Review.-Trial of John Barkley for Sedition. found by many of great service in ascer taining scriptural truth.”—Pp. 14, 15. Mr. Kitcat has this note upon another of these works: < "The Sermon entitled A Compendious View of the Christian Doctrines, published by the Rev. D. James, when about to resign the ministry, contains a general outline of the religious sentiments which are held by the congregation of Protestant Dissenters belonging to the Upper Meeting-House, Newbury. The Late Rev. Hugh Worthington, who was equally distinguished by the brilliancy of his genius, and the affecting simplicity of his eloquence, designated this excellent sermon a little body of divinity."-P. 18. Mr. James was assiduous in his pastoral attentions to the young; these are thus acknowledged by his successor : "I cannot here forbear to revive in the grateful recollection of every member of the Christian society assembling for divine worship in the Upper MeetingHouse, Newbury, that the exertions of my venerable predecessor, in introducing the commendable plans of meeting the young people of his congregation in the vestry on the Sabbath evening, and of annually catechizing the children, preparatory to their admission to the vestrymeetings, have proved, by the blessing of God, some of the most efficient means of encouraging that spirit of impartial examination of the Scriptures which has kept our little society together, in an age when popular clamour would drown the voice of conviction, and a mistaken zeal for truth would anathematize a candid inquiry after truth."-Note, p. 15. 631 selling the very same publication, and the judge resisting the application for another jury, and the counsel for the prosecution representing the identity of the jury as a singular advantage" to the defendant; the conduct of the judge, Newman Knowlys, Esq., then Common Sergeant, now Recorder, of the City of London, who attempted to refuse to the counsel for the defendant the right of discussing the character of the "Constitutional Association," the prosecutor, which he had previously granted on the trial of the fendant, to the counsel for the prosesame charge in the case of another decution, and who seems to have consithe defendant's counsel, and was endered in his charge that he was trying titled to tax him with the crime of his client; and the proceedings in the House of Commons on the presentation of a petition from Barkley, when Dr. Lushington boldly stigmatized the conduct of the Common Sergeant as "not upright, just or impartial," and accused some one of interlining the sentence on Barkley and another in the book of the clerk of the arraigns, and thereby adding to the sentence pronounced from the bench, the punishment of hard labour: but though all these are memorable particulars, the design and the limits of our work oblige us to pass them over, and to confine our attention to the speech of defendant's counsel. referred to, has taken, and will long Mr. M. D. Hill, the gentleman here we trust maintain, his rank amongst our constitutional lawyers; by which term we intend those pleaders that represent and apply the constitution as a protection to the subject against the inroads of arbitrary power. With exemplary spirit, he faced the brow-beating of the court, and forced his way through quibbles and rebukes to do right to his client. Disregarding the dicta of mere technical lawyers, he asserted with great ability the noble principles of civil and religious liberty. He vindicated Christianity by demanding, in its name and authority, toleration for the erring. The bench was discomposed by hearing the voice of enlightened and philanthropic divines, re-echoed in a court of law; but the jury were deeply impressed, and this very same body who two days before had given in an instant a verdict of guilty upon the same offence, now deliberated for nearly an hour, and though they returned a similar verdict, accompanied it with a recommendation to mercy. The force of Mr. Hill's address appears to us to consist as much in its simplicity as in its strong sense and manly spirit. We take from it two passages. "There is another part of the subject which requires your deep attention. It is, that if you put down attacks upon Christianity by force, when those attacks are made public by the press, you cannot, in our free country, put down private conversation, and if not, all you have before done only gives the Infidel a great advantage over the Christian. When the press is entirely free from restraint, the unlettered man, pressed in argument by the Infidel, may fairly say, I am not able to answer your objections; it is not my habit of life to investigate subjects of this nature; but publish your attack on revelation to the world, and I venture to say, that you will receive a full and satisfactory refutation.' Now, however, the Infidel may reply, 'What! expose myself to fine and imprisonment as a reward for opening people's eyes! No! no! I leave the honours of martyrdom to those who have more taste for them. I may talk at liberty among my friends; and that is all I ask.' Gentlemen, I must admit that a mode exists, by which you may prevent all departure from the religion of the country, and by which you may reduce all opinions to one uniform standard. There is an example which you may follow; the experiment has been tried, and has proved successful. But then, gentlemen, you must make Spain your model and establish an Inquisition. You must have a familiar in every house, and a spy at every table, and then, with the assist. ance of the rack and the faggot you may destroy all who differ from you; but, gentlemen, what would be the consequence of such destruction? Look to Spain, and you will see that freedom of opinion did not fall alone ;-with it went all that was excellent in the country. Spain fell from her rank among the nations, her commerce fled, her agriculture dwindled away, and her literature sunk into barbarism; until at length a revolution came to sweep away the labour of whole ages of persecution and intolerance, and to give the Spaniards an opportunity of slowly retracing their steps to a line of sounder policy. Still this is your only alternative; if you enter upon this path, if you prosecute for opinions at all, you will find no resting-place for the sole of your foot until you have entered the doors of the Inquisition. If you stop short of this, you leave the unbeliever still the opportunity of saying, 'I could if I dare; let me, and I can shew you that you are all wrong: but how do you answer my cavils, as you call them? Do you answer them with argument? Do you answer them by evidence? If you have argument and evidence, why not produce it? The truth is, you have neither, and therefore you answer me only with chains and a dungeon.' Is it not true that there has been in this country much more published against the Scriptures than in all Europe, or even in the whole world besides; and let me ask you, whether you are prepared to admit that we are an irreligious people? If you were prepared to admit it, facts would deny it: I would ask you what nation can boast of so many Missionaries spread over the whole earth for preaching of the gospel among the Heathen; where did that mighty organ of Christianity, the Bible Society, take