The Trial of Henry Hetherington, on an Indictment for Blasphemy — John Shaqi
The Trial of Henry Hetherington, on an Indictment for BlasphemyHetherington, H. (Henry)
Religion
The Trial of Henry Hetherington, on an Indictment for Blasphemy
Hetherington, H. (Henry)
Hetherington, H. (Henry), 1792-1849 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Blasphemy) -- England -- London
He did not recommend persecution, but said let them both
grow together until the harvest. These passages are sufficient to show
that persecution is opposed to the whole spirit of Christianity.
Gentlemen, I will now call your attention to the law on the subject. In
entering upon this topic, of course I shall labour under a great
disadvantage, because I am unacquainted with legal technicalities and
cases. I will commence, therefore, by reading to you the opinion of
Chief Baron Eyre, in his Charge to the Grand Jury, on the commission for
the trial of persons on the charge of High Treason, in 1794, in the
course of which he made use of these liberal expressions:--
"All men may, nay, all men must, if they possess the faculty of
thinking, reason upon every thing which sufficiently interests them to
become objects of their attention; and among the objects of attention of
freemen, the principles of government, the constitution of particular
governments, and, above all, the constitution of the government under
which they live, will naturally engage attention, and provoke
speculation. _The power of communication of thoughts and opinions is the
gift of God; and the freedom of it is the source of all science_--the
first fruits, and the ultimate happiness of all society; and therefore,
it seems to follow, _that human laws ought not to interpose, nay, cannot
interpose, to prevent the communication of sentiment and opinions, in
voluntary assemblies of men._"
Here, Gentlemen, we have an eminent legal authority, in addition to the
Bishops I have quoted, who declares that "human laws _ought not to
inter-pose_, nay, cannot interpose, _to prevent the communication qf
sentiment, and opinion_." Under what law then can I be condemned? This
prosecution goes a step further than any other has gone; it in effect
declares that you shall not dispute the truth of the Jewish Scriptures,
which I have already shown are superseded by the introduction of
Christianity. Paul declares that the Jewish law was only intended to be
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christianity; but if Christianity, as is
asserted, be part and parcel of the low of England, even then this
prosecution has not a log to stand upon. In the "Life and Correspondence
of Major Cartwright," however, there is a letter from Jefferson, himself
an eminent lawyer, and President of the United States of America, who
had deeply studied the laws of England, in which he has proved the
fallacy of the notion that Christianity is part of the common law, by
showing that the common law had existed long before Christianity was
introduced into this country; and that the axiom had its origin and
foundation in a misquotation and mistranslation of a decision of Justice
Prisot, recorded in the Year Book, substituting the words _Holy
Scriptures_ for _Ancient Scriptures_. Jefferson denominates it a
"judiciary forgery," and I hope your Lordship will to-day confirm
Jefferson’s view, and put an end to this illegal iniquity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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