from their common offspring-and in a state | churchyard at the usual fees, when his last of the most licentious and unreserved immo- earthly mansion was composed of materials rality. In this case, as in many others, the so durable as to resist for an unusual number happiness of some individuals must be sacri- of years that decomposition which might enaficed to the greater and more general good." ble the narrow space to receive a due succesWe wish we could follow the famous civi- sion of occupiers. This subject, so shocking lian through all the delicate windings of this in some of its attendant details, so mortifying "pretty quarrel" between Mr. and Mrs. Evans; to human pride in some of its aspects, bethe masterly analysis of the waiting-woman's comes in his hands suggestive of solemn but motives; the elegant etiquette of the lying-in gentle disquisition on the essence of the sentichamber; the prerogatives of the nurse, and ment which requires the reverent disposal of fantastical distresses of the mistress-and give the dead, and on the forms through which, in some specimens of Sir William Scott's gayer various nations and times, it has been breathed. style. But the embroidery of each case is so From the simplicity of patriarchal days, through equally woven, the effect so much depends the splendid varieties of that affected duration upon harmony of colour and exact proportion; at which the Egyptian monarchs aimed, down the sly humour is so nicely, and almost im- to the humble necessities of a pauper funeral perceptibly, mingled with the worldly wisdom, and brief sojourn of the untitled dead in a that it would be unjust to tear away fragments domicile of their own, before being associated and exhibit them as specimens. If there is a directly with dust, he discourses-"turning all fault it lies in a tendency to attenuation of the to favour," if not to "prettiness," and giving a matter in sentences vital interest to ashes and the urn. In his researches he delights to measure stately wit with that prodigious master in the empire of he falls far short of the embossed grandeur of the grave, Sir Thomas Browne; and though stands alone for fantastic solemnity in English the sepulchral essay on "Urn-Burial," which prose, he diffuses a gentle atmosphere over the monies and gradations in the world of death poor-crowded cemetery, and regulates the cerewith the same Grandisonian air with which he had adjusted the contests of the fair and innocent and frail among the living. After discussing the modes of sepulture, and vindicating the authority of his court to arrange the differences, he thus sums up the matter in immediate dispute : "With linked sweetness long drawn out;" and yet it would be difficult to find a word we would change, or a sentence we would spare. Although the refinement of expression is almost undisturbed, the sense is always manly nothing affected, sickly, or sentimental-but common sense arrayed in the garb of fancy. The vivid exhibition of scenes in domestic life; the opposition of motives and passions; all invested with a certain air from the rank in society of the suitors, (for the poor rarely indulge in the luxuries of the Consistory Court,) reminds us more of the style of comedy which was fading from the stage before Sir William Scott retired from the bench, and which his dramatic tastes particularly fitted him to appreciate. He must have been indignant, even when Garrick performed Archer, at the impudent usurpation by the hero of the Beau's Stratagem of the civilian's office, when he sets up a rival court of his own for the dissolution of unhappy partnerships for life, audaciously declares "Consent, if mutual, saves the lawyer's fee;" and consequently destroys the Judge's function. In each of his best civic developments, the curtain seems lifted on an elegant drama of manners: husbands and wives quarrel and recriminate in dialogue almost as graceful as Sheridan's; youths of fortune become the appropriate prey of rustic lasses, in spite of obdurate fathers; and a good moral, better enforced than most stage conclusions, dismisses the parties and charms the audience. He once said he could furnish a series of stories from the annals of Doctors' Commons which should rival the Waverley Novels in interest; and we wish he had tried it! In Lord Stowell's latter days a cause came before him which afforded a strong contrast to the vivacity of those nuptial and connubial contests which had glowed and sparkled and loured so often before him; and if dull in the progress, grew beautiful in the judgment. It involved a question between the churchwardens of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, and the patentee of iron coffins, on the right of a parishioner to burial in the crowded in holding this opinion upon the fact of a com"It being assumed that the court is justified parative duration; the pretensions of these coffins to an admission upon the same pecuniary terms as those of wood, must resort to difference of duration ought to produce no difthe other proposition, which declares that the ference in those terms. Accordingly, it has been argued that the ground once given to the body is appropriated to it for ever—it is literally in mortmain unalienably-it is not only the domus ultima, but the domus æterna of that tenant, who is