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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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Th $ Kbeis charged were then read . y&r . -.-OuRNJBV .- ^ Tlial ; is my case , my U * &f . Mr , Justice Rest , addressing the defendant , said , that if he had any observation to offer , the time had arrived when it was competent , for him to proceed with fife defence .
The defendant accordingly rose , and rea 4 fron * a written paper , the object of which was to shew to the Jury , that considerable talents , united to great legal learning , were enlisted against him . He proceeded in this line of defence for some time , and having made use of a phrase to this effect— t € the Inflated insignificance of official power " - —
The Judge sa ? d , Sir , I will not suffer that scandalous language to be applied to those ia power . The defendant observed , that he must conduct his defence in his own way . The Judge . —Perhaps , Sir , you conceive that I have only that power which has been lately delegated to me with so much courtesy by your concession , namely ,
to sit here to preserve order and to record the verdict ; but remember that I have not only the power of confining you , but also of punishing you by fine ; and I tell jou now , that I will fine you as qften ) as you repeat such insolent remarks . Tbe defendant . — -If your dungeon is ready , my Lord , suffer me to give you the key ,
The Judge . —I fine you twenty pounds for that contempt of Court . TTre defendant then proceeded to state the difficulty under which he was placed by his ignorance of what was roeaat by libel , and also to observe upon the partial course of proceeding adopted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice , who selected their victims from the
lower ranks , and allowed those to escape who were of weight and significance by their rank and station in society . He then made some coarse remarks upon Christianity , and was proceeding in that $ q ? F 8 $ , when he was interrupted by The Judge . —I cannot sit here and
allow the Christian religion to be reviled , nod the empire of the laws to be thus wantonly insulted , without attempting at ^ least to vindicate them . l [ have submitted patiently as long as your insults were confined to myself , but I will not preside , here and hear the Christian religion scoffed at . I fine you for this second offence forty pounds .
The defendant said that he would read the whole dialogue . Tfce Judge . —Certainly , if you think it nut feirial . The defendant , after reading the pamphlet in question , The Deist * s Magazine , proceeded to observe , that the infidelity
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of the Nobility and the scepticism of the Bishops was not to be doubted . The Judge—You are stating what you know to be false . The Reverend Bishops are not before the Court , and I should be acting as ungenerously as you are if I su ffered such language to be applied to them . I fine you for this insult forty pounds ; and remember , no matter what
may be the result of the present trial , these fines must be paid . The defendant said , that he was not worth ten pounds m the world ; he j udged from the arrangement of the libraries of those persons in which he had frequently been ; and he there observed the works of Shaftesbury , Bolingbroke and Gibbon . He meant no offence to his Lordship .
The Judge . —Your language , Sir , is too contemptible to offend me . The defendant then proceeded to read some extracts from a published work , and concluded by calling on the Jury to believe that he was actuated in the course of conduct which he had pursued , solely by a love of that truth which , however eclipsed for a season , must ultimately prevail .
Mr . Justice Best . —No man could be more convinced than he was , of the absolute necessity of preserving a calm and unruffled temper during the discussion of such a question as that which was before them ; but if it be necessary for the preservation of that temper to sit there and
hear the Christian religion insulted , its precepts directly and openly scoffed at , without preventing the repetition of such a course of proceeding , he confessed that he was altogether unfitted for that situation . But he hoped he should convince the defendant that his conduct would have
no weight in the decision of his fate on that occasion . A Judge was placed in a delicate and difficult situation . If he committed the defendant , the Jury mi # say , and justly , that if the defendant hai not been committed , it was possible for him to have addressed something to them that might explain or justify his conduct .
And the law , wisely perceiving the difficult situation in which the Judge was placed , armed him with that other power of fining the defendant , who dared to insult the Court by insolent language , or to traduce the Ministers of the Government under which he lived , when that conduct was not in issue before them . The fines ,
therefore , having had the effect of preventing that deluge of blasphemy with which they were threatened , it was enough to shew the defendant that the Court possessed that power , and to add , that the fines were then remitted . The learned Judge then passed on to the consideration of the question , and having replied to the various topics relied on by
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63 P Intelligence . —Law P ' roceedings .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1820, page 686, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2494/page/58/
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