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
"The Attorney-General has only read the objectionable passages: I will
read a few passages from Mr. Haslam’s first Letter, which will enable
the Jury to understand the nature of his work, and appreciate his
motives. Having frankly stated his object, he proceeds:--
"You, no doubt, will feel concerned at this; you will very likely be
angry with me for this daring attempt; you will call me Deist, Atheist,
Infidel, and many other charitable epithets; you will feel unutterable
things towards me; and I shall, no doubt, be subject to the _extreme
charity_ of your _pious_ congregations, who profess to ’love their
neighbours as themselves,’ and into whose minds you have crammed
absurdity after absurdity, until they have scarcely room for another. I
shall, no doubt, expose myself to all manner of ill-feeling and
uncharitableness, and to calumnies and lies of every description; but
shall these deter me from making known the convictions of iny mind?
Shall these hinder me from exposing the errors and absurdities which I
see interested men instilling into the minds of the people? Shall these
prevent me from telling the people that they are deceived and imposed
upon, and that their beggary, and want, and wretchedness, are the
consequences of it? Shall these, in short, stop me from exposing the
irrationalities which I see everywhere around me, and which occasion so
much misery and unhappiness to my fellow-men? No, I tell you they shall
not. That power which sent you into the world, sent me into the world
also; and if you have a right to think and speak, I have a right to
think and speak also. I have received an organization for the purpose as
well as any of you; and as long as that organization remains unimpaired,
so long will I tell the world what I think and feel.
"Why should any of you be angry with me? If I can prove your doctrines
to be false and erroneous, what occasion is there for anger? What can
you want with doctrines that are false? As honest men you ought
immediately to abandon them. Instead, therefore, of being angry with me,
you ought to have the very opposite feeling; for of what service can
error and nonsense be to any man, or any set of men?
"But if I prove that your doctrines are not only false and erroneous,
but that they occasion a vast amount of mischief to the people; that
they occasion want and vice, and all manner of wickedness, and that, by
removing them from the minds of the people, and substituting truths, all
this want, and vice, and wickedness might be put an end to; if, I say, I
prove this, why should you be angry with me for doing it? Surely you
cannot wish the people to remain in a state of want, and vice, and
wickedness; and yet, if you do not, why should you be angry at me for
showing you the causes of them, and pointing out the means for their
removal?
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