On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    physical , morale or legislative science ; nothing whatever relating : to any class of subjects that could be presented to his understanding ; nothing , however difficult other men thought it , or pretended to think it—or with whatever superstitious , political , or religious reverence and awe they regarded , or affected to regard it , which he did not approach without fear , to the very bottom of which he did not endeavour to penetrate ; the mystery regarding which he did not strive to clear away ; the real , the whole truth of which , he did not aim to bring to light . ! Nor was there any consideration—no , not even apparent danger to the cause he advocated , though , by the desertion of friends and

    not under any obiigation thus to charge his client for work not done . He is , how . ever , sure of indemnity in doing so ; it is accordingly done , of course .., .. . These things , and others of the same complexion , in such immense abundance , determined me to quit the profession ; and as soon as I could obtain my father ' s permission , I did so : I found it more to my taste to endeavour , as I have been doing ever since , to put an end to them , than to profit by them . " ' In this resolution to retire at once from the practice of the profession , he was

    confirmed by his clear and strong perception of what the office of the barrister really is , of what his functions necessarily require , as the law of the land and the practice of the bar at present are , viz .: the indiscriminate defence of right and WRONG , BY THE INDISCRIMINATE UTTERANCE OP TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD . There IS now a deep interest in tracing the workings of this same principle in his very first publication , with indications of which it abounds ; and as an illustration of which , I quote the following passage from the Fragment on Government : —

    * " Perhaps a short sketch of the wanderings of a raw but well-intentioned mind , in its researches after moral truth , may on this occasion be not unuseful ; for the history of one mind is the history of many . The writings of the honest but prejudiced Earl of Clarendon , to whose integrity nothing was wanting , and to whose wisdom little , but the fortune of living something later , and the contagion of a monkish atmosphere ; these , and other concurrent causes , had listed my infant affections on the side of despotism . The genius of the place 1 dwelt in , the

    authority of the Sta . te , the voice . of the Church in her solemn offices—all these taught me to / call Charles a martyr , and his opponents rebels . . I saw innovation , where indeed innovation , but a glorious innovation , was , in their efforts to withstand him . I sawfalsehood , where indeed falsehood was , in their disavowals of innovation . I saw selfishness , and an obedience to the call of passion , in the efforts of the oppressed to rescue themselves from oppression . I saw strong countenance lent in the Sacred Writings to Monarchic Government , and none to any other ; I » & \ v passive obedience deep stamped with the seal of the Christian virtues of humility and self-denial .

    ' " Conversing with lawyers , 1 found them full of the virtues of their original contract as a recipe of sovereign efficacy for reconciling the accidental necessity of resistance with the general duty of submission . This drug of theirs they administered to me to calm my scruples ; but my . unpractised stomach revolted against their opiate . 1 bid them open to me that page of history in which the solemnization of this important contract was recorded . . They shrunk from this challenge ; nor could they , when thus pressed , do otherwise than our author has done—confess the whole to be a fiction . This , me thought , looked ill ; it seemed to me the acknowledgment of a bad cause , the bringing a fiction to support it . ' To prove fiction , indeed , ' said I , ' there is nee 4 of fiction ; but it is the characteristic of truth to need

    no proof but truth . Have you , then , really any such privilege as that of coining facts ? You are spending argument to no purpose . Indulge yourselves in the licence of supposing that to be true which is not , and as well may you suppose that proposition itself to be true which you wish to prove , as that other whereby you hope to prove it . ' Thus continued I , unsatisfying and unsatisfied , till . 1 learnt to see that utility was the teat and measure , of all virtue—of loyalty as much as any ; and that the obligation to minister to general happiness was an obligation paramount to , and inclusive of , every other . Having thus got the instruction I stood in need of , I sat down to make my profit of it . I bid adieu to the original contract ; and 1 left it to those to amuse themselves with this rattle , who could think they needed it . " 'Fragm , on Government , note , p . 47 el tea .

    Untitled Article

    7 . 08 . Critical Notides . —A Lecture , Sfc .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 708, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/58/