16S 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 18)7. 



the Litany. He was now brought 

 up, on the motion of the Attorney- 

 general, to receive judgment. The 

 officer of the Court was about to 

 read the information and the libel, 

 when the defendant interposed, 

 and said, that he did not wish the 

 Court to be troubled by the repe- 

 tition of the offensive matter. He 

 then put in two affidavits by him- 

 self, in which lie deposed, that he 

 had been fifteen years in business, 

 and had not, until now, been ac- 

 cused of the slightest infringe- 

 ment of the law : that he was en- 

 tirely unconnected with and un- 

 known to the original publisher 

 of the libel in question, which he 

 had reprinted at the request of a 

 travelling dealer, without being at 

 all aware of their dangerous ten- 

 dency J for him he had struck off 

 250 copies, besides some that he 

 had reserved for himself, the sale 

 of which he stopped immediately 

 when he learnt their profane and 

 illegal nature, at the same time or- 

 dering the types to be dispersed. 

 He had a wife and five children de- 

 pending upon him for support. 



Other affidavits from persons re- 

 sident at I'ortsea were put in ; 

 they gave the defendant an excel- 

 lent character for general loyalty 

 and propriety of demeanour. 



The Attorney-general then ad- 

 dressed their Lordships for the 

 prosecution. He was willing to 

 give the defendant credit for that 

 feeling of regret which induced 

 him to save the Court the pain of 

 hearing once more a libel which 

 had too often already fallen under 

 its observation : every man who 

 professed the slightest regard for 

 the religion established in this 

 country, must be shocked both at 

 the form and tendency of the 



pxiblication ; the defendant might 

 have printed comparatively few 

 copies, but the Attorney-general 

 feared that the poison had been 

 widely disseminated among those 

 whose education and habits ena- 

 bled them but ill to resist its bane- 

 ful effects. The defendant united 

 in himself the double capacity of 

 piinter and distributer ; and what 

 niunber of copies he had reserved 

 for himself, after delivering the 

 2.50 to his itinerant employer, he 

 had not ventured to state. The 

 information justly charged it to be 

 a scandalous, infamous, and im- 

 pious libel, tending to bring into 

 contempt and disgrace one of the 

 noblest, most beautiful, and most 

 affecting parts of the administra- 

 tion of divine service in this coun- 

 try. It was generally known that 

 the ceremony, according to the 

 church of England, usually term- 

 ed the Liturgy, had been settled 

 by the legislature in the reign of 

 Charles II. : from Parliament it 

 derived its legal character, but for 

 its sacred character it was indebt- 

 ed to a higher source, the princi- 

 ples of Christianity ; which in- 

 deed might be said to be the very 

 foundation of the law of the land. 

 How important, then, was it that 

 it should be |)rotected from pro- 

 fanation by the punishment of 

 those who were hardy enough to 

 lay unhallowed hands upon it ? 

 The defendant had stated, that he 

 was ignorant of the tendency of 

 the libel, and of its injurious con- 

 sequences ; but the law presumed 

 that a man who was guilty of the 

 publication was guilty also of the 

 purpose : that the libel was meant 

 by him to produce that effect : it 

 was impossible to imagine any 

 thing more calculated to diminish, 



if 



