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within the said gaol , and shall not be instrumental in forwarding to any of the prisoners on the crown side , any other publications which the High Sheriff , as to the prisoners in the gaol , or the visiting magistrates , as to the prisoners in the bridewell , shall prohibit , and shall not admit to the prisoners on the crown side , any person who shall bring into the gaol aay such publications . '
" The governor desired the bearer to call on the following Thursday , and , in the mean time , he promised to consult the magistrates . These magistrates , it seems , did not think themselves competent to decide , and the matter was referred to the ensuing Quarter Sessions , to be held at Lancaster , which Court made the following order :
" At the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace , held at Lancaster , in and j „ for the County Palatine of Lan' * caster , the ninth day of January , in the first year of King George the Fourth's reign , tc The Court directs that certain publications , entitled * The Monthly
Repository of Theology and General Literature / Nos . 170 , 168 , 169 , 171 , 178 , 171 ) , 177 , 176 , 175 , 174 and 173 , wherein there is contained gross and scurrilous abuse of the general body of the Clergy of the Church of England , be excluded from the Bridewell and Penitentiary prisoners confined in Lancaster Castle . The
Court docs not wish to prohibit the introduction of any theological publications because their tcnels may diifcr from those of the Established Church , but they feel it their duty to exclude such publications when they become the vehicle of libels upon the religious or civil government of the kingdom .
" GORST . " ( Clerk of the Peace . )" This singular order expressly charges the Numbers of our last Volume with only < c gross and scurrilous abuse of the General Body of the Clergy of the Church of England , " but it virtually accuses our work of being " ( he vehicle of libels
upon the religious or civil government of the kingdom . " To this latter charge we give an unhesitating and indignant denial . We defy tlu ^ Lancashire Magistrates to point out a single passage in our numerous Volumes which warrants the insinuation ; and we hereby offer to send any
Number or Volume which Mr . Gorst may direct , to His Majesty's Attorney-General , that he may see whether there be ground for an e . v officio information . In fact , the publication of this Order of Sessions would be itself libellous , and we might , we believe , carry it successfully before a jury of our countrymen .
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The direct charge of " gross and scurrilous abuse of the Clergy of the Church of England" is more vague , and therefore less easy of refutation . Undoubtedly , there are passages in the Monthly Repository reflecting upon the conduct of some of the clergy in particular instances , and tending to prove that national religions make the clergy politicians , and politicians
of the worst sort . But then our work is professedly open to free discussion , and the clerical character is matter of history . The only paper in the last Volume that would seem to justify the censure of the magistrates , is that in pp . 277—280 , of which , though we admitted it as a part of our Correspondent ' s argument , we
recorded our disapprobation at the time of its insertion ; and upon this and every statement with regard to individuals or bodies of men , we have always been willing to insert , and have even invited , the freest strictures . On several occasions , clergymen have occupied our pages in the defence both of their order and of their
doctrines . The question therefore is , whether religious discussion , which must sometimes involve the character of the clergy , shall be permitted ? The Lancashire magistrates seem to say , No : but ,
thank God ! their decrees are not yet law . Were they unhappily to become such , the Monthly Repository would not be the only proscribed publication . Every history of England , must then be purged in accommodation to the new British
constitution ; and in the end it might be deemed expedient not to circulate the Bible itself without some notes and comments guarding the character of " the general body of the clergy . " To us this affair is of little moment , except as it is one of " the signs of the times ; " but in that view we judge it
right to bring it into public notice . Were we governed by personal feelings and motives , we should rejoice in this new testimony to the importance of our work , and should appeal to the friends of truth and freedom throughout the kingdom , claiming their support on the precise grounds of our being
misrepresented and reviled both by the avowed enemies of religion and by the Lancashire magistrates ; but disregarding these two classes of men and their coadjutors on each side , who , whilst they appear to difrer , agree in so many of their predilections and antipathies , we shall persevere
in the same course , asserting and defending Christianity , vindicating its purity against the corrupting secular and ecclesiastical powers , and maintaining the great interests of civil and religious liberty , which are identical with Christian truth and virtue .
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64 Intelligence . —The Lancashire Magistrates against the Monthly Repos .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/64/
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