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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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BilB % > l « dp in Fleet Street , some of his Wrkitigsy ^ rtftich were charged in the id * tfietment witft befog ** blasphemous and p * 6 faue libels of and concerning the Christian religion /* The prosecution was at the instance of the " Society for th 6
S 5 * i £ pre 6 &ion of Vice . " Mr . John Ellis , « g Junior Counsel , read the Information ; and Mr . Gaselee ( in the absenee of Mr . Gurney , thr 6 ugh indisposition ) appeared as thfe advocate for the prosecution . He commen t **! upon certain passages In the works alleged to have been sold , which Were decidedly Deistical , and some of
? them excessively" gross and offensive . & Christianity , * ' said the learned gentleman , as the greatest authorities had hoi den , was part of the English law , which would not permit any attempt to ^ subvert or turn into ridicule the religion of the country . " This ? s rather broad ground , and standing up as the substitute of one Dissenter , and having another at his
elbow , Mr . Gaselee should have taken care not to frame his legal doctrine so as to make Dissent itself criminal ; which it must be according to him , if Dtsseutera oppose the Church , arid in their opposition attempt to shew thajt some of its tloctrines ( the doctrine , for instance , of every Bishop ' s being empowered to give the Holy Ghost , ) are absurd and ridiculous .
* ' Still , " the learned gentleman proceeded , ** hfc "would not have sought for a verdict , if the Defendant bad only discussed particular doctrinesr of the gospel with temper and fairness ; but when a libel as * sailed religion with mere calumny , and represerited it as one entire system of fraud and delusion , it became a duty to protect public morals by seeking the aid tn
or e Jaw against its publishers /* As an advocate , he could not say less ; but if the publication Of such works injure public morals , those persons are not to be vindicated from the charge of promoting immorality who , by prosecutions and punishments , lend wings to profane books , and cause them to be carried into unnumbered hands , which but foa this
impolitic interference they would never have defiled . —Mrs . Wright read her own defence , which was bold and honest , and as little feminine as could be * Her situation in life , her zeal in the cause of unbelie , her opinion of herself , and her estimate of some historic characters which the Christian world revere 9 will be
explained by one extract from the Defence , as given in Carlile ' s " Report of the Trial . " «« I challenge my accusers to ( fchew , that I have any sinister motives or lucrative ideas in this affair . No , Gentlexnen , I have not . I am a married woman and a mother . I live on terms of ftflfaef ion and conjugal fidelity with my
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husband , whose £ arti * ngs are regular and fully competent to matte us comfortable ; besides this , I hrtve myself been bred to a genteel employ , as a lace ^ tiaeitder ^ mn an embroiderer , at which I couW earn double the wages that I have received from Mr , CarKle . I might almost say ,
that I hare served hhn gratuitously , for I haVe received no more than the additional expense which has accrued from my absence from home , and from my putting oat my child to the care of a nurse . I hare stood forward in this righteous cause , by and with the consent and advice of my husband . I am not related to Mr . Carlile in the most distant decree . I am
scarcely known to him further than as a customer who has regularly called for fcte publications . I have imbibed his principles , and I stand forward this day to defend them , and to say to you . Gentle * men , that t am so far proud of them ; 1 am eo far convinced they are virtuous , to the very extreme of virtue , that with a better heart and motives than the
Christian martyrs of old , who fell as ignorant and fanatical victims to Pagan persecution , I shall submit with pleasure and with joy to any pains and penalties that may fall upon me from this worse than Pagan persecution . Worse , because it is hypocritical , and because , the pretebded suppressors of vice are the actual suppressors of moral virtue V *
After asserting all the principles of the passage * set forth in the Indictment ^ and pouring all manner of scorn upon revealed religion , she proceeded to read as part of her Defence the whole of Mr . Fox's Sermon on « The Duties of Christians towards Deists , " including the Preface and the Postscript to the second
edition . The Chief Justice , who had several times before interposed to stop the Defendant , though in vain , raised no objection here ; but Mr . Dornford , one of the special jurors , interfered in the reading of a part of the Discourse , describing the duties of Deists , and asked " if all this ought to be heard ?"
" Chief Justice —It does not seem to me to be relevant , but one is unwilling to prevent a defendant from urging all that she thinks may serve her . " Mr . JJornford ^—The manoeuvre is quite evident , my Lord , to get all this published .
" •* Chief Justice . —I shall stop her if she advances any thiug which we ought not to hear . " Mr . Dornford . —All this is an attack upon Christianity , my Lord . ** Chief Justice . —No , Sir , 1 understand the reverse ; what she is now reading i * certainly irjoffensive . " Mrs . Wright then proceeded at great
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 646, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/62/
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