precedents, and all the proceedings upon it, were ordered to be taken off the file and burned, to the intent that the same might no longer be visible in after ages—an order dictated, no doubt, by a pious tenderness for national honor, and meant as a charitable covering for the crimes of our fathers. But it was a sin against posterity-it was a treason against society; for, instead of commanding them to be burned, they should rather have directed them to be blazoned in large letters upon the walls of our courts of justice, that, like the characters deciphered by the prophet, of God to the Eastern tyrant, they might enlarge and blacken in your sights, to terrify you from acts of injustice. hering to the strict letter of the law. Burgundy. How was this people deait by? All who were only contending for their own rights and privileges, were supposed to be, of course, disaffected to the Emperor. They were handed over to courts constituted for the emergency, as this is, and the Emperor marched his army through the country till all was peace-but such peace as there is in Vesuvius or Ætna, the very moment before they vomit forth their lava, and roll their conflagrations over the devoted habitations of mankind. When the French approached, the fatal effects were suddenly seen of a government of constraint and terror: the well-affected were dispirited, and the disaffected inflamed into fury. At that moment, the Archduchess fled from Brussels, and the Duke of Saxe-Teschen was sent express to offer the joyeuse entrée so long petitioned for in vain. But the season of concession was past, the storm blew from every quarter, and the throne of Brabant departed forever from the house of Burgundy. Gentlemen, I venture to affirm that, with other counsels, this fatal prelude to the last revolution in that country might have been averted. If the Emperor had been advised to make the concessions of justice and affection to his people, they would have risen in a mass to maintain their Prince's authority, interwoven with their own liberties; and the French, the giants of modern times, would, like the giants of antiquity, have been trampled in the mire of their own ambition. Burke favor In the same manner, a far more splendid and important crown passed away from Authority of Mr his Majesty's illustrious brow-THE Biting IMPERIAL CROWN OF AMERICA. The the people. people of that country, too, for a long season, con In times when the whole habitable earth is in Motives for ad- a state of change and fluctuation when deserts are starting up into civilized empires around you; and when men, no longer slaves to the prejudices of particular countries, much less to the abuses of particular governments, enlist themselves, like the citizens of an enlightened world, into whatever communities their civil liberties may be best protected it never can be for the advantage of this country to prove that the strict, unextended letter of her laws is no security to its inhabitants. On the contrary, when so dangerous a lure is every where held out to emigration, it will be found to be the wisest policy of Great Britain to set up her happy Constitution-the strict letter of her guardian laws, and the proud condition of equal freedom, which her highest and her lowest subjects ought equally to enjoy it will be her wisest policy to set up these first of human blessings against those charms of change and novelty which the varying condition of the world is hour-tended as subjects, and often with irregularity and ly displaying, and which may deeply affect the population and prosperity of our country. In times when the subordination to authority is said to be every where but little felt, it will be found to be the wisest policy of Great Britain to instill into the governed an almost superstitious reverence for the strict security of the laws; which, from their equality of principle, beget no jealousies or discontent; which, from their equal administration, can seldom work injustice; and which, from the reverence growing out of their mildness and antiquity, acquire a stability in the habits and affections of men far beyond the force of civil obligation-whereas, severe penalties and arbitrary constructions of laws intended for security, lay the foundations of alienation from every human government, and have been the cause of all the calamities that have come, and are coming upon the earth. turbulence, for what they felt to be their rights; and oh, gentlemen! that the inspiring and immortal eloquence of that man, whose name I have so often mentioned, had then been heard with effect! What was his language to this country when she sought to lay burdens on America, not to support the dignity of the Crown, or for the increase of national revenue, but to raise a fund for the purpose of corruption; a fund for maintaining those tribes of hireling skip-jacks, which Mr. Tooke so well contrasted with the hereditary nobility of England? Though America would not bear this imposition, she would have borne any useful or constitutional burden to support the parent state. "For that service-for all service," said Mr Burke, "whether of revenue, trade, or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British Constitution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your governments, they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under Let 