together until the harvest. These passages are sufficient to show +that persecution is opposed to the whole spirit of Christianity.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I will now call your attention to the law on the subject. +In entering upon this topic, of course I shall labour under a great +disadvantage, because I am unacquainted with legal technicalities and +cases. I will commence, therefore, by reading to you the opinion of +Chief Baron Eyre, in his Charge to the Grand Jury, on the commission +for the trial of persons on the charge of High Treason, in 1794, in the +course of which he made use of these liberal expressions:--</p> +<p class="pnext">"All men may, nay, all men must, if they possess the faculty of +thinking, reason upon every thing which sufficiently interests them to +become objects of their attention; and among the objects of attention +of freemen, the principles of government, the constitution of particular +governments, and, above all, the constitution of the government +under which they live, will naturally engage attention, and provoke +speculation. <em class="italics">The power of communication of thoughts and opinions is the +gift of God; and the freedom of it is the source of all science</em>--the +first fruits, and the ultimate happiness of all society; and therefore, +it seems to follow, <em class="italics">that human laws ought not to interpose, nay, cannot +interpose, to prevent the communication of sentiment and opinions, in +voluntary assemblies of men.</em>"</p> +<p class="pnext">Here, Gentlemen, we have an eminent legal authority, in addition to +the Bishops I have quoted, who declares that "human laws <em class="italics">ought not to +inter-pose</em>, nay, cannot interpose, <em class="italics">to prevent the communication qf +sentiment, and opinion</em>." Under what law then can I be condemned? This +prosecution goes a step further than any other has gone; it in effect +declares that you shall not dispute the truth of the Jewish Scriptures, +which I have already shown are superseded by the introduction of +Christianity. Paul declares that the Jewish law was only intended to be +our schoolmaster to bring us to Christianity; but if Christianity, as +is asserted, be part and parcel of the low of England, even then this +prosecution has not a log to stand upon. In the "Life and Correspondence +of Major Cartwright," however, there is a letter from Jefferson, himself +an eminent lawyer, and President of the United States of America, who +had deeply studied the laws of England, in which he has proved the +fallacy of the notion that Christianity is part of the common law, by +showing that the common law had existed long before Christianity was +introduced into this country; and that the axiom had its origin and +foundation in a misquotation and mistranslation of a decision of +Justice Prisot, recorded in the Year Book, substituting the words +<em class="italics">Holy Scriptures</em> for <em class="italics">Ancient Scriptures</em>. Jefferson denominates it +a "judiciary forgery," and I hope your Lordship will to-day confirm +Jefferson's view, and put an end to this illegal iniquity.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the passage I am about to quote from Jefferson's letter to +Major Cartwright, contains the opinion of Justice Prisot, in old French, +but I have procured a literal and a free translation, which I will read +to the Jury. Your Lordship can refer to the original in the Year Book.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I was glad to find, in your book, a formal contradiction, at length, of +the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have +usurped in their repeated decisions that Christianity is a part of +the common law. The proof of the contrary which you have adduced +is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the +Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans; at a time when they had never yet heard +the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever +existed. But it may amuse you to show when, and by what means, they +stole this law in upon us. In a case of quare impedit, in the year-book, +34 H. 6, fo. 38, (1458,) a question was made, how far the ecclesiastical +law was to be respected in a common law court? And Justice Prisot, c. 5, +gives his opinion in these words:--</p> +<p class="pnext">"'A tiel leis que ils de seint eglise ont en <em class="italics">ancien scripture</em>, covient</p> +<p class="pnext">"'<em class="italics">To such laws which they of the holy church have in ancient writing, +it is proper</em></p> +<p class="pnext">à nous à donner credence; car ceo common ley sur quels touts manners</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">for us to give credence; because that is the common law on which all +sorts of leis</em></p> +<p class="pnext">sont lor dés--et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obligés de conustre leur ley de +saint</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">laws are founded--and thus, Sir, we are obliged to know their law of +the holy</em></p> +<p class="pnext">eglise; et semblablement ils sont obligés de conustre nostre lev: et, +Sir, si</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">church; and in like manner they are obliged to know our law; and, Sir, +if</em></p> +<p class="pnext">poit apperer or ù nous que Tevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en +tiel</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">it can be shown thus to us that the bishop has done as a layman would +in such</em></p> +<p class="pnext">cas, adonq nous devons ceo adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy,' &c.(1) See +S. C,</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">a case, then we ought this to judge good, or otherwise not at all.</em></p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<ol class="arabic simple"> +<li><p class="first pfirst"><em class="italics">Translation read to the Jury.</em></p> +</li> +</ol> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Fitzherbert's Abr. qu. imp. 89. Brown's Abr. qu. imp. 12. Finch, in +his first book, c. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and +misstates it thus, 'To such laws of the church as have warrant in <em class="italics">holy +scripture</em> our law giveth credence,' and cites Prisot, mistranslating +'ancien scripture' into 'holy scripture;' whereas Prisot palpably says, +'to such laws as those of holy church have in <em class="italics">ancient writing</em> it is +proper for us to give credence to wit, to their ancient written laws. +This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot. +Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the +common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wingate's +Maxims, 3; and Sheppard, tit. 'Religion in 1675. copies the same +mistranslation, quoting the Year-book, Finch and Wingate. Hale expresses +it in these words, 'Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.'</p> +<p class="pnext">"It is proper for us to respect the laws which the members of the holy +church have in <em class="italics">ancient manuscripts</em>, because they are the general +source from which all laws are drawn. Thus, Sir, it is necessary for us +to be acquainted with ecclesiastical law, and in like manner the judges +of the ecclesiastical courts are obliged to understand our law: in +consequence, Sir, if it can be shown to us that the ecclesiastical court +has decided as a court of civil law would have done in the same case, +then we ought to deem the judgment good; but if a civil law court would +have decided otherwise, the judgment of the eclesiastical court must be +deemed erroneous."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ventr. 293. 3 Keble, 607, but quotes no authority. By these echoings +and reechoings from one to another, it had become so established in +1728, that in the case of the King v. Woolston, 2 Strange, 834, the +court would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against +Christianity was punishable in the temporal courts at common law. Wood, +therefore, 409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and says, 'that all +blasphemy and profaneness are offences by the common law,' and cites 2 +Strange. Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, +that 'Christianity is part of the law of England,' citing Ventris and +Strange: and finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in +Evans's case in 1767, says, 'that the essential principles of revealed +religion are parts of the common law,' thus engulphing Bible, Testament, +and all, into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we +find this chain of authorities hanging link by link one upon another, +and all ultimately on one and the same hook; and that a mistranslation +of the words 'ancien scripture,' used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot; +Wingate does the same; Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate; Hale +cites nobody; the Court, in Woolston's case, cites Hale; Wood cites +Woolston's case; Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale; and Lord +Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might +defy the best-read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this +<em class="italics">judiciary forgery</em>; and I might go on further to show how some of the +Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred's laws, the +20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 10th of the Acts +of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead +my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this between Church +and State! Sing Tantararara, Rogues all, Rogues all; Sing Tantararara, +Rogues all!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, after hearing this statement from the pen of an educated and +eminent lawyer, can you hesitate to return a verdict of acquittal? You +have now a complete history of this "<em class="italics">judiciary forgery</em>" as Jefferson +terms it, before you; and I am satisfied that that which originated in +a <em class="italics">fraudulent mistranslation</em>, cannot, now that the fraud is detected, +long retain the force of law. On this ground, then, I confidently claim +your verdict.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I now come to the trade argument--that it is a great hardship +and injustice to hold a bookseller responsible for the contents of the +books he sells.</p> +<p class="pnext">I am a general bookseller; and so great is the competition, and so +fully is my time occupied, that I have no time to spare for reading the +various works in my shop, even if I had the inclination. My excellent +and amiable son, before his death, and before I had any idea of this +prosecution, drew up a paper for the management of my business, by which +it appears that upwards of seventy weekly periodicals pass through my +hands every week, besides books and many other periodicals that are +merely collected to order. Amongst them will be found every possible +variety--"The Church of England Magazine," "The Sacred Album," and many +others maintaining contradictory and conflicting opinions; but I do not +hold myself responsible--either legally or morally--for any of them. +I have no right to set myself up as a censor of the press. I sell them +all--and am not responsible for any man's opinions upon an abstract or +general subject. When the subject matter of a book relates to the people +at large, the public alone should decide upon its merits. If the book +be a good one, they will support it; if a bad one, they will condemn and +reject it. This is the only proper punishment for a bad author. The +line of duty I mark out for myself in that I will never sell obscene +publications--works that demoralise and corrupt society--nor any attacks +upon private character; and if a person comes to me complaining that his +character has been falsely and slanderously attacked, I sell no more of +that work. What more can be expected from a general bookseller? If the +sale of a controversial book is to be suppressed, because it contains +a few passages in bad taste, and of objectionable phraseology, then the +sale of the Bible itself must be prohibited, for that book contains many +passages far more objectionable in the present day than any to be found +in "Haslam's Letters to the Clergy." I have here a list of passages +from the Bible, of a highly objectionable character; but as I perceive a +number of ladies in the court, I will not pollute their ears, nor shock +the feelings of the Jury, by reading them. My only object in alluding +to them, is to show that if the principle of selecting two or three +objectionable passages from a work is to lead to its condemnation, and +the punishment of the bookseller, then I might with equal justice be +condemned for selling the Bible itself. On this ground, also, I claim +and am entitled to your verdict.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, the Attorney-General has not done justice to Mr. Haslam; he +has dwelt upon the passages contained in the indictment, but has left +the Jury in total ignorance of the general nature of the work. In many +parts of the book are to be found passages of great beauty. So far from +a charge of blasphemy fairly attaching to Mr. Haslam's Letters, he +uniformly declares that he rejects the Jewish Scriptures because they +are <em class="italics">irrational</em>, and <em class="italics">dishonour</em> the God "that governs the universe." +I will read a passage from his Second Letter, which shows the veneration +he entertains for the Deity.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But is it not monstrous, that that power which gives life and motion +to millions of worlds; which guides them in their eternal revolutions +in the boundless ocean of space, and which preserves them in everlasting +order and harmony; is it not monstrous that that power should be +represented in this ridiculous point of view? Vain, violent, and +boisterous, without the least indication of any thing rational, good, +or merciful in any of his proceedings. Such a God may be the God of the +Christians, but he is not the God who governs the universe. That God is +no more to be compared to the Bible God, than the dazzling sun is to be +compared to the glimmering light of a candle."</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Haslam's work has many other passages of the same description; +and the Attorney-General will see that the passage in the Eighth +Letter--almost the only objectionable passage in the work--was not +deliberately designed to give offence, when I tell him that the +author, in deference to the opinion of his friends, has cancelled the +objectionable passage, and re-written it. Now what would the learned +Attorney-General have more? The object of prosecution has been always +held to be preventive, or corrective, not vindictive. The object sought, +then, is already attained. Mr. Haslam has anticipated your wishes by +correcting the objectionable passage.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I have urged sufficient, I hope, to induce you to give me +your verdict; but before I conclude, I will read a passage from the +works of Dean Swift, which is worthy of your profound attention. +"Whoever," he says, "could restore, in any degree, brotherly love among +men, would be an instrument of more good to society than ever was or +will be done by all the statesmen in the world."</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, let us commence the glorious work to-day. I will tell you how +you can do more towards spreading brotherly love among men, than all +the statesmen in the world will be able to accomplish. Say to the +Government, by your verdict, the publication of opinions shall be free. +This will spread brotherly love among men; for what is it that prevents +brotherly love from dwelling among men? The odious principle of +coercion. I do not believe the Government wish to follow up these +prosecutions if they can avoid it. They have a precedent, then, in the +case of Sir Robert Peel. Mr. Carlile was in prison nearly <em class="italics">seven years</em>, +and many of his shopmen were imprisoned for various terras. Did such +vindictive persecutions change their opinions, or stop the sale of the +works prosecuted? Quite the contrary. The individuals became confirmed +and strengthened in their opinions, and all the prosecuted works are +now on sale in every bookseller's shop in London. The public began to +consider them martyrs, and Sir Robert Peel and the Government of that +day saw the injustice and cruelty of such proceedings, abandoned all +prosecutions, and liberated those whose terms of imprisonment were +unexpired. Surely those now in authority are not the men to recommence +these prosecutions for matters of opinion; and my quarrel with them +is, that they have not the moral courage to reply to the taunts of +the Bishop of Exeter, by alluding to this case of Sir Robert Peel's +Government; and boldly declaring that henceforth public opinion shall be +the only censor. Abolish that hateful principle of coercion for matters +of opinion, and mutual toleration, respect, and brotherly kindness, will +henceforth prevail.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, Christianity gives no sanction to persecution. The religion +of Jesus, rightly understood, is a practical and benevolent system. It +is founded on two great commandments, love of God and love of Man. +The <em class="italics">first</em> commandment, in fact, resolves itself into a practical +observance of the <em class="italics">second</em>; for it is expressly declared that, "<em class="italics">If a +man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that +loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he +hath not seen</em>?"