On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
means follows that the to * has : and that , on the contrary ! if the law makes auy pretensions to justice , all persons should be equal in its eyes , especially where the free exercise and profession of religious opinions has been formally granted and mi aran t **(* r \ _______ __ iri
Untitled Article
Intelligence . ^ -Foreign . 307
Untitled Article
wonder has wot been exploded as superstitious and unpleasant—that of kissing the Gospels ; the consequence of which is , that when a witness appears who is not a believer in the Gospels , either some other book must be found for hini , as if some book were part of the magic , or some rite ( never mind how ridiculous ) must be substituted ; and if the man has no rite at all to practise , our law knows no other course than to refuse his
testimony altogether . The French law having provided a simple , solemn form , which suits every oue who has any religious opinion at all , no difficulty whatever arises on the subject . Some over-zealous people , however , lately before the Cour Royale of Nismes , wished to bring iu all the objectionable
points of our practice by objecting to a Jew ' s being sworn in the simple , comprehensive form of the law , and requiring that his religious opinions should be inquired into and recognized by the Court , aud that he should not be allowed the oath in the usual form , but should take the oath " more judaico . "
On the other hand , the counsel on his behalf ( himself a Jew ) contended , that any inquiries of the sort by the court , into the opiuions of a man who attended them as a citizen , ready to take the oath required by law , was an attack on the
religious liberty secured by the charter ; that the court had no right to put a mark of singularity upon any one ; that if a man was obliged to declare his opinions for any purpose , his liberty was incomplete ; that he owed au account of them to no one , uot even to the law ; that the law could not have
either the desire or the power to inquire into the matter ; that it knew men neither as Catholics , Protestauts , nor Jews , but as citizens ; that though the Catholic religion was , by the charter , the religion of the state , it was uot and could not be the religion of the law , without destroyiug those other provisions of the charter which secured to all the free exercise of their religion . The court decided in favour of these
arguments , holding that all Frenchmen were equal in the eye of the law , and that the principles of equality towards all religious opinions guaranteed by the charter , would be violated if a French Jew were compelled against his will to take the oath in a different foim from that prescribed to hi » fellow-citizens . The distinction appears to us as a sensible one , of holding , that though the state may have made a particular form of religion part and parcel of itsejf , it by no
Untitled Article
Liberty of the Press . We have more than once ( says the Globe ) had occasion to notice the resistance of the judicial authorities in France to the attacks of the Government on the Liberty of the Press . We are happy to be able to record an iustauce of similar
conduct on the part of a body of English Judges—the Supreme Court of Bombay , who have disallowed a Regulation for the suppression of the freedom of printing , which was passed by the Governor in Council of that Presidency . The regulation was similar to that registered in Calcutta by Sir F . JVIacnaghten , ( at the time the only Judge of the Supreme Court there , ) and confirmed on appeal before the Privy Council . —We have been
favoured by the Editor of the Oriental Herald , to whom the judgment delivered in the case has been transmitted , with a copy of this valuable document . Of the three Judges of the Supreme Court , Sir E . West ( the Chief ) and Mr . Justice Chambers concurred in disallowing the regulation . Mr . Justice Rice would have allowed it * The language of this Judge , however , it will be seen , is not less remarkable than that of his
colleagues , for he does not hesitate to say , that , as far as his own opinion went , the regulation , even at Calcutta , was inexpedient , as well as repugnant to the laws of England , though , on the question of expediency he thought fit to defer to the Government ; and on that of the repugnancy , to the appellate authority . He says , ** I have read the case of
the press of India before the King in Council ; but still I think the clause as to the change iu the proposed rule is repugnant to the law of England , and that policy did not , and does not , require it . It is argued , I think , too much as if the Natives had been at all affected by the licentiousness of the press ; the mibchief in Calcutta was wholly , 1 think , confined
to the English , and would , £ am persuaded , have remedied itself . Considering , as 1 dothat the liberties of England are part of the law of the laud , and that they depeud on ( he freedom of the press , I cannot conceive how a licence , which is to stop its mouth and stifle its voice , can be consistent with ^ nct not repugnant to , the law of England " >
Untitled Article
. ~_> -mm —*—— - * rw —»» « , _* ^ — INDIA .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 307, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/75/
-