ed, that it is a vain attempt to shackle any of them while the rest are at liberty. Restrictive measures sometimes defeat their own object.

"The mere attempt to suppress a doctrine has often been found to disseminate it more widely. There is a charm in secrecy, which often attracts the public mind to proscribed opinions. The curiosity, roused by their being prohibited, a repugnance to oppression, an undefined suspicion, or tacit inference, that what requires the arm of power to suppress it

must have some strong claims to credence, and various other circumstances, draw the attention of numbers, in whose eyes the matter in controversy, had it been freely discussed, would have been totally destitute of interest. Whatever is the severity of the law, some bold spirit every now and then sets it at defiance, and by so doing spreads the obnoxious doctrine far more rapidly than it would have diffused itself had it been left unmolested."-Pp. 157, 158.

But though restraints on the publi=cation of opinions may be ineffectual, they still beget positive evils by disturbing the natural course of improvement. In the regular course of things, truth makes slow advances; but where hindrances to truth are set up by authority, suspicion and resentment are awakened; sudden revolutions take place in the public mind; passions mix with opinions; and a violent zeal is enkindled for their propagation.

"Such ebullitions are to be feared only where the natural operation of inquiry has been obstructed. As in the physical so in the moral world, it is repression which produces violence. Public opinion resembles the vapour, which in the open air is as harmless as the breeze, but which may be compressed into an element of tremendous power. When novel doctrines are kept down by force, they naturally resort to force to free themselves from restraint. Their advocates would seldom pursue violent measures, if such measures had not been first directed against them. What partly contributes to this violence is, the effect produced by restraint on the moral qualities of men's minds. Compulsory silence, the necessity of confining to his own breast ardently cherished opinions, can never have a good influence on the character of any one. It has a tendency to make men morose and hypocritical, discontented and designing, and ready to risk much in order to rid themselves of their trammels; while the liberty of uttering opinions, without obloquy and

punishment, promotes satisfaction of mind and sincerity of conduct."-Pp. 160, 161.

The course of enlightened policy is therefore plain. Let investigation be unrestrained; that if established opinions be true, their truth may be rendered conspicuous to all; that if false, they may be discarded. The terrors of the law are wretched replies to argument; disgraceful to a good cause, and feeble auxiliaries to a bad one. Employ reason and learning; call to your aid elegance and taste; but, in the name of humanity, resort not to the pillory and the dungeon.

"Whoever has attentively meditated on the progress of the human race cannot

fail to discern, that there is now a spirit of inquiry amongst men, which nothing can stop, or even materially controul. Reproach and obloquy, threats and persecuopposition and engender violence, but tion, will be vain. They may embitter

they cannot abate the keenness of research. There is a silent march of thought, which no power can arrest, and which it is not difficult to foresee will be marked by important events. Mankind which they now stand. The press has were never before in the situation in been operating upon them for several centuries, with an influence scarcely perceptible at its commencement, but daily becoming more palpable, and acquiring accelerated force. It is rousing the intellect of nations, and happy will it be for them if there be no rash interference with the natural progress of knowledge; and if, by a judicious and gradual adaptation of their institutions to the inevitable changes of opinion, they are saved from those convulsions which the pride, prejudices and obstinacy of few may occasion to the whole."-Pp. 163, 164.

Such is the author's animated and

eloquent conclusion, worthy of a Christian philosopher of the present enlightened era. How slow are rulers to keep pace in their measures with the improvement of the public mind! Without them, and in opposition to them, the moral and intellectual system is going on. They may employ brute force, but they cannot imprison or chain the intellectual power. That, as Galileo said of the earth, striking it with his foot as he came out of his dungeon, still moves; and moves with accelerating force, and in a perpetually extending orbit. The great ones of the world are carried along with it irresistibly; but it depends upon them.

ound by many of great service in ascertaining scriptural truth.”—Pp. 14, 15. Mr. Kitcat has this note upon ano

her of these works :

"The Sermon entitled A CompenHious View of the Christian Doctrines, published by the Rev. D. James, when about to resign the ministry, contains a general outline of the religious sentiments which are held by the congregation of Protestant Dissenters belonging to the Upper Meeting-House, Newbury. The Hate Rev. Hugh Worthington, who was equally distinguished by the brilliancy of his genius, and the affecting simplicity of his eloquence, designated this excellent sermon a little body of divinity.""-P.

18.

Mr. James was assiduous in his pastoral attentions to the young; these are thus acknowledged by his

successor :

"I cannot here forbear to revive in the grateful recollection of every member of the Christian society assembling for divine worship in the Upper MeetingHouse, Newbury, that the exertions of my venerable predecessor, in introducing the commendable plans of meeting the young people of his congregation in the vestry on the Sabbath evening, and of annually catechizing the children, preparatory to their admission to the vestrymeetings, have proved, by the blessing of God, some of the most efficient means of encouraging that spirit of impartial examination of the Scriptures which has kept our little society together, in an age when popular clamour would drown the voice of conviction, and a mistaken zeal for truth would anathematize a candid inquiry after truth."-Note, p. 15.