(1) Recollect, Gentlemen, "<em class="italics">Love worketh no ill to his +neighbour</em>."(2) Jesus encourages all men to think for themselves. This +is his exhortation--"<em class="italics">Why, even of your own selves, judge ye not what is +right?*(3)" But while he has encouraged the exercise of mind, he has not +made eternal happiness to depend upon *belief</em> but upon their <em class="italics">actions</em>; +and the great evil of society is attempting to coerce people into the +belief of that which they cannot believe--a system to which, I hope, +your verdict to-day will put a stop.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<ol class="arabic simple"> +<li><p class="first pfirst">1 John iv.; 20,</p> +</li> +<li><p class="first pfirst">Rom. xiii.; 10,</p> +</li> +<li><p class="first pfirst">Luke xii.; 57</p> +</li> +</ol> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Gentlemen, the Founder of Christianity, in his parable of the Last +Judgment, tells us distinctly that men are to be judged by their +<em class="italics">actions</em> and not by their <em class="italics">opinions</em>; for he describes himself as +inviting the righteous to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the +foundation of the world: "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I +was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me +in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was +in prison, and ye came unto me." He then represents the righteous as +saying, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee I or thirsty, +and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or +naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and +came unto thee? And the King shall answer, Inasmuch AS YE HAVE DONE IT +UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, ye have done it unto me." He +then represents himself as denouncing the unrighteous for giving him no +meat, nor drink; for not clothing him when naked, nor visiting him when +sick; and when they desire to know when he required these things, and +they did not minister unto him, he replies, "Inasmuch as ye did it not +to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." Here, +you perceive, there is no particular belief enjoined, none condemned. +All men are to be judged by their actions--not by their belief.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gentlemen, I have now urged all that I deem necessary to ensure an +acquittal. I hope you will consider well the consequences of your +verdict, and reflect upon the wickedness and impolicy of tearing a +man from his family, for selling a book in the ordinary course of his +business. If I have said anything in the course of my address to raise +a prejudice in your minds, I hope you will discard it, and do justice by +pronouncing an acquittal.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General claimed his right of reply. He commenced by +observing that the Defendant, in his very long address to the Jury, had +not advanced anything that would call for many remarks from him, so that +he should occupy bu ta very small portion of their time. The Defendant +had contended that the blasphemous attack on our holy religion, +which they had heard read, was only free inquiry; and had taunted the +Government, and himself, who desired the extension of useful knowledge, +with having prosecuted this book. But was this book of Haslam's +useful knowledge? The Defendant said, Why not answer it? But he, the +Attorney-General, contended that it could not be answered. The only way +to do with it was to prosecute it. This publication--for the sale of +which the Defendant was indicted--was not fair argument and inquiry, +but blasphemous invective. The Defendant accused him of not objecting so +much to the matter of the publication, as to the price at which it was +sold. Not withstanding what the Defendant had said on this point, he, +the Attorney-General, contended that the low price at which it was sold +made the publication doubly mischievous, as it caused it to circulate +among the working classes of society, who were from their habits, +incapable of thought or discrimination; their time was so entirely +occupied that it was impossible they could devote sufficient time to +reading to guard themselves against the evil tendency of such works; +while the Jury, and men in their class of life, were, from their +education, furnished with an antidote to the poison. If attacks on the +Scriptures were to be permitted, what was to prevent the pious feelings +of the community from being outraged? Suppose a man were to carry a +board through the streets on which was inscribed in large characters, +that "Christ was an impostor." Could it be tolerated? Yet this, +according to the Defendant, was only free inquiry! Again, suppose any +one preferred a republican to a monarchical form of government, and was +to excite and recommend the substitution of the one for the other by +force of arms, inciting, by inflammatory appeals, the people to murder +the Government and the Queen--yet this would be, according to Mr. +Hetherington, only free inquiry! The Defendant had said that Mr. Haslam +was a Socialist; now the Socialists held an opinion that marriage was an +institution that ought to be abolished. If a man, under that plea, were +to recommend the seduction of his neighbour's wife or daughter--would +any one contend that such opinions should be published with impunity? +yet the Defendant considers this the free investigation of opinions; and +to prosecute a blasphemous publication, he says, is to prevent freedom +of opinion. No one wished to interfere with Mr. Hetherington's private +opinion. The policeman, when he went to Mr. Hetherington's shop to +purchase the numbers, did not inquire as to his particular belief. If +there were persons so unfortunate as to disbelieve the Scriptures--which +were the foundation of our holy religion--the law did not interfere +with them so long as they kept their opinions to themselves, and did +not publicly attack the authenticity of the Bible. Mr. Hetherington +had spoken of the effect of prosecution in extending the sale of such +publications, alluding particularly to the <em class="italics">Poor Man's Guardian</em>; but +he, the Attorney-General, called upon the Jury to do their duty by +bringing? to punishment those who outraged the law, that others might be +deterred from offending. If the Jury looked at the immoral tendency of +such writings, and the doctrines of non-responsibility laid down by +Mr. Hetherington, who declared that he was neither responsible for his +belief, nor his actions--</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Hetherington here interrupted, declaring that the Attorney-General +was acting most unfairly towards him. He never used such language, but +quite the contrary; what he maintained was, that he was not responsible +for his <em class="italics">belief</em> but that he <em class="italics">was responsible for his</em> actions. If he +injured a friend, a neighbour, or a fellow-citizen, he was amenable to +society for the injury done. The Attorney-General, he contended, was not +replying to him, but perverting his arguments and misrepresenting facts.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Denman said that he agreed with the Defendant in the first +instance, and therefore he thought he was justified in putting the +Attorney-General right; but the Attorney-General, he thought, was +entitled to make any remarks upon facts which came out in evidence.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Hetherington (with great vehemence).--But he is mis-stating facts, +and making statements calculated to mislead the Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Denman.--You must not interrupt.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Defendant.--But my liberty is at stake, and I will speak. (Applause +at the back of the court, which was instantly suppressed by the +officers.)</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Denman.--You shall be heard in correction of anything you may think +a misrepresentation, afterwards; not in reply, but merely in correction.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Defendant.--Thank you, my Lord.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General observed, that the Defendant denied being the +publisher, but he would convince the Jury that he was, by reading +the title to them. He then read the title of the book--omitting the +publisher's name, and reading the name of the Defendant only, till +Mr. Hetherington insisted upon his rending the whole title as +follows:--"Letters to the Clergy of all Denominations, showing the +Errors, Absurdities, and Irrationalities of their Doctrines. By C. +J. Haslani. Fourth Edition. Manchester: A. Heywood. 