Missionaries to propagate Christianity, are guilty of blasphemy against
the established religion of heathen countries. It would be considered in
England very unjust and cruel if the natives were to seize our
Missionaries, and imprison and ill-treat them. If in this country we are
in the habit of sending out Missionaries to proclaim new truths to
foreign countries--is it not grossly inconsistent and unjust, while
doing this, to punish persons for free investigation at home? In a
recent case, cannon have been fired upon the natives of one of the Tonga
Islands, because they would not receive these Missionaries. The argument
of these Christians is, that truth must be propagated all over the
world--but why stop inquiry at home, while suffering a British
man-of-war to fire upon these islanders, because they would not receive
the new truths of the Missionaries in the way they wished? Is it
wise--is it not highly impolitic, then, to attempt to check the progress
of intellect and human improvement? Can it be done by persecution and
imprisonment? No, Gentlemen, the spirit of inquiry is abroad among the
industrious millions--no subject is too sacred for their investigation.
The mind has burst the fetters imposed on it, in the days of by-gone
ignorance, by the cupidity of interested and hypocritical priests, who
are fully aware that their principles and practices cannot stand the
test of free inquiry. Even Mr. Wesley, the founder of Methodism, saw
that his darling system must ultimately fall before the searching eye of
philosophy and truth.
_From the Life of the Rev. John Wesley, published in 1792_.
"Dear Sir,--For your obliging letter, which I received this morning, I
return you thanks.
"Our opinions, for the most part, perfectly coincide respecting the
stability of the connexion after my head is laid in the dust. This,
however, is a subject about which I am not so anxious as you seem to
imagine; on the contrary, it is a matter of the utmost indifference to
me, as I have-long foreseen that a division must necessarily ensue, from
causes so various, unavoidable, and certain, that I have long since
given up all thoughts and hopes of settling it on a permanent
foundation. You do not seem to be aware of the most effective cause that
will bring about a division. You apprehend the most serious consequences
from a struggle between the preachers for power and pre-eminence, and
there being none among them of sufficient authority or abilities to
support the dignity, or command the respect, and exact the implicit
obedience, which is so necessary to uphold our constitution on its
present principles. This, most undoubtedly, is one thing that will
operate very powerfully against unity in the connexion, and is, perhaps,
what I might possibly have prevented, had not a still greater difficulty
arisen in my mind. I have often wished for some person of abilities to
succeed me as the head of the church I have, with such indefatigable
pains and astonishing success, established; but, convinced that none but
very superior abilities would be equal to the undertaking, was I to
adopt a successor of this description, I fear he might gain so much
influence among the people as to usurp a share, if not the whole, of
that absolute and uncontrollable power which I have hitherto, and am
determined I will maintain so long as I live: never will I bear a rival
near my throne. You, no doubt, see the policy of continually changing
the preachers from one circuit to another, at short periods: for should
any of them become popular with their different congregations, and
insinuate themselves into the favour of their hearers, they might
possibly obtain such influence as to establish themselves independently
of me and the general connexion. Besides, the novelty of the continual
change excites curiosity, and is the more necessary, as few of our
preachers have abilities to render themselves in any degree tolerable
any longer than they are now.
"The principal cause which will inevitably effect a diminution and
division in the connexion after my death, wilt be the failure of
subscriptions and contributions towards the support of the cause; for
money is as much the sinews of religious as of military power. If it is
with the greatest difficulty that even I can keep them together, for
want of this very necessary article, I think no one else can. Another
cause, which, with others, will effect the division, is the disputes and
contentions that will arise between the preachers and the parties that
will espouse their several causes; by which means much truth will be
brought to light, which will reflect so much to their disadvantage, that
the eyes of the people will be opened to see their motives and
principles; nor will they any longer contribute to their support, when
they find all their pretensions to sanctity and love are founded on
motives of interest and ambition. The consequence of which will be, a
few of the most popular will establish themselves in the respective
places where they have gained sufficient influence over the minds of the
people: the rest must revert to their original humble callings. But this
no way concerns me: I have attained the object of my views, by
establishing a name that will not soon perish from the face of the
earth; I have founded a sect which will boast my name long after my
discipline and doctrines are forgotten.
"My character and reputation for sanctity is now beyond the reach of
calumny; nor will any thing that may hereafter come to light, or be said
concerning me, to my prejudice, however true, gain credit.
_"'My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life,_
_Will vouch against it,_
_And so the accusation overweigh_
_That it will stifle in its own report,_
_And smell of calumny.'_
"Another cause that will operate more powerfully and effectually than
any of the preceding is, the rays of Philosophy, which begin now to
pervade all ranks, rapidly dispelling the mists of ignorance, which have
been long, in a great degree, the mother of devotion, of slavish
prejudice, and the enthusiastic bigotry of religious opinions. The
decline of the Papal power is owing to the same irresistible cause; nor
can it be supposed that Methodism can stand its ground when brought to
the test of Truth, Reason, and Philosophy."
