1769. The Act against prophane fwearing confidered. But of far more excellent properties and qualities than they now have. Our weak, earthly, corruptible bodies, are in no wife confiftent with the enjoyment of compleat happiness, nor fuited to the fruition of those better things God has provided for us in heaven. Flefb and blood [having the qualities and properties they now have] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. The fuppofition of the reduction of the body to I know not what ftamina, which, I prefume, are neither flesh, nor blood, nor bones (nec quid, nec quale, nec quantum), and compofe a body having neither of thefe in it, in order, as I imagine, to account for the fameness of body, is perfectly groundless and abfurd: nor does it appear to be of any confequence in general, whether our bodies be, or be not compofed of the felf fame matter of which they now confift. I need not add, that the words quoted by the city minifter from the revelations are quite foreign to the purpose, and relate to a quite different fubject; and that he introduces with no less impropriety 1 Cor. vi. 13. I am, fir, your's, &c. T. G. To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, SEY MAGAZINE. EVERAL convictions upon the act against prophane fwearing have appeared in the London papers fince the beginning of the year, and every one of thefe convictions have inflicted the legal penalty, so much, upon every oath. But, fir, many of the country gentlemen diffent in this point from your city magiftrates, and ftill infift, agree ably to the letter of the act, that the penalty is fo much for the time of fwearing, that is, of continuing in the fame company, or for any longer or fhorter period during fuch time as the offender continues in the fame fituation, place, company, &c. and that all the oaths and curfes which he utters during this feafon, are even meant by the act to pafs for one fingle offence. For, understood in the other fenfe, they tell you, the act is ruinous and deftructive, and expofes a poor man, who shall be convicted of swear. 243 ing thirty or forty oaths, and incurs a penalty of thirty or forty fhillings, to a debt which all his purfe and his credit together cannot discharge, and thence to the neceffity of hard labour in a house of correction for ten days. This, fay they, is curfed hard, and could never be the defign of the legiflature to punish a man so severely for fo common an offence. True, indeed, it certainly never was, nor could be, the defign of a British legislature to opprefs any man whatsoever, and if the law inflicts a penalty upon tranfgreffion, let the tranfgreffor fee to that, and take care that his conduct be fuch as is not liable to impeachment. Where there is no law, there is no tranfgreffion, nor confequently infliction of penalty; but where there is no law, there is anarchy and confufion; and therefore the inftitution of law is juft and good, and the application of it to punish transgreffion is for the fake of public peace and order. It is then every man's duty to take care how he makes himfelf the subject of it's application. Ay, but, fays, the objector, fo feverely for fo common an offence? First to the objection, fo feverely. It has been no uncommon practice in offences of this kind to inform against the offender for fo many oaths or curfes out of the whole number he has uttered, in which cafe he is very moderately dealt with, and made to fuffer no greater penalty than his circumftances will bear. Here then is no ground for the imputation of severity; and therefore to go a point farther with the objector, and admit that the offender is informed againft, convicted, and fined for every oath he swears ftill here is no occafion to cry out against the feverity of the proceeding; none will cry out against it, who confiders candidly what the fin of prophane fwearing is. Firft, if the crime was fo enormous among the Jews, what punishment does it not deserve among Christians? Why truly, infinitely greater. 2. The bold and thoughtless mixture of this name, a name which all the world, vifible and invifible, reveres! with all our little levities and follies; and what is worse, with our very exceffes and debaucheries. 3. The momentary repetition of this prophanation, unreHh z garded, 244 Extracts from the Act against fwearing, "Forafmuch as the horrid, impious, and execrable vices of prophane curfing and fwearing (fo highly displeasing to Almighty God, and loathsome and offenfive to every Chriftian) are become fo frequent and notorious, that unless speedily and effectually punished, they may juftly provoke the divine vengeance to increafe the many calamities thefe nations now labour under; and fo forth." Now can any man in his fenfes imagine, that to convict a man in the penalty of one fhilling for fwearing, perhaps as is very often the cafe, a hundred oaths at one fitting, converfation, &c. is the means of effectually punishing this crime? And if the parliament meant (as many gentlemen would have it to mean) that a fingle penalty fhould be inflicted upon fo aggregated an offence, how glaring is the inconfiftency between their expreffions of abhorrence, and their fanction of the frivolous penalty? Should a fingle perfon apply in earneft fo weak and contemptible an expedient, to accomplish fo difficult an end, he would be deemed either very fottish or very fenfelefs. But the wifdom of parliament, where the national virtue is at fake, does not rifque it's decrees upon fuch evafive and pervertible fanctions. There is one very plain declaration in the expreffion of the act itself, affigning the penalty to one fingle oath, or