56 and 60, Oldham +Street. London*; Hetherington, 126, Strand; Cleave, Shoe Lane, Fleet +Street; Watson, City Road, Finsbury; and J. Guest, Birmingham; and all +Booksellers in Town and Country."</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General then proceeded.--Conceive, gentlemen, a servant +or an apprentice reading this work where the institution of private +property was said to be the great evil of society--would he feel any +compunction at appropriating the goods or money of his employer to his +own use? Would he not find arguments in this work to justify him in his +iniquity? Mr. Hetherington had taken credit to himself for +disinterested motives, but he feared that he was actuated by mercenary +motives--looking only to emolument--careless of the effect it might have +on the morals of the unthinking working-classes.(1) He called upon the +Jury, by the oaths they had taken on the Holy Gospel--which this +book blasphemously attacked--to consider the effect of a verdict of +acquittal, and to do their duty to the public. By such a verdict they +would license the most infamous attacks on the Holy Scriptures, and +would loosen the bonds which held society together.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<p class="pfirst">1. This comes well from a gentleman who descended from his +high professional position to attend at the Old Bailry, for +a fee of £. 100, to plead for a man charged with murder.</p> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Mr. Hetherington explained that it was the custom of the trade to place +the name of any bookseller, with whom the real publisher did business, +on the title-page of the book, and that his name had been so placed by +Mr. Hey-wood, of Manchester, the real publisher, without his knowledge. +Mr. Heywood was the original publisher; he received no punishment, and +was now at liberty.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Denman, in summing up, observed, that the law considered the vendor +of a work the publisher of it, and that consequently he must be held +responsible. It had also been constantly laid down that blasphemy was +an offence at common law. In the Defendant's defence, TO WHICH HE +HAD LISTENED WITH FEELINGS OF GREAT INTEREST, AYE, WITH SENTIMENTS OF +RESPECT TOO, he had complained of the hardship of a general publisher +being held responsible for the contents of all the works he might sell, +but he had himself answered that argument by the conduct which he stated +he pursued with regard to obscene and personally libellous publication, +and from the title-page of this work it was scarcely possible not to be, +in some measure, aware of its contents. Discussions on a subject, even +the most sacred, might be tolerated when they were conducted in a fair +spirit; but when appeals were made not to reason but to the bad feelings +of human nature, or where ridicule or invective were had recourse to, it +could not be considered discussion. As to the impolicy of these sort of +prosecutions that was a question with which they had nothing to do; +the only question for them to determine was, whether the publication in +question was a blasphemous libel, and whether it had been published by +the Defendant.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Jury immediately returned a verdict of Guilty.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Attorney-General prayed the immediate judgment of the Court.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Denman.--I think the passing sentence had better be deferred, until +we have had the opportunity of considering the subject.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Defendant then retired, and the Court adjourned.</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="observations"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10">OBSERVATIONS</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">T</span><span class="dropspan">he</span> renewal of a series of Government prosecutions for alleged +blasphemy, will justify me in accompanying the publication of the +foregoing trial with a few words of comment.</p> +<p class="pnext">The points upon which I deem it my duty to animadvert--are the conduct +of the Government, the Attorney-General, and the Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">I consider that the Government have acted towards me, in this +prosecution, in a very unjustifiable manner. They first placed Mr. +Cleave on his trial for selling the fifth, eighth, and thirteenth +numbers of Haslam's Letters. He pleaded <em class="italics">Not Guilty</em>, but was convicted +(after an able and convincing speech from his-Counsel, Mr. Chambers), +by as stupid a Jury as ever sat in judgment on an honest man. The Judge +sentenced him to four months' imprisonment, and a fine of £20. Such was +the force of public opinion, however, on the injustice and impolicy of +such prosecutions, that Mr. Cleave was liberated, upon paying the fine, +after five weeks' imprisonment.</p> +<p class="pnext">The trial of Mr. Heywood, the original publisher, came next. His known +integrity and respectability had attached to him many influential +friends, who represented to the Government the folly and injustice +of these proceedings, and Lord Normanby at length yielded to their +importunities, by agreeing, on condition that he pleaded guilty, +that Mr. Heywood's prosecution should proceed no further. Mr. +Heywood complied, and was left at liberty, on entering into his own +recognizances, to appear when called upon.</p> +<p class="pnext">Public opinion unequivocally declared that such prosecutions were +indefensible, and it was very generally believed that the Government +would abandon them from a conviction of their injustice and impolicy. +Instead of which they proceeded against me for selling the same +numbers of the identical work that Messrs. Cleave and Heywood had +been prosecuted for selling, though the punishment of Mr. Cleave was +remitted, and the Government compounded blasphemy in the case of Mr. +Heywood. To injure and annoy honest and industrious tradesmen, because +the author of a book has in two or three instances expressed his ideas +in vulgar and objectionable phraseology, is unworthy of an enlightened +Government. I feel pity for the Jury who could ignorantly pronounce +a verdict of guilty against a man who never wilfully injured a +fellow-creature, merely because he had sold a book that combated +the established opinions of the day; but I entertain very different +sentiments against the Government that could institute and carry forward +prosecutions of this nature, when, from their superior knowledge, they +must be fully aware of the iniquity of their proceedings. They encourage +"reason and free inquiry," while it favours their objects; and they +persecute and ruin all those, who, by the exercise of reason and free +inquiry, arrive at conclusions adverse to the established opinions of +society. The time has passed, however, for a renewal of persecution for +matters of opinion. No Government can stand that will attempt it; and +I tell Her Majesty's Government, that when they interfere with the +religious or anti-religious opinions of the people, they step out of +their province,--and to inflict punishment upon either the original +publisher or the general bookseller, who supplies all works to order, +for the opinions contained in the works they respectively publish or +sell, is an odious act of tyranny that good men of every opinion should +denounce and oppose. I, for one, will never sanction or submit to such +tyranny. Whether any and what sentence will be passed upon me I know +not; but I have made up my mind that I will maintain, at all risks, and +under every privation, to the utmost extent of my ability and means, the +right of all men to freely publish their opinions upon every subject +of general interest--whether social, political, or religious; aye, or +anti-religious,--and if the Government would receive a suggestion +from me, I would suggest to them to take their stand on this glorious +principle--perfect freedom is the formation AS PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS +FOR EVERY SECT AND PARTY. That is the most effectual way to elicit truth +upon all subjects; and I would respectfully ask them, whether they +ever knew the truth injure any sect or party that was disposed to act +honestly?</p> +<p class="pnext">I hope the Government will reflect upon the injustice and impolicy +of this new crusade against the free expression of opinion, adopt my +suggestion, and abandon all prosecutions against those who honestly +controvert the received opinions of society.