"City-road, Thursday morning. J. W." (1)
1. As my defence had extended to a great length, I was anxious
to spare the time of the Jury, and did not, therefore, trouble
them with the whole of this letter. I merely described the
nature of it, and read the last paragraph, being the only
portion applicable to my purpose; but as I deem the letter a
valuable curiosity, and worthy of preservation, I have inserted
it entire.
Gentlemen, you see Mr. Wesley anticipated that his system must yield to
philosophy, and do you believe the Church of England can stand when
brought to the test of "truth, reason* and philosophy?" A church that
will keep a man in prison nearly two years for 5s. 6d. church-rates? If
you suppress Biblical examination, and the free publication of opinion,
the next step will be to stop inquiry into the _practices_ of the
Church, and to make us all the fettered slaves of the priesthood. No,
Gentlemen; Methodism and Church-of-Englandism are doomed to fall; and
such will be the fate of all systems not based upon the rock of truth.
But, Gentlemen, that is no reason for suppressing inquiry, because the
more the truth is investigated, the more beautiful it will appear.
Gentlemen, has not our country raised itself to the highest pinnacle of
human greatness as regards civilization and the arts? What rapid
strides--what useful discoveries it has made in the arts and sciences!
Consider its vast achievements in steam navigation--in railroad
travelling--in the improvement of machinery. To such perfection have
they brought machinery, that it is now almost capable of superseding
human labour altogether. If all these magnificent improvements in the
arts and sciences are good to society, and have resulted from free
inquiry--why hesitate to apply it to social, religious, and political
subjects? Are we ever to remain drivellers in religion? The true crime
is that Haslam's Letters are sold at a penny. Why should two-guinea
blasphemers be tolerated and penny ones prosecuted? How can the learned
Attorney-General, whose shelves are, doubtless, adorned with Drummond's
Academical Questions, Voltaire, Gibbon, Volney, and Shelley, uphold this
prosecution; and what must that law be which can find the crime, not in
the contents of the book, but in the fact of its being sold for a penny?
They might for two guineas buy a magnificent book full of blasphemy. The
Attorney-General, in his opening speech, had told the Jury that such
works were "dangerous to society if addressed to the _vulgar, the
uneducated_, and the _unthinking_" but I will appeal to his own witness,
who had read the book, and on whom, an uneducated man, it had proved
inoperative. It had done no mischief: and I hope the Jury will not
consign me to a dungeon for having sold a book which it has been proved
by his own witness has done no mischief. Paul said the Baereans were
more noble than those of Thessalonica, because they searched the
Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so or not. The
Attorney-General is about to punish me for doing the same thing. Christ
himself said, the truth shall make you free; but the Attorney-General
says the truth--or that which you believe to be the truth--shall make
you a prisoner. In the parable of the tares, to which I have already
referred, Jesus expressly forbade the rooting up of the tares, lest the
wheat should be rooted up also. He did not recommend persecution, but
said let them both grow together until the harvest. These passages are
sufficient to show that persecution is opposed to the whole spirit of
Christianity.
Gentlemen, I will now call your attention to the law on the subject. In
entering upon this topic, of course I shall labour under a great
disadvantage, because I am unacquainted with legal technicalities and
cases. I will commence, therefore, by reading to you the opinion of
Chief Baron Eyre, in his Charge to the Grand Jury, on the commission for
the trial of persons on the charge of High Treason, in 1794, in the
course of which he made use of these liberal expressions:--
"All men may, nay, all men must, if they possess the faculty of
thinking, reason upon every thing which sufficiently interests them to
become objects of their attention; and among the objects of attention of
freemen, the principles of government, the constitution of particular
governments, and, above all, the constitution of the government under
which they live, will naturally engage attention, and provoke
speculation. _The power of communication of thoughts and opinions is the
gift of God; and the freedom of it is the source of all science_--the
first fruits, and the ultimate happiness of all society; and therefore,
it seems to follow, _that human laws ought not to interpose, nay, cannot
interpose, to prevent the communication of sentiment and opinions, in
voluntary assemblies of men._"
Here, Gentlemen, we have an eminent legal authority, in addition to the
Bishops I have quoted, who declares that "human laws _ought not to
inter-pose_, nay, cannot interpose, _to prevent the communication qf
sentiment, and opinion_." Under what law then can I be condemned? This
prosecution goes a step further than any other has gone; it in effect
declares that you shall not dispute the truth of the Jewish Scriptures,
which I have already shown are superseded by the introduction of
Christianity. Paul declares that the Jewish law was only intended to be
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christianity; but if Christianity, as is
asserted, be part and parcel of the low of England, even then this
prosecution has not a log to stand upon. In the "Life and Correspondence
of Major Cartwright," however, there is a letter from Jefferson, himself
an eminent lawyer, and President of the United States of America, who
had deeply studied the laws of England, in which he has proved the
fallacy of the notion that Christianity is part of the common law, by
showing that the common law had existed long before Christianity was
introduced into this country; and that the axiom had its origin and
foundation in a misquotation and mistranslation of a decision of Justice
Prisot, recorded in the Year Book, substituting the words _Holy
Scriptures_ for _Ancient Scriptures_. Jefferson denominates it a
"judiciary forgery," and I hope your Lordship will to-day confirm
Jefferson's view, and put an end to this illegal iniquity.