64 This refers to the invasion of the Netherlands by the armies of the French Republic after the bat tle of Jemappe, in 1792 as it may be found necessary or convenient for you to hear upon the subject, that the views of the societies were what I have alleged them to be that whatever irregularities or indiscretions they might have committed, their purposes were honest; and that Mr. Hardy's, above all other men, can be established to have been so. I have, indeed, an honorable gentleman [Mr. Francis] in my eye at this moment, to be called hereafter as a witness, who being desirous, in his place as a into the seditious practices complained of, Mr. Hardy offered himself voluntarily to come forward, proffered a sight of all the papers, which were afterward seized in his custody, and tendered every possible assistance to give satisfaction to the laws of his country, if found to be offend religious, temperate, humane, and moderate, and his uniform conduct all that can belong to a good subject and an honest man. When you have heard this evidence, it will, beyond all doubt, confirm you in coming to the conclusion which, at such great length (for which I entreat your pardon), I have been endeavoring to support. As Mr. Erskine drew near to the close of this speech, his voice failed him, so that for the last ten minutes he could only speak in a whisper, leaning on the table for support. The impression made upon his audience, as they hung with breathless anxiety on his lips, while he stood before them in this exhausted state, is said to have been more thrilling and profound than at any period of his long professional career. heaver. will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing, and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation; the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; and every thing hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of En-member of Parliament, to promote an inquiry gland worship freedom, they will turn their faces toward you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have any where. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prus-ed. I will show, likewise, his character to be sia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true act of navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and, through them, secures to you the wealth of the world. Is it not the same virtue which does every thing for us here in England? Do you imagine, then, that it is the Land-tax Act which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which gives you your army? or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the people, it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and The moment he ended, the hall was filled with your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obe- acclamations, which were taken up and repeatdience, without which your army would be aed by the vast multitudes that surrounded the base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber." Gentlemen, to conclude-my fervent wish is, that we may not conjure up a spirit to destroy ourselves, nor set the example here of what in another country we deplore. Let us cherish the old and venerable laws of our forefathers. Let our judicial administration be strict and pure; and let the jury of the land preserve the life of a fellow-subject, who only asks it from them upon the same terms under which they hold their own lives, and all that is dear to them and their posterity forever. Let me repeat the wish with which I began my address to you, and which proceeds from the very bottom of my heart. May it please God, who is the Author of all mercies As the other cases stood on the same ground, to mankind, whose providence, I am persuaded, it was supposed the government would stop here. guides and superintends the transactions of the But they determined to make one more effort, by world, and whose guardian spirit has forever hov- arraigning Horne Tooke, the celebrated philolo ered over this prosperous island, to direct and gist. Tooke was then nearly sixty years old fortify your judgments. I am aware I have not with a frame broken down by disease, but having acquitted myself to the unfortunate man who has all the self-confidence of his early days, when he put his trust in me, in the manner I could have entered the lists with Junius. Mr. Erskine was wished; yet I am unable to proceed any further; his counsel; but he wrote a note from prison, sayexhausted in spirit and in strength, but confidenting that, in addition to this, he was determined to in the expectation of justice. There is one thing more, however, that (if I can) I must state to you, namely, that I will show, by as many witnesses Peroration. building and blocked up the streets. Erskine made a noble use of his popularity. Recovering his voice, he went out and addressed the crowd, exhorting them to maintain order and confide in the justice of their country. He then requested them to disperse and retire to their own homes; and within a few minutes, they were all gone, leaving the streets to a stillness like that of midnight. On Monday morning, the evidence for the prisoner was received, after which Mr. Gibbs summed up in his defense, and the Solicitor General, Sir John Mitford, closed in behalf of the Crown. The jury were out three hours, and returned with a verdict of NOT