</p> +<p class="pnext">Having now expressed my feelings with regard to the conduct of the +Government, I must say a word or two respecting the behaviour of the +learned Attorney-General towards me, on my trial. He made very few +observations in opening the case, but reserved himself for his Reply; +a privilege which I think he was not entitled to, as I called no +witnesses. Had I anticipated he would have claimed the privilege of +reply, and abused it in the shameful manner that he did, I could have +overthrown, by witnesses, the false impression which he so unjustly +laboured to establish on the minds of the Jury--that I was the publisher +of the work, because my name was affixed to the book first of the London +agents. What is the object of a reply? It is to answer the facts +and arguments adduced by the Defendant; to show that he has reasoned +illogically; and to point out to the Jury, succinctly and clearly* the +points in which he has failed to answer the charge laid against him in +the indictment. In addition, however, to this base attempt to hold me +up to the Jury as the original publisher, the Attorney-General obviously +sought to make the Jury believe--(and there is every reason to think +that he triumphed in this his unjust attempt to injure me)--that I +claimed immunity not only for my belief but my actions, When I insisted +upon setting him right, by showing him the utter falsehood of his +assertion, in which I was supported by Lord Chief Justice Denman, he +treacherously aimed at fixing upon me the consequences of doctrines to +which I had not even adverted in my speech, and which had no reference +whatever to the subject then before the Court. He basely insinuated that +I was virtually claiming immunity for all acts of aggression--such as +robbery, murder, seduction, unjustifiable rebellion, and assassination +of the Queen; striving to raise in the minds of the Jury a confusion +between the right of freedom of opinion and the wrong of licentious +action! This, too, was slanderously repeated, after my open appeal to +the Court against such malignity; and this the learned Attorney-General +calls availing himself of his privilege of reply! I was not allowed to +answer these falsehoods of the Attorney-General; though, as the accused +party, I was in justice, if not in law, entitled to every opportunity of +making the truth apparent to the Jury.</p> +<p class="pnext">As to the Jury--What shall I say of them? I can only pity men who +exhibited such woful ignorance and imbecility as to be led away by +misrepresentations that had not even the appearance of truth. Let me ask +the Jury one simple question. They were bound by their oath to give a +true verdict according to the evidence. Now let me ask them, was there +any evidence of BLASPHEMY?</p> +<p class="pnext">The evidence adduced merely proved the sale of a certain book. There +was no evidence that the contents of the book were blasphemous. This +question--(that is to say, the very question in dispute--the question +whether or not there was any blasphemy)--this question was decided by +Judge and Jury without an iota of evidence, without even an attempt at +any evidence bearing Upon it. The opinions of the Judge and Jury decided +the question of the indictment---Was there blasphemy or no! There +was no evidence at all upon it. Gentlemen of the Jury--common and +special--was your verdict in accordance with the EVIDENCE brought +forward for your enlightened consideration--was your verdict in +accordance with the terms of your oath? The verdict to which I was +entitled from honest and reasoning men was the following:--either a +direct "Not Guilty of blasphemy"--or this, "Guilty of selling a certain +book concerning the nature of which wc=e have had no evidence"--matters of +opinion not being, in fact susceptible of evidence.</p> +<ol class="upperalpha simple" start="8"> +<li><p class="first pfirst">HETHERINGTON.</p> +</li> +</ol> +<p class="pfirst">I cannot close these Observations without tendering my best thanks +to the editor of <em class="italics">The Sun</em> for the zeal and ability with which, in a +succession of leading articles, he defended the right of Free Inquiry +and the Free Publication of Opinions. The <em class="italics">Morning Chronicle</em> published +an impartial report of the Trial, and gave a good leading article on +the subject. The <em class="italics">Morning Advertiser</em> and the <em class="italics">Weekly Chronicle</em> also +published a fair report of the Trial. The <em class="italics">Weekly Dispatch</em> and The +<em class="italics">Statesman</em> are both entitled to thanks for their advocacy of Truth and +Liberty, in reference to the principle contended for in my Defence. The +three Letters of Publicola, in The <em class="italics">Weekly Dispatch</em>, are invaluable; +and I regret that I cannot find room for the whole of them in this +pamphlet, without considerably enhancing its price and defeating my +own object of extensive circulation for my Trial. They are worthy of a +distinct publication. I can only fill up the space I have left by the +insertion of the following excellent article from <em class="italics">The Sun</em> of Friday, +December the 11th, 1840, and Publicola's Letter to Lord Chief Justice +Denman.--H. H.</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="extract-from-the-sun-newspaper"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11">Extract from The Sun Newspaper</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">W</span><span class="dropspan">e</span> brought evidence yesterday to show that the suppression of +objections to the Scriptures by penal enactments is tyrannical, unjust, +and absurd, and that the law is partially administered. If we return +to the subject, it is from a deep sense of its almost immeasurable +importance. Our whole internal A policy, nearly, is framed with a view +to support the Church. The Church is founded, or rather pretends to be +founded, on the Bible; but we are now told by the decision of the +Jury on Tuesday, that it is a crime to object to its statements. The +happiness of society, then, is to be chained and bound by principles and +doctrines, which society must not examine; for if men must not object, +what is the use of examination?</p> +<p class="pnext">"We see disorder pervading every part of society. The poor are set +against the rich, and the rich are zealously engaged in oppressing +and coercing the poor. Crime increases, and though more churches +are building, religion is decaying. The remedies suggested for our +disorders, within the bounds sanctioned by the Church, are more numerous +than the disorders themselves; but though confusion and anarchy +threaten us, the law forbids men to say aught against principles which +our rulers have followed, while society has been brought into its +present condition.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What the law now decrees against what it calls blasphemy, it decreed, +not two centuries ago, against witchcraft. It now denounces the former +as displeasing to God; it then denounced the latter for the same +offence. Men and women were in those less humane days burned for +displeasing God, while now they are only fined and incarcerated. By the +progress of knowledge, lawyers, both barristers and judges, have been +compelled to give up that portion of the perfection of human reason, and +the law against witchcraft has become obsolete. If our view of the +law for suppressing objections to the Scriptures, under * the name of +blasphemy, be correct, it is not more reasonable than the law against +witchcraft. While no lawyer, however, will now lend himself to revive +the latter or carry it into execution, there are numbers, we say it to +the disgrace of the profession, zealous and eager to apply the former, +at least to the penny tracts which are addressed to the poor.</p> +<p class="pnext">"It is therefore with deep regret that we saw so eminent a man as the +Attorney-General lending himself to this sorry work. We are ready to +admit, as a Tory contemporary has stated, that he has done his duty, and +he finds his reward in the praise of the Tories. Nor did he show, as far +as we can learn, certainly not in his reply, any reluctance to perform +it; people say he did it as if he had something to atone for, and was +rather eager to gain the approbation of Bishop Philpotts. His +labours were crowned with a success which his own party reprobate. In +Westminster Hall he has triumphed, but an appeal lies from that to the +world; and even the Whigs, who have heretofore denounced prosecutions +for blasphemy as for witchcraft, consider that in the last resort he +will sustain a terrible defeat.