been censured and disavowed in the manner we have lately seen. Gentlemen, I have but a few more words to trouble you with. I take my leave of you with declaring, that all this freedom which I have been endeavouring to assert, is no more than the freedom which belongs to our own inbred constitution. I have not asked you to acquit Mr. Paine upon any new lights or upon any principle but the law, which you are sworn to administer. My great object has been to inculcate, that wisdom and policy, which are the parents of the law of Great Britain, forbid this jealous eye over her subjects; and that on the contrary, they cry aloud, in the language of the poet employed by lord Chatham on the memorable subject of America, unfortunately without effect: \ "Be to their faults a little blind, Engage them by their affections; convince their reason, and they will be loyal from the only principle that can make loyalty sincere, vigorous or rational; a conviction that it is their truest interest, and that their form of government is for their common good. Constraint is the natural parent of resistence, and a pregnant proof, that reason is not on the side of those who use it. You must all remember, gentlemen, Lucian's pleasant story: Jupiter and a countryman were walking together, conversing with great freedom and familiarity upon the subject of heaven and earth. The countryman listened with attention and acquiescence while Jupiter strove only to convince him; but happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily round and threatened him with his thunder.--"Ah! ha!" says the countryman, now Jupiter I know that you are wrong; you're always wrong when you appeal to your thunder." This is the case with me; I can reason with the people of England, but I cannot fight against the thunder of authority. Gentlemen, this is my defence for free opinions. With regard to myself, I am, and ever have been, obedient and affectionate to the law: to that rule of action, as long as I exist, I shall ever give my voice and my conduct; but I shall ever do as I have done to day, maintain the dignity of my high profession, and perform as I understand them, all its important duties. : MR. ERSKINE'S SPEECH, ON THE TRIAL OF THOMAS WILLIAMS, FOR THE PUBLICATION OF PAINE'S "AGE OF REASON," BEFORE LORD KENYON, AND A SPECIAL JURY, JULY 24тн, 1797. IT was at the late dark and portentous period, when religion, morals, and social order were endangered, not less by the insidious approaches, than the open and avowed assaults of the malignant genius of jacobinism, that the Society for the discouragement of vice, and the promotion of virtue, was established in England. This laudable institution consisting of the wise, the discreet, and the loyal; seeing, how the land was overrun with profligacy and wickedness that had boldly raised their crests, and erected their standards in defiance of every law, human, and divine, resolved to try whether this torrent of vice and immorality might not be restrained by vigilance in the detection, and intrepidity in bringing the offenders to "condign punishment." In pursuance of this salutary system, the society directed a prosecution against one Thomas Williams, a bookseller, of infamous character, for the publication of that low, obscene, and blasphemous production, the "Age of Reason," which, at the time, with its kindred companion, "The Rights of Man," was industriously circulated, and read, by every hater of his king, and reviler of his God throughout the country. This speech presents Mr. Erskine in a very favourable point of view. We have too often seen him prostrating his admirable talents to the defence of faction, sedition, and licentiousness; we now behold him the champion of christianity, and with all the powers of a deep judgment, a refined imagination, and an irresistable eloquence successfully stemming the career of errour, impiety and scepticism. The jury, instantly, found a verdict of Guilty. GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, THE charge of blasphemy, which is put upon the record against the printer of this publication, is not an accusation of the servants of the crown, but comes before you sanctioned by the oaths of a grand jury of the country. It stood for trial upon a former day; but it happening, as it frequently does, with. out any imputation to the gentlemen named in the pannel, that a sufficient number did not appear to constitute a full special jury, I thought it my duty to withdraw the cause from trial, till I could have the opportunity which is now open to me of addressing myself to you, who were originally appointed to try it. I pursued this course, however, from no jealousy of the common juries, appointed by the laws for the ordinary service of the court, since my whole life has been one continued experience of their virtues; but because I thought it of great importance, that those, who were to decide upon a cause so very momentous to the publick, should have the highest possible qualifications for the decision. That they should not only be men capable, from their education, of forming an enlightened judgment, but that their situations should be such as to bring them within the full view of their enlightened country, to which, in character and in estimation, they were in their own turns to be responsible. : Not having the honour, gentlemen, to be sworn for the king, as one of his counsel, it has fallen much oftener to my lot to defend indictments for libels, than to assist in the prosecution of them. But I feel no embarrassment from that recollection; since I shall not be found to day to express a sentiment, or to utter an expression, inconsistent with those invaluable principles for which I have uniformly contended in the defence of others. Nothing that I have ever said, either professionally or personally, for the liberty of the press, do I mean to deny, to contradict, or counteract. On the contrary, I desire to preface the discourse I have to make to you, with reminding you, that it is your most solemn duty to take care it suffers no injury in your hands. A free and unlicensed press, in the just and legal sense of the expression, has led to all the blessings, both of religion and government, which Great Britain, or any part of the world, at this moment enjoys, and is calculated still further to advance mankind to higher degrees of civilization and happiness. But this freedom, like every other, must be limited to be enjoyed, and, like every human advantage, may be defeated by its abuse. Gentlemen, the defendant stands indicted for having published this book, which I have only read from the obligations of professional duty, and which I rose from the reading of, with astonishment and disgust. Standing here, with all the privileges belonging to the highest counsel for the crown, I shall be entitled to reply to any defence that shall be made for the publication. I shall wait with patience till I hear it. Indeed, if I were to anticipate the defence which I hear and read of, it would be defaming, by anticipation, the learned counsel who is to make it. For, if I am to collect it, even from a formal notice given to the prosecutors in the course of the proceedings, I have to expect, that, instead of a defence conducted according to the rules and principles of English law and justice, the foundation of all our laws, and the sanctions of all our justice, are to be struck at and insulted. What is the force of that jurisdiction which enables the |