Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Untitled Article
Untitled Article
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
ing the Augustan Age . By John Dunlop , Esq . 8 vo . 16 s . On the Rise , Progress , and present State of Public Opinion iu Great Britain . By a Member of the House of Parliament in 1820 . 8 vo . The Coronation Oath considered , with Reference to the Principles of the Revolution of 1688 . By Charles Thomas Lane , Esq ., of the Inner Temple . 8 vo . MX ? . 6 d .
Observations on the Cruelty of employing Climbing-Boys in sweeping Chini * neys ; and on the Practicability of effectually cleansing Flues by mechanical
Feb . 2 f . < e A few days ago ( says the Paris Correspondent of the Times ) the Royal Court prououuced a judgment of great importance to religious liberty and the freedom of philosophical discussions . That Court has acquitted a writer accused of having insulted the religion of the State , * by denying the fundamental dogmas of the Christian faith . ' The defendant acknowledged the fact , but insisted that denial was nbt insult . His
counsel , M . Borville , argued that every Frenchman had the right of adopting whatever opinion appeared to him the most just , and of contending against every adverse opinion , provided he abstained from violence and insult . The Court held the same opinion . This decision would be no way surprising had it been the verdict of a jury , or were our judges
philosophers . But it must be observed that all the judges of the Royal Court are Catholics ; that they all manifest a strong attachment to their creed ; that the suspicion of hypocrisy has never been insinuated against them ; and that they decided against the intervention of a jury , hi consequence of their judgment , some of the liberal journals have
taken occasion to remark strongly on the difference in the law , or the administration of the law , in England and France . They consider it very strange that the restraints on the expression of opinion should be greater on your side of the Channel than on this , and that religious liberty should be less complete in a Protestant than in a Catholic country . "
The contrast is not so strange , as these journalists suppose . When statesmen and judges do not belong to tbat most
means . With Extracts from the Evidence before the House of Commons , &c . &c . 6 d . Medico-chirurgical Review . The I « Y ) urth Fasciculus of No . XVI . Moral Biography ; or Lives of Exemplary Men . 3 * . 6 rf .
A Practical and Pathological Inquiry into the Sources and Effects of Derangements of the Divestive Organs ; embracing Dejection , Perversion , and some other Affections of the Mind . By William Cooke , Member of the Royal College of Surgeons , Secretary to the Hunterian Society , &c , &c . 8 vo . 9 s .
infatuated class of bigrots which would incarcerate or burn the body for the good of the soul , or which would punish disbelief or misbelief vindictively , as the worst of crimes , their anxiety to put down all expressions of hostility to any given religion , or form of religion , will be in tolerably exact proportion to their estimate of its worth as a state machine *
Now the Protestant hierarchy of England has quite as many claims to favour ill this capacity as the Gallican Church ; perhaps more . It presents a more valuable patronage ; it furnishes a richer provision for the junior members and dependents of the aristocracy ; aud it offers a mightier support to an accommodating administration . Therefore Christianity
is , legally , less disputable in England than in France ; and while Protestants there are eligible to civil offices , our Dissenters are excluded by Test Acts , or sneak in under the imperfect covering of Indemnity Bills ; and Catholics are proscribed altogether . The principle of resistance to Religious Liberty is stronger here than in France . Let the friends of
Religious Liberty exert themselves to give a stronger impulse to public opinion , the only means by which , here or there , that resistance is to be overcome . The fact which has occasioned these comments is also a good lesson to those well-meaning but mistaken persons who ,
with a government which exists under a Protestant hierarchy , yet fear that Popery is more deadly than any thing else to freedom of conscience . Here are Catholics in power allowing liberty of discussion to an extent about which too many Protestants out of power , and even
Public Affairs . 213
PUBLIC AFFAIRS .