ART. IV. The Trial of John Barkley, (one of the Shopmen of Richard Carlile,) prosecuted by the Constitutional Association, for publishing a seditious and blasphemous Libel. Second Edition. With an Appendix, containing an Account of the Proceedings in the House of Commons on the Petition of the Defendant. 8vo. pp. 32. Wilson, Royal Exchange. ls. 1822.

HERE are several circumstances attending this trial of Barkley, a youth seventeen years of age, which are worthy of observation; such as its being carried on before the same jury, who had two days before found a verdict against another person for

65

selling the very same publication, and the judge resisting the application for another jury, and the counsel for the prosecution representing the identity of the jury as a singular advantage" to the defendant; the conduct of the judge, Newinan Knowlys, Esq., then Common Sergeant, now Recorder, of the City of London, who attempted to refuse to the counsel for the defendant the right of discussing the character of the Constitutional Association," the prosecutor, which he had previously granted on the trial of the fendant, to the counsel for the prosesame charge in the case of another decution, and who seems to have considered in his charge that he was trying the defendant's counsel, and was entitled to tax him with the crime of his client; and the proceedings in the House of Commons on the presentation of a petition from Barkley, when Dr. Lushington boldly stigmatized the conduct of the Common Sergeant as "not upright, just or impartial," and accused some one of interlining the sentence on Barkley and another in the book of the clerk of the arraigns, and thereby adding to the sentence pronounced from the bench, the punishment of hard labour: but though all these are memorable particulars, the design and the limits of our work oblige us to pass them over, and to confine our attention to the speech of defendant's counsel.

Mr. M. D. Hill, the gentleman here referred to, has taken, and will long we trust maintain, his rank amongst our constitutional lawyers; by which term we intend those pleaders that represent and apply the constitution as a protection to the subject against the inroads of arbitrary power. With exemplary spirit, he faced the brow-beating of the court, and forced his way through quibbles and rebukes to do right to his client. Disregarding the dicta of mere technical lawyers, he asserted with great ability the noble principles of civil and religious liberty. He vindicated Christianity by demanding, in its name and authority, toleration for the erring. The bench was discomposed by hearing the voice of enlightened and philanthropic divines, re-echoed in a court of law; but the jury were deeply impressed, and this very same body who two days before had given in an instant a verdict of

guilty upon the same offence, now deliberated for nearly an hour, and though they returned a similar verdiet, accompanied it with a recommendation to mercy. The force of Mr. Hill's address appears to us to consist as much in its simplicity as in its strong sense and manly spirit. We take from it two passages.

"There is another part of the subject which requires your deep attention. It is, that if you put down attacks upon Christianity by force, when those attacks are made public by the press, you cannot, in our free country, put down private conversation, and if not, all you have before done only gives the Infidel a great advantage over the Christian. When the press is entirely free from restraint, the unlettered man, pressed in argument by the Infidel, may fairly say, I am not able to answer your objections; it is not my habit of life to investigate subjects of this nature; but publish your attack on revelation to the world, and I venture to say, that you will receive a full and satisfactory refutation. Now, however, the Infidel may reply, What! expose myself to fine and imprisonment as a reward for opening people's eyes! No! no! I leave the honours of martyrdom to those who have more taste for them. I may talk at liberty among my friends; and that is all I ask. Gentlemen, I must admit that a mode exists, by which you may prevent all departure from the religion of the country, and by which you may reduce all opinions to one uniform standard. There is an example which you may follow; the experiment has been tried, and has proved successful. But then, gentlemen, you must make Spain your model and establish an Inquisition. You must have a familiar in every house, and a spy at every table, and then, with the assist ance of the rack and the faggot you may destroy all who differ from you; but, gentlemen, what would be the consequence of such destruction?

Look to

Spain, and you will see that freedom of opinion did not fall alone ;—with it went all that was excellent in the country. Spain fell from her rank among the nations, her commerce 'fled, her agriculture dwindled away, and her literature sunk into barbarism; until at length a revolution came to sweep away the labour of whole ages of persecution and intolerance, and to give the Spaniards an opportunity of slowly retracing their steps to a line of sounder policy. Still this is your only alternative; if you enter upon this path, if you prosecute for opinions at all, you will find no resting-place for the sole of your foot until you have entered the

doors of the Inquisition. If you stop short of this, you leave the unbeliever still the opportunity of saying, I could if I dare; let me, and I can shew you that you are all wrong: but how do you answer my cavils, as you call them? Do you answer them with argument? Do you answer them by evidence? If you have argument and evidence, why not produce it? The truth is, you have neither, and therefore you answer me only with chains and a dungeon.' Is it not true that there has been in this country much more published against the Scriptures than in all Europe, or even in the whole world besides; and let me ask you, whether you are prepared to admit that we are an irreligious people? If you were prepared to admit it, facts would deny it: I would ask you what nation can boast of so many Missionaries spread over the whole earth for preaching of the gospel among the Heathen; where did that mighty organ of Christiani.y, the Bible Society, take its origin? Gentlemen, we have solved the problem; we have proved that publications like this do not produce those ill effects apprehended by the weak and inconsiderate." Pp. 13, 14.

