^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY Comeir University Library BV4627.B6 T24 olin 3 1924 029 345 331 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029345331 TRIAL OF THE ttevereiid ROBERT TAYLOR. 7 A.B. M.R.GS. UPON A CHARGE OF BLASPHEMY, WITH HIS DEFENCE, AS DELIVERED BY HIMSELF, BEFORE The Lord ChiSf Justice and a Special Jury-, On WEPNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1827. " INTEGER VIT^, SCELERISQUE PURUS." Hontrott ; PRINTED A^V PUBLISHED BY J. CARLILE, 62, FLEET STREET. Price One Shilling. 1827. 61/ TRIAL or- THE Rev. ROBERT TAYLOR, a.b. and m.r.c.s. This being the day appoiated for the trial of the Rev. Robert Taylor, at an early hoiir a large concourse of persons, amongst whom ihere "was a con- siderable portion of well-dressed and youthful females, were seen assembled ontside the doors of the Court. Shortly after nine o'clocTc every seat in the Court was occupied, and the benches of the Counsel even were largely intruded on by the misceHaneous ttiultitnde. The reverend defendant, accom- panied by a large escort of friends, then entered the Court, and took his 4>lace on the att'orney's seat, immediately in front of that of the King's Counsel. His appeagiince attracted all oyes : he was arrayed in the flowing gown of a clergyman ; his neat clerical hat was conspicuously borne in his hand, an eye-glass depended from his neck, and the little finger of either hand was ornamented with a sumptuous ring", his hair was arranged in the most fashionable style; and a pair of light kid gloves cunsideted the elegant decoratioire of Ills person. Amongst those whom nuriasity had attracted to the Court were Baron Graham, who occupied a seat on the bench, and Lord Sefton, wtio obtained accommodati-on amongst the King's Counsel. At half-past nine o'clock Lord Tenterden came into Court. The Special Jurymen were tlien called ; six only answered to their names. The Attorney-General, who was leading Counsel for the prosecution, prayed a tales, and the Jury was completed by comiaon Jurymen. The following are th« names of the Jury ; — SPECIAL JURYMEN. Thomas Creed, merchant Edward Whitmore, banker Joseph Skilhead, merchant John Mellon, banker Robert Richards, merchapl John Maire Innis, merchant. COMMON JURYMEN. Barney Wood William Rowbotham Robert Bayes. SolofnoB Harris James Gann John Phillips The Jury were then sworn. Mr. James Parke. — Gentlemen of the Jury, thisis an indictment against Robert Taylor, for a blasphemous discourse, to which he has pleaded noT 5?ui!ty, upon which issue is joined, and that is the issue ySu have to try. The Attoruey-Gieneial. — May it please your Lordship, and Gentlemen of the Jury, my learned friend. has informed you that this is a prosecution against Mr. Robert Taylor for tittering a blasphemous discourU, calculated to excite against the religion which we profess aversion and disrespect, and to bring into contempt those things M'hich we hold to be most sacred. I do not mean to say any thing for the purpose of satisfying you that a public attack upon those things which we are accustomed to regard with re- verence — which we habitually contemplate with seriousness— is an offence agaitist -public decency — is one of those nuisances which requires to be im- mediately suppressed. Gentlemen, it is a principle so apparent, so very well known, I would fain believe, to any individual in this audience, that I should deem it a waste of time were I to attempt to prove it. Such, you areaware, mnst be the law of every civilised country in the world. Raligion, &entlemen— that obligation of man to his Creator — must ever be a subject of seriousniess — of reverence— must be a subject wholly inconsistent with,. , and free from the feelings of levity aird contempt. Gentlemen, it is not necessary, neither can it be exacted by the authority of any form of civilised government that all mankind should agree in adopting a particular form of worship.. No, Gentlemen, far from it. But that which is necessary — that which all civilised govemnvents have a right to exact is, that the doctrine Which is adopted and held sacred by the majoiity shall be at all times treated with due respect and reverence. Surely, Gentlemen, we may exact on behalf of those who are actuated by a deep impression gf the SJidemn srdc- tions of the Christiao faith- --surely we may challenge on their account— the game reverence and tenderness which we ourselves are disposed to manifest towards the peculiar religions of other countries to which we do not assent-— the same decent respect which would be expected from all men, were there ^ven ito other reason iliau that of beiiia in coiilorniity to the established ru es ( f society. Gtiitlenien, ifiere are countries in the world where men aiay do things, and that with the greatest propriety, which they cannot do here with impunity. It has been said, •very happily and justly, by an '""*" tri'jus writer, ' You cannot compare the nakedness of the Indian wita that of the prostitute.' The Indian roams naltedly abroad lii his wilderness at pleasure ; but will you suffer the prostitute to go at large without covering through your streets i Would not thai he offending decency and jnorality J And if the savage Indian wtre to appear in this country, wo,uld it be con- formable to our habits to permit him to wander about in his accustomed nakedness? Would this be propriety? Why, Gentlemen, there is a descrip- tion of habits— call them prejudices if you please— which are interwoven with the being of society— which belcmg essentially to the constitutions of civilised man, an offence against which deserves to be considered as a nui- sance. Gentlemen, I have stated to you the simple principle as it ought to prevail in every rational community, without having- made any reference to the sacred sanctions of religion. I do not know. Gentlemen, that I can better impress upon your tainds the feeling which 1 entertain, and ever shall entertain, upon these subjects, than by referring you to the language of one of the most elegant writers-"One of tlie greatest ornaments of English literature— I mean Dr. Paley-'-a man who united the profoundest, erudi- tion, the most acute understanding, the most laborious investigation, to the most candidtaind— a man whose perfect freedom from prejudice was capable of conferring upon any opinion he embraced a peculiar degree of authority. Let me, Gentlemen, show you what the opinions of such a man are. I take them from one of the chapters of his ' Moral Philosophy,' a work which for eloquence, for high tone of feeling, for thoughts that are just, and for words that are beautiful, may be compared with any production in our language; and in the extracts of which you. Gentlemen, will find fai- more amusement than in any thing I could offer to your attention He says, ' In many per- sons a seriqusness and a sense of awe overspread the imagination whenever the idea of the Supreme Behig is presented to their thoughts. This effect, which foi'ms a considerable »ecuiity against vice, is the consequence, not so much of reflection, as of habit ; which habit, being generated by the external expressions of reverence which we use ourselves, or observe in others, may be destroyed by causes opposite to these.' Asain, Gentlem.en, he says, ' Mockery and lidicule, when exercised upon the Scripiure, or even upon the places, persons, and forms set apart for the ministration of religion, fall within the mischief of the law which forbids the profanation of God's name, especially as that law is extended by Christ's interpretation. They are, moreover, inconsistent with a religious frame of mind ; for, as no one ever either feels himself disposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the pleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested, so a mind int^t upon the acquisition of Heaven, rejects with indignation every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to degrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with seriousness and anxiety. No- thing but stupidity, or the most frivolous dissipation of thought, can make even the inconsiderate forget the supreme itiportance of every thing which relates to the expectation ol a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, exults over their credulous fears, their childish errors, or fantastic lites, it does not occur to him t« observe, that the most preposterous device by which the weakest, devotee ever believed he was securing the happiness of a future life, is more rational than uncon- cern about it,. Upon this subject nothing is so absurd as indifference, no folly so contemptible as thoughtlessness and levity. Finally, the know- ledge of what is due to the solemnity of those interests concerning which revelation professes to inform and direct us, may teach even those who are least inclined to respect the prejudices of mankind to observe a decorum in the style and conduct of religious disquisitions, with the neglect of which many adversaries of Christianity are justly chargeable. Serious arguments are fair on all sides. Christianily is, but ill defended by refusing auaieuce , or toleration to the objections of unbelievers. But; whilst w,e would have freedom of inquiry restraiued by no lawstbut those of decency, we are entitled to dijiuand, on behalf of a religion which holds forth to mankiitd 6 •fJS«™n<:es of immortalily, that its credit be assailed by no other weapons than those of sober discussion and legitimate reasoning— that the truth or falsehood of Christianity be never made a topic of raillery, a theme for the exercise of wit . r el quence, or a subject of contentinn for literary fame ^•"^ ''''^^'"■y— that the cause be tried uj.on its merils— that- all applications to the fancy, passions, or prejudices of the reader, all attempts to pre- occupy, ensnare, or perplex his judgment, by art, influence, or impression ■whatsoever, extrinsic of the proper grounds and evidence upon which his assent ought to proceed, be rejected from a question which involves in its fletermination the hopes, the virtue, and the repose of millions. ' Gentlemen, I forbear to pursue topics of ti.is nature as they are treated by the r.ame ability, and enforced with the same just reasoning. I cited to you the lan- guage of this writer, to show to you that the rule of law wliicli forliids the sort of discussion reprobated by this author, and pursued by the defendant, is loundeJ on the rttles of common seiise ; and to saiisfy you that it sliould l3e observed .atta' cherished— K.ove all, cherished when it protects Irora insult a form of religion which holds out the highest hopes of, and atTords the surest sanction to the existence of a happier state. Those who employ their intelligence to persuade men that religion is the obligation pf man tp hlg Creator, are the benefactors of mankind. They, on the contrary, who would destroy the foundations on which religion is based, would do well to remember what sysfem it is they would propose to substitute for that which they would remove ; what sanctions they would olfer to' ensure, in the language of the eloquent writer just quoted, ' the repose of the millions' whose faith they would unsettle. — Gentlemen, I will not endeavour to repeat the language in wliich this defendant has dared to indulge ; the words of mockery which he has introduced into his a^ldTe^ses, assailing both the forms and the personages which are most leverenced and .sacred amongst us. It will be sufficient that you hear them from those whose duly it will be to state them\t(J you. If, Gentlemen, you find that Taylor has been a sober, moderate inquirer ; that he has made use of no weapon which it was improper for him to employ — then, in God's name, acquit him. I do not stand in this place in behalf of religion, or in support of law, to require that you shall force the conscience of any man to accej)t as truth that which he does not believe : but I ask this. Gentlemen, that if a man attacks the faith of millions, he shall do so respectfully ; be shall show that he is sin- cere, not by mockery and ridicule, biit by seriousness of discussion, and by an absfinence from that Aode of contest which indicates nothing more than an empty ambition to overturn the religion of others. It seems, Gentlemen, that the ■defendant was once a member of the Church of England. Mr. Taylor. — I was, sir. Attorney-General. — And by a singular perversion of mind, appears to take pride in the robes which he disgraces. If I am not mistaken, I see him before me busily employed. (Mr. Taylor was taking notes.) He has hired a place whlcli, I understand. waTs once dedicated to Public Worship ; there he invited the public to come — ^there money was received at the doors — there he held a lecture Ijy the holtfi — there he has had his pretended discus- sion — and a fellow with a bell, at the end of the oration, exclaiming,' ' If there be any .Minister of Christianiiliy present that is disposed to answer oiir' Learned Orator, let him speak, ^w he shall be heard.' Gentlemen, I ask yon, is this conduct worthy of a person who is subject to moral discipline t If it were not, we might excuse it ; but ho excuse of such a nature can be inade^for one who can boast of education and intelligence — one whom, I dare say, you will hear,, for I see he is busy in preparing the grounds of his address. Gentlemen, I beg to call your attention to the following advertisement : " Christian Evidence Society. — The Ninety-tliird Discussion will be held in the Areopagus, on Thursday, the 13th iust., at seven precisely. Subject — ' The character of CHRIST,' as published by the Society for promoting (Christian Knowledge. The Rev. Orator will deliver a Philippic, in expo- sure of the atrocious villanies that characterise the Jewish Vampire." Who, think yon, is the Jewish Vampire ? You will find, that ho whom he denominates a^ the Jewish Vatnpire, isjio other than the Author of our Religion himself. Thus he goes on— " And in respectful challenge of his Ministers to come forward and show if ld>ey themselves are not ashamed of him; /' "Fhe Holy Liturgy, as perforraeAevery Snndiay ,and the Ninetieth Oratloa a3 tfeliferedby the Rev. Oi'ator, in irrefutable demonstration of the Forgery and Imposture of the Four Gospels, are to be had of the Printer, J. Bi-ooks, 421, Oxford-street, and at the Areopagas, every Tuesday evening, 86, Can- non-street. " R. TAYLOR, 17, Carey-street, fcincolii's-inu. Now Gentlemen, if tlje Rev. Orator had the lea^t sense of decency i be would be aware, that the use of the word philippic, was as inconsistent with the principle of discussion, as the robes he wears are inconsisitent wHh the doc- trines he avows. Theword philippic, is taken from the denomination whiclj was affixed to certain orations of antiquity, in which the speaker, by satire — by invective— by vehement indignation, attacks the conduct of the King of Macedon. This is what is called in the rhetoricians' language, a subject demonsti-ative— one in which the speaker does not use the temperalum genus dicendi, but avowed his intentions of uttering a philippic— a furious attack. Gentlemen, I shall not cite a sentence of this attack, y.ou will hear it, you willbeabletoa]ppieciate the conduct of this man, and when you have heard the language, I will do no move than ask you if the Magistrates of the city of London could have done otherwise, than when all reasoning, all ex- postulation with this defendant had been made in vain, to have recourse to this last resource, this ultimate method of removing from the precincts of the city, which they had a right to do, a nuisance so detestable, and, if possible, ejecting thosp individuals whom he had collected around him like a nest of vermin, and who would" seek to. sap and destroy the foundations of our best hopes and happiness. The following witness was then called, and examined by the Solicitor- General : — Thomas Collins— I am a beadle residing in Walbrook. On Saturday, February 3, I went to a place in Cannon-street, and saw what appeared to be a bill against the door. It was the late Salters' Hall Meeting House, then called the " Areopagus of the Christian Evidence Society." I took the bill down, and I have it in my possession. Afterwards I conversed with Mr. Taylor on the subject of that bill. At the time 1 took it down it was about twelve o'clock in the' day, and after pasting it on paper, I look it to the Alderman of the Ward. In the aflernoon of the same day, the Rev. Mr, Taylor called upon me, and after asking my name, said he had been in- formed that I had taken a paper from off his door. I replied that I had. He then said, why did you destroy my property ? If you had wanted one, I would have given it you with the greatest pleasure. The bill in my hands is the same bill, and in the same state that I took it down. Solicitor-General — Perhaps, my Lord, it would be as well to have the bill read now. Mr. Taylor — I am desirous that it should be read now. 'Jlie Manifesto was then read as follows : — MANIFESTO OF THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE SOClETy, Established, November 12, 1824. TO ALL PROTESTANTS AND MEMBERS OF PROTESTANT CONGREGATIONS. Men and Brethren — You are hereby invited to attend the discussions of the Evidences of the Cliristian Religion, which are held every Tuesday evening, in the Society's Areopagus, 86, Cannon street, City, to which all respectable persons, upon observance of the necessary regulations, are ad- missible ; and where allcompetent persons, upon a previous notjfiGation of their intentions, are allowed to deliver their sentiments upon the topic of discussion,' This Society aims only to promote the lov? of truth, the practice of vir- tue, and the influence of universal benevolence, as opposed to foolish and contradictory systems of religious faith, derived from the ignorance of barbarous ages, and craftily imposed upon the many, for the aggrandise- ment of the power and influence of a few, who, aware of the suspicious origination of their pretended Divine Revelation, have shown themselves afraid and ashamed to maintain the same, where they might be answered by learned and able men, and might have their accuracy established, or their errors corrected. . Our Reverend Orator, a regular and cannonically ordained clergyman of the Established Church, hath publicly challenged all Ministers and Preachers (and hereby repeats, the challenge) to come forward and show, if they can, the contrary of the Foiir Grand Propositions, which in the Society's Maoi-. Jesto, "To all Clergymen, Ministers, and Preachers of the Gospel," are neclaretl to bave been, aa fax is l» ss appealed, fiuty sad uansweniUjP demonstrated. The- PcopositioBs aiei — I. Tkat tie Sciiptuies of tbe New Tcstaacot, were not writlea by the persons, wbose aaines. Ibey beat, 2. Tliat they did not appeat in. the times- to whicbtbey leCnr. 3. That the persons of whom they treat, oever existed. 4. That the events, which they lelate, never happened. Of these Propositions, the Proofs are— 1. That the Serjptrarescrf theN.T. were not, &c. — Because, it cannot be shewn by ani/ evidence, thai they were " written by the persons whcse names they bear :" and because it can be shown by evidence both external and inUrnal, that they were written by other persons. — liy evidence ixlernal, in the formal act» and edicts of .Christian Emperors, Bishops, and Councils, issued Irura time to time, for the- general alteration, or total renovation of these Scriptures, according to their own caprice faj. And in the admissions olthe most learned Critics and Divines, as to the alterations which these Scriptures have from lime to time nndergone (b). — By evidence internal. In the immoral, vicions, and wicked tendency of many passages therein remaining, and by the iosertioa of others, whose only'driit is to enhance the power of Kings and Priests (e). II. That they did not appear in the times to which they refer ; is demon- strable. — Ry evidence fxternal. In the express admissions of Ecclesiastical Historians, of their ntter inability to show when, or where, or by whom, this collection of writings were first-made (d) And in the admissions of the' most learned critics, as to the infinite]}' suspicions origination of the pre- sent Received Text (e). — By evidence internal, In inanmerab^e texts therein contained, betraying a comparatively modern character, referring to cir- cumstances which did not exist till /aler ages, and quoting ether Scriptures which bad previously formed the faith of the first Christian Chnrches, biit which, without any assignable reason, or alleged authority, have since been rejected (/). III. Tliat the Persons of whom (hey treat never existed ; because demo- niacs, devils, ghosts, angels, hobgoblins, (g), persons who had once been dead, who could walk on water, ride in the air. &c. (such as Salan and Je- sus Christ), are the persons of whom these S,criptures treat ; and that such persons never existed is demonstrable ; — 1st. From the utter incongruity of such figments with the immutable laws of sound reason. — 2ndly. From the total absence of all historical reference to their existence. — And 3rdly. From innumerable passages of these Scriptures themselves, which fully admit the merely visionary Hypostasis of their fabulous hero (A). (a) Such were those of the Emperors Constantine and Theodosius, and this of the bmperor Anastasius. " W hen Messala was consul (that is io the year of Christ, 506) at Constantinople, by order of the Emperor Anast.isius, the Holy Gospels, as being written by illiterate Evangelists are censured and corrected.'' Victor Tummensii, an African Bishop quoted by Lardner, vol. 3, p. 67. See also an account of a general alteration of these Scriptures, " to accommodate them to thefaith of the orthodox," byLANFUANC, Archbishop of Canterbury, as record- ed by fieausobre. Histoire deManichee, vol. I. p. 343. (J) Admissions of the most learned critics — 1st. " There were in the MSS. of the N. T. One hukdsed and thirty thousand various readings." Unitar. New Versjon, p. 83. — 2nd. "The Manuscripts from which the received text was taken, were stolen by the librarian, and sold to a sky-rocket maker in the year 1749." Herbert Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough, vol. 2. p. 441.— 3d. For the book of Revelation, there was no original Greek at all, but " Erasmus wrote- it himself in Switzerland, in the year I51o." Bishop Marsh, vol. I. p. 320. .(c) Immoral,- &c. See Romans, iii. 7.— Epist. John, ii. 10. — Heb. xii.39: — Heb, xiii. 17. — Romans, xiii. — I Peter, ii. 13.-^Lukexiv. 86, &c. &c. mere I . , . . Version, Introd. 10. " It was completed by the Elzevir edition of 1624," ib. Mark well! the retaining therein, and circulating as the Word of God, with consent or connivance of all parties, several passages known and admitted 6t/ all, to be Forgeries and Lies. 1 John, v. 7 1 Tim. iii. 16. — Excellent Moralitj/ this 1 1 • . (/) Comparatively MODERN, &c. See 2 Epist. John, 9. — ITim iii.3. — James, v. 14. — Matth. xviii. 17.»— 1 Corinth, xv. 7. — I Peter, iv. 6. (g) Hobgoblins. See Acts, xix. 15, \hj Visionary hypostasis. See Luke, ix. 29. — Mark, ix. 2. — Luke, xxiv. 31. ■— 1 Jolin, V. 6. and innumerable other passages, in perfect accordance with the H IT. That the Eveifiw. ( which they relate never happened, is demonstrable (further than as a consequence of the preceding proposition), from the fact that some, many, or all of these events,, had been previously related of the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, andjnore especially of the Indian Idol Chrishna, whose religion, with less alteratioa than time and transla- tions have made in the Jewish Scriptures, may be traced in every dogma and every ceremony of the Evangelical Mythology. Men and Erethren--If these things can be denied or disproved,— your Ministers and Pi'eachers are earnestly called on to do so. Your Missiona- ries, who boast their readiness to carry their Gospel to the remotest shores of the earth, are again and again entreated to become its advocates before assemblies of intelligent and learned men,, here, in their native land ; where, upoii due notice of their intentions, and upon the condition of allowing tfcemselves to be respectfully questioned, and learnedly replied to, they will be received wHh' honour, apd heard with attention. — By the assembled Society, ROBERT TAYLOR, A.B. and M.R.C.S., I Orator of the Areopagus, and Chaplain of the Society of Universal Benevolence. Areopagus ofthe Christian Evidence Society, London, Feb. 1827. Tickets of admission, terms of subscription, seats in the Areopagus, &c. upon application (post paid) to the Reverend Orator, 17, Carey-street, Lin- coln's-inn, or at the Chapel of UnivevsalBeBevoVence, immediately after the performance of Divine Service. The Attorney-General— Gentlemeil, this paper is not the subject ofthe present indictment. The intlietment relates tO' a diseoufse delivered in the defendant's Chapel. Lord Teuterden. — The indictment is for words spoken. The examination ol the witness Collins then proceeded — I, on a subse- quent Tuesday evening, the 5th. of lEebruary, went to the Areopagus, and paid one shiUingfor admission, and gota ticket, on which wa.s written " ad-, mit one to- the Lody of the Chapel."' I delivered the ticket to the person at the inner door. There were present about 100 when I went in. They after- wards increased to 200. They were of all ages, irom ten upwards, except the very aged. There were a good number of young girls from twelve to sixteen. Some with their mothers. The pulpit stood in the usual place, y^, the front of it there was a platform, fifteen feet longv by ten broady and two chairs and a table, the table was covered by a crimson cloth. There was also a pole in imitation of a staff with a crown on the top of it. At seven o'clock Mr. Taylor appeared on the platform, and was received with cheers," He was dressed in the black I'obes of a Clergyman. At the same time a per- i^n, named Thont!^^ grushfielcl, ascended the pulpit. He had a gown on. He is an oil and colourman, residing in Union-street, Sj^talfields, near Bishopsgate-street. After the cheers had subsided, Mr. Taylor sat down in one oi' the chairs. There was a bell rung by Brushfield, who entSred the pulpit. I have a note of what I then heard. - 1 took it at the time in pencil, I have since written it out- The Chairman, I mean th^ person ii) the pulpit, after ringiBg. the bell, said, " the Rev. Orqtor will speak on the testimony of the subequent witnesses to the truth of the Christian religion, from a work written by Dr. Chalmers, and published in the ' Edinburgh Encycio- psedia,'" Part ofthe book was read from, the pulpit by the Chairman. M^. Taylor then rose and read, i|il>e s^dvocates of Christianity could have pro- duced a more able champion than Dr. Chalmers, they would have done it. The first words I took down, for Mr. Taylor had been speaking some time, were, " Shall God lay perjury to his soul, and that for Jesus 1 I answer no ; that there was no aalhority for its title page. That the translators ren- dered the New Testament falsely, the name was not known in 220." Th& - next words, w 096 " St. Paul has denied the miracles of Christ. His ghost appeared to 500 at once, but they were asleep." — (At this expression there was a loud laugh, many other passages were received with loud cheers.) — " He (Christ) rose again, but it is according to the Scriptures." Mr. Taylor — May 1 beg to see the notes of this individn,q,l ? TauB AND GENUINE GOSPELS of the most primitive Christians, which taught that he was ninety-eight miles tall, and twenty-four miles broad; that he was not crucified at all ; that he was never born at all ; that By faith only are we saved, &c. &c. ; all equally inilicatiye that Christianity- had no evidence at all; bv^ wa& a miitter of mere cQnceif,-fancy, or superstition, from first to last. I«ord Teuterden — You shall see them if you wish it particularly ; but the usual course is to have them put in. The witness proceeded — The next passage I took down was this — " The authority of St. Paul is fatal to the Christians." He then took up a New Testament, aiid read from the 9d Epistle to the Corinthians, 3d chap. " Who H ISO hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament ; not of the> letter, but of the spirit : for the letter killeih, but the spirit giveth life.'-' — He said also, "The duly of a preacher is to preach, and the duty of the hearer is to hear," at which there was a great laugh. Again, he said the excuse of the Ministers, to avoid discussion, was to say favewell. He proceeded, " The wonder-working God— that is the name which the Deist never uses but with awe !" The next passage (continued the witness) which, I took a note of was this^^ The Solicitor-General — That passage, my Lord, is set out in the in- dictment. * The witness continued — I heard the defendant say, " I should like to know who was the' eye-witness between the deyil and Christ, when he spent his holydays in the wilderness." , The defendant afterwards said, in allusion to the miracle of the pigs, that " pigs were the first martyrs for Christ.:" and he went on to ask, whether the devil drowned the pigs, or did the pigs drown the devil. He then said, that " instead of worshipping the Lamb that taketh away the sins oiThe world, we ought also to worship the pigs." A% this there was a loud laugh. Mr. Taylor afterwards declared, that " Mother Southcote gained more followers in three years than the Christian religion had in three hundred." He then turned to the 2d Timothy,4ith chapter, 14tl> verse, and said, " Alexander, the coppersmith, did mean much evil, and thefliord rewarded him to his works," and then followed, " Alexander, the coppersmith, with a hammer to beat out the Apostle's brass," at which there was great laughter — he added, " I would have proved them the greatest of liars and scoundrels." "My reason for abjuring Christianity and their's for continuingit is, it is a religion which cannot stand alone, or they would have come forward in its defence." The next words which I took a note of, continued the witness, were, " Christianity is a wicked and mischievous fable, and they know it to be so." When this discourse, which continued about an hour, wag over, Mr., Taylor sat down, mid fhe person in the "pulpit asked, " Is there any gentleman who is willing or able to answer the Rev. Orator, if there is, let hira come forward, and he may depend upon being, heard and attended to 1" No person having answered, M?. Taylor called upon the Rev. A. Fleteher- by name, saying that if he presented himself, he should have the use 'of \\is- rostrum. There was no answer. Mr. Taylor then said, " I shall adjourn this meeting to Tuesday next, when the subject will be taken from a new work, and advertised in the Examiner ot Smidsiy next." The company then cheered, and. departed! quietly. Lord Teuterden to defendant — Have you any questions to put to the witness? Mr. Taylor — Certainly, my Lord. (To the witness)— What book is that on which yon have been sworn ? < Lord'Tenterden — The New Testament, I take it for granted. There is no necessity to ask that. JMr. Taylor — Do ypu believe in that book 1 Lord Tenterden — ^ cannot permit thai question to be put now. Witness — I do believe in it. Mr. Taylor— Such a question has been put. to witnesses, and moist invi- cliously persisted in in Courts of Justice. Lord Tenterden — It may be before they are sworn, but after they have been sworn, it cannot be put. Besides, the witness has answered your question ; he dofes believe in the New Testament. I must conduct this a» all other cases are conducted. Mr. Taylor then cross-examined the witness. Had you any sort of acquaintance with me before the occasion in February to which you alluded ? Witness — Yes, I saw you before, on the subject of taxes, and you saikl that you were only a servant of the Society. 1 wish to be respectful — but who has employed you ? — I was desireiJ by the Alderman of t^e Ward to attend. ' Who is he ? — Alderman Atkins. Lord Tenterden — Ypu are Superintendent of Police ?— Ves, my I>ord. m Has he ever attended at the Areopagus 7-r-Not to nay fenowl'eJge- Now, Thofflas CoHtns, did you not tell certain persons that it was s bad! job you were employed upon, and tliat you wished you had nothing to da> with it ? — Can you nieiilioiv the names of the persons ? You are to give me information, not I you. Lord Tenterdeti — Did you say so to any persons 1 — I did, many times, for it was ve/y hard on me to be obliged to attend during four or five months, on Sundays, as well as other days, till the place was shut up. Upon your oath, what are you to be paid for this " bad job t" — Nothing, and 1 have no promise of anything. What, Thomas CUinos, have you got no sort of encouragement to sap- port you in the progress of this bad job 7 — None ; i merely obeyed the command of my superior officer. When you first went to the Areoyagns, was it out of mere curiosity, not knowing the subject matter of the entertainment? — I went there to take down all I heard, by order, in consequence of having showed the manifesto to the Alderman. Did you take notes the first time you went there? — The very first time. Did you ever, in the course of your life, before, take notes of any dis- course 2 — I was never similarly employed ; indeed I don't recollect that I ever did. What induced you to come prepared to take notes 1 — The orders I re- ceived. On your oath, Thomas Collins, did any bo j v-ii* I understood you to say that you only took down sentences which were very shocking. Did you hear nothing of a very different character to explainandquabfy them?— I heard nothing to explain them, so as to' do away with their meaning. If you heard any thing that would explain those shocking sentences would you have noted it?— Certainly, I should, ' ' Did you hear me utter no just or righteous sentiment ?— It is impossible to say, my attention was completely taken up. By what was shocking ; yov had no attention to what was good ?— I can 11 ^!ve no other answer. I have heard nothing that conld do away yiiik tbti sense of the words I took down. Did I make quotations from infidel writers? — ^I cannot say. I heard yoa so often, that 1 might raistalie the limes. Did I quote from Christian writers? — I cannot say. Can you nndertalse to say whether the language I used was that of a quo- tation,' or spoken in my own person 1 — Certainly. * Yon are a very learned man. Do you understand the general principles of ratiocinative argumentation 1 , [Here the witness displayed all the ludicrous symptoms of the mest per- fect confusion.} At length he said, I could understand your words. Tell me, Thomas QoUins, was my argument dogmatical Or hypothetical ? (A laugh,) Part of it was very learned, and above my comprehension. (A laugh.) Are you sure thai the most shocking words which I used, were delivered ia propria persona, or were they hypothetical in the persons of authors ? They were all delivered by you, and I think they were positive. (A laugh.) ■ ■ I think you admitted that my general style was above your compre- hension ? Lord Tenterden — H^has not said so, but you may ask hira to that effect, Mr. Taylor — Was my general style above your comprehension ? — No. No part of it? — Certainly parts were. Sometimes you spoke in Greek or Latin, but you gave the English afterwards that the audience might under- stand you. Will you oblige me by showing your notes/J Lord Tenterden — The time for the Jury to look at them will be when they have to consider their effect. (The notes were then handed to the elerk.) If you have any particular object inseeingthem, you may have thera. But the course of business here, is tcr have them put in and reserved for the Jury. JVir. Taylor— I am unwilling, niy Lord, to disturb the arrangements of the, Court. (To, the witness) Mr. Collins, when you tore down my Manifesto had yon read it ? Witness — t read the four propositions, as you call them. Pray are you a member of the Churchof England ?— lam. Are you, in the habit of attending to your religious duties?— Yes, I am. You read the New Testament ?— I do, daily. Do you remember the 34th verse of the 5th chapter of Matthew? — I have read it 1 know, for I have read the Testament through, — (A laugh.) You remember " Swear not at all ?" — If you give me tlie book I will read it. (Witness here read)" Swear not at all, neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool." Mr. Taylor — I have no more questions to ask this witness. Witness re-examined by the Solicitor-General— I am sure that nothing was uttered by Mr. Taylor (o qualify the passages which I have taken down. I can say that the scope of the whole discourse was to endeavour to persuade the audience that the New Testament was false. The Attorhey-General-T-That's our case, my Lord. • Lord Tenterden — Now is the defendant's time to address the Jury if he thinks fit. Mr. Taylor then came forward and addressed the Jury as follows ; — Gentlemen of the Jury — I shall not deny, nor affect to conceal my deep sense of the peculiar difficulties of the situation in which I am placed. In all other cases, an accused person may confidently rely on, the impartiality of a British Jury ; but where religious animosities, the very strongest that can misguide and pervert the judgments of men, have originated the proceed- ings, and, after what I have heard from the learned opener, I fear are arrayed in hostile phalanx in the prosecution^ the chances'are fearfully against a, defendant, though " his righteousness were as clear as the light, and his just dealing as thenoon-day." For in such a case the defendant has not to feaj" merely that his mode of defence may not be the most judicious — bis proofs of innocence not the clearest — his argifnients not the most cogent that ever carried conviction to the understandings, and impression to the hearts of ra- tiwial men ; but he trembles on the far more perilous hazard that he may V4, perchance be offering those proofs and arguments to minds barricadoed by prejudice against all powers of suasion, cased in adamant against the access of coHTiction, that they beholding the avowed enemy of their faith, will consider it (as religious persons in all ages of the world have ever done) as an obligation of conscience to be unjust, and their duty to he cruel. T"® interests of religion will forbid the exercise of humanity, and faith stand centinel over captive reason. I need only hint at the perfect parallel of the circumstances in which this prosecution places me, to those in which the wisest and best men the world ever had in it have fallen sacrifices to the mistaken interests or misguided zeal of those who " verily believed that tlu^y ought to do such things, and that when they persecuted God's creatures, they did God service." '\ mean not to compare myself to the martyrs, nor my prosecutors to the persecutors in those cases ; but should it be my mis- fortune on the present occasion to address persons of similar sentiments, or of congenial feelings to those of the fanatical and intolerant faction with whom this prosecution originated, God knows, the cases are parallel indeed! With them I am sure that no defence which I could urge would be of any avail ; and after the language of the learned opener, I a.n entitled to say, by whom it is conducted — for when I hear such words applied, even in hypo- thesis, to any human being, as that he is a nuisance, and his friends a nest of vermin, I ask not if that be the language of justice, I only inquire if it be that of justice — if, I repeat, ' such be the character of the persons I address, then, God knows, the cases are parallel indeed ! With them I am sure no defence that I could urge would avail. Should I show them that I have ac> tually not done the thing that I am' charged withal — that I am not the person to whom the charge refers, or — which is an equally valid defence in law-^ should I show them, as I shall show ypu, that the thing itself is as naturally innocent as to have drank of the limpid stream, which cannot take defilement from my lips, but flovs from them to me — why, they would tell rae that such a mode of defence is what the Court would not allow, and my vipdica- tion itself should only aggravate my punishment. Gentlemen of the Jury, The difficulty of pursuing such a line of defence as shall be absolutely un- exceptionable, is beyond my ability. I can only pledge myself, and I do so most cheerfully, not to intend to. offend, nor to deserve to be interrupted. I will not, if I can possibly avoid it, utter a single sentiment which any con.- scientious and honourably-minded man, however different his religious per- suasions may be from mine, can reasonably deem exceptionable ; and, in re- turn for this pledge, allow me, gentlemen, to expect from you such a mea- sure of patience, and, if need should occur, of forgiveness too, for any word of mine which may not be the.best, as you would feel your need of, if you stood in my situation, and would most certainly receive were I in yours. Dismiss from your minds, I entreat ypu, all imipression of those absurd and cruel slanders which my theological, and, mayhap, my legal enehiles, havq circulated, to make it be believed that, differing so widely in sentiment from them, I must needs be a something which they are not — a monster of iniqui.. ty, an Atheist, a sot; a madman, every thing' which malice could devise, when nothing of the kind could be proved. Gentlemen, I am no such cha^ racter ; I am not an Atheist ; I am not a Christian ; neither am I a hypo- crite, I am in my heart and soul a Deist. In the cause of Deism I have suffered what, in any other cause, would be accounted a real inartyrdom. For Deism I have incurred the loss of natural relations and friends, of pro- perty, of liberty itself, and have held my life, and my life's comfort, of'infe- rior consideration to the great duty of inculcating just and worthy notions of the Supreme Being on an insulted and priest-ridden people. I sincerely believe in God— io the common God and Father of us. all. 1 believe also that 1 am bound by the most sacred obligations that can bind a man to con- duct myself in life, in every respect, just exactly as I have done, " con- stantly to speak the truth, boldly to jebuke vice, and patiently to suffer for the truth's sake." I have not brought myself into this unenviable situation from a fanatical heroism of character, nor from an irrational appetite for no- toriety; for, though I have confidence enough in this cause, and fortitude enaugh in this heart toi be led once more to prison, or even unto death, 1 cannot deny my fear of an adverse verdict: because, whatever might be its consequences to myself, I could not but regard it as an omen of worse op- pressions, to mankind— as a fatal blow to that which every good man ought to prize more than Hfe, f^tal to the right of.free speech and free discussion ■ it would be a divorce of the sacred wedlock which God hath consecrated' between the heart and tpngfue of man — fatal to virtue and to liberty. By 13 saeh a verdict you will indeed crush mo, and put down the noble institutions which I have founded ; but, in doing so, you will also crush liberty of eon- science, and set up Popish tyrarmy and arbitrary power : or, which is the same thing, under another name, you will set up Metbodistical tyranny and arbitrary power. Gentlemen, you are, I presume, aware that thfe pfoSecu- tifln has been instituted nnder the auspices of the Lord Mayor (who is him- self a dissenter from the Established Chnrch, claiming and enjoying that very liberty which he denies to me), chiefly with a view to the suppression of the Areopagus, of which I have been the public orator, and of the Chris- tian Kviclence Society, and the Society of Universal Benevolence, of both of which I am the founder, and which have been regularly held — the one for the free and public discussion of the various treatises which learned men have written upon the evidences of the Christian religion, the other for the inculcation of moral duties in that Areopagus. My defence, therefore, as its trst propositum, obliges me to speak of both these institutions ; because, if I can show that they are Innocent, it will follow that I am so too, and that the Lord Mayor and the City of London have had no reason for the mea- sures they have adopted against me. The Society of Universal Benevolence was first iristituted in Dublin on the 14th of March^ 1834i, andpatronised and supported by some of the most respectable and opotent persons in that City, for the public worship Of Almighiy God, amd inculcation of the moral duties which man, under all circumstances, owes to his fellow man, without re^iiect or reference 9*iiaenta dlsjnite in the Lalin tongue, bolli for andagain^ the«vidence9 of the Christian religfion ; and 1 have won high hononr tliere for doing the fery thing for which my enemra^ would have me disgraced and ruined here. Heave it, then, with soflicient satisfaction of my own ■mind, to the conclusion of any man who has a mind, whettier it be anything lite justice or fairness to mate it a distinction, that a thing may be spoten in l-atin which may not be spoten in English ; that that which. is orthodoxy inCarabridg^e sliould become blaspTiemy in "London^ or -whether it l)e 1, tir fhey w'hom I oppose, who reflect the greater drshonoiir on Christianity : I 'bringing It forth ti> the light, which every tiling that is true would sect to "be set in; thoy. Try their conduct, betraying their conviction that Cliris- ■tianity will not bear the light, that public discussion will be dansrcrons, "that riiTicule and sarcasm will be fatal to it. I, upon my honour, think thai they wlU be so ; -laut surelyitis barbarous to punish mefor^his, in the teeth of so strong a pi;esumption that they think so too. The only differ- ence between us being, that I am an unbeliever and an honest one ; they are ■unbelievers, but as honest as you may reckon them to be. Allow rac, 'Gentlemen, the indulgence of letting a friend read for me a few passages from this inangaral oration, and the manifesto of the Christian Evidence •Society ; and if you shall afterwards think that a society founded on the ^riuciples there avowjfl on^ht not to be tolerated, I shall complain of no ■verdict you may please to agree on, but, with my best itirtitude, shall fesi^n myself to the fate of all good men, who have made their calculation, ■that It IS hetter to suffer wrong than to doit; and that man cannot suffer in a hotter cause than to -undeceive and disabuse a priest-ridden people, to tecover them from the insanity of a barbarous superstition ; to i-eclaim their minds to reason, ^nd 'their hearts to virtue. Havei your TjOTd9hip's;permTssion to have some quotations read to the Jury? liord Tenterden — TTou may i-fead them as part of your address, bnt the Jury cannot receive them as any thing else than as part of your speech, ainless they are .put in and pro^ved. Mr. Taylor— WiU your Lordship allow me the favour of letting them be a-ea-dhty a friend, my attorney ? Lord Tenterden — No ; 1 canno-t allow that ; I am in no hnrry. Any time for i-est, any accommodation, refreshment that you -want shall be given to you ; but you do not seem to stand in need of assistance ; you are very well *ble to .proceed -; 1 must do in this as in other cases. Mr. TayXor then proceeded — Gentlemen, I shall take the liberty of reading ^passage from this discourse. It is as follows-: — "■ The inipor'tance of theological discussions, eTen to those who might think it hut equivocally established in the recorded ])ractice and positive 3rijunct1ons of the first teachers of the Christian religion, admits of the clearest demonstration of ratioual argument. Christianity itself was not ■established, and never could have been, by that sort of preaching in which •one speaker only'is exalted like a deity above the listening crowd, and invested with the stupendous prerogative of delivering dogmas which no -man may question, and putting qiiestions which no man may answer. He Vhoappeared on earth, with at least as good a right as any of his followers to. claim authority and dictation, yet suffered himself to be answered again, , and Stood "before the people, not as the sole speaker, but as in tuTu, hearing them and asking them questions. His immediate ftyllowers held public dis- cussions ; ani to the disputations which were held for two years in the school of one Tyrannus, the sacred scriptures ascribe the faet, " that all , Asia heard the word of tJod." Nor could any persons haverespected those 2>ositive in] unctloij^ to " prove all things," and to " take heed that no man 'deceived tiiem,^' who should prove nothmg, «or should allow any man to address fhem, without a liability to be cross-examined and questioned as to the -validity of his assei-tions on those things which, a« they concern all men, all men are equally concerned to know. It is from this truth, how- ever, and not from authority, example, or positive injunction of any sort l(lhungh I have shewn that the highest and best that <;an he, or be pre- tended, are all on this side), that 1 proceed iu the demonstration of the im- jportance of theological discus^gMis. *' If they who are said to have possessed credentials of a divine mission ifwluch certainly none on earth can now pretend to), if they who, whether «J>ey did or did pot work miiacles, ar^ said to have done so, did yet appeal 16 -to men's reasoHranii invite and exhort them to look for Ihetnselves into the evidence of those things which they propounded to them— theological discussipn must have been the 6rst of Christian exercises, theological dispii- tation the first of Christian duties." » i ■ Now, Gentlemen, let me call your attention to the evidence, if I must^ue obliged to give that name to the inconipeient garbled trash and gross misr representations which the witnesses have sworn to. These poor men, as you saw it elicited by the questions which I proposed to them, were "i'^ and suborned to carry back a report of my orations, in which there must be something to give colour to the intended prosecution, or they would have lost the guerdon of their iniquity ; their testimony was purchased fof Us cheapness, and put «p with for lack of that of better and honester men, who would not have acted as these men have acted for ten times the piice^hat the crapulous barbarians in the back ground have paid them for it. Foe, look ye, Gentlemen, are ye to be told that persons of no better educatiop than the witnesses appear to, be, would have entered an assembly of literary and studious men, into the like of which, in all probability, they had never entered before, and take notes, forsooth ! being fellows ofnp- npte. ai all, from motives of spontaneous good intention : From persous .who had been competent to have reported my orations I had nothing to fear. If his Lordship, if the Gentlemen of the Bar, or any of yourselves, had heard the orations quoted in the indictments as I delivered them, in the full context of the discussion of which they formed a part, t persuade myself yo« would be hugely astonished at the wholly ditferent complexion which the igno- rance and bigotry of the witnesses has given to the expressions charged against me. Without having the whole context before you, it is impossible that an adverse verdict should be just; and that cootexi (you will recol- lect) comprehends not only every thing that I delivered, -but every thing also that was urged by the advocates of Christianity, of which 1 ifeas the virtual author— I having called them tothp discussion^— I having engaged public attention to their arguments, and mine standing but as the prole|o- nena and introduction to theirs, as a challenge to provoke, or an illustration to adorn them ; and I aj>peal to the sincerest Christians iii the i*'6rltl — to those who have the vfery highest respect for Christianity, and the deepest conviction of the sufficiency of its evidences — whether those evidences could possibly have come down to us, or would have been so ample, as they esteem them to be, had the inquiries of sceptics and the objections of infidels • been answered only as my opponents answer me, with hatred for their pei;- sons, with such foul language as that of nuisance applied to themselves. and a nest of vermin to their friends, and punishment for their honesty. If yon yourselves are Christians, and believe yourselves to have " "a reason - for the hope which is in you," you owe that reason to the conduct of pec- sons who acted in every respect as I have done, who, objecting to the evidences of your faith as I object to them, and as an immediate apostle of Christ himself is said to have done, did not conceal nor suppress their ob- jections, but gave them the strongest language, the utmost publicity, and the widest circulation — E«v /lii iiu iv roug j^jfigfJi* ai/rou vov Towav rm tiXaiVi xai toi\b) tov ^ditrvXitv fjLov tts v*v nj^av TuviiXoiv kbh Za^Ju t>ju ;^£t^u fcou tin t«v ^XiOpotv aurov, ov fAvi ^Iffrivtrat.'^' John x!xi. 2d. " Unless I shall see in his hands the pciint of the nails, and shall put liiy finger into the point of the nails, and shall put my hand into his side, I will never, never believe." Such was the language of an infidel— but if Christianity be true, it was also the language of Divine inspiration. To punish me for using thalike.— and stronger no infidel on earth could possibly have used — would be to re- turn evil for good, and to pay for that which yoa account your greatest blessing with the greatest ingratitude. For you shall recollect, Gentlemep, that that which was never called in question could never have been proved ; that which no man had had liberty to deny, no man could have reason to be- lieve. A religion, therefore, which punishes an infidel hath every mark of imposture upon it that imposture possiblj; could have, and must as certainly aB4 necessarily be false as God is true. To iiefiect on Christianity this dis- honour by punishing me, would be to do the very aot which Chrisyahity for- bids, and which its consecrated text denounces, as " crucifying the ^pa of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame." , Bijt is it lor asy strength of langnaice I have used 1 Take the most admired orations of antiquity— the'Olynthiacs of Demostheues, or the phiUippjcs of Cicero, and subject 17 them to the same temper and ability of criticism as ha« been arrayed against mine — let their imx ittijowt* — their words with wings and epithets of fire be cut oSf from all pregnancy of their parpose, disgregated, garbled, dispersed, and scattered ; and then, too, may those illustrious orators seem to sink to the level to which my enemies would reduce me, and fe repre- sented as I have been, in dealing iq intective, and pot in argument — as launching forth the thnnders of Jove without his justice. But stjrely, Gen- tlemen, it would not be a monstrous stretch of vanity, should an orator claim from such men as the witnesses, or from the bigoted fanatics who get them on, the consideration which Euripides is said to have challenged from an Athenian auditory, when he remonstrated against their incompetent cri- ticism — " I spake to teach the people, not to be taught by them." Aad surely. Gentlemen, I ought not to be made the victim, because persons who had no right, but by my allowance obtruded themselves on our assem- blies — because a barbarous horde of Goths and Tandals have broken in upon the sacred seat of science and philosophy. Am I to be guilty of blasphemy because these men are innocent of reason ! A modest sense of the narrow limits of the human capacity in the best-gifted men should oblige all men to respect the advantages which individual talent must command in the peculiar investigations to which it hatl) been devoted. I should certainly how to your superior knowledge on all subjects (and I am sure there are piany) in which you have had means and opportunities of better information than could have fallen to my lot ; I should yield with cheerful deference to the uncjuestionable ascendancy of bis Lordship on alt legal matters, and' might, I hope without presumption, expect some consideration of my chance of holding the advantage both of him and you in the vast field of biblical criti- cism tp, which my labours have been appropriated. And as it is not for merely playing upon 9. pipe, and giving utterance to sounds and tones which had no significancy at all, that you would suffer a man to be brought before you as a criminal ; so surely, Gentlemen, it is not for any seiiSo which tnese men may please to say they had of my orations, that I ^m to hs accountable, when I can show you that such was not the sense intended— when I can show you, or rather when they have shown you themselves, what dunces and ignoramuses they are, and hovf far they are from possess- ing ability to have given you a ftithfnl report of my orations, even if they had intended to do so, which 1 am sure they did not. Remember only the speoimeu yov have had of the ability and disposition of the titceet-keeper, Thomas Collindl, and ask your own honourable hearts, if it became the justice of the British metropolis, that your Lord Mayor should have incar- cerated me for five days on the felons' side of the mearjest prison in his juris- diction — should nave treated me with a harshness ^nd barbarity which would not have been just to the midnight burglar or common thief, refusing to ac- cept bail when offered upon the spot, and declaring, as he did, that he " must see that humanity to me mi};ht not be inhumanity to the pul;>lie," 'because the street-keeper had given him such a report as so illitei'ate, so ig- norant, so stupid a man, wi^s likely to have given of an hypothetical apos- trophe in my oration, which he did not understand, nor did I ever intend that he should. ]Qut this it was, and of this hypothetical character have all my orations been. Ask the Jew, the proprietor and depositary of what you call the Old Testaiiient ! Will he consent that that invidious name should Jje applied to what he calls the living oracjes of God — (xn^/a ^Sifrx nH ^uZ X Will he consent to the cashiering and superannuation of that Sacred Volume which God gave to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant — (Psalm cv. v. 10) 1 And of which by his Holiness Jie swore fPsalm Ixxsix. v. S5), that it should be as the sun before him, and as the laithful witness in heaven ? The Jew will answer, An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven. Shall God lay perjury to his soul ? No ! not for Jiesu^ ! If, then, your New Testament be of God, your God himself is perjured, and fie upon his laws !— (Here an expression of disapprobation ran through the Cpurt.) lioru Tenterden (mildly) — I wish he would not utter such thing's. 1 answer only for him as the Son of Israel would answer for himself, asd in demonstration to you that your Jew-converting Societies, as well as your Missionary and Bible Associations, do not proceed one step off thg safe ground of keeping the jnrerogative of speech exclusively to'.ttiijinselves, biit would sooner iHeet the devil hipself than suffer themselves to' be addressed in turn J)y an honest man, who woijld confute their, fallacies, confront their falsehooQ, and confound their folly— 92d Ofation. SflCh was the general B .18 character of my orations. I ask only, were not the witnesses lifeely to mis- understand them ? Have they nf>t misunderstood them I And is there any law or, power on earth to punish me for not bringing my language down to the level of their comprehension? God bless them! I could, not do it . As to the charge of my having treated certain portions of Scripture with indecent levity— 1 answer, I have treated no passages of Scripture with levity, but such as the soundest theologians and most learned critics in Eu- rope have admitted to be most flagrantly and flagitiously aprocryphal. I defy the Counsel for the prosecution, or any one else, to show that I ever in my life applied ridicule or sarcasm to one single passage of Scripture, the genuineness and authenticity of which have received the suffrage of the learn- ed world, it is not I, therefore, ^ who have brought the Scripture into con- tempt ; but they who, in defiance of all principles of sound learning and erudite criticism, will presume to maintain that any one of the passages which I have ridiculed was ever a part of Scripture. I am still as orthodox as the majority of our Bench of Bishops, and when I first became a clergy- man was much more so than any of tbera — much more so, to ray own certain knowledge, may I say, than my diocesan himself, who told me that heaven and hell was all a fable ; that the romance of the crucified God was a ver- sion of the nfj^wSew Aes/uunis of jEschylus ; thafthe articles of the church of England were a nose of wax, and that if he thought I had a better opinion of them he would not ordain me, because there were fools enough in the Church already." But, Gentlemen, you will, I hope, never forget that, however revolting a few isolated and unconnected 'sentences of my orations may appear in the report of persons who wished to give them the worst ap- pearance they possibly could, from the very nature and constitution of the Christian Evidence Society, it is utterly impossible that any incorrect senti- ment or in j udicious expression could be delivered either by myself, or any one else, in any other than an hypothetical, or, at least, in a agonistical sense, because every thing there delivered was delivered under a subject- ness to be immediately answered and corrected, so that no hearer, except through his own negligence, could possibly receive an erroneous impres- sion ; and the fault was entirely that of Christians themselves, if any thing which they considered to be of a dangerous tendency was ever allowed to passunrefuted or uncorrected. You will observe, too, that in the writings of that very Dr. which have been so learnedly quoted to you — that Dr. Paley, who declared that he could not afford to keep a conscience — of Wat- son, Leslie, Doddridge, Belsham, Forteus, Addison, and Chalmers, upon the evidences of the Christian religion (all of which have been publicly read and fairly discussed in our meetings) the objections of infidels are largely and extensively quoted. Might you not, therefore, as fairly quote those quotations, and charge them upon those Christian writers themselves, as charge me upon the testimony ol these witnesses, the best-informed of whom will be the last to pretend to a sufiicient extent of reading to ascertain whe- ther the language he takes to have been mine, was that of quotation or not. Gentlemen,' I would not borrow any sort of favour from your judgment upon this consideration, for it would really be the keenest sarcasm on Christian- ity to make it a distinction, that the objections of infidels may be quoted, but the infidels themselves must never be allowed to stand by their objec- tions. Brave champions of a cause, would ttey exclaim, who would defeat an adversary in effigy whom they dared not look in the face— who would gather up his arrows after he hath left the field, and then go boast the tri- umphs they have won ! I appeal, then, to your good sense, whether such evidence as has been adduced on this occasion, is sdch as would be held suf- ficient to, establish any historical fact whatever ? I appeal to your know- ledge of the human heart,, whether such persons as the witnesses have shown themselves to be, would not be likely, not only purposely to omit many things which they are conscious that I said, and which, if they had had conscience enough to have given them in their report, wonld have removed all ground of complaint ; but whether they would not be likely also pur- posely to set down many things which they only imagined that I said ? I appeal to the Gentlemen of the Pr8,5s, who are in the habit of reporting pub- lic declamations, whether their noble art, which costs them an education bf the highest order to qualify them to pursue, and the laborious practice of many years to acquire a perfection therein, was to be picked up out of the" very kennel, at the first try at it, by a parish beadle ? Shall a Court' of Justice receive, as competent evidence of truth, a species of testimonv which the meanest journal in the kingdom would reject, as insufficient to 19 make up the decent verisimilitude of a well-told falsehood ? If such evi- dence could possibly avail, it must be as clear as the day that no defence could avail, and I'd have never troubled you with any on such a bargain. If lit is to be so with us, the apparatus 6/judicature, and the formality of a trial, are but a gossamer veil over the grim features of predetermined cru- elty and oppression : it uever could have been intended, from first to last, but that I should be their victim, and any dirty faggot would have done for fuel to the sacrifice. But where, I ask, where are the men who should have been my accusers, had a regard for the moral interests of society called for this prosecution 7 Whete are th« Clergy— the scholars and accomplished men, whose testimony would hare given an appearance of respectability to this charge 1 They are all in the back ground, all standing aloof, all, if you can suppose them wicked enough to wish for my conviction, not wicked enousfh to lend a hand to the foul play by which alone I can be convicted. But so blind and stupid is the genius of religious iitolerance, that It happens that every one of the sentences sworn to as blashemous in my quotation of 4hem— yes. Gentlemen, you will be surprised when I assure you, that every one of tUem, not excepting one that was delivered didactically, and with a view to, produce an impression that it was true, is no other than either a direct quotation from, the writings of our best English divines, or is the best translation my leftrning could produce frora the Greek and Latin fathers^ or from divines of Germany, France, and Holland, of no less name than Mosheim, Michaelis, Bretchneider, Beausobre, and Griesbach. Andsurely, Gentlemen, it was a little like persecution, that your Lord Mayor of the City of London should sacrifice me to his own ignorance, and commit me to a prison for my use of the critical learning which raised another to a bishop- ric, for quoting in a public oration the very words which he luight have found in the 34i5th page of the German Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, as translated by Herbert IMarsh, Lord Bishop of Peterborough • " Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit,---his diadema !"— Juv. But after all. Gentlemen, even in the language of the i|.idic(nient itself- andreaditas you will, there is no blasphemy, but ther^ are instead, the most express protests and caveats against any illegitimate acceptation of the hypothetical language there used--,-I was maintaining, even as it there ap- pears, the divinity of Christ in opppositionto the Unitarian heresy, which would degrade that incomprehensible hypostasis to the level of a man. I therefore delivered the strongest assertions which are charged against me, according to the Euclydian logic of the reductio ad absurdum, as conse- quences merely that would follow upon a denial of the assumed hypothesis. And who, [ ask, could deliver a learned and critical disquisition upon any subject wha'.ever, or venture one step beyond the puling, arrant nonsense of Methodistical ignorance if the sentiments whifch occupy nihe-tenths of both the indictments arc such as mast subject a man to be treated as I have been ? Are orators and public lecturers to he held in a state of subjugation, fear, and caution, as to what they deliver 1 Are they to be ruled with a rod of iron in the hands of babies with beards, of venerable fools, and holy idiots ? Must we all become as innocent and as stupid as Whittington and his cat, and never be allowed to deliver, or to heir anything better than the Metho- distical canting balderdash which they tell us is so necessary to keep the lower orders in subjection— to teach them to order themselves lowly and reve- rently to all their betters, and to be content with rags and righteousness — with broken victuals and salvation ? Gentlemen, the evidence which has been brought before you, is as incompetent as the dreams of idiolcy, and as false and wicked as it is incompetent. For vipw the question, as you are , bound to view it, on rational grounds only, not as priests or religionists, but as Jurymen and citizens of the world ; not as sitting there to be the umpires of theological controversy, but as administering impartial justice between man and man,' with equal indifference whether it be to Jew, Turk, Infidel, or Christian ; viewing nothing in a man but a man, and rendering unto CsEsar the things that are Caesar's, but unto God the things that are OoD's ; and then say what it is but next a-kin to downright idiotcy ; to suffer one man to be indicted for reviling the figment of another man's couceit--- for defaming a person of whom the complainants cannot show who he is, nor whereliie lives, nor what injury he has sustained, norwhy he cannot appear f^r himself, nor what business they have to appear for him. But they believe. Why then let them believe, and let me have liberty if you please not to believe, and the matter is settled for ever. For if it be a matter of faith aud credence merely, it is ia that ?ery predicimpat--.tr;(a ^ B 2 20 eielo, out of the cogniieance of this Court. Will you turn this sacred seat of justice between nfein and man, whose sole purpose and Intention is to deal with nothing but facts and certainties, with nothing but. what can be khown, and may be proved, into a Popish chapel? Will you turnyonr jury-box into a confessional, dub yourselves a conclave of holy triars, and sit there to hear these wiseacres say their prayers and their beliet tor evidence 1 Every public lecturer would feel a natural indignancy and re- sentment, and every clever man in the world would sympathise in that re- sentment, at having his discourses.subjected to the criticism of dunces and boobies, and would be apt to use language in some instances purposely enig- matical, as I aclinowledge I may sometimes have done, in expression ot a just scorn of the insult so put upon him. But even so. Gentlemen, the im- pression which garbled extracts from my orations, derived from the venal report of those boobies, might for a moment make upon you, must in all fairness yield to the willing and unpurchased testimony of thousands, who can attest that the great aim and scope of all my orations never pro- pounded any other object than the prDmotion of universal benevolence, ex- tended knowledge, and exalted virtue. Such favourable testimony will indeed be borne chiefly by persons of the Deistical persuasion, who, it may be objected, are my own particular friends. Why yes ; and what but virtue could have made them such 1 Shall it become a precedent of law in Eng- land, or Shall it be sanctioned by a British Jury, that a man of education and learning should be convicted on the evidence ot persons in no respect his equals, and that evidence, too, hired, bribed, and truckled for — the evidence of informer's and mercenaries ?— that he should be cut off from the pa- tronage of those who can appreciate his talents, and are satisfied of his in- nocence, and delivered over to the barbarous will of persecuting dunces, who would bring all understandings down to the level of their own, and enforce the manhood of the human mind to continue in the swathing-bands of a perpetuated infancy ? Now, Gentlemen, ere we proceed, if it is to be the inexorable fiat of law that shall plant its cannon against me, in pro- portion as it shall be peremptorily ruled that that law shall be brought to bear upon me, are you bound to see that the evidence upon which it pro- ceeds is the best and clearest that it possibly can be ; which 1 am sure you must see that the evidence in the present case is not, for these six unan- swerable reasons :-— 1st. Because it is really too much to trust to the me- mory of even clever and good men, to the extent of punishing a man for words spoken a long while ago ; and no clever or good man in the world would think it right to doso. I call that a reason, adly,. Because the wit. nesses in the present case, as I opine you yourselves must have seen, is neither a dlever or good man. t call that a reason. 3dly, Because this man has not come forward upon his own spontaneity to bear hw testimony, but has been bribed and paid by other persons to do so. 1 call that a reason. 4thly, Because this matter being of a religious character, from the infirmity of human reason in the wisest of men, and the strength of human prejudice in the best, any evidence whatever in such a case must be in the highest degree suspicious. " Maxirae habenda pro suspeotis sunt quse pendent quo modo cunque a religione !" It hath been held to he so— even to " the wisest, greatest, mean^t of mankind."— (Pope— of Lord Bacon.) I call that a reason. - Sthly, Because the evidence in the present case is really a sad farrago of absurdities and: contradictions. I call that a reason. 6thly, Because this prosecution has originated in corrupt and wicked motives, and been conducted in envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitabieness. I call that a reason, and reason enough, I am sure, it will be with all good> hearted and honourably-minded men, to insure my acquittal, even if the evidence were ten thousand times as much again as it is pretended to be. Gentlemen, I shall trouble you with no further arguments in proof of the incompetence of the evidence, but shall proceed to show you, that even if that evidence were respectable (which it is not), this prosecution is unte- nable, which it is, on Christian grounds ; for, if it be a maxim " that Christianity is part and parcel of the law of the land," a maxim which must somewhat startle those who have been so much deceived as to be led into a belief that it was of Divine origin— then, as part and parcel of the law of the land, I quote it, as I have a right to do, to serve my turn, and call on yoa, Gentlemen, to quash this prosecution, in pursu- ance of its express eaactments, exactly for such a case as this made and providecl. Punish me not for doing the very thing which your law either fcUows or command? to be done, and trample liot on its authority yourselves 21 for the poor satisfaction of trampling' on me, wbo am so far from wisningto ipterfero with your Chrisjiftnity, that the Almighty knows, that after. the ipost intimate knowledge of its doctrines, and the most laborious investiga- tion of its evidences, of which he hath made me capable, my nature shud- ders at i(, my understanding despises, and my heart abhors it. You may destroy that understanding with vexation, and break this heart with sorrow, but you cannot reconcile me— I cannot reconcile myself to Christianity. The weapons of your warfare, saith your holy text---your part and parcel of the law, are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God— (2d Corinth. X. 4.) Then, for God's sake. Gentlemen, let not me have to find your spiritual weapons so vastly like the bolts and bars of a prison that there shall be no knowing the one from the other. " The man of God," saith your part and parcel of the law of the land, " must not strive, but he patient towards all men, apt to teach in meekness, instructing them that oppose themselves. "--(2d Tim. il. 23.) Now, Gentlemen, that was all lever ijjd. I opposed myself; but where is the instruction 1 where is the meek- ness ? What effect they might have upon me I canqot tell, because they have never been tried. " Judge not that ye be not judged; far with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."— (IMat. vii. 1.) And surely. Gentlemen, you would not think it just measure, should Deists one day become possessed* of the power which is now in yom hands, and per- secute and punish you for the conscientious maintenance of your faith in revelation. If the pretence of such a thing is not an insult upon us, your 7th Matthew, 12lh verse, has interpolated the 24th maxim of Confucius, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law." And if it be the law, let it be administered, and that which is a law- to you, shall be a shiel4 to me. I shall not trespass on your time. Gentlemen, by adducing corroborative quotations from the writings of Christian Divines, who have borne their testimony against pro- secutions on the score of religion under any pretext whatever ; for who can eount the stars of heaven, or number the leaves of the forest ? The diifieulty would be to find a sipgle Christian writer, above the level pf an Evangelical Joi)rnalist, who would not blush to be convicted of a sentence which could keep such a prosecution in countenance. But if it shall be set up against the clearest demonstration that Christianity forbids such a pro- iiecution as this, and that all Christians are agreed as to that forbiddance ; that when it is asserted that " Christianity is part and parcel of the law of the land," ft is to be understood to be so, not w; but that while the law is as it is, it inast be admiolstered 1 We must not run against the law." Why no 4 No more must Aldgate-pnmp ma against the lew, nor the brute beast that wants discourse of reason ; nor a whit better than these, would be the bloekheads who would suffer their physioignomy to be chisseled into countenances of such grinning fatuity ; for the very nature and intention of a Jury is, to g'uard the liberty of the «ub- ject, and to prevent oppression under pretext of law. The very terras «f their obligations are, that they " shall well and truly try ;" which it is im- possible that they can do who should try but half t^e question, the fact iMit not the law. The very words which since the 6rst institution of Juries bath obtaiaed, that a verdiot should be given, are (I pray observe) not done— or not done, which would have been the terms of the verdict, if the fact alone were -all the Jury bad to deal with; but guilty o-r not guilty — that is whe- ther the party so chained shall be punished lor having so done. AxA the common saying, that no man is gaiUy till -a. verdiet of his countrymen shall have pronetmced to be so, points to die great truth, that the vercUct of the Jury whieli cannot alter the fact, caii, and does altei- the law, making that punishment to be legal and constitUtionalj, which otherwise wo»ld be cajiri- 'eious, arbitrary, and oftpressive. If ithen« ia any case, a law,tlMt hath been hitherto in force be discovered to be absard and oppressive— and such as therefore should never have been enacted at all — it becomes the duty of Jurynaen, as sensible and honest men, for all the preeedent««f its^minis- tratian in former cases, tp see that it be administered no more, so soon as they shall see that it is ihi^h time that it should be administered no more. And for this reason, ev«ry just and upright Jury^ so far from thinking them- selves bound to give eifect to the law jjjst as they, find it, always contrive to defeat its intention, when they hold it to be ©rnel and oppressivBj and will bring a man ipgwlty of staaliag nader forty Bbilliiigs,, even when they may know him to have stolen more than as many pounds. Foj- you. Gentle- men, are not offioers, ^ipjendi«ries,iand servants of the law, nox by a«y ne- cessity bound in its Miammels, or i^bliged to do what it pfeecitbesito you. 26 but yon are to prescribe the law itself. You give the law its character of justice or injustice. Yours is the high honour, if it 'be wisely and humanely administered, and yours alone the folly and the fault, it an honest man be oppressed by it. With these reservations of the paramount authority of Juries, there is no higher source ot law in England than the Statutes enacted by the King and the two Houses of Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled. By the Statute Law of England (if such can be produced bearing on the otfences with which I am charged) I demand my trial. See you, Gentlemen, that that law be fairly administered to me, and. nothing but the law ; and I have no favour to ask of any man. For look ye here, Gentlemen, here J present to you the Act of the 9th and lOth of King William the Third, capite trigesimo secundo, intitled, " An Act for the more effectual suppressing of blasphemy and profaneness." Taking the matter of blasphemy and profaiieness (as you see) out of the less effectual cognizance of common law, and rendering it a statuteable offence ; as the former Act of the 29th ef Charles the Second had taken the matter of heresy out of common law, and rendered that an Ecclesiastical offence. After which, (upon the great matliematical princi- ple omwe magis in se continet minus, every greater contains in itself the less) common law, witb respect to blasphemy and profaneness, became ab- sorbed in Statute law, and was nolongerin that respect a distinctive existence. But here.Gentlemen, I mustespecially piit you on your guard against a wicked sophism which~I have seen set in array against this clear and irrefutable argument ; a sophism derived from a mere annotation to be found in lawbooks, but of no authority in law whatever ; whereby it is pretended that this statute of the 9th and 10th of William III. has not altered the common law with respect to blasphemy, but only given a cumulative punishment. Gen- tlemen of the Jury, let me entreat you for our dear country's sake, and for her dearer liberty's, set not your seal to a principle of such horrible con- struction. A cumulative punishment! Punishment heaped upon punish- ment ! Name but such a thing, let a British Jury endure the insult of having it propounded to them, and that sacred shield of England's liberty is turned to leaf and tinfoil. But, hoping that it may not be so, and that we shall not hear of a still existing potency in the crushed Hydra's venom, allow me to show you, that as this statute of the 9th and 10th of King William IIL took the matter of blasphemy and profaneness out of the cognizance of common law : here is a subsequent act of the dSd of Geo, HI, capite centesimo sex- agesimoque, intituled, ' An Act to relieve Persons who impugn the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity ' (upon the great legal principle. Leges posteriores, leges priores, contrarias abrogantj, that later laws abrogate prior laws which were contrary to them ; abolishing the law of tho 9th and 10th of King William HI, as that law had abolished the common law ; and, consequently, leaving neither common law nor statute law in force against the imaginary crime of blasphemy, but sending that crime after its kindred, witchcraft and magic, to ' the tomb ot all tbe Capulets,' If it be urged, as I have hear(J it insinuated, that the Unitarians, who do impugn the Holy Trinity, are still punishable at common law, this statute notwithstanding, I ask, Why is it not done 7 There is not the Judge in England who would disgrace his sacred office by suffering such a question to be mooted. And the mere pretence, ■without the power, betrays the miserable vanity of defeated malice ; it is the venom of a serpent that hath lost its sting, that would, but cannot. It savours of the genius of Spain and of the Inquisition ; not of England, nor of England's ornament, a Tenterden. Now, Gentlemen, hear a demonstration as clear as the multiplication table. If the doctrine of the Holy Trinity be not the very sum and essential substance, the totum illud, the every- thing of Christianity, I defy the wit of man to give us a definition of what Christianity is. And if to have liberty to impugn that doctrine — that is, liter- ally to light against it, to revile it as much as you can revile it, to deny it to be true — and consequently, tp deny all consequences and corollaries of it, is not to have all the liberty a man could wish, and all he could avail himself of, if he wished, there can be no possibility of defining what liberfy is. And ■a man may be told he has it to-day, and be trap(>ed into a pretended trespass to-morrow. An unbaptised person, you very well know, is not a Christian. All Christians are baptised in the name of the Holy Trinity all edicts' ukases, and treatises of Christian states are promulgated in.the name of the Holy Trinity— the division of the law terms, and all public acts of this country, recognise the festival of the Holy Trinity. So that to make it penal to impugn Christianity, after^it has ceased to be penal to impugn the Holy 27 Trinity, is entirely to have altered the nature of Christianity ; it is to declare the doctrine of fhe Holy Trinity to be no longer the Christian doctrine, or Christianity to be of no earlier date than the 58d of Geo. III. ; or rather, it is not Christianity, but Unitarlanism, that has become part and parcel of the law of the land — and, God knows, the worst part of it. For could thi the 53d of George III, 1 ask, if it had specifically intended the entire abolition of all pretence to prosecute unbelievers, without intending the abolition of Christianity itself, have marked that intention more distinctively 3 Hath the Unitarian liberty to deny the divinity of Chtist, and have not I liberty to deny his humanity ? Is it lawful for them to maintain, and teach, that he whom the Christian creed sets forth as God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, was no God at all, but a mere Jew — a slave— a beggar — the base-born son of a Galilean peasant, and not lawful for me, shuddering at'snch blasphemy as I do, to maintain that he who was only such an one, might be any thing that any man might call him?- The shield then which covers the Unitarian blasphemer must be broad enough to cover me ; for to charge me ■with taking any greater license than that which is by this act of the 63d of Geo. III. legalised to them, is to charge me with downright impossibilities. I have certainly not blasphemed more than theUnitarians do ; and if it were only for this sufficient reason, that I could not if I tried. But taking this Act of the 53d of Geo. III. (i#you please), to repeal the statute of the 9tli and 10th of William IJI., .only so far as to relieve persons impugning the Holy Tri- nity, but leaving those who impugn Christianity with a more honourable hostility, as liable to persecution as ever— though this distinction without a difference hath as little of justice as of logic in it— I'll stand the issue, even upon this reckoning, and claim no further favour than that, if I am to be convicted, 1 may have the benefit of being so upon some certain definitive statute law, the prohibitions and penalties of which might have been known beforehand and so avoided, and not trepanned upon a mere ipse dixit of pre- tended common law, whicli may sleep like the couchant tiger in the Judge's breast, re^dy to pounce on the most innocent, and sacrifice the most virtuous man in society ! A principle which, once established, the name of law would be but another name for the most galling yoke of. tyranny that was ever im- posed upon the necks of an insulted people ; for it would always be in the power of any tyrannical bigot on that Bench (his Lordship will not for a mo- ment thipk that I mean this offensively), but it is a power which no wise man would wish, and no good man hold!— under pretext of something so mea- surelessly vague and undefined as common law, to grasp a power to punish whomsoever he might please to punish^— to make himself sole autocrat of the nation-— ' " His word the law, and he the Lord of all." Nor is the matter at all mended, but really made all the worse, by pretend- ing that the Judge is still restricted by a necessity of respecting precedents, and of following the opinions which have been given by his predecessors. For better it were that there should be no law at all, and no precedent of any trial left on record, than that precedents should be pleaded to justify iniquity, and a free and enlightened jury be obliged to respect the state follies of their barbarous ancestors, or be told that they must still continue to persecute and oppress innocence, because that was the Eighth Harry's way. " So did the sanguinary Mary ; or thus and thus enacted the trucu- lent Elizabeth." Gentlemen, " opinion is not law." Do me but justice to remember that great principle, " Opinion is not law ;" neither the Judge's opinion, nor any opinion of learned or unlearned men which he may quote, hath claim to a straw's weight in the scale of justice. Should an innocent man, by your verdict, be subjected to punishment, e&ch and every one of you in particular will have brought the whole and undivided weight of that crime upon his own conscience ; and I must tell you. Gentlemen, that to surrender the liberty of your fellow-citizen while a shadow of doubt hung over your minds that that liberty ought not to be surrendered, is the great- est crime that man can commit against society ; it is high treason against her statq ; it is murder against her safety. But those lawyers who would not themselves bring it into contempt have defined it as " the perfection of reason ;" and, therefore, Gentlemen, it must be absurd beyond all names of absurdity, to pretend that there can be any law or precedent outrageously repugnant to reason, or such as a reasonable man, in the exercise of his reason, must at once see to be mischievous and oppressive ; upon its so ap- pearing to be it abrogates itself, the great legal maatim being '* Cessat 28 Ratio"— " CeSsat Lex"-- the reasoning ceasipg, the law ceases. And> therefore, Gentlemen, without any express.act of repeal, such a law astDal oi-the 1st of James the First, fapite duodecimo,, y/hich is quite as respeon- able and rational as any pretest of statute or common, law that can oe brought against me, would perish perse, and annul itself in its own .suBi- ciently apparent absurdity. By that law, his Lordship may probably recol- lect, it was expressly enacted that "Any person invoking an eyil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, or feeding any evil spirit, was to be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and sutler death." Now, as a rational jury, ere they gave a verdict against a man ior feeding a spirit, would first inquire wh^t a spirit was like, and what sort oi- food the stomach of a spirit would digest, shall not you, m like manner, wheal am charged in thi# indictment with putting dishonour upon trod, inquire how it could be done? or what notion of the Supreme Being tney would hare us form who suppose him to be liable to such an injury as 1 could have power to commit, or you have a right to punish ? As a putiUe lecturer on the noble sciences of astronomy and physiology, and after a great deal too much of my life expended in deep and laborious researches in theological criticism and biblical literature, certain convictions have forced themselves upon my mipd, which would have forced themselves upon any other mind, equally capable, equally curious, and equally con- scientious as mine. Nor would his Lordship, orany of yourselves, have jt in your power to be of different opinions from mine, had your minds expa- tiated over the same field of inquiry, and been formed, like mine, to be determined by the result of that inquiry. Am I to unread what I have read 1 to unlearn what I have learned, and unknow my knowledge ? Can I erase the inscriptions from the tablet of my memory, and make my faith obedient ■ to my will i Show me how to do it. Gentlemen, and I shall no more offend you by denying the reality of miracles. But practice not on me alone, while there are thousands in this falsely-called Christian country ; and if literature and science be diffused, and minds be cultivated, there will be every day increasing thousands as far from beieg Christians as I am, differ- ing from me in nothing but, in not having honesty to avow, and fortitude to irave the consequences of avowing it. Bat judge you whether it be a con- quest worth the winning, to subdue and express the suppression of sen- timent that you can never eradicate ; or whether you shall have much pro- moted the prevalence of honour, honesty, and truth among men, by making hypocrites where you could not make converts, and enforcing from the tongue a cold consent to what the heart abhors. Yes, after all. Gentle- men, if I am really in grievous error (as who of woman born canbe sure that he is not ?) I am so far from any principle of obduracy or obstinacy in that error, that you never, in your lives, beheld a man so ready, so willing, so glad to correct Ills errors. If there be, in any of my orations or writings published, or in process of publication, a single fallacy of reasoning or falsehood of statement ; if there be— " One line which dying I should wish to blot," I, shall hold that man amongst my dearest friends who shall point it out, nor will I persist for one day in the maintenance of my present convictions, after cither convictions shall have possessed my mind, or convinced my reason, leading to kinder and better feelings between man and man, to happier sen- tJiB^its, or to more virtuous conduct. Gentlejmen of the Jury, I have now qnly to entreat you, as wise and good men, which I must not (iQubt you will prove yourselviej to be, to be faithful to yodr own convictions, and to tite high and ss^c^efl trust which your country reposes in your hands, a trust which you wyi oremember, Gentlemen, is not to subserve the sinistrous de- sign of.gaiin^pg an ascendancy to your ,own particular modes of fi^th, noj- to he surrendered to authority and dictation, -obtruded in the place of reaspn and of justice. But you will make up your minds,, I trust, under tlte fu,U influence of that philosophical temper, and of those calm and benevolent feel- ings, which best become a nian, and which, after all, are the surest aids of his reason, and the safesit gwldes of his j'Pdgment. Let not the alleg!ed o^u- nions of a Hawkins, a Black«tone, or a Coke, or the sanctified stupidity of Judge Hale, who sacrificed aged women to the wild iconceit of a bfirbarous fajuaticism, sway you from, the direction of your own better feelings and better judgment. Aliow me rather to remind you of one (I do it respect- fully), the perfect f eseniblance of whose case to mine would insure my ac- quittal, if Ghi;istiaps would but reverence their own professions, for.it was «f 29 Him that the elders of the city raid, " He hath spoken blasphemy. The people said, ' Let him be crucified ; but Pikte said, Why, what eyil hatli he donet" And why, I ask. Gentlemen, what evil have I done? Why should I be crucified'! why should my country seem to sanction the cruelties which private fanaticism hath already inflicted upon me t why must I be cut off from the cheerful ways of men, have my spirits broken with vexation, and in the meridian of my life's usefulness, be condemned to pine away In the horrors of captivity ? By that name which you profess to revere above every name, and by the virtue of that very plea which you, as Christians, put in bar of the just judgment of God himself, suffer me not to be overborne by the horrible tyranny ef making short work of this matter ; deal not with me as it was dealt to him, when his enemies held it enough to say, " We have a law, and by our law he ought to die," though he had done no violence, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And where is the man on earth who can say that I have done violence, or that deceit has been found in me T Only divest yourselves of that partiality to your own religi- ous persuasions which you would feel to be utterly subversive of all prin- ciples of justice, if it operated on the side of a faith directly opposed to your's. Do as you would be done unto ; reason for me as I would reason and entreat for yon, if you stood at the bar of some savage Saracen, who might look on you andl»your religious persuasions with as little charity as my persecutors bear to me. " Strip black oppression of her deep disguise, And bid the hag in native horror rise. and you shall see her through every stage of this barbarous persecution *aging her horrid war against sincerity and truth. Of my sincerity and truth [ gave the world a proof, when, nine or ten years ago, when first my present Deistical conviction took my mind,! resigned my preferment and expectations in the Church, because I would not receive what I considered to be the wages of iniquity— because I would not preach to others what I had ceased to believe myself. , Now Gentlemen, is there any one ef you would take on his own honour the turpitude of couTiselling me that, in such a.case, I ought to have continued to preach Christianity after I had ceased to believe it 7 or that, having ceased to believe, I was bound to conceal my unbeltef, to connive at imposture, and truckle to a fraud ? And shall the meanest peasant iA the kingdom-r-the most illiterate, barbarous hind, in doat- ing age or drivelling idiotcy, obtain the Magistrates license to go a-preaching and be privileged to disseminate his opinions, howeverabsurd, preposterous x>T wicked they may be— and shall a man of education, than which no man in IQngland can pretend to better, be denied that privilege, and subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and ruin, for addressing assemblies of Intelligent men in language worthy of their attention, and responsive to their convictions? Will rational creatures say that this is justice, or that a religion can possi- bly be true that hath need to be defended by such a policy ? In sincerity and truth, I gave" the fairest and most honourable invitation to Christian Ministers and learned theolpgians to come forward and refute, if they could, the demonstrations of a later date, the monstrous contradictions, the atopisms and anachronisms, interpqlations and forgeries, which I had detected in the writings which they called sacred, wliich l submittedto their criticism, and subjected to their censure ! And in doing so, the Almighty God of truth is my witness, my heart was innocent of a moment's wish that aught but truth should prevail. I have desired no 'victory but that of learning, of reason, and of virtue, over audacious ignorance, canting hypocrisy, and caballing priestcraft. I have valued what I hold to be truth above all things ; I have sought it more than my necessary food, and loved it with a perfect love. Had I been that bad man that my enemies represent me to be, 1 should never have fallen under the powerof their hostility ; I might at this day by a very facile hypocrisy, have held high rank and -station in the Church, whose Holy Orders I still do hold, and to whose highest dignities I amstiil eligible, and that very ability which my enemies view in me only as an ar- gument to call for heavier punishment, would, in another dtrectioh, have seated me in the stall of a Cathedral, froni whence, like another Leo thb Tenth, I might have chuckled over " the fable that brings grist to the mil- ler, grasped the rich harvest of successful fraud, and laughed at those who pay to be deceived, and like them best that do it best." But the motive of my infidelity was the most ardent piety. I fear God, and iherefore I dare not be a ChristSan, because Christianity seems to me to be unworthy of him ; 30 I see enouglrin its doctrines to Startle my apprehensions, but not enough in its evidence to reconcile my reason. It may be that I am in the wrong ; till I see and feel that I am so, I should suffer a greater violence Irom up conflict of my own mind, in acting otherwise than as I have doiie, fan " in the power of my worst eiiemres to inflict on me. Gehtlemen " the Jury, I have shown you that the societies for the suppression oi which this prosecution has been instituted are blameless and in°««°' sive. I have shown you that the pretended evidence brought betore you has wholly failed. I have shown yoU that, even if the evidence \had been respectable, which it is not, this prosecution is untenaoie on Christian grounds, untenable on moral grounds, untenable oij legal grounds, untenable on any grounds whatever, but those ot tne as- cendancy of might over right, of rampant hypocrisy over prostrate innocence. And therefore, Gentlemen, with the modest confidence of a man who never intended offence to any one, lior would for the World's wealth persist in any mode of conduct that could be offensive to society, or wound the feelings ot a single virtuous man in it, I ask you to deliver me now from the power ot all judgment but that to which every individual in this Court is as responsible as I am ; I ask for such a verdict as may put an end for ever to the. reproach which these prosecutions reflect on the character of an enlightened age, and establish the right of free speech, and free discussion as the natural right of all men ; I ask for such a verdict as I am sure will confer immortal honour upon yourselves in the judgment of all wise anil good men, such as you can best answer for to the just and liberal spirit of this Protestant country, which abhors every thing in the shape of persecution, and to God, who abhors it too. Gentlemen, in God's most holy name, I am not guilty. "The delivery of this speech occupied three hours and a half. Mr. Taylor spoke in an earnest, Impressive manner, but with a redundancy of action, which gave to the exhibition a little too much of a theatrical air. The only instance in which the Court thought it necessary to interpose, was one in which the Judge evidently misapprehended the drift of the speaker. At the close of his address there were some incipieilt demonstrations of ap- plause, which were instantly checked by the officers of the Court. Lord Tenterden, without taking any notice ot the display of feeling exhibited in the Court, proceeded to charge the Jury. This was an indict- ment, he said, against the defendant Robert Taylor, charging him, in sub- stance, with uttering certain, blasphemous words in the presence of several persons, with intent to bring the Christian belief into contempt. He was not charged with, or called upon to answer for any opinions which he might Ij^ve entertained, whether right or wrong ; for his private judgment and pri- vate opinions, no man was by the law of England answerable; and however erroneous those opinions might be, pr;however injufions to the interests of society, so long as a man kept them^^ithin his own breast, the law took no notice of him. All, therefore, that l^ad been addressed to the Jury upon the subject of heresy was inappUcablg/here, for this indictment did not re- late to that offence. The defendant w^ 'not charged with heresy, or enter- taining heretical opinions; such an inSicfcnent could not be sustained in a Court of common law, though, unhappily, at one period, it might, and be punished with severity. The charge as set fcrth in the indictments, in sub- stance, was, that the defendant, intending (o bring the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Religion into disbelief and contempt, upon a ceijtain day, and at a certain pfeice within the city of London, publicly did state, amongst other things, certain matters of and concerning ourLord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Apostle St. Paul. (His Lordship here read, the dif- ferent allegations in the indictment.) Now it would be for the Jury, to say, whether the defendant' made these propositions with the intention as charged in the indictment, that they were to be received and favoured by his hearers, or whether he cited them with the view of exposing and refuting them. If they were of opinion that he used them in the latter sense^ and that he did mean to expose and refute them, then they must acquit the defendant upon this indictment : but if, upon the other rhan.d, they found that he propounded them for the approbation and consul of those to whom they were ad- dressed, then and in that sense thej', must return that the defendant was guilty of blasphemy, which was an offence against the laws. He should not properly discharge the duties of his offtce conscientiously, and the ob- ligations it imposedupon him, if he did not state that the Christian Religion meaning thereby the Christian Religion, generally, and not particular tenets' of that religion, being part and parcel of \h^ law, was intitled to the pro- 31 tection of the law in the same way as the Civil Constitution, or any other matter. A great deal had been addressed to the Jury upon the effect of two particular Acts of Parliament as connected with this case. It was said that the Act of William the Third, which relates to persons denying the Tri- nity, repealed the common law respecting blasphemy to such an extent, as no longer to leave that an offence at common law, and that the repeal of that Statute by the 53d of George the Third, made it no offence either at Common or Statute Law. But this was a mis- take ; for the Act of King William, like many other Statutes passed for , particular purposes, imposed new and special penal- ties upon that which was a previous offence at Common Law. It never could be said that the Statute having resorted to further punishment should take away and destroy the nature of the offence itself, and proceedings have some- times been had npon the Statute, and sometimes at Common Law for the of- fence—in fact the 53d George the Third, by repealing the Statute of Wil- liam, left the Common Law where it was found at the date of the enactment of that Act. But he (Lord T.) must say that it wculd be a disgrace to the law of this country, if at the same time that It afforded protection to private character against calumny and slander, it declined to extend its shield to that which, leaving out of account all our feelings as Christians, had been, at least, amongst the dgarest birthrights handed down to us by our fathers. With these general observations then, he should now proceed to state to the Jury the evidence by which this indictment was supported. Much had been said of the illiterate habits of the person, on whose testimony this case principally rested, but the Jury could not-fail to observe, that though the witness certainly was not a person with any literary pretensions, yet that he evinced strong common sense, and they pught not to overlook that the few sentences which the witness gave, were only a small part of a long oration. Now,[if the remaining part of that address was calculated to show that these sentences were not spoken for approbation, but refutation, he was at liberty to read them. Again, If this witness was really a person so illiterate, that his report of these sentences was not to be relied upon, why did not the defen- dant produce some one of the nnmerous auditory by whom he was surround- ed, orthe person who acted as his assistant ? The defendant had published what he called a manifesto, inviting persons to come forward and answer his arguments ; but it was for a Jury to say whether persons, capable of taking a proper part in such discussions, would be very forward to present them- selves at a public theatre of this sort ? His Lordship then read over the evi- dence to the Jury, and upon this evidence, as a matter of fact, he put it to them whether they were satisfied that the defendant had used the expressions im- puted to him, with the intention of bringing the Christian Religion into dis- respect? It was not charged that he had treated any particular tenets with disrespect, but that he had used tc^w^Ms the Christiati religion generally language of a mischievous and blas'^^^Jous tendency. He (LordTenterden) had already said that he was boun;d, '1>^ the duty of his office, to declare that any one who, in a public assembly; ^trove to bring the Christian religion into disbelief, not by serious, delib^ate, and solemn argument, addressed to the minds of men, capable of rett'souing and judging of such matters, but in a tone of sarcasm and coarseuesii, such as was here used, he was bound by his office to say, that whoeitir 'did so, was a blasphemer, and an offender against the laws. He had now^done his duty according to the best of his con- science, and it was for the Jury to do their's. He hoped that they would be influenced in their^etermination by their own sound opinions, unawed by any, thing they mighir' have heard to-day from the defendant or any other person. -^" At half-past three the Jury expressed a wish to retire, and an Officer was sworn for the purpose of securing them against interruption. At four o'clock they returned into Court, when, their names having been called over, the foreman returned a verdict of Guilty against the defendant. The announcement of the verdict did hot call forth the expression of any feeling in Court. Nothing was jj{^||. of the second indictment against Mr. Taylor, but it was understood that if it> was to be proceeded in at all, the trial would not take place during the-preseJEit^ittings. (f^ Mr. Taylor was arrested, on a Tiei^ch warrant, on Friday night, and is ' now in custody at a lock-up^(ouse in Cursitor-street,