Protection of the religious senters. enacted, that every person who teaches, or preaches, in any congregation or assembly for religious worship, whose place of worship is duly certified, according to law, and who employs himself solely in the duties of a teacher, or preacher, and follows no trade, or other employment, for his livelihood, except that of a schoolmaster, and who produces a certificate of some justice of the peace of his having taken the oaths to government, &c., shall be exempt from the civil services, and offices specified in the Toleration Act, and from serving in the militia, or local militia, of any place, in any part of the United Kingdom. The production of a false certificate, for the purpose of claiming exemption from civil or military duties, subjects the party to a penalty, for each offence, of fifty pounds, recoverable by any person who will sue for the same. But such actions must be brought within three months after the offence. The persons described in this section are also exempted from serving on juries.* If any person shall, willingly and of purpose, maliciously or contemptuously, come into any cathedral or worship of dis- parish church, chapel, or other congregation permitted by the Toleration Act, and disquiet or disturb the same, or misuse any preacher or teacher, he shall, upon proof thereof, before any justice of the peace, by two witnesses, find two sureties, to be bound by recognisance in the penal sum of fifty pounds, and, in default of such sureties, shall be committed to prison till the next sessions; and, upon conviction at the sessions, shall suffer the penalty of twenty pounds to the king. A person who had been committed under this clause of the Toleration Act, by an agreement between himself, the prosecutor, and the committing magistrates, was discharged before the time of trial, and brought his action against the magistrate for false imprisonment; upon which occasion Lord Ellenborough said, "The Toleration Act, in order to protect religious congregations, in the exercise of their worship, has annexed a penalty of twenty pounds on persons guilty of disturbing them; and, in order to secure the public in the interval between the commission of the offence, and the trial of the offender, it has required the magistrate, before whom the complaint is lodged, to take security from the offender, or, in default of giving such security, to commit him to the next sessions. Then, instead of abiding the time of his delivery, when he should be discharged, in due course, after trial, in case he established his innocence, he stipulates with the prose* See Knowles v. Knowles, Willes, 463. y Toleration Act, sect, 18. cutor, and the committing magistrates, that the prosecution shall be dropped, and that he shall be discharged for want of prosecution. Such an agreement has a tendency to produce impunity for the commission of the offence, which the legislature meant to prevent; it stops the means of the crown to recover the penalty of twenty pounds, in case the plaintiff has been prosecuted and found guilty." The above provision of the Toleration Act applies equally to all dissenters, but the enactment next following, and which, to a certain extent, supersedes the former, is not applicable to the meetings of Quakers. case of Quakers. Any person charged before a justice, by two witnesses, Present law for with wilfully disturbing a meeting, authorised under the protection, &c., 52 Geo. III. c. 155, or any other act, or molesting any except in the person officiating thereat, or persons there assembled, must find two sureties in fifty pounds, in default of which he is to be committed till the next succeeding general or quarter sessions, on conviction at which he incurs a penalty of forty pounds, to be levied by distress, half to go to the informer, and half to the poor of the parish. If there be no distress, he may be committed for not exceeding three months. The penalty must be sued for within six months." Edgcomb v. Rood, 5 East, 301. a52 Geo. 3, c. 155, ss. 12, 15, 17. BOOK VIII. OF OFFENCES AGAINST RELIGION. Apostasy. Blasphemy. THE number of various offences which might possibly be classed under this head would obviously be much greater than those which will be here alluded to. It is intended here to speak of three classes of offences only; as those which immediately concern the subject of the present work. First, such offences as so openly transgress the precepts of religion, natural or revealed, as, by their bad example and consequences, to transgress the law of society also, and which are therefore punishable by human institutions; secondly, such offences as affect the Established Church; and, thirdly, such offences as may be committed by the clergy of that Church, and having the character of offences not so much from the act itself as from the person by whom it is committed; and who, in his character as a clergyman, becomes amenable to certain laws in relation to the duties of his office. Of the first class is apostasy, or a total renunciation of Christianity by embracing a false religion or no religion at all; which offence can only take place in such as have once professed the true religion. And if any person educated in, or having made profession of, the Christian religion, shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny the Christian religion to be true, or the Holy Scriptures to be of divine authority, he shall upon the first offence be rendered incapable to hold any office or place of trust; and, for the second, be rendered incapable of