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    of juvenile delinquency , in the town and neighbourhood , or in the country at large ? And will it not appear on a superficial observation thaf all the plans for improving the moral sense and social condition of the labouring classes by g iving them instruction , are fallacious , and sadly contradicted by experience ? i Notwithstanding the acuteness of intellect and warmth of benevolence

    displayed in his lately published pamphlet on the subject , there is one cause of the increase of crime and depravity which it is astonishing how he could omit , which is certainly more overwhelming than all the others combined , and that is the extreme difficulty in procuring regular and permanent employment , and more especially for those who have been brought up to no particular occupation , who ate but little known , and their

    characters , perhaps , a little tainted , if only by suspicion or slander . These evils must to them be tremendous , and very often , no doubt , beyoud the possibility of their own controul in the search for subsistence . The poor laws are converted into an evil by their misapplication , but they must not be discontinued ; refuse bread to an unemployed and

    starving populace , and you convert paupers into desperate and infuriated insurgents . There remains , then , no alternativeeither the multitude must be supplied with the means of procuring their own subsistence by their labour , or they must be fed from the public purse , and reduced to the most abject and demoralizing slavery . We see and feel the moral evil that remains in spite of public

    instruction , but it is impossible to calculate the immense quantity that is removed by its operation ; ' and to withhold this unquestionable good , because it has not produced universal perfection of charac ter , would be just as rational as that the farmer should decline sowing his grain , because his crops have produced but fifty fold , where he foolishly or unreasonably expected a hundred . J . L .

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    Trials for Blasphemy . Contrary to general expectation , Robert Taylor was last term brought up for judgment . The modes of justifying legal interference with his offence , were , as usual , various , obscure , and inconsistent . Sir James Scarlett rested his defence of the prosecution apparently on two grounds ; first , on account of the de-

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    fendant ' s wearing a lace handkerchief and kid gloves ; and , 2 dly , on his having used jests and ridicule , aud that before the young . " Sir James Scarlett was aware that many wise men had differed in their opinions as to the policy of prosecutions of this kind , but there were none tfho entertained doubts as to the enormity of the crime of which the defendant had

    been convicted . With respect to the expression , * ¦ nest of vermin / he thought it due to their . Lordships , and to his own character , to offer an explanation of that term . In using that expression , he alluded to the system pursued by the [ defendant , who , with-others , having

    possessed themselves of a chapel , employed persons to take money at the doors and to admit persons , of all ages and sexes , to a public exhibition , not for the purpose of candid discussion or reasoning , or the investigation of learning , but for a mere theatrical exhibition borrowed

    from the stage , where he was adorned with a white pocket handkerchief edged with lace , with white kid gloves , rings , and other little ornaments ^ which some people conceived to be the essence of oratory , but which he ( Sir J . Scarlett ) thought was characteristic only of the fop , and gave no weight to argument . This was the danger — this the

    complaint , that he stands up in London , and makes the place which he calls a chapel , the theatre of his exhibitions . It was in this , place that he displayed his mountebank exhibition , which captivated the vulgar and seduced the youth of the metropolis . He was not one of those who thought that human laws could fetter human opinion . He thought

    that the belief of every man was between himself and his God , but it did not follow , that because a man entertained a conviction that the religion of his country was false , that he was to outrage with impunity that reverence and respect which the rest of mankind paid to it ; or that he should , by jests and sueers ,

    seek to agitate the feelings of men on a subject which they held sacred . It was not necessary to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the defendant ' s doctrine ; but if it offended public morals and outraged public decency , then the individual was guilty of a crime against all the laws of the civilized world . The

    defendant has used jests and ridicule before the young , and it is time for the law to interfere , and for your Lordships to pronounce the opinion you entertain of his conduct . " . Mr . Justice Bailey in delivering the

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    200 Intelligence . —Trkh / br Blasphemy .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/56/