its origin ? Gentlemen, we have solved the problem; we have proved that publications like this do not produce those ill effects apprehended by the weak and inconsiderate." Pp. 13, 14. "We are told that Christianity is part and parcel of the law of England; I wish to God it may be proved this day, that we are so told correctly, because if Christianity be the law of England, then, gentlemen, you are bound to act in perfect conformity with the precepts of its Found er. If the Founder of our faith had chosen to use force for its propagation, or against those who impugned it, what was to prevent him? Why did he not employ supernatural powers against the Galileans, or why did he rebuke his disciples for desiring it? But perhaps the Constitutional Association may suppose themselves to know better than our Divine Master, in what way the interests of Christianity may be best promoted. Thank God, however, you are not the Constitutional Association; you have neither part nor lot in it. Even if you should refuse to put faith in those great men whose opinions I have cited, and to whom we owe the clear evidence of the truth of Christianity, you will bow down with reverence before him to whom we owe Christianity itself. As I read my Testament, the great character impressed on every page, is forgiveness of our enemies. I will not insult you by supposing that you are so unacquainted with the Sacred Writings, as to render it necessary for me to cite passages for the support of my position; nor do I wish to depend on insulated passages, if this be not the prevailing feature of the book. If the Scrip Review-Trial of John Burkley for Sedition. tures do not breathe, in every page, the doctrine of patience and long-suffering towards those who scoff and revile our faith, I can only say, that I know nothing of the doctrines which they do teach, and that I err in common with some of the greatest men who ever lived."-Pp. 14, 15. Our notice of this publication is proportioned to its importance rather than its bulk. We should be glad to see it generally circulated, persuaded that wherever it is carefully and dispassionately read, it will produce a conviction of the folly and mischief of prosecutions for opinions. We have no predilections for unbelievers, much less for scoffers: it is because we are opposed to them, that we would not afford them the advantage, and inflict upon Christianity the odium, of their legal persecution. Let the reader weigh well what the editor of this second edition says on this subject in his advertisement: "Much irreparable evil has arisen from the late prosecutions for Deistical publications. As an instance of this, it is proper to state, that two of the four perSous who have lately been prosecuted for selling the paltry pamphlet which was the subject of this trial, were, previously to the prosecutions of Carlile and his family, industrious mechanics in the north of England, respectably educated and connected. Their attention was first attracted by those prosecutions to an examination of the obnoxious doctrines; they naturally concluded, that such opinions were only opposed by force because they could not be answered by argument; and they felt that prejudice in favour of the promulgators, which always arises in the human mind in behalf of the supposed victims of oppression. They, therefore, studied the writings of the opponents of religion, under circumstances very unfavourable to the formation of a just and impartial judgment; and the consequence was, a resolute persuasion of the truth of the cause of Infidelity. They then, with an energy of purpose which would have done honour to a better cause, forsook their former employments, and came to London in order to continue the publication of the proscribed pamphlet, without prospect of pecuniary emolument, and in the full expectation of suffering and disgrace. "Let those who institute these prosecutions, draw the proper inference from these facts. Let them pause before they strike, and consider that every prosecution may produce a similar effect; that 633 they cannot crush even their immediate victim; that they may carry scepticism aud infidelity into societies which would otherwise have never been contaminated by them; and thus, as friends and advocates, produce more deadly mischief to the cause of Christianity, than its most malignant and inveterate enemies."-Pp. iii. iv. Great praise is due to Dr. Lushington (to whom we cannot help returning) for bringing this matter before the House of Commons. His observations on the nature of the punishment affixed to the reputed and undefined crime of blasphemy were poorly met by the Solicitor-General, who would have shewn himself more worthy of his past professions, if, like the Attorney-General, he had been silent, or rather had indignantly disclaimed all prosecutions of this description. The Morning Chronicle made a remark or two at the time, upon this part of the debate, which we put down in conclusion: "It would be difficult, perhaps, to satisfy the Solicitor-General now, that any degree of punishment is disproportionate for such an offence. Lord Chief Justice Hale,' he tells us, who could not be considered a cruel judge, had, in such a case, not only sentenced the defendant to fiue, imprisonment and hard labour, but to give his own security, and to find the security of others, for his good behaviour for life. If the honourable member for Norwich had happened to live in that merciful judge's days, when Unitarianism was blasphemy, according to the Solicitor-General, he might have esteemed himself happy in escaping with imprisonment, aggravated by hard labour. But we would point out a more congenial case, tried also under most merciful Judges, since the glorious Revolution, namely, that of a youth, also under 18, named Aikman, actually hanged for Unitarianism, (then blasphemy,) to the great edification of the orthodox. This, to be sure, took place on the North of the Tweed; but we have no doubt the Bridge Street Gang would be glad to see this wholesome rigour introduced among ourselves." March 28. By a strange oversight in this publication, there is no statement of the time, neither day, nor month, nor year, when the trial took place. are obliged to resort to various ingenious methods of giving vent to their political feelings. The present work is an attempt to wrap up sentiments of freedom in the form of a Dictionary. There is dexterity in it and some humour. The translator has preserved much of the spirit of the original, though of course many of the allusions are local, and cannot be fully understood by every English reader. We give a few specimens: "GHOSTS. Chimerical beings, with which priests torment the imaginations of their proselytes. The fear of spirits NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THEOLOGY AND GENERAL LITERATURE. Memoirs of the Life of the late Mrs. Catharine Cappe. Written by Herself. 8vo. The Constitution of the Character of Jesus Christ. In Two Parts. Part I. The Constitution of the Character of Jesus Christ shewn to differ from the Opinious of Socinians, Arians, Trinitarians and Swedenborgians. Part II. On the Moral Character of Jesus, the Office of Christ and the Holy Spirit. 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