never to be disturbed, be his condition what it may-the introduction of another body into that lodgment at any time, however distant, is an unwarrantable intrusion. If these positions be true, it certainly follows that the question of comparative duration sinks into utter insignificance. "In support of them, it seems to be assumed that the tenant himself is imperishable; for surely there can be no inextinguishable title, no perpetuity of possession, belonging to a subject which itself is perishable-but the fact is, that 'man,' and 'for ever,' are terms quite incompatible in any state of his existence, dead or living, in this world. The time must come when ipsæ periere ruina,' when the posthumous remains must mingle with and compose a part of that soil in which they have been deposited. Precious embalments and costly monuments may preserve for a long time the remains of those who have filled the more commanding stations of human lifebut the common lot of mankind furnishes no such means of conservation. With reference to them, the domus æterna is a mere flourish of rhetoric; the process of nature will speedily resolve them into an intimate mixture with their kindred dust; and their dust will nelp to furnish a place of repose for other occupants in succession." who, while filling at the bar its first offices, and during his long possession of the most digni. fied of all civil positions under the crown, had cast upon him the duty of keeping alive the social spirit of the bar; encouraging its young and timid aspirants; disarming jealousies, and soothing the animosities which its contests may engender; and preserving its common conscience and feeling of honour, by encouraging the association of its members in convivial enjoyments under the highest auspices. But Mr. Twiss gives the true excusewe can scarcely admit it as a perfect justification-for a dereliction of that duty which for tune casts on her favourites-in the distaste of Lady Eldon for society, and in the habits which she acquired when obliged to practise rigid self-denial,-and asserts, we believe truly, that These seem serious matters of disquisition for advanced age; but Lord Stowell, like his brother, was too vividly assured of the life beyond the grave to contemplate the close of this life and the subsequent decay of his mortal frame with anxiety; and though his faculties almost faded before he sunk into the tombgently as he had lived, and talked, and judged -his serenity of mind was undisturbed, and his grace of manner even to the last lingered" his domestic arrangements, from the time of about him. In finally contemplating the history of these two brothers, we are struck with the harmonious interest which the picture derives from their unenvying, unbroken affection, which must have doubled to each the pride and success of his own life in that of the other. To William, John Scott, Lord Eldon, owed that he was not a tradesman in a country town; and year after year, as poverty pressed on him and briefs came slowly, he was indebted to the purse of one who felt the full value of money, but insisted on investing his own savings in his brother's fortune. Both sharing the same undoubting faith in the Established Church of their country; the same dread of innovation; the same recollections of their arduous, painful, merry school-days, and of the loveliness of the same university-they found in the differences of their tastes new grounds of mutual congratulation and pride,-Sir William delighting to speak of Sir John's almost incredible labours; while the attorney-general took credit for the civilian's gentle gayeties, and grew proud while listening to his social praise. Both were charged with an undue love of pecuniary accumulation; and, no doubt, they went firmly on, almost with equal steps, to the attainment of great wealth; but this not so much with an ignoble desire of mere money, as the steady wish to achieve an end of which the gain was only the symbol, and its amount the proof-part of that single aspiration to get the start of their fellows in the game of life, which disregarded all minor excitements, vanities, and successes, and placed Respice Finem' for its rule. The bounties of Lord Eldon were unostentatious, frequent, and sometimes princely; magnificently conceived and often dexterously hidden; and although the long possession of the Great Seal enabled him to rival the estate which Lord Stowel. derived literally from the fortune of war, there seems no reason to doubt the sincerity of the regret with which he left the Court of Common Pleas the quiet of which suited his disposition, while its dignified office of administering the law of real property by ancient forms now no more, proposed to him genial labours and serene decisions. Both, indeed, were chargeable with a want of the splendid hospitality befitting their station;-a fault the more to be regretted in the case of Lord Eldon, his lady's death, were such as befitted his great fortune and high station." This was, however, too late to repair the opportunities lost during many years, of not only securing the love but sustaining the character of the profession, to which he was devotedly attached in all its branches. If, however, these great lawyers were not prodigal of extensive entertainments, they loved good cheer themselves, and