one fingle curfe; it is in the form of conviction, directed by the act, and ordered to be filed by the clerk of the peace among the records of the county, viz. "Be it remembered, that on the day of in the year of his majefty's reign, A. B. was convicted be May fore me, &c. of fwearing one or more prophane oath or oaths, or of curfing one or more prophane curse or curfes, as the cafe fhall be." Here then it is undeniable that the penalty is levyable, according to the very letter of the act, upon one fingle oath. And is it no more horrid nor impious to utter a hundred oaths than to utter one? Many fober, virtuous men are prompted by inadvertency, or flush of temper, to throw out one oath, have occafionally, more than once, done it, and repented of the expreffion; but is this comparable to the guilt and confidence of a profligate fellow, who difcharges this furious ammunition in whole vollies?—That is no more than chriftian powder compared to this. The misfortune is, the letter of the penal claufe is too evadable and ambiguous; it fays, "If any perfon fhall prophanely curfe or fwear (where, by the way, if it is but one oath, in that cafe he prophanely curfes or fwears), every perfon fo offending fhall forfeit and lofe the refective fums herein after mentioned, hat is to fay; every day labourer, &c." Had the expreffion run thus; Every perfon (o offended fhall forfeit and lofe for every oath or curfe the respective fums herein after mentioned, this would have fuperfeded every kind of debate relating to the repetition of the offence, and no man would have been fo unreasonable as to interpret the intent of the act against the plain denunciation of the letter. But it is the ambiguity in the penal clause which has furnithed gentlemen with a pretence to widen the meaning of the paffage, and conftrue it to comprehend exorbitant and complicated under the fame tranfgreffion as moderate and fingle guilt; many of which gentlemen, it is not to be doubted, have their judgment warped by the influence of their practice, and love palliation rather than expofition, because their words are evil-it is but one inftance among innumerable others of a practice affimilating to itself it's principles, and extenuating the enormity of it's crime upon the very wort plea it can adopt, the frequency of commiffion. Let us next confider this circumftance, viz. The commonnels of the offence. Is want of reverence towards God e'er the 1769. With judicious Remarks thereon. the lefs finful, though all the world were guilty of it? Is murder, confidered in itself, lefs criminal in Spain where it is frequent, than in England where it is very rare. Is robbery upon the high road a lefs crime in a feasoned and thorough paced morauder, than it is in the trembling, yet pilfering, novitiate? Is the ruinous luft of the old debauchee lefs pernicious, - because more familiar, than the early gallantries of the blufhing young wanton? On the contrary, we find that in all these cafes habit and inveteracy enhances guilt, and in every judiciary examination of it is efteemed fo; and pray why is it not the cafe in common fwearing? Sure I am that it has a manifeft tendency to produce one of the most monstrous vices that can infeft human fociety, that is, perjury. If it is then fo offeafive and pernicious to man, and fo horrid and impious with respect to God, most affuredly the commonnefs of the offence can be no other than an enlargement and aggravation of it's guilt. It is in vain to plead that you fwear inadvertently, and when you do not think of it; for you fwear because you do not think of it. It is as habitual and familiar to a man of virtue not to fwear, and in his converfation not to think of it, as it is to a profligate to fwear without thinking of it; and therefore neither habit nor inadvertency will truly apologize, no more than hurry or provocation will justify the commiffion of it. The commonnefs of offence, either in the offender himself or in the examples, of others, is a plea, which, if admitted, deftroys every virtue, and when virtue is loft, every degree of reformation. Apply it to gaming, to drinking, to fraudulent dealing, &c. and it will turn out an useful and univerfal falvo. It will reconcile any kind of immorality as well as any kind of irreligion, and the more familiar or more habituated the offence, the more eafy the apology. Such a douceur reminds me of an impudent apology offered by a gracious fon of the kirk, upon his being detected in crim. con. with his neighbour's wife; "I was cuftomary, he faid, in that place, and where fin did abound, grace did much more abound." In short, to offer inadvertency and 245 habit in apology for indifcretions and imprudences only, is a very admiffible plea, and has all the fanctions of truth and juftice in it's favour, and this is the boundary of their innocence; but to plead thefe in extenuation of immorality and prophaneness, will by no means ferve the offender's turn, it will not stand the bar of reason, much lefs will it endure, for we are affured it will not, the bar of heaven. Be the opinions of men what they will, and whatever they may chufe by corruption or infatuation to make them, ftill neither the hardeft ftraining, nor the moft fubtle refinements of them, will not, cannot change the reality of things. Virtue and vice have an effential and unchangeable difference, and retain their natures in fpite of all the prejudicate and distorted opinions in the world; the exorbitancies of the one will ever, in the view of impartial and unbiaffed reason, be treated with abhorrence and deteftation, as the improvement and exaltation of the other