BLASPHEMY is an offense against God and religion, by denying to the Almighty his being and providence; or by contumelious reproaches of our Lord and Savior JCSUA Christ; also all profane scoffing at the Holy Scriptures, or exposing them to ridicule and contempt. Seditious words, moreover, in derogation of the established religion may be proved under a charge of blasphemy. These all are offenses punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous corporal punishment; for Christianity is held to be part of thc laws of England; and a blasphemous libel may be prosecuted as au offense at common law, and punished with tine and imprisonment. In Gathercole's case, tried at York, in 1838, where the defendant, a clergyman of the church of Eng land, was prosecuted for a libel on a Roman Catholic nunnery, and in which he also made a violent attack on the tenets and the morality of the Roman Catholic church, it was laid down by the judge who tried the case (the late baron Alderson), that a person may, without being liable to prosecution for it, attack Judaism, or 31ahommedanism, or even any sect of the Christian religion, save the established religion of the country; and the only reason why the latter is in a different situation from the others is because it is the Orin established by law, and is therefore a part of the constitution of the country. But any general attack on Christianity is also the subject of criminal prosecution, because Christianity is the public religion of the country. Thus, as an offense against religion, B. may assume one of two forms: first, either as against the articles and creeds of the established church; or secondly, as against a dissenting community, iu the libel against whom, a general attack on the Christian religion is involved, The B. must in some manner have been overtly and publicly declared, either by a speech on some pub lic occasion, or by the act of publication in print.
The Scotch law regarding this offense is now very much the same. The old severe Scotch acts, one passed in 1661, and another in 1695, which provided capital punishment for offenses of this description, were repealed by the 53 Geo. III. c. 160. The punish ment is now arbitrary at common law; and by the 6 Geo. IV. c. 47, the punishment of B. is further restricted, and made the same as in England. It is also enacted by the second section of that act, that a person convicted of a second offense may be adjudged, at the discretion of the court, either to suffer the punishment of fine or imprisonment, or both, or to be banished the country; but the provision as to the punishment of banish ment is repealed by the 7 Will. IV. c. 5. The latest and most remarkable illustration of the Scotch law regarding this offense, is a case that was tried before the high court of justiciary in 1843. The prisoner, who defended himself, was accused, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for fifteen months, for publishing profane, impious, and blasphemous books, containing a denial of the truth and authority of the Holy Scriptures and of the Christian religion, and devised, contrived, and intended to ridicule and bring into contempt the same. In the course of the trial, the prisoner endeavored to
his conduct by quotations from the Bible, which. he maintained, warranted the language of the blasphemous works in question. But the court would not allow such a line of defense, and the lord justice-clerk (the late right honorable John Ilope), in charging !La jury, pointed out that the indictment charged that the wicked and felonious publication of such works is a crime, and that therefore the jury were not to consider themselves ('imaged in any theological discussion, bat simply in trying whether a known and ree msnized offense against the law had been committed. iris lordship proceeded further to ei;pound the law as :allows: "Now, the law of Seatland, apart fmm all questions of ehurch establishment or church government, has declared that the Holy Scriptures are of supreme authorn,y. It gives every man the right of regulating his faith or not by the standard of the Holy Scriptures, and gives full scope to private judgment, regarding the doctrines contained therein; but It expressly provides that all ' blasphemies shall be suppressed,' and that they who publish opinions 'contrary to thc known of Christianity,' may be lawfully called to account, and proceeded by the civil magistrate. This law does not impose upon individuals any obliga tions as to their belief. It leaves free and independent the right of private belief, but it carefully protects that which was established as part of the law, from being into contempt." The learned judge also observed: "I think it also my duty to add—as a part of the [prison er's] address was directed against the policy and expediency of this prosecution—that think it was a most proper and fit prosecution. 1 nave no doubt of the effect that will result from this prosecution; because, though, in his advertisement and address, this individual declares that he addresses himself chiefly to the working-classes of Scotland, yet I am sure that he deceives himself if he imagines that that is a class which would easily part with their belief in those truths, which are perhaps more valuable to them in this life than to any other class in the community. There may, indeed, be a class of persons, like the prisoner at the bar, in situations above that of the working-classes, young men whose education is imperfect, and their reading misdirected; and it is to save them from the mischief of these opinions that it is necessary the law should take its course. See RELIGION, OFFENSES AGAINST. '