after truth, may be allowed to have yours. Speculative opinions on religion, you can tell the jury, are nothing: whether you are a Roman Catholic, a Protestant, a Mohammedan, a worshipper of Vishnu, or a Free Thinker, or none of all these, is of no consequence to mankind, either governing or governed--It is a matter between you and your Maker only. All that governments can have to do with individuals, is their conduct as members of the state towards their neighbours. Had you been charged with any acts of disturbance, with the violation of any of the laws for the protection of persons and property, then it would have been intelligible; you might have been a fit object for trial, and, if found guilty, of punishment. Not one of the books which you have published have the slightest tendency to promote disorder, but, on the contrary do they profess and are calculated by a diffusion of their principes to extend and consolidate universal peace, virtue, happiness, and prosperity. If, then, the gentlemen of the Jury's religion be founded on what they have satisfied their understanding to be _truth_, nothing can injure it; since, if it really come from God, to imagine that any writings, whether argumentative or satirical, could maintain a doubtful contest with books said to contain a revelation of the divine will, is actually to raise the author of such writings, and you their publisher, to a level with God himself! or, rather, to degrade that Almighty, wise, and good Being, your Creator, to a level with you, the creature. Hence it follows, that persecution may destroy, but never can support any religion. You cannot have a better ground-work for your defence than the theological works of Paine, which, indeed, settle the question about the inspiration of the scriptures and the divinity of Christ. On the subject of religion generally there is a book which every lover of truth must regret is not so well known as it will infallibly be in no long time--I allude to a work entitled "Principles of Morality," by George Ensor, Esq. It displays the most extensive research and erudition, combined with good sense and an amiable disposition; the subject is pursued with much perspicuity of order, and expressed in an easy, neat, appropriate style. The book forms a very useful companion to Hume's ingenious and philosophical Essays on the Natural History of Religion.