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Mr. Hetherington has already suffered in body and mind, in purse and +health; and probably awaits with apprehension the sentence, which may +consign him to prison and ruin. He is down-stricken by the law; but +those who have read his defence, and prefer reason to legal fictions, +will place him far above the triumphant Attorney-General. He made +an admirable pleading for free inquiry, which plain John Campbell +instituted a prosecution to suppress. In his reply Sir John so far +overstepped the bounds of propriety, that the Defendant would not allow +him to proceed, and was supported by the Court. In a bad cause the +Attorney-General used poisoned weapons. He upheld a prosecution for +blasphemy, which is as ridiculous as a prosecution for witchcraft, and +descended to misrepresent the accused. With our opinion of the law he +was enforcing, we are bound to say that Sir John Campbell should have +left such a duty to be performed by some taker of a half-guinea fee, who +never got beyond the precincts of the Old Bailey. It was wholly unworthy +of an eminent lawyer, who has risen into political power as a professed +friend of free discussion. The slaves to lust have some pleasure for +their punishment, but the servants of the grimgribber of Westminster +Hall, who sacrifice present fame to a sense of duty to it, reap little +more than disgrace for their nauseous drudgery.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Sir John Campbell prosecuted Mr. Hetherington, in the language of +the indictment, for being 'a wicked, impious, and ill-disposed +person, having no regard to the laws of this realm, but most wickedly, +blasphemously, impiously, and profanely devising and intending to +asperse and vilify that part of the Holy Bible which is called the Old +Testament.' Now, having no respect whatever for the fictions of the law, +we have no hesitation in branding such accusations of a publisher as a +monstrous tissue of falsehoods, and to affirm that it is a disgrace to +any man who has the least respect for truth, to defend such a charge. +We care not about its being the customary language of the law, for +truth and men's liberties are not to be sacrificed by and for such +absurdities.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Further, this said aspersing and vilifying the Bible is said by Sir J. +Campbell, at least such is the language of the indictment, which he +used arguments to sustain, to be greatly 'to the displeasure of Almighty +God.' Who knows that? What worm dares to say that the Almighty God is +displeased with another worm for uttering or writing a few words.' +Who is the vain and arrogant man that claims for himself the task of +interpreting the thoughts of the Most High, and demanding that a man be +punished for having displeased Almighty God? What name does the Court +deserve which, being instituted to do justice and protect the people, +punishes one of them because he displeases the Almighty? Can He not +punish those who displease Him? To doubt it, to undertake to protect or +avenge Him, to describe Him as displeased, while he showers prosperity +and contentment on the man said to displease Him, is far more impious, +more blasphemous, more dangerous to religion than anything Mr. +Hetherington ever published, or Mr. Haslam wrote. Such, however, was +the crime charged against Mr. Hetherington, which Sir John Campbell +endeavoured to substantiate, and of which a Jury, who are as much +deserving of reproach as the prosecutor, found him guilty. Such is the +crime for which the Court will hereafter pass sentence, undertaking, +like the Inquisition, to decide for the Almighty, and punish actions +as displeasing to Him, at which He, by the course of nature, shows no +displeasure.</p> +<p class="pnext">"At the present time, when a great portion of the Whig press will +support the Attorney-General or be silent, leaving <em class="italics">The Sun</em> to defend +the great principle of free inquiry and free printing, as they left it +to defend the same sacred and noble cause when it was assailed in the +person of Mr. Harmer, we think it our duty not to be silent. As we +should assail any Tory Attorney-General who had instituted such +a prosecution, or carried it on, so we cannot allow it to pass +unstigmatized because it has been instituted by a Whig Attorney-General. +We know that the wisest and best politicians of the party deprecate +such proceedings, and not the less because they will call forth in +many independent journals, to the injury of the Whigs, an expression of +honest indignation."</p> +<div class="clearpage"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="to-lord-denman-on-the-late-prosecution-for-blasphemy"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12">"TO LORD DENMAN, ON THE LATE PROSECUTION FOR BLASPHEMY</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 3.00em">M</span><span class="dropspan">r</span> Lord Chief Justice.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Your conduct on the Bench, upon the recent trial, 'The Queen v. +Hetherington,' for a religious libel, a nominal and an impossible +offence, the fiction of fraudulent bigotry, has much increased the high +esteem in which you have been always held by the public. Your Lordship's +opinions on this impolitic, irreligious, and thoroughly infamous species +of prosecution have oft-times been expressed with the integrity and high +moral courage that have ever distinguished your public life. I never +shall forget the manliness with which I heard you avow from the Whig +Treasury Benches, in the House of Commons, in your place as Attorney +General, your detestation of indictments for religious opinions; and the +House hailed you when you fairly acknowledged your deep regret that, as +Common Serjeant, you had been obliged, in obedience to your oath and to +the law, to impose even the smallest punishment possible upon three men +convicted by an ignorant Jury of a libel on the Scriptures; and you were +still more cheerfully received when you expressed your joy at the +liberation of the prisoners whom you had so unwillingly punished. There +was one part of your speech that did not certainly satisfy me. I respect +your sense of obligation to an oath; but when you punished men whom you +conscientiously believed to be undeserving of infliction, and this 'in +obedience to the law,' your Lordship might have reflected, that it was +not Parliamentary, but Judge-made law--'Common-law,' as it is called; +and you might have acted upon the principle that if a corrupt and +ignorant Judge made a law to suit the prejudices of a brutal age, a pure +and well-informed Judge might reverse that law in favour of an age more +humane and more enlightened. I recollect with great satisfaction that +when, in the case of Lord Langford, the Counsel, Mr. Thesiger, asked a +witness (Mr. Nathan, a Jew) 'what religion he was of?' your Lordship +expressed your strong displeasure; and, under your Lordship's sanction, +the witness refused to answer the interrogatory, and treated both the +query and the querist with the utmost contempt; and the whole Court and +audience seemed strongly to approve of the result. In the recent trial +your Lordship's conduct was a contrast to that of your immediate +predecessors on the Bench, Lords Tenterden and Ellenborough, the last +representatives of a most disgraceful school of political, prejudiced, +corrupt Court Judges. You did all in your power to induce the Jury to +acquit the accused. I am now credibly informed that the Attorney-General +had the same object at heart; and having, intentionally, gone in a most +slovenly and unimpressive manner, through his technical duty, he was +abashed and mortified when he heard the verdict of guilty. Familiar as +he must be with the extreme ignorance, stupidity, and corruption of +Juries, on such occasions, he was still surprised at such a verdict. I +am willing to give him credit for these common reports in his favour; +but should the Government be so infatuated as to bring the defendant up +for judgment, the country expects of you, my Lord Denman, that the +sentence will be nominal, and that it will be accompanied by your +reprobation of all such trials.</p> +<p class="pnext">"If it be true that hope is the last passion that leaves a man, +equally true is it that the spirit, the accursed spirit of religious +persecution, is the last passion that man deserts, or is willing to +abandon. I sincerely believe that if the alternative were put to a +hundred dying men, at their last, moment of consciousness, at their last +gasp of breath, whether they preferred their own future salvation +or beatitude, or the persecution of man upon earth for conscientious +differences of opinion on religious subjects, full ninety-nine out of +the hundred would choose the latter, on the ground of its being the +turnpike-road to the former, and from the inherent delight in the +spirit of religious intolerance. Fanaticism is the primeval curse of our +nature. From its first victim Abel, to the present hour, it has raged +through the human race. Moral sins and physical or corporeal diseases in +the course of ages wear themselves out, or can be cured by instruction +or medical treatment; but the most foul, leprous, and crime-engendering +of all maladies that flesh is heir to, fanaticism--call it if you +please, bigotry or superstition--admits of no cure, and of little +mitigation. If this hellhound were now let loose from the restraints +of law, we should in one year have every gaol and dungeon full of +prisoners, and in another, the fires and faggots of the olden times +would be raging more fiercely than of yore, and more furiously in this +country than in any other. Whatever Catholics might have been in the +middle ages, there has been more of religious persecution in Great +Britain and Ireland, in the last century, than in all the Catholic +countries of Europe within the same period. On the Continent the spirit +is on the wane; in England it is on the increase.