MR. ERSKINE'S SPEECH,

ON THE TRIAL OF THOMAS WILLIAMS, FOR THE PUBLICATION

OF PAINE'S " AGE OF REASON," BEFORE LORD KENYON, AND A SPECIAL JURY, JULY 24TH, 1797.

IT was at the late dark and portentous period, when religion, morals, and social order were endangered, not less by the insidious approaches, than the open and avowed assaults of the malignant genius of jacobinism, that the Society for the discouragement of vice, and the promotion of virtue, was established in England.

This laudable institution consisting of the wise, the discreet, and the loyal; seeing, how the land was overrun with profligacy and wickedness that had boldly raised their crests, and erected their standards in defiance of every law, human, and divine, resolved to try whether this torrent of vice and immorality might not be restrained by vigilance in the detection, and intrepidity in bringing the offenders to "condign punishment."

In pursuance of this salutary system, the society directed a prosecution against one Thomas Williams, a bookseller, of infamous character, for the publication of that low, obscene, and blasphemous production, the "Age of Reason," which, at the time, with its kindred companion, "The Rights of Man," was industriously circulated, and read, by every

hater of his king, and reviler of his God throughout the country.

This speech presents Mr. Erskine in a very favourable point of view. We have too often seen him prostrating his admirable talents to the defence of faction, sedition, and licentiousness; we now behold him the champion of christianity, and with all the powers of a deep judgment, a refined imagination, and an irresistable eloquence successfully stemming the career of errour, impiety and scepticism.

The jury, instantly, found a verdict of Guilty.

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 day; but it happening, as it frequently does, with, out any imputation to the gentlemen named in the pannel, 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 cause so very momentous to the publick, 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.

Not having the honour, gentlemen, to be sworn for the king, as one of his counsel, it has fallen much of tener to my lot to defend indictments for libels, than to 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 defence 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 solemn 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.

Gentlemen, the defendant stands indicted for having published this book, which I have only read from the obligations of professional duty, and which I rose from the reading of, with astonishment and disgust. Standing here, with all the privileges belonging to the highest counsel for the crown, I shall be entitled to reply to any defence that shall be made for the publication. I shall wait with patience till I hear it. Indeed, if I were to anticipate the defence 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 defence 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 fulfil. Yet in 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 spirit and temper of the defence; if, as I collect from that array of books which are spread upon the benches behind me, this publication is to be vindicated by an attack of all the truths which the christian religion promulgates to mankind, let it be remembered, that such an argument was neither suggested nor justified by any thing said by me on the part of the prosecution. In this stage of the proceedings, I shall call for reverence to the sacred scriptures, not from their merits, unbounded as they are, but from their authority in a christian country; not from the obligations of conscience, but from the rules of law. For my own part, gentlemen, I have been ever deeply 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 most continued reflections 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 scriptures, from a reasoned consideration of them, I shall repress that subject for the present. But, if the defence shall be as I have suspected, to bring them at all into argument or question, I shall then fulfil a duty which I owe not only to the court, as counsel for the prosecution, but to the publick, to state what I feel and know concerning the evidences of that religion which is reviled without being examined, and denied without being understood.

I am well aware that by the communications of a free press, all the errours of mankind, from age to age, have been dissipated 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 errours 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? or 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.

Although every community must establish supreme authorities, founded upon fixed principles, and must give high powers to magistrates to administer laws for the preservation of the government itself, and for the security of those who are to be protected by it; yet, as infallibility and perfection belong neither to human establishments, nor to human individuals, it