Gentlemen, the passage I am about to quote from Jefferson's letter to
Major Cartwright, contains the opinion of Justice Prisot, in old French,
but I have procured a literal and a free translation, which I will read
to the Jury. Your Lordship can refer to the original in the Year Book.
"I was glad to find, in your book, a formal contradiction, at length, of
the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
usurped in their repeated decisions that Christianity is a part of the
common law. The proof of the contrary which you have adduced is
incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans; at a time when they had never yet heard
the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever
existed. But it may amuse you to show when, and by what means, they
stole this law in upon us. In a case of quare impedit, in the year-book,
34 H. 6, fo. 38, (1458,) a question was made, how far the ecclesiastical
law was to be respected in a common law court? And Justice Prisot, c. 5,
gives his opinion in these words:--
"'A tiel leis que ils de seint eglise ont en _ancien scripture_, covient
"'_To such laws which they of the holy church have in ancient writing,
it is proper_
a nous a donner credence; car ceo common ley sur quels touts manners
_for us to give credence; because that is the common law on which all
sorts of leis_
sont lor des--et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre leur ley de
saint
_laws are founded--and thus, Sir, we are obliged to know their law of
the holy_
eglise; et semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre lev: et,
Sir, si
_church; and in like manner they are obliged to know our law; and, Sir,
if_
poit apperer or u nous que Tevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en
tiel
_it can be shown thus to us that the bishop has done as a layman would
in such_
cas, adonq nous devons ceo adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy,' &c.(1) See
S. C,
_a case, then we ought this to judge good, or otherwise not at all._
1. _Translation read to the Jury._
Fitzherbert's Abr. qu. imp. 89. Brown's Abr. qu. imp. 12. Finch, in his
first book, c. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and
misstates it thus, 'To such laws of the church as have warrant in _holy
scripture_ our law giveth credence,' and cites Prisot, mistranslating
'ancien scripture' into 'holy scripture;' whereas Prisot palpably says,
'to such laws as those of holy church have in _ancient writing_ it is
proper for us to give credence to wit, to their ancient written laws.
This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot.
Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the
common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wingate's
Maxims, 3; and Sheppard, tit. 'Religion in 1675. copies the same
mistranslation, quoting the Year-book, Finch and Wingate. Hale expresses
it in these words, 'Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.'
"It is proper for us to respect the laws which the members of the holy
church have in _ancient manuscripts_, because they are the general
source from which all laws are drawn. Thus, Sir, it is necessary for us
to be acquainted with ecclesiastical law, and in like manner the judges
of the ecclesiastical courts are obliged to understand our law: in
consequence, Sir, if it can be shown to us that the ecclesiastical court
has decided as a court of civil law would have done in the same case,
then we ought to deem the judgment good; but if a civil law court would
have decided otherwise, the judgment of the eclesiastical court must be
deemed erroneous."
"Ventr. 293. 3 Keble, 607, but quotes no authority. By these echoings
and reechoings from one to another, it had become so established in
1728, that in the case of the King v. Woolston, 2 Strange, 834, the
court would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against
Christianity was punishable in the temporal courts at common law. Wood,
therefore, 409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and says, 'that all
blasphemy and profaneness are offences by the common law,' and cites 2
Strange. Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale,
that 'Christianity is part of the law of England,' citing Ventris and
Strange: and finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in
Evans's case in 1767, says, 'that the essential principles of revealed
religion are parts of the common law,' thus engulphing Bible, Testament,
and all, into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we
find this chain of authorities hanging link by link one upon another,
and all ultimately on one and the same hook; and that a mistranslation
of the words 'ancien scripture,' used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot;
Wingate does the same; Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate; Hale
cites nobody; the Court, in Woolston's case, cites Hale; Wood cites
Woolston's case; Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale; and Lord
Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might
defy the best-read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this
_judiciary forgery_; and I might go on further to show how some of the
Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred's laws, the
20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 10th of the Acts
of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead
my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this between Church
and State! Sing Tantararara, Rogues all, Rogues all; Sing Tantararara,
Rogues all!"