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My Lord Denman, in the very abstraction of our individual nature, and +of the nature of society, a court of justice cannot take cognizance of +opinions. Its functions are confined exclusively to facts. Can any two +classes of things be more distinct and opposite? The one is fixed, the +other perpetually varying. Law, cultivated reason and common sense have +rescued subjects of opinion from judicial interference, except with +respect to politics and religion, the two which of all others most need +the exemption. The interference of courts of justice with religious +opinions had immensely decreased, and it is now reviving; but it is in +your Lordship's power to annihilate it by passings nominal sentence +on the defendant. The effects or results of a fact are ascertainable; +those of an opinion are but speculative and uncertain. There is not +in existence, there never has existed, and probably never can exist, +a religious opinion that has not been deemed blasphemous, and of a +destructive tendency to morals and social peace, by its opponents, +who, if they had been strong enough, have relied upon the arguments of +torture and death, or punishments as severe as society would permit.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My Lord, legism, or jurisprudence, are sufficiently understood to +render it indisputable that punishments cannot be vindicatory or +retrospective, and less than either, vindictive. All religious +prosecutions seek only for revenge. The object of a legal punishment +relates solely to the prevention of the offence. If a sentence against +Mr. Hetherington cannot effect this object, it cannot be justified. +Will a sentence alter his opinions? will it alter conscientiously that +of any class or single member of society? and, above all, will it stop +or check the dissemination of his doctrines? The two first points are +nugatory; the last is defeated in its pretended object. All history and +experience prove that persecution, let its form or degree be what it +may, increases that which it is meant to destroy. Whether the tyrant be +called Pope or Inquisition, Attorney-General or Court of Queen's Bench, +the principle and the result are the same.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Every religion, church, and sect, that exists or is defunct, in Europe +and in Asia, from the earliest record, has had at its origin, and +through its infancy, to encounter obloquy and persecution. The Jewish +religion received animation and vigour from the contempt and cruelties +of surrounding polytheists, and the Jews sought in one God a protection +from the horrors which had been inflicted on them by the worshippers of +many; and well did this atrocious people revenue themselves 011 their +former persecutors, and this by assuming their own claim to the right +of punishing men for differing in opinions. The progress of Christianity +was accelerated by the Jews, in their attempts to crush it by inflicting +an ignominious and most cruel death on an innocent individual, under +that absurd fiction of blasphemy, in the foul name of which your +Lordship is now called upon to punish, against your will, another +innocent individual. If blasphemy has any meaning, its definition must +be--'a resistance to a predominant priestcraft.' Every religion, at +its commencement, is but a confluent mass of blasphemies to the +previously-established religions; and persecution is the reverse +of annihilation, Where would Protestantism have been but for its +persecution by the Catholics, and <em class="italics">vice versa</em>? From the dawn of +Protestantism in England, under Wycliffe, and the burning of the first +Protestants by the priests, in the reign of the Hero of Agincourt (what +a hero!) down to the death of Mary, English Protestants were tortured, +burnt, hanged, and punished, and yet the religion spread. Throughout +Germany the same effects proceeded from the same cause. Our English +persecutions of the Catholics in Ireland have been long, incessant, and +too dreadfully cruel to reflect upon, and yet Catholicism has increased +under them. We have not one respectable sect in England that has not +arisen in despite of persecution, and increased by means of it, and +these, with hundreds or thousands of other instances (for history +abounds with them), prove that persecution or punishment does not, and +cannot, effect the object in view; and that, consequently, +punishment cannot be justified by its only legitimate principle of +justification--utility. It is madness to punish for an offence which +must be increased by the very nature of the punishment. Formerly, in +punishments for blasphemy, men, women, and children were burnt and +put to every variety of torture, for the good of their souls--now, we +substitute for the word soul, the phrase--'<em class="italics">the security of society</em>,' +or other jargon equally nonsensical. The Court of Inquisition was, and +is, wherever it exists, more honourable than the Protestant Court of +Queen's Bench, for the Inquisitors tortured and destroyed for the sake +of the soul, but our Courts punish only for the profit of the priest. +The old plea, the impudent and barbarous plea, of 'Benefit of Clergy,' +is annulled by law, and yet an indictment for blasphemy is nothing more +or less than a process for the 'Benefit of Clergy.' Thus, my Lord, have +I humbly attempted to prove that your punishment of this individual +will be in strong and violent opposition to the principles, opinion, and +feelings which you have avowed on the Ministerial Benches of the House +of Commons; and if the Whig Administration is so infatuatedly base as +to call the defendant up for punishment your Lordship will be in the +unenviable position of passing a sentence, as Lord Chief Justice of +England, against the nature, principles, and objects of which you have +expressed little less than abhorrence in the character of Her Majesty's +Attorney-General in the House of Commons. At that period, my Lord, you +were the freely and most honourably chosen representative of one of the +largest and most enlightened constituencies of Great Britain--the town +of Nottingham--and your constituents expressed no dissatisfaction at +your speech. Is there not a sympathy between Nottingham and other large, +and populous, aud enlightened towns and cities, and between them all and +the general population of the empire? I have likewise, my Lord, +shown, to the best of my very humble abilities, as a legist, that any +punishment inflicted on this individual, violates the only principle +on which all punishments can be justified--the prevention of the +offence--if it be one.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What, in other respects, will be the effects of this brutal +prosecution? Burn Mr. Hetherington alive,--slowly roast him, torture +him by every device, hang him, quarter him, and stick his head on +Temple-bar, and his quarters on the gates of four of our principal +cathedral towns, as in all such cases used to be the practice of our +most pious Christian ancestors in 'the good old times'--or let your +Lordship pass the most lenient sentence on him, and what will be +the result? Will any thing be proved, disproved, strengthened, or +invalidated, by either mode of punishment? If divines or laymen argue +upon the Scriptures <em class="italics">in toto</em> or in parts, <em class="italics">en masse</em> or in detail, +could any of the disputants establish his point by arguing that Mr. +Hetherington or Mr. Snookes, for the names are indifferent, was or +was not in gaol, or that the sentence was six days' or six months' +incarceration--how would the case stand syllogistically? A asserts that +the Bible ought to be burnt--A is not prosecuted--ergo, the Bible +ought to be burnt. B asserts that the Bible ought to be burnt--B is +prosecuted--B is acquitted by the Jury--ergo, the Bible ought to be +burnt. C asserts that the Bible ought to be burnt--C is prosecuted--C is +found guilty--ergo, the Bible ought not to be burnt. Again, D, E, F, and +G, are prosecuted for saying that the Bible ought to be burnt. They are +all found guilty under different Judges, and their sentences vary from +three, six, twelve, and eighteen months' imprisonment. Here the public +mind is in utter confusion between the cases of A, B, and C, and between +the ratios of punishment inflicted on D, E, F, and G, I have gone to +the