GUILTY. speak in his own defense. He had done so three years before, in his suit with Mr. Fox; and he thus began his address to the jury: "Gentlemen there are here three parties to be considered -you, Mr. Fox, and myself. As for the judge and the crier, they are sent here to preserve order, and they are both well paid for their trouble." Mr. Erskine, remembering the past, answered Tooke's note proposing to speak, by simply saying, "You'll be hanged if you do;" to which Tooke instantly replied, "I'll be hanged if I don't," and went on to keep his word! When arraigned for trial, and asked, "By whom will you be tried?" he looked round some seconds on the court in a significant manner, and exclaimed, "I would be tried by God and my country! BUT" He then asked liberty to sit with his counsel; and the court, on consultation, granted it as "an indulgence to his age." "My Lord," said he, "if I were judge, the word indulgence should never issue from my lips. My Lord, you have no indulgence to show; you are bound to be just; to do that which is ordered!" It is But Mr. Erskine's prediction proved correct when he told the jury that indulgence to the prisoners in this case would be found the best way to check a factious spirit among the people. "The verdict of acquittal," says the editor of his speeches, "instead of giving encouragement to whatever spirit of sedition may have existed at that period, produced a universal spirit of content and confidence in the people. Nothing, indeed, could more properly excite such sentiments than so memorable a proof of safety under the laws." SPEECH OF MR. ERSKINE AGAINST THOMAS WILLIAMS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF PAINE'S AGE OF REASON, BEFORE LORD KENYON AND A SPECIAL JURY, ON THE 24th OF JULY, 1797 INTRODUCTION. WILLIAMS was a bookseller of infamous character in London, and was prosecuted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice and Immorality, for publishing Paine's abusive attack on Christianity entitled the Age of Reason. Mr. Erskine was counsel for the prosecution, and opened the case. The plea set up by the defendant was, that such an attack was no crime against the government; and Mr. Erskine's remarks were, therefore, directed chiefly to one point, viz., that "the Christian religion is the very founda tion of the laws of the land." He draws the line with great clearness and precision between a legit imate inquiry into the evidences of our religion, and a scurrilous and insulting attack on its institutions calculated to destroy the influence of all religious belief upon the minds of men, and to set them free from the restraints of conscience, the obligations of an oath, and all the other bonds which unite society togeth er. This speech contains a fuller exhibition than any other, of Mr. Erskine's powers of declamation in the best sense of the term-of lofty and glowing amplification on subjects calculated to awaken sublime sentiments, and thus to enforce the argument out of which it springs. laying the trial ed could take up the case. SPEECH, &c. GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-The charge of blasphemy, which is put upon the record against the printer of this publication, is not an accusation of the servants of the Crown, but comes before you sanctioned by the oaths of a grand jury of the country. It stood for trial upon a former Reasons for de- day; but it happening, as it frequenttill the jury orig. ly does, without any imputation on inally summon the gentlemen named in the panel, that a sufficient number did not appear to constitute a full special jury, I thought it my duty to withdraw the cause from trial till I could have the opportunity, which is now open to me, of addressing myself to you, who were originally appointed to try it. I pursued this course, however, from no jealousy of the common juries appointed by the laws for the ordinary service of the court, since my whole life has been one continued experience of their virtues, but because I thought it of great importance that those who were to decide upon a carse so very momentous to the public should have the highest possible qualifications for the decision. That they should not only be men capable, from their education, of forming an enlightened judgment, but that their situations should be such as to bring them within the full view of their enlightened country, to which, in character and in estimation, they were in their own turns to be responsible. tended on the liberty of the Not having the honor, gentlemen, to be sworn for the King, as one of his counsel, it No invasion inhas fallen much oftener to my lot to defend indictments for libels, than to press. assist in the prosecution of them. But I feel no embarrassment from that recollection, since I shall not be found to-day to express a sentiment or to utter an expression, inconsistent with those invaluable principles for which I have uniformly contended in the defense of others. Nothing that I have ever said, either professionally or personally, for the liberty of the press, do I mean to deny, to contradict, or counteract. On the contrary, I desire to preface the discourse I have to make to you, with reminding you that it is your most so emn duty to take care it suffers no injury in your hands. A free and unlicensed press, in the just and legal sense of the expression, has led | to all the blessings, both of religion and government, which Great Britain, or any part of the world, at this moment enjoys, and is calculated still further to advance mankind to higher degrees of civilization and happiness. But this freedom, like every other, must be limited to be enjoyed, and, like every human advantage, may be defeated by its abuse. fense. on which the whole judicial system of the kingdom rests. flections of my riper years and understanding. It forms at this moment the great consolation of a life which, as a shadow, must pass away; and without it, indeed, I should consider my long course of health and prosperity, perhaps too long and uninterrupted to be good for any man, only as the dust which the wind scatters, and rather as a snare than as a blessing. Much, however, as I wish to support the authority of the Scrip. tures, from a reasoned consideration of them, I shall repress that subject for the present. But if the defense shall be as I have suspected, to bring them at all into argument or question, I shall then fulfill a duty which I owe not only to the court, as counsel for the prosecution, but to the public, to state what I feel and know concerning the evidences of that religion which is reviled without being examined, and denied without being understood. press. I am well aware that by the communications of a free press, all the errors of man- Use and importkind, from age to age, have been dis- ance of a free sipated and dispelled; and I recollect that the world, under the banners of reformed Christianity, has struggled through persecution to the noble eminence on which it stands at this moment, shedding the blessings of humanity and science upon the nations of the earth. It may be asked by what means the Reformation would have been effected if the books of the reformers had been suppressed, and the errors of condemned and exploded superstitions had been supported as unquestionable by the state, founded upon those very superstitions formerly, as it is at present, upon the doctrines of the Established Church? oi how, upon such principles, any reformation, civil or religious, can in future be effected? The solution is easy. Let us examine what are the genuine principles of the liberty of the press, as they regard writings upon general subjects, unconnected with the personal reputations of private men, which are wholly foreign to the present inquiry. They are full of simplicity, and are brought as near perfection by the law of England as, perhaps, is consistent with any of the frail institutions of mankind. Gentlemen, the defendant stands indicted for Nature of the having published this book, which I have proposed de only read from the obligations of professional duty, and which I rose from the reading of with astonishment and disgust. Stand-| ing here with all the privileges belonging to the highest counsel for the Crown, I shall be entitled to reply to any defense that shall be made for the publication. I shall wait with patience till I hear it. Indeed, if I were to anticipate the defense which I hear and read of, it would be defaming, by anticipation, the learned counsel who is to make it. For if I am to collect it, even from a formal notice given to the prosecutors in the course of the proceedings, I have to expect that, instead of a defense conducted according to the rules and principles of English law and justice, the foundation of all our laws, and the sanctions of all our justice, are to be struck at and insulted. What is the force of that jurisdiction which enables the court to sit in judgment? What but the oath which his Lordship as well as yourselves have sworn upon the Gospel to fulfill. Yet in A denial of that the King's Court, where his Majesty is himself also sworn to administer the justice of England in the King's Court, who receives his high authority under a solemn oath to maintain the Christian religion, as it is promulgated by God in the Holy Scriptures, I am nevertheless called upon, as counsel for the prosecution, to produce a certain book described in the indictment to be the Holy Bible. No man deserves to be upon the rolls of the court who dares, as an attorney, to put his name to such a notice. It is an insult to the authority and dignity of the court of which he is an officer; since it seems to call in question the very foundations of its jurisdiction. If this is to be the Although every community must establish suspirit and temper of the defense; if, as I collect preme authorities, founded upon fixed Principles from that array of books which are spread upon principles, and must give high powers the freedom of the benches behind me, this publication is to be to magistrates to administer laws for the press in vindicated by an attack on all the truths which the preservation of the government it- and religious. the Christian religion promulgates to mankind, self, and for the security of those who are to be let it be remembered that such an argument was protected by it; yet, as infallibility and perfection neither suggested nor justified by any thing said belong neither to human establishments nor to by me on the part of the prosecution. In this human individuals, it ought to be the policy of stage of the proceedings, I shall call for reverence all free establishments, as it is most peculiarly to the sacred Scriptures, not from their