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    rent jurisdiction over the offence with the ecclesiastical courts . 1 have classed this statute under the legal head of heresy , because there can be no doubt that it is under that

    head that the offence against which it was directed , had always been punished , and accordingly , this method has been pursued by Hawkins , East , Blackstone , and , I believe , all our text 'writers on this subject . The Jatter observes , ' the legislature hath thought it proper that the civil magistrate

    should again interpose with regard to one species of heresy , ' * &c . It will be more proper to consider , under our third head , whether this act can be considered as declaratory of an offence of a different species , originally indictable at common law , and whether it has ever been treated as

    such ; only observing here , that the -word blasphemy , in the title of the act , does not seem at all to affect the nature of the offence , that being a lerm very ill , or rather not at all

    defined in our law , and applied , in most instances , as an epithet of reproach against speculative differences , from the established faith , as well as opinions hostile to religion in general .

    The measure of intolerance , so far as regards opinion on doctrinal points * seems , therefore , to have been very full , notwithstanding the boasted act of toleration , as it is called , and continued so for a long period , till at length , by the 19 Geo . III . c . 44 , the benefit of the toleration act , and , of

    consequence , the suspension of ecclesiastical prosecution , are extended to those who , instead of subscribing the articles , merely sign a declaration of their belief that the Scriptures contain the revealed will of God . Though

    impugners of the doctrine of the Trinity were still excepted from the benefit of this act , the power of the Ecclesiastical Courts was materially abridged by it , and seems to he now almost , if not altogether , destroyed by

    the 53 Geo . III . which repeals the excepting clause , and thus appears to put an end to any prosecution for heresy , against persons who comply with the provisions of the toleration act , as enlarged and extended by the 19 Geo . III .

    By the same statute of the 53 Geo . HI . the temporal punishment imposed foy the 9 and 10 William III . was

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    abolished , and thus ended all common law jurisdiction over heresy . 2 . Non-conformity , and Offences against the Ordinances and Worship of the Established Church . It seems

    unnecessary to enter minutely into the history of this offence , as it had no farther existence than the authority of the statutes which created it , and died with them .

    " Mv Lords , " said Lord Mansfield , ( in his memorable speech in the House of Lords , in the case of Evans , reported by Dr . Furneaux , ) ' * there never was a single instance , from the Saxon times down to our own , in which a

    man was ever punished for erroneous opinions concerning rites or modes of worship , but upon some positive law- The common law of England , which is only common reason or usage , knows of no prosecution for mere opinions . For Atheism , blasphemy ,

    and reviling the Christian religion , there have been instances of persons prosecuted and punished upon the common law ; but bare non-conformity is no sin by the common law ,

    and all positive laws inflicting' any pains or penalties for non-conformity to the established rites and modes , are repealed by the act of toleration , and Dissenters are thereby exempted from all ecclesiastical censures . "

    This seems to be now the settled law on the subject , and , accordingly , the courts have acted upon it in ninny cases , as well as the above of Evans ; the statute of superstitious uses is considered as virtually repealed by it , so far as relates to Dissenters , and the Court of Chancery now administers

    trusts for the support of their worships , which were , previous to the toleration act , bad- The enlargement of this act , by the 19 Geo . III . and the repeal of the clause excepting impugners of the doctrine of I he Trinity , by the 53 Geo . III . has placed Dissenters from the doctrine of the

    church , on an equal footing with those who only dissent from its worship ; and its provisions have not only exempted " their way of worship , " in the words of Lord Mansfield , " from

    punishment , but rendered it innocent and lawful ; have put it not merely under the connivance , but , under the protection of the law , have established it * For nothing can be plainer , than that the law protects nothing in that very

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    540 On Religious Offences indictable at Common Law .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1817, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2468/page/28/