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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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Untitled Article
the prisoner ' s character , declared himself to be an Atheist , Charles Phillips affected the extreme of horror , and exclaimed with his usual theatric * air , ' Witness , I will not disgrace myself by asking you another question / But not satisfied with this display , when the witness had retired , he called him back again , and made him go through the definition of an Atheist , which the witness described as * a man who does
not believe in the existence of a God . ' Fancy the vapouring absurdity of a man like Charles Phillips , talking about e disgracing himself / his hand being polluted daily and hourly by the * vile coin' of thieves and murderers , and ruffians , and reptiles , of all descriptions , who pour in upon him with their five-shilling briefs . He is grateful to his supporters , and does his best to maintain their ' respectability' and their lives . He lives by the life and not by the death of thieves , and he preserves them as the country ' squires do their game . But Atheists bring no grist to the mill , and therefore he makes war upon . Atheists , knowing that the vulgar mob of high and low will join with him . It is a capital thing to * make a sensation' amongst the religious folks , especially when there is no fear of consequences . It seems , however , that in point of * respectability , Julian
Hibbert is far before Charles Phillips , for while Charles Phillips lives on 'five-shilling briefs , ' Julian Hibbert lives on an independent property , and as to his attainments , he is a skilful Greek critic , having written , and printed at a printing-press of his own ,, a work of considerable erudition in that language . He is , moreover , a highly benevolent , though not a wise man . And now a few words to Julian Hibbert .
When he was asked to kiss the book , he gratuitously declared . ' that he had no belief in its contents . ' He must be supposed sincere in his declaration , for it was courting public obloquy , but in so doing he deprived a court of law of the benefit of his evidence . It was a kind of seeking after a martyrdom , a sort of testifying for conscience sake , which was quite uncalled for by circumstances , and therefore it became a ridiculous bravado . "What if the trial had been a cause of the highest importance to the community , ought Julian Hibbert in such case to have destroyed his utility to the community by flippancy ? The whole system of oath-taking is vile and absurd . All that is needed is , that due punishment await the giving false evidence in a public court . Upon every paltry matter of pounds , shillings , and pence debated in a court of justice , God is invoked to help them , times without number . If this be not blasphemy , what then is ? If a tradesman swear to a debt he calls God to witness it , though injmany cases the matter is plunder , and in others he has no knowledge of the transaction beyond hearing . What is the value of a sailor ' s or a merchant ' s oath at the custom-house ,
and what iB the real distinction , whether the smuggler kisses the book or kisses his thumb , a mode of evasion considered very quieting to the conscience ? When Jonathan had to give evidence as to the occupation of land , he was required by his employer to swear that he had seen corn grown on it at a stated period . His conscience was in the way , and to quiet it , he and his employer took a journey to the spot , and planting some heads of growing maize in a running brook , they suspended to a tree on one side the figures 1814 , and to a tree on the other the figures 1815 . Jonathan then went into court , and swore that ' he had seen some growing in the spring , between 1814-15 . The fact ia , whenever ceremonies are substituted for substance , the substance ia apt to be forgotten .
Untitled Article
64 Notes on t ? te Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/86/
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