merits, the principle of our own Constitution, to permit unbounded as they are, but from their authority the most unbounded freedom of discussion, even in a Christian country; not from the obligations by detecting errors in the Constitution or admin. of conscience, but from the rules of law. For istration of the very government itself, so as that my own part, gentlemen, I have been ever deep-decorum is observed which every state must exly devoted to the truths of Christianity, and my firm belief in the Holy Gospel is by no means owing to the prejudices of education, though I was religiously educated by the best of parents, but arises from the fullest and raost continued re which regulate matters civil act from its subjects, and which imposes no restraint upon any intellectual composition, fairly, honestly, and decently addressed to the consciences and understandings of men. Upon this principle I have an unquestionable right- a right cases. which the best subjects have exercised—to ex- to suffer, and which soon would be borne down amine the principles and structure of the Consti- by insolence and disobedience, if they did. tution, and by fair, manly reasoning, to question The same principle pervades the whole system the practice of its administrators. I have a right of the law, not merely in its abstract Illustration to consider and to point out errors in the one or theory, but in its daily and most ap- from paralle. in the other; and not merely to reason upon their plauded practice. The intercourse beexistence, but to consider the means of their ref- tween the sexes, and which, properly regulated, ormation. By such free, well-intentioned, mod- not only continues, but humanizes and adorns our est, and dignified communication of sentiments natures, is the foundation of all the thousand roand opinions all nations have been gradually im- mances, plays, and novels which are in the hands proved, and milder laws and purer religions have of every body. Some of them lead to the conbeen established. The same principles which firmation of every virtuous principle; others, vindicate civil contentions, honestly directed, ex- though with the same profession, address the imtend their protection to the sharpest controversies agination in a manner to lead the passions into on religious faiths. This rational and legal course dangerous excesses. But though the law does of improvement was recognized and ratified by not nicely discriminate the various shades which Lord Kenyon as the law of England, in a late distinguish these works from one another, so as trial at Guildhall, when he looked back with grat- that it suffers many to pass, through its liberal itude to the labors of the reformers, as the fount- spirit, that upon principle might be suppressed, ains of our religious emancipation, and of the would it or does it tolerate, or does any decent civil blessings that followed in their train. The man contend that it ought to pass by unpunished, English Constitution, indeed, does not stop short libels of the most shameless obscenity, manifestin the toleration of religious opinions, but liber-ly pointed to debauch innocence, and to blast and ally extends it to practice. It permits every man, even publicly, to worship God according to his own conscience, though in marked dissent from the national establishment, so as he professes the general faith, which is the sanction of all our moral duties, and the only pledge of our submission to the system which constitutes a state. Is not this system of freedom of controversy and freedom of worship, sufficient for all the purposes of human happiness and inprovement? and will it be necessary for either that the law should hold out indemnity to those who wholly abjure and revile the government of their country, or the religion on which it rests for its foundation ? tween legitimate inquiry I expect to hear, in answer to what I am now Distinction be saying, much that will offend me. My learned friend, from the difficulties of and scurrilous his situation, which I know, from exinvective. perience, how to feel for very sincerely, may be driven to advance propositions which it may be my duty, with much freedom to reply to; and the law will sanction that freedom. But will not the ends of justice be completely answered by the right to point out the errors of his discourse in terms that are decent and calculated to expose its defects? or will any argument suffer, or will public justice be impeded, because neither private honor and justice, nor public decorum, would endure my telling my very learned friend that he was a fool, a liar, and a scoundrel, in the face of the court, because I differed from him in argument or opinion? This is just the distinction between a book of free legal controversy and the book which I am arraigning before you. Every man has a legal right to investigate, with modesty | and decency, controversial points of the Christian religion; but no man, consistently with a law which only exists under its sanctions, has a right not only broadly to deny its very existence, but to pour forth a shocking and insulting invective, which the lowest establishments in the gradations of civil authority ought not to be permitted Importance of religious conso lations to per sons in poverty and afliction. poison the morals of the rising generation? This Gentlemen, |