delighted to believe that it was enjoyed by others. No total abstinence, nor half-abstinence, system was theirs. Whether the statement be true, which the genial biographer of Lord Stowell in the "Law Magazine" makes, "That he would often take the refection of the Middle Temple Hall by way of whet for the eight o'clock banquet," we will not venture to assert; but we well remember, more than thirty years ago, the benignant smile which Sir William Scott would cast on the students rising in the dim light of their glorious hall, as he passed out from the dinner table to his wine in the parliament chamber; his faded dress and tattered silk gown set off by his innate air of elegance; and his fine pale features beaming with a serene satisfaction which bumpers might heighten but could not disturb. He and Lord Eldon perfectly agreed in one great taste-if a noble thirst should be called by so finical a name-an attachment to port wine, strong almost as that to constitution and crown; and, indeed, a modification of the same sentiment. Sir William Scott may possibly in his lighter moods have dallied with the innocence of claret-or, in excess of the gallantry for which he was famed, have crowned a compliment to a fair listener with a glass of champagne-but, in his sedater hours, he stood fast by the port, which was the daily refreshment of Lord Eldon for a large segment of a century. It is, indeed, the proper beverage of a great lawyer-that by the strength of which Blackstone wrote his Commentaries-and Sir William Grant meditated his judgments-and Lord Eldon repaired the ravages of study, and withstood the shocks of party and of time. This sustaining, tranquillizing power, is the true cement of various labours, and prompter of great thoughts. Champagne, and hock, and claret, may animate the glittering superficial course of a Nisi Prius leader-though Erskine used to share his daily bottle of port with his wife and children, and | In closing this imperfect notice of the lives complain, as his family increased, of the dimi- of Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, we venture to nution of his residue-but port only can har-express a hope that Mr. Twiss's work, minute. "monize with the noble simplicity of ancient ly tracing the course of one and reviving the law, or assuage the fervour of a great intellec- remembrance of the other, will fix the attention tual triumph. Each of the Scotts, to a very of his own profession on examples which have late period of his old age, was true to the gene- raised, and should help to sustain it. If so, rous liquor, and renewed in it the pastimes of the work will be in good season. Great as the youth and the crowding memories of life-long influence of the profession of the law is in this labour. It is related of Lord Stowell, that, a country, many causes have tended of late to short time before his death, having, in the deep- perplex the objects of its ambition, and to ening twilight of his powers, submitted to a tempt its aspirants to lower means of success less genial regimen, on a visit from his brother than steady industry and conduct free from he resumed his glass: and, as he quaffed, the stain. The number of inferior offices which light of early days flashed upon his over- suggest the appliances of patronage, and offer wrought brain-its inner chamber was irra- low stimuli to its hopes-the increase of numdiated with its ancient splendour-and he told bers, which weakens the power of moral conold stories with all that exquisite felicity which trol, while it heightens the turmoil of competihad once charmed young and old, the care-worn tion-and a feeling which pervades a certain and the fair-and talked of old friends and old class of members of the House of Commons, times with more than the happiness of middle that any measure which detracts from the reage. When Lord Eldon visited him in his sources of the bar tends to the public goodseason of decay at his seat near Reading, he have endangered the elevation of its character, sometimes slept at Maidenhead on his way; in the maintenance of which the interests of and on one occasion, having dined at the inn, order and justice are deeply involved. We and learned that the revising barristers were can conceive of no more vivid proof of the imstaying at the house, he desired his compli-portance of preserving a body which embraces ments to be presented to them, and requested the favour of their company to share his wine. He received the young gentlemen-very young compared with their host-with the kindest courtesy; talked of his early struggles and successes as much for their edification as delight--and finished at least his own bottle of port before they parted. Surely no lighter or airier liquor could befit such festal hours of honoured old age, or so well link long years together in the memory by its flavours! within it alike the younger sons of our nobility and the aspirants of the middle classes, and offers to all the opportunity of achieving its highest and most lasting honours, than that which the history of the two sons of the good coal-fitter of Newcastle exhibits: nor any happier incitement to that industry which is power, and to that honour which is better than all gain, than the example it presents to those who may follow in their steps. SPEECH FOR THE