fourth, that the impolicy, the immortality, and the mischief of all such prosecutions, to say nothing of the odious hypocrisy which every where attends them, and results from them; I feel proud and undaunted, at my position, and am confident, that the law does not allow, and that the Court cannot justly award me any punishment; but that, your Lordships are bound in duty, in truth, in mortality, in justice, and by your oaths of office, to set me free from this prosecution.

After some consulation with the other Judges,

Mr. Justice Bailey, pronounced the following judgment:William Tunbrige, you are here to receive the judgment of this Court. You have been convicted by a Jury, upon an Information exhibited against you by his Majesty's Attorney-General, for the publication of a blasphemous libel. This is not the first time that prosecutions have been instituted for publishing the same libel. It has at an early period been prosecuted, and a person of the name of Carlile convicted, who afterwards received the sentence of this Court. That, therefore, was a warning to you and others, that this book ought not to be sold. You state to day, that before the time of Judge Hale, blasphemy was not an offence by the law of the land. It is quite clear that in his time-in the time of a most pious and conscientious Judge, the question was carefully considered, and that, from that time to this, blasphemy has been held to be a crime by the law of the land, and prosecutions have been instituted which would have never been passed over by the Legislature unnoticed, if they did not think them justifiable by the law of the land. The law of this country, upon religious opinions, is as liberal as the law of any country in the world. It allows every man to judge for himself. It does not prescribe system of faith to any man. It leaves every man at liberty to adopt any what species of worship he pleases, and it leaves him at liberty not to adopt any if he pleases, but it does not suffer any man to abuse and vilify the religion of the land. You are not aware of the mischief, which, by these publications, you might do, nor of the high religious crime which you might have to answer for. If you unsettle the opinions of the young and unwary, who have not had an opportunity of judging for themselves if you take from their minds the sentiments which religion had inspired, you might be the author of all their future crimes; that is a most serious and important view which you ought to take of your conduct. This is not a place for discussing the principles of the Christian Religion; but this I must say, that the wisest and the best of men have applied themselves to the subject, and have believed it; and whoever looks to the prin ciples and doctrines of the Christian Religion, will see, that they are calculated for the suppression of vice, that they are calculated for the suppression of the violence of the strong; and whoever looks to the tenets of the religion, if he believe their truth, will be thankful that so much light has been shed upon the world, and such a restraint placed upon those who, but for the sanction of religion, might apply their strength and violence to the oppression of the weak and unprotected. Thank God, that I myself have examined that book, and

have formed a firm belief of the doctrines which it contains and the principles which it inculcates. That is not a foundation for the Court to act upon, but the ground upon which the Court proceeds is this--although it is legal for any man, temperately and decorously, to examine and discuss the evidences of the Christian Religion, yet it is not competent for any man to vilify and abuse it; and no man can read the paragraphs in the record without seeing that it is abuse, and nothing else, of the Christian Religion. If this, or similar publications, have the effect of unsettling the minds of the young-of removing from their minds that belief which the Christian Religion inculcates-that there is another world, and that all must answer for their actions here, before Him who can see the heart-they do not advance mortality or the good of society, but they strike at the root of the best interest of society; and whoever, by such publications, unsettles the opinions of the young, may conscientiously have to answer for whatever crimes they may subse quently be guilty of; that is one of the reasons for which they have considered offences of this kind, offences against the law of the land; your publication was one for which another has been convicted, and therefore, the publication by you, was a publication in defiance of law. You state there was no evidence of publication by you; I think there was an abundant evidence to satisfy the minds of the Jury, and that it was impossible for them to come to any other conclusion. As to your having been stopped by my Lord chief Justice in the progress of your speech, that seems to me most proper. You had a right to use topics, in your address to the Jury, to shew that in publishing this book you had no guilty intentions, but you had no right to make an attack upon the religion of the land. The Court, taking into consideration all the circumstances, and feeling it their bounden duty to protect those who have not an opportunity of judging for themselves, from the mischievous and poisonous influence of such publications doth order and adjudge, that you be imprisoned in his Majesty's House of Correction, Cold Bath-fields, for two years; that you pay to the King a fine of £100.; that you enter into recognizance for your good behaviour for five years, yourself in £100. and two sureties in £50. each, and that you be imprisoned until such fine be paid, and such recognizances entered into.

1

The Defendant then exclaimed-" There is a pious sentence, pronounced by a Christian tribunal, for opposing a Christian Church, of which the Right reverend Father in God, Percy Jocelyn, Lord Bishop of Clogher, is one of the ornaments!" He was immediately

removed from the Court.

THE END.

Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 135, Fleet Street.

UJT OF IPVING LEW

A

REPORT OF THE TRIAL

OF

JAMES WATSON,

FOR HAVING SOLD A COPY OF

Palmer's Principles of Nature,

AT THE

SHOP OF MR. CARLILE, 201, STRAND,

TRIED AT THE

CLERKENWELL SESSIONS HOUSE,

AT THE

Adjourned Sessions for the County of Middlesex,

ON THE

24TH DAY OF APRIL, 1823,

BEFORE

MR. CONST,

AS

CHAIRMAN, AND A COMMON JURY.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 135, FLEET

STREET.

1825.

REPORT,
&c. &c.

THIS prosecution was at the instance of the Solicitor to the Treasury, George Maule, Esq. as a government prosecution. The case being called, Mr. Bolland, as the counsel for the Crown, was beginning to state the particulars, when he was interrupted by the Chairman, who asked the defendant, if he had got a copy of the Indictment. The defendant replied, that he had made application to Mr. Maule and the Clerk of the Peace, but he could not obtain one. The Chairman in reply, said, if you wish to have one, to which by law you are entitled, I must adjourn the Trial until next session, The Counsel for the prosecution opposed it, and the defendant spoke in reply. After some altercation, the defendant suggested to the Court, that as he wished the Trial to proceed, if they would allow him the loan of a copy of the Indictment for a short time, to see what passages were selected for the Prosecution, he should be ready to proceed. This was assented to, and the Indictment was handed to him.

After a lapse of about two hours, the case was again called. The Clerk of the Peace put the question of guilty or not guilty: to which the defendant pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Bolland shortly addressed the Jury and stated, that there had been 10 or 12 prosecutions for the publication before the Court, He was interrupted by the defendant, who said that the statement of the learned Counsel was unfounded, and as he was not prepared with evidence to prove his assertions, it was irrelevant to the case before the Court, and insisted upon the chairman keeping the Counsel to the case and not allow him to proceed in matters unconnected with the charge.

The Chairman said, that the Jury would not receive it as evidence, and the council proceeded, declaiming upon the atrocity of the Libel before them, and the heinousness of such attacks upon the holy scriptures and the sacred mysteries. He would not insult their understandings by entering into a long statement; but would conclude with reading the Libellous passages set forth in the Indictment, which he felt confident would sufficiently satisfy the minds of the Jury, as to its dangerous tendency and the ne