bringing any action, being guardian, executor, legatee, or purchaser of lands, and shall suffer three years imprisonment without bail. To give room however for repentance, if, within four months after the first conviction, the delinquent will in open court publicly renounce his error, he is discharged for that once from all disabilities." Another offence of this class is blasphemy against the Almighty, by denying his being or providence; or by con a 4 Bla. Com. 44; 9 & 10 Will. 3, c. 32. tumelious reproaches of our Saviour Christ. Whither also may be referred all profane scoffing at the Holy Scripture, or exposing it to contempt and ridicule: and all seditious words spoken in derogation of the Christian religion. These are offences punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous corporal punishment, for Christianity is part of the laws of England." Rational and dispassionate discussion is allowable, and the courts would not intermeddle with controverted points, but to write against Christianity in general is a clear offence.c The publication or exhibition of blasphemous books or pictures is consequently indictable and punishable at common law.d And although the suppression of blasphemy and pro- Punishable at faneness is provided for by the statute, yet this does not common law. change the nature of that which was previously an offence at common law; the statute is merely cumulative, and the common law offence, prosecution, and punishment, remain as before. Where the blasphemy is contained in any libel, and the Blasphemous offender has been once convicted of the offence, he may, libels. by 60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. c. 8, on a second conviction before any commission of oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery, or in K. B., be banished from all parts of his majesty's dominions, for such term of years as to the court shall seem proper. If he shall not depart from the united kingdom within thirty days after sentence pronounced, for the purpose of going into banishment, he may be conveyed to such parts out of his majesty's dominion, as his majesty, by the advice of his privy council, may direct. And if at any time after forty days from sentence pronounced, and before the expiration of the term of banishment, he be found at large without lawful cause in any part of his majesty's dominions, he may be sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. By the same statute a power is given to the court in case of conviction for a blasphemous libel, to direct the seizure of all copies of the work in the possession of the defendant, or of any one as his trustee; if the judgment be arrested or reversed, the copies are to be restored free of expense; if not, they are to be disposed of as the court shall order. And in addition to the above statutes, any person unlawfully exposing to view in any street, road, highway, or public place, any obscene print, picture, 4 Bla. Com. 59; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 5. c R. v. Carlile, 2 B. & A. 161. d Ibid. f 4 Bla. Com. 59, Coleridge's ed. n. 3 c • Ibid. Sabbath breaking. Simony. Offences against the Established or other indecent exhibition, or wilfully exposing the same to view in the window or other part of any shop or other building situate in any such place, is punishable as a rogue and vagabond.s Another offence of this class is that of nuisance in an open profanation of the Lord's day by keeping shop. Particular instances of such profanation are by several statutes made punishable before magistrates; but it would not be possible to enter into them here. The law may be taken generally as laid down by Littledale, J., in his charge to the grand jury of Middlesex in 1837, namely, that Sunday trading, if carried on to any extent which creates a nuisance or obstruction, is indictable at common law; but that a mere act of selling on the Lord's day is not now more indictable than it has been for the last seven hundred years.h As a general rule no person is allowed to work on the Lord's day, but several statutes allow the necessary exercise of certain trades within certain limits. The offence of simony may be also considered as of this class, which, so far as it affects presentations to or resig nations of benefices, has been already considered in speaking of those subjects, but, besides its effect upon the thing dealt with, it is in itself a punishable offence, as well by reason of the sacredness of the charge which is thus profanely bought and sold, as because it is always attended with perjury in the person presented. The statute 31 Eliz. c. 6, enacts, that if any patron, for money or any other corrupt consideration or promise, directly or indirectly given, shall present, admit, institute, induct, install, or collate any person to an ecclesiastical benefice or dignity, both the giver and taker shall forfeit two years value of the benefice or dignity; one moiety to the king, and the other to any one who will sue for the same. If persons also corruptly resign or exchange their benefices, both the giver and taker shall in like manner forfeit double the value of the money or other corrupt consideration. And persons who shall corruptly ordain or license any minister, or procure him to be ordained or licensed, (which is the true idea of simony,) shall incur a like forfeiture of forty pounds; and the minister himself of ten pounds, besides an incapacity to hold any ecclesiastical preferment for seven years afterwards.k Of the second class of offences, or such as affect the Esta- |