extent of the musical gamut. Ratios might be calculated by +arithmeticians aud algebraists. Thus--'As burning the Bible is to the +acquittal of B,--so is not burning the Bible to the sentence on D, E, F, +or G." Really, my Lord, as a man of the most cultivated intellect, you +must see the monstrous absurdity, the atrocious cruelty, of subjecting +opinions on Scriptures to 'Trial by Jury.' If opinions on a book are to +be brought before a Jury, so might its author. I speak in no disrespect +of Scriptures, but I speak in utter disgust and abhorrence of bringing +them before Juries. What, in fact, does a verdict of 'Guilty' or 'Not +Guilty' amount to, in case of an opinion on the Scriptures? The ignorant +Jury men unwittingly set themselves above the Scriptures, and tyrannise +over the Deity himself. The impiety lies all in the Jury, and not in the +accused. The trial my Lord, proceeds entirely on the conceded point that +the Scriptures are the word of God; a word is an empty, unintelligible, +worthless sound, except by the interpretation put upon it; and if the +Jury will be the interpreters, they are the authors of the word, +and usurp the powers of the Deity. God may say 'this is my word +and commandment,' and a Jury replies, 'the substance utility, +intelligibility of a word depend entirely upon the meaning attached to +it, and we Jurymen will put and make all other men put what construction +we please, upon it, under pains and penalties, so that the word is not +yours, but ours.' A Defendant may argue, 'my construction is a matter +between my conscience and my God.' The verdict replies, 'God has +nothing to do with it; your construction is entirely a case between your +conscience and us Jurymen, stock-brokers, bill-brokers, pawnbrokers, +gambling-house-keepers, and, peradventure, keepers of houses of a still +worse description.' My Lord Denman, the manly character of your mind +will make you fearlessly grapple with this important subject, and will +induce your Lordship to feel that I have as fearlessly and as honestly +stated the merits of the case. Pause, my Lord, before you ruin, and +almost torture a man, for whose defence you have expressed respect from +the Judgment-seat, and this by a sentence for the nature and principles +of which you have publicly and officially declared an abhorrence.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Our laws, Lord Denman, lay down a principle that every man is presumed +to be acquainted with the business, profession, or study to which +he belongs, or to which he has devoted himself. The converse--a most +rational converse, is that he is unacquainted with what he does +not belong to, or has not studied; or, in plain terms, that he is +unacquainted with that of which he knows nothing. Sir Isaac Newton would +have been a most ignorant Juryman upon a case resting upon the details +of business in the butter trade of Cork; and a Mr. Jones, in that trade, +would be an equally ignorant Juryman on a case involving the complex +observations and abstract calculations of Sir Isaac's Observatory. +Shakspeare, as a Juryman, would have been puzzled to determine a +disputed point of commerce; and a tradesman would be as equally +perplexed in deciding a point upon the machinery of Arkwright, or the +steam-engine of Watts. In the present case, a man named Haslam, (but +the name is immaterial, for I apply myself to abstractions and not +to individuals,) has devoted himself to the study of a subject. He is +evidently a man of strong mind, of great knowledge, and of the most +honest intentions. On many points I differ with him, but individual +or public difference is not the case at issue. His very able work is +submitted, not to the public mind, but to 'Trial by Jury;' and its +merits or demerits are determined upon by merchants, brokers, tradesmen.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Our laws, Lord Denman, lay down a principle that every man is presumed +to be acquainted with the business, profession, or study to which +he belongs, or to which he has devoted himself. The converse-a most +rational converse, is that he is unacquainted with what he does +not belong to, or has not studied; or, in plain terms, that he is +unacquainted with that of which he knows nothing. Sir Isaac Newton would +have been a most ignorant Juryman upon a ease resting upon the details +of business in the butter trade of Cork; and a Mr. Jones, in that +trade, would be an equally ignorant Juryman on a case involving +the complex observations and abstract calculations of Sir Isaac's +Observatory. Shakspeare, as a Juryman, would have been puzzled to +determine a disputed point of commerce; and a tradesman would be as +equally perplexed in deciding a point upon the machinery of Arkwright, +or the steam-engine of Watts. In the present case, a man named Haslam, +(but the name is immaterial, for I apply myself to abstractions and not +to individuals,) has devoted himself to the study of a subject. He is +evidently a man of strong mind, of great knowledge, and of the most +honest intentions. On many points I differ with him, but individual +or public difference is not the case at issue. His very able work is +submitted, not to the public mind, but to 'Trial by Jury;' and its +merits or demerits are determined upon by merchants, brokers, tradesmen +and jobbing peculating Jurymen called 'Tales.' as totally ignorant +of Mr! Haslam's studies and works, as he most probably is of their +different lines of traffic. Is this a test of the merits of the case? +Is this any barometer of the truth of the Gospel, of public feeling, or +of the intelligence of our population?</p> +<p class="pnext">"My Lord Denman, the Attorney-General, tried, in the usual slang of his +profession, or rather of his office, to attach moral imperfection and +social dangers to speculative points of theology-to points of creed. We +have now on our Bench, including Ireland and Scotland, Catholic +Judges, Judges belonging to the Church of England, to the creeds of the +Baptists, Anabaptists, Unitarians, and to the no-creeds of the Deists, +and yet what barrister, attorney, or client, ever complained of a Judge +on account of his creed or his construction of the Scriptures? In +Ireland we have Catholic Judges, in Scotland Presbyterian, and in +England Judges of the Clutch, and of every dissenting sect, and +yet, when in 'Term time,' a new Trial is moved for, on account of a +misdirection of a Judge, who ever heard of the misdirection lying +attached to the Judge's creed? The Solicitor-General of Ireland is a +Catholic, the Attorney-General of England is a Presbyterian (if he has +any religion at all), and the Solicitor-General of England is of the +Church (the refuge of all sceptics), and what does this amount to with +respect to the discharge of their duties? Lord Chancellors Shaftesbury +and Thurlow, and very many others, were avowed Deists, and yet in +moving the House of Lords to set, their judgment aside, their creeds or +opinions were never put upon the briefs.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Let me suppose, my Lord, that our most pious Monarch, George the Third, +had indicted David Hume, the most perfect, of unofficial characters; +or Adam Smith, a great benefactor of his species; or Edward Gibbon, the +most illustrious of historians, for their Atheism or Deism; and let me +state the fact, that the pious Monarch bestowed upon them all very good, +and, in one instance, very confidential employments, what difference +does this make? in either case the men, their public functions, and +their doctrines, would have been equally at issue with public opinion at +the present day. The merchant, in reading Adam Smith; the philosopher, +in studying the superior works of Hume; and the scholar, in tracing +Gibbon's magnificent outline and correct details of Roman history, never +condescend to inquire whether the authors were patronised by a pious +or an impious monarch, or whether they were indicted by a Presbyterian, +Episcopalian, or Atheistical Attorney-General--the slave of an order +from the Secretary of State's office. This species of scrutiny expired +years ago, and why should it be revived?</p> +<p class="pnext">"My Lord Chief Justice Denman, the eyes of the country, and of foreign +countries, are upon you. The issue of your sentence is the same, except +to the individual; for, liberate him, you respond but to the voice of +all enlightened men throughout Europe; incarcerate him, and by passing +an inhuman sentence upon an innocent man, you enforce a judgment that +you have promulgated in Parliament to be abhorrent in principles and +feelings, and this will produce a powerful redaction.</p> +<p class="pnext">"PUBLICOLA."</p> +<hr class="docutils" /> +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<div class="backmatter"> +</div> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39055 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |