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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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c BXllB appeared in Court , to sfcevr cause jjiat tDe rule . S ^ e ex cited the symthy of tne Court , on account of her rituation , being- faf advanced in pregnancy . She wis unable to plead , but put a paper into court wbich was read by an officer * This objected that her name was
not mentioned specifically , and that the Trial was a fair and impartial account of the proceeding's . But it was ruled that the information had heen sufficiently served upon her , and that it was illegal to publish any report of a trial wbicb contained any thing defamatory or indecent . The rule , therefore , was made absolute , but Mr . Justice Best expressed his opinion that the prosecution was not brought forward from vindictive motives , and thfit
submission would be available . On the 16 tb , R . Cajrlile was brought up for judgment . Mr . Denman now appeared for him , and pleaded , in arrest of judgment , that the 9 and 10 oi William
and Mary set aside the Common Law on the subject of blasphemy , and that the defendant ought to have been tried on that statute , and tien , in case * f conviction , he would have been subject only to the
penalties therein enacted . The Court , however , laid down the rule , that no misdemeanour at Common Law could be repealed , except by the clear intention and express words of the Legislature ^ The defendant now spoke , not , as he said , in order to mitigate punishment , but to shew that no punishment at all should be inflicted upon him . He was several times
interrupted by the Court . The purport of his observations was , that opinions are not proper objects of prosecution ; that opinions , now held to be true , had heen formerly punished ; that intention constituted crime , and that his own motives were pure and honest ; that his prosecution was a
scam upon the tribunals of the country , W that it had excited free discussion , and that good effects ? would result . The Attorney-General and Mr . Gurney then addressed the Court , calling for a sevew * judgment upon the defendant . This must
turely have been an irksome task for them , educated as they both were , and ihe latter at least remaining * , amongst Protestant diss enters , by the most enlightened of whom such prosecutions as these nave t » ow for a century been regarded with
suspicion and dislike . Their legal duty bound them , we suppose , to seek to aggravate the crime of the defendant by the usual common- places of forensic oratory . c ° ) l a ? ieckoned S an <* therefore they and" I ^ lhC name ° f the # ps P of P eace 8 m e > for a heavy sentence of impri-« nment and fine upon the convicted unjucver . Mv , Justice BATI . BY dehvered t > e and tE ' - after an a < 1 dress wp ° " the crime The v ? , mi 8 clliev <>« s effects of blasphemy . » eatence was , for the first offence , the
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publication of cc The Age of Reason , " a Fine to the King of One Thousand Pounds , and Imprisonment for Two Y ^ ars in Dorchester Gaol : for the second offence , the publication of ' * Palmer ' s Principles of . Nature , " a further Finb of
Five Hundred Pounds , and a further Imprisonment in the same gaol for One Year : the defendant to be imprisoned until the Fines are paid , and until he gives security , himself in the sum of £ 1000 , and two others in the sum of £ 100 each , for bis peace and g-ood behaviour during the term of his natural life .
" Tuesday , " ( say ihe newspapers ) " immediately after sentence was pronounced on Mr , Carlile , a writ of levarijacias was issued to take possession of such of tbe defendant ' s property as could be found upon his premises in Fleet Street . In ait hour afterwards property to the amount , as 4 s supposed , of £ 6 o 6 , was taken , in
part satisfaction of the fines imposed on the defendant * , and Wednesday mo ruing the Temple of Deism was completely ekisecL Crowds , however , at times collected round the door . Somebody had placarded a printed paper , with- an obnoxious inscription , in tearing down which placard the beadles were much interrupted and hooted by the populace .
Since this was vrritten , Mrs . Cakliie has appeared again in Court , and it appears that the information against her will he tried , though tbe trial is put off to next term .
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Intelligence . —Sentence on Russell ^ 7 IB
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Sentence on Russell , the Parodist . At the last Warwickshire Assizes , Joseph Russell was found guilty of publishing * an alleged blasphemous Parody on the Liturgy of tbe Church of England ; one of those , on wbicb William Hone had heen tried and acquitted
in . London * The jury , however , recammended the defendant to mercy . He wa « broug-lit up for judgment on the 17 tb instant . He put in several pleas ^ in extenuation , not omitting * Hone y s verdicts nor the recommendation of his jury . But an affidavit was put in on the part of the prosecution , stating * , tliat soaci after his trial the defendant had republished t \ te
Parody with a g * ross and libellous dedication . Jn answer to this llie defeadanj dwelt upon a paragraph in the republican tior > , in which be asserted Christian principles , and insisted that he had republished Oply the political part of the parodies . He urged also the perplexity into which this long-delayed " prosecution had thrown hifla , bis embarrassments , and the poverty and wretchediiess of his family . The Court declared that the recommendation of tbe jury had been considered , that there was every disposition to shew leniency , and that to liis republics * ion of tbe parody the defendant owed whatever lie should
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 715, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/63/
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