Gentlemen, after hearing this statement from the pen of an educated and
eminent lawyer, can you hesitate to return a verdict of acquittal? You
have now a complete history of this "_judiciary forgery_" as Jefferson
terms it, before you; and I am satisfied that that which originated in a
_fraudulent mistranslation_, cannot, now that the fraud is detected,
long retain the force of law. On this ground, then, I confidently claim
your verdict.
Gentlemen, I now come to the trade argument--that it is a great hardship
and injustice to hold a bookseller responsible for the contents of the
books he sells.
I am a general bookseller; and so great is the competition, and so fully
is my time occupied, that I have no time to spare for reading the
various works in my shop, even if I had the inclination. My excellent
and amiable son, before his death, and before I had any idea of this
prosecution, drew up a paper for the management of my business, by which
it appears that upwards of seventy weekly periodicals pass through my
hands every week, besides books and many other periodicals that are
merely collected to order. Amongst them will be found every possible
variety--"The Church of England Magazine," "The Sacred Album," and many
others maintaining contradictory and conflicting opinions; but I do not
hold myself responsible--either legally or morally--for any of them. I
have no right to set myself up as a censor of the press. I sell them
all--and am not responsible for any man's opinions upon an abstract or
general subject. When the subject matter of a book relates to the people
at large, the public alone should decide upon its merits. If the book be
a good one, they will support it; if a bad one, they will condemn and
reject it. This is the only proper punishment for a bad author. The line
of duty I mark out for myself in that I will never sell obscene
publications--works that demoralise and corrupt society--nor any attacks
upon private character; and if a person comes to me complaining that his
character has been falsely and slanderously attacked, I sell no more of
that work. What more can be expected from a general bookseller? If the
sale of a controversial book is to be suppressed, because it contains a
few passages in bad taste, and of objectionable phraseology, then the
sale of the Bible itself must be prohibited, for that book contains many
passages far more objectionable in the present day than any to be found
in "Haslam's Letters to the Clergy." I have here a list of passages from
the Bible, of a highly objectionable character; but as I perceive a
number of ladies in the court, I will not pollute their ears, nor shock
the feelings of the Jury, by reading them. My only object in alluding to
them, is to show that if the principle of selecting two or three
objectionable passages from a work is to lead to its condemnation, and
the punishment of the bookseller, then I might with equal justice be
condemned for selling the Bible itself. On this ground, also, I claim
and am entitled to your verdict.
Gentlemen, the Attorney-General has not done justice to Mr. Haslam; he
has dwelt upon the passages contained in the indictment, but has left
the Jury in total ignorance of the general nature of the work. In many
parts of the book are to be found passages of great beauty. So far from
a charge of blasphemy fairly attaching to Mr. Haslam's Letters, he
uniformly declares that he rejects the Jewish Scriptures because they
are _irrational_, and _dishonour_ the God "that governs the universe." I
will read a passage from his Second Letter, which shows the veneration
he entertains for the Deity.
"But is it not monstrous, that that power which gives life and motion to
millions of worlds; which guides them in their eternal revolutions in
the boundless ocean of space, and which preserves them in everlasting
order and harmony; is it not monstrous that that power should be
represented in this ridiculous point of view? Vain, violent, and
boisterous, without the least indication of any thing rational, good, or
merciful in any of his proceedings. Such a God may be the God of the
Christians, but he is not the God who governs the universe. That God is
no more to be compared to the Bible God, than the dazzling sun is to be
compared to the glimmering light of a candle."
Mr. Haslam's work has many other passages of the same description; and
the Attorney-General will see that the passage in the Eighth
Letter--almost the only objectionable passage in the work--was not
deliberately designed to give offence, when I tell him that the author,
in deference to the opinion of his friends, has cancelled the
objectionable passage, and re-written it. Now what would the learned
Attorney-General have more? The object of prosecution has been always
held to be preventive, or corrective, not vindictive. The object sought,
then, is already attained. Mr. Haslam has anticipated your wishes by
correcting the objectionable passage.
Gentlemen, I have urged sufficient, I hope, to induce you to give me
your verdict; but before I conclude, I will read a passage from the
works of Dean Swift, which is worthy of your profound attention.
"Whoever," he says, "could restore, in any degree, brotherly love among
men, would be an instrument of more good to society than ever was or
will be done by all the statesmen in the world."