DEFENDANT, IN THE PROSECUTION OF THE QUEEN v. MOXON, FOR THE PUBLI CATION OF SHELLEY'S WORKS. DELIVERED IN THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, JUNE 23, 1841. PREFACE. In consenting to revise and publish the following Speech, I trust the circumstances attend ant on the trial in which it was delivered will be found to justify an exception to the usual abstinence of Counsel from interfering with the publication of speeches delivered at the bar. The peculiarity of the occasion-the prosecution of an eminent publisher of unblemished character at the instance of a person who had been himself convicted of blasphemous libel, on a similar charge-and the nature of the question which that prosecution involved, between Literature and the Law of Libel-may render the attempt of the defendant's advocate, to defeat the former and to solve the latter, worthy of more consideration than it could command either by its power or its success. Observing that the case has been unavoidably deprived, by the urgency of political topics and electioneering details, of the notice it would have received from the press at a calmer season; and being anxious that the references necessarily made to matters of solemn interest and of delicate relation should not be subject to the misconception attendant on any imperfect reports, I have thought it right to take on myself the responsibility of presenting to the public, as correctly as I can, the substance of that which I addressed to the jury. The necessary brevity of the reports of the trial, which has partly induced this publication of the speech for the defendant, also renders it proper to give a short account of the circumstances which preceded it. In the month of April, 1840, an indictment was preferred against Mr. Henry Hetherington, a bookseller in the Strand, at the instance of the Attorney-general, for selling certain numbers of a work entitled "Haslam's Letters to the Clergy of all Denominations," sold each at the price of one penny, and charging them as libels on the Old Testament. The cause came on to be tried before Lord Denman, in the Court of Queen's Bench, on 8th December, 1840, when the defence was conducted, with great propriety and talent, by the defendant himself, who rested it mainly on a claim of unqualified right to publish all matters of opinion, and on the argument, that the work charged as blasphemous came fairly within the operation of that principle. Mr. Hetherington was, however, convicted, and ultimately received judgment, under which he underwent an imprisonment of four months in the Queen's Bench prison. While this prosecution was pending, Mr. Hetherington appears to have adopted the design of becoming in his turn the Prosecutor of several booksellers for the sale of the complete edition of Shelley's Works, which had been recently issued by Mr. Moxon in a form similar to that in which he had published the collected works of the greatest English poets. He accordingly commissioned a person named Holt, then a compositor in his employ, to apply for the work at the shops of several persons eminent in the trade, and thus succeeded in obtaining copies of Mr. Moxon, of Mr. Fraser, and of Mr. Otley, or rather of the persons in their employ. On the sales thus obtained, indictments were preferred at the Central Criminal Court against the several vendors, which, with a similar indictment against Mr. Marshall, doubtless preferred by the same Prosecutor, were removed by certiorari at the instance of the defendants, and set down for trial by special juries. Mr. Moxon felt that, as the original publisher of the edition, he ought to bear the first attack; and therefore, although some advantage might have been gained by placing the case of a mere vendor before his own, he declined to use it, and entered his own cause the first of the series which were to be tried in Middlesex. These causes were called on for trial at the sittings after Hilary term; but the prosecutor was not prepared with the Attorney-general's warrant to pray a tales to supply the default of the special jury, and as the counsel for the defendant did not think it right to expedite his proceedings by doing so themselves, the cause went over, and ultimately came on for trial on Wednesday 23d June, when nine special jurymen appeared, and the panel was completed by a tales prayed for the prosecution. The indictment against Mr. Moxon, which the others exactly resembled, charged that he, being an evil-disposed and wicked person, disregarding the laws and religion of this realm, and wickedly and profanely devising and intending to bring the Holy Scriptures and the 'Christian religion into disbelief and contempt, unlawfully and wickedly, did falsely and maliciously publish a scandalous, impious, profane, and malicious libel of and concerning the Christian religion, and of and concerning the Holy Scriptures, and of and concerning Almighty God," in which were contained certain passages charged as blasphemous and profane. It then set forth a passage in blank verse, beginning, "They have three words: well tyrants know their use well pay them for the loan, with usury torn from a bleeding world!