"We are told that Christianity is part and parcel of the law of England; I wish to God it may be proved this day, that we are so told correctly, because if Christianity be the law of England, then, gentlemen, you are bound to act in perfect conformity with the precepts of its Founder. If the Founder of our faith had chosen to use force for its propagation, or against those who impugned it, what was to prevent him? Why did he not employ supernatural powers against the Galileans, or why did he rebuke his disciples for desiring it? But perhaps the Constitutional Association may suppose themselves to know better than our Divine Master, in what way the interests of Christianity may be best promoted. Thank God, however, you are not the Constitutional Association; you have neither part nor lot in it. Even if you should refuse to put faith in those great men whose opinions I have cited, and to whom we owe the clear evidence of the truth of Christianity, you will bow down with reverence before him to whom we owe Christianity itself. As I read my Testament, the great character impressed on every page, is forgiveness of our enemies. I will not insult you by supposing that you are so unacquainted with the Sacred Writings, as to render it necessary for me to cite passages for the support of my position; nor do I wish to depend on insulated passages, if this be not the prevailing feature of the book. If the Scrip

ures do not breathe, in every page, the loctrine of patience and long-suffering owards those who scoff and revile our Faith, I can only say, that I know nothing of the doctrines which they do teach, and that I err in common with some of he greatest men who ever lived."-Pp. 14, 15.

Our notice of this publication is proportioned to its importance rather han its bulk. We should be glad to see it generally circulated, persuaded hat wherever it is carefully and dispassionately read, it will produce a conviction of the folly and mischief of prosecutions for opinions. We have no predilections for unbelievers, much less for scoffers: it is because we are opposed to them, that we would not afford them the advantage, and inflict upon Christianity the odium, of their legal persecution. Let the reader weigh well what the editor of this second edition says on this subject in his advertisement:

"Much irreparable evil has arisen from the late prosecutions for Deistical publications. As an instance of this, it is proper to state, that two of the four persons who have lately been prosecuted for selling the paltry pamphlet which was the subject of this trial, were, previously to the prosecutions of Carlile and his family, industrious mechanics in the north. of England, respectably educated and connected. Their attention was first attracted by those prosecutions to an examination of the obnoxious doctrines; they naturally concluded, that such opinions were only opposed by force because they could not be answered by argument; and they felt that prejudice in favour of the promulgators, which always arises in the human mind in behalf of the supposed victims of oppression. They, therefore, studied the writings of the opponents of religion, under circumstances very unfavourable to the formation of a just and impartial judgment; and the consequence was, a resolute persuasion of the truth of the cause of Infidelity. They then, with an energy of purpose which would have done honour to a better cause, forsook their former employments, and came to London in order to continue the publication of the proscribed pamphlet, without prospect of pecuniary emolument, and in the full expectation of suffering and disgrace.

"Let those who institute these prosecutions, draw the proper inference from these facts. Let them pause before they strike, and consider that every prosecution may produce a similar effect; that

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4 M

they cannot crush even their immediate victim; that they may carry scepticism and infidelity into societies which would otherwise have never been contaminated by them; and thus, as friends and advocates, produce more deadly mischief to the cause of Christianity, than its most malignant and inveterate enemies."-Pp. iii. iv.

Great praise is due to Dr. Lushing ton (to whom we cannot help returning) for bringing this matter before the House of Commons. His observations on the nature of the punishment affixed to the reputed and undefined crime of blasphemy were poorly met by the Solicitor-General, who would have shewn himself more worthy of his past professions, if, like the Attorney-General, he had been silent, or rather had indignantly disclaimed all prosecutions of this description. The Morning Chronicle made a remark or two at the time, * upon this part of the debate, which we put down in conclusion:

"It would be difficult, perhaps, to satisfy the Solicitor-General now, that any. degree of punishment is disproportionate for such an offence. Lord Chief Justice Hale,' he tells us, who could not be considered a cruel judge, had, in such a case, not only sentenced the defendant to fiue, imprisonment and hard labour, but to give his own security, and to find the security of others, for his good behaviour for life.' If the honourable member for Norwich had happened to live in that merciful judge's days, when Unitarianism was blasphemy, according to the Solicitor-General, he might have esteemed himself happy in escaping with imprisonment, aggravated by hard labour. would point out a more congenial case, tried also under most merciful Judges, since the glorious Revolution, namely, that of a youth, also under 18, named Aikman, actually hanged for Unitarianism, (then blasphemy,) to the great edification of the orthodox. This, to be sure, took place on the North of the Tweed; but we have no doubt the Bridge Street Gang would be glad to see this wholesome rigour introduced among ourselves."

But we

* March 28. By a strange oversight in this publication, there is no statement of the time, neither day, nor month, nor year, when the trial took place.