-God, Hell, and Heaven;" and after adding an innuendo, "meaning thereby that God, Hell, and Heaven, were merely words," proceeded to recite a few more lines, applying very coarse and irreverent, but not very intelligible com. ments to each of those words. It then charged, that the libel contained, in other parts, twc other passages, also in verse, and to which the same character may be justly applied.* It lastly set forth a passage of prose from the notes, the object of which seems to be to assert, that the belief in the plurality of worlds is inconsistent with "religious systems," and with "deifying the principle of the universe;" and which, after speaking in very disrespectful terms of the statements of Christian history as "irreconcilable with the knowledge of the stars," concludes with the strange inconsistency pointed out by Lord Denman in his charge, (if the author's intention was to deny the being of God,) "The work of His fingers have borne witness against them." The case for the prosecution was opened by Mr. Thomas with a judicious abstinence from any remark on the motives or object of the Prosecutor, and without informing the jury whe the Prosecutor was. He stated several cases, and dicta to establish the general proposition, that a work tending to bring religion into contempt and odium is an offence against the com. mon law, and, among others, that of Mr. Hetherington; read, besides the indicted passages, several others of a similar character, all selected from the poem of "Queen Mab;" eloquently eulogized the genius of Shelley, and fairly admitted the respectability of the defendant; and concluded by expressing the satisfaction he should feel if the result of this trial should esta blish, that no publications on religion should be subject for prosecution in future. He ther called Thomas Holt, who proved the purchase of the volume for twelve shillings at Mr. Mox on's shop; and who also proved, on cross-examination, that he made the purchase and other: at the desire of Mr. Hetherington, whom he understood to be the Prosecutor in this and the succeeding causes. The success of such a prosecution, proceeding from such a quarter, gives rise to very seri ous considerations; for although, in determining sentences, Judges will be able to diminish the evil, by a just discrimination between the publication of the complete works of an author of established fame, for the use of the studious, and for deposit in libraries, and the dissemination of cheap irreligion, directed to no object but to unsettle the belief of the reader-the power of prosecuting to conviction every one who may sell, or give, or lend any work containing passages to which the indictable character may be applied, is a fearful engine of oppression. Should such prosecutions be multiplied, and juries should not feel justified in adopting some principle of distinction like that for which I have feebly endeavoured to contend, they must lead to some alteration in the law, or to some restriction of the right to set it in action. It will, I think, be matter of regret among many who desire to respect the Law, and to see it wisely applied, that the question should have arisen; but since it has been so painfully raised, it is difficult to avoid it; and if the following address should present any materials for its elucidation, it will not, although unsuccessful in its immediate object, have been delivered entirely in vain. T. N. T. Serjeant's Inn, 28th June, 1841. May it please your Lordship, Gentlemen of the Jury, SPEECH, Ir has sometimes been my lot to express, and much oftener to feel, a degree of anxiety in addressing juries, which has painfully diminished the little power which I can ever command in representing the interests committed to my charge; but never has that feeling been so excited, and so justified, by any occasion as that on which it is my duty to address you. I am called from the Court in which I usually practise, to defend from the odious charge of blasphemy one with whom I have been acquainted for many years-one whom I have always believed incapable of wilful of fence towards God or towards man-one who was introduced to me in early and happy days, by the dearest of my friends who are gone before me-by Charles Lamb-to whom the wife *It has not been thought necessary to the argument to set out these passages; as it proceeds on the admission, that, separately considered, they are very offensive both to piety and good taste. of the defendant was as an adopted daughter, and who, dying, committed the interests which he left her in the products of his life of kindness to my charge. Would to God that the spirit which pervaded his being could decide the fate of this strange prosecution-I should only have to pronounce his name and to receive your verdict. Apart from these personal considerations, there is something in the nature of the charge itself, however unjustly applied to the party accused, which must depress a Christian advo cate addressing a Christian jury. On all other cases of accusation, he would implore the jurors, sworn to decide between the accuser and the defendant, to lay aside every prepossession-to forget every rumour-to strip themselves of every prejudice-to suppress every affection, which could prevent the exercise of a free and unclouded judgment; and, having made this appeal, or having forborne to make it as needless, he would regard the jury-box as a sacred spot, raised above all encircling |