will be treated with refpect and honour. Suppose then the penalty of the act defigned to be extended to every oath, it is no more than what is conformable to the terms of abhorrence which the preamble utters against the offence, and a rational and confiftent fcheme of penalty is exhibited in the offence, and of morality in the prohibition-an example this of truth and virtue well befeeming the wifdom of a British parliament, and only in exact character of it untainted by ambition, and unwarned by faction. Once more to the fine gentlemen who are fine fwearers. What merit in the name of honour do they, can they arrogate from expreffions, which every fcoundrel can, and at prefent do, pronounce with as much distinctnefs, elevation, and emphasis, as themfelves? It is low, d-d low, and to the laft degree inconfiftent with their affectation of grace and tafte in other things: in painting, in mufick, in languages, in fine writing, &c. the lower rank of people have it not in their power to rival them; here therefore their marks of diftinction are unavoidable, the poffeffion of taste their own property. Whoever paffes the fence to the herd of cattle on the other fide, does no more than rank accurf edly To live for ourselves, was never the intention of our existence; every individual was created in aid of its fellow individual; a conviction fufficient to incite the Benevolents to communicate their plan for public utility, and in proportion to the opportunities they obtain of faving, or ferving, the inconfiderate or unprotected, will their general felicity, as well as felf-enjoyment, be augmented. The following letter has been productive of feveral extra meetings, as the peculiarity of the diftrefs requires a judicious ftroke for its effectual relief. To the BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. "LADIES, A most fortunate circumftance fhall I have reafon to deem my accidental knowledge of the Benevolent Society, if it is but poffible for its members to teach me how to extricate myself from my prefent difficulties. My father and mother are citizens, who from a mean origin, and limited profpects, have long been poffeffed of many thoufands. As they themselves on a variety of occafions experienced the mortification and difadvantage of ignorance, they determined their children's minds and manners fhould be fufficiently cultivated: for this purpose a boarding school early received me and two fifters, whose capacities were judged fo fuperior to mine, that the highest expectations were formed of their improvement. Nor was the partiality of my relations confined merely to this particular; from my infancy I had been brow-beat and difcouraged, whilft my fifters were flattered and carefied---a misfortune, which though painfully felt, was fuftained by me with unrepining humility, and unabating good humour. The period of education elapfed... I became a kind of upper fervant in the house of my father. My drefs fuitable to every other species of neglect, bespoke me in no degree above a common dependant. The friends of pride and vanity unreluctantly complied with the rules of the family; and as the poor Cindrillo was never enquired for, he had leifure to shed her unavailing tears unapprehenfive of all interruption. A lively uninformed country girl was now hired to wait on my lady fifters, who, from finding herself imperiously treated by them, fought every occafion of recommending herself to me. Offices of tenderness, and vivacity of conversation, were too pleafing charms not to win the heart of inexperience. She was my companion and my friend, we shared our feveral employments, and passed our unengaged hours together, nor was it poffible to foresee an unhappy termination of what appeared fo natural and innocent. As my father and mother keep a great deal of company, and were fond of public diverfions, their home was not exempt from irregularity. Charlotte's Charlotte's rufticity gradually wore off, her tafte for dress became confpicuous, and the admiration of every clerk and 'prentice-boy in the, neighbourhood the confequence. She would frequently affure me that my figure had it's beauties, but as I was unable to discover them, I fhook my head at the wellintended flattery, and refolved that my mind fhould be the only object of my attention. But what is refolution in a girl of fifteen ?-One evening, when all impediments were removed, a magic Janthorn was called in by fome of the fervants, and I was at length prevailed on to participate the frolic; the lights were extinguished the exhibition commenced-when Charlotte, having conveyed two or three of her admirers into the house, propofed a fort of ball to the coarse mufic then in our power; a propofal that met with univerfal approbation. A gay young fellow, who had the honour of being my partner, occafionally entertained me with the fofteft nonfenfe imaginable. He was very handfome, and, notwithstanding all the folly of youth, in no degree unamiable in his behaviour. The approbation he infpired me with, was too agreeable to be repreffed, and from that hour I began to feel the ftrong dominion of long concealed vanity, and idle ambition. Abundance of the most pathetic epiftles were nevertheless delivered to me by the indifcreet Charlotte, and on my part as indifcreetly received, before I had the temerity to return an answer; but even that firft answer I have reason to believe, from the event, was fo propitious as amply to atone for paft fufpence. Interviews were foon effected-the play, the public gardens, clandeftinely vifited, and both my perfon and reputation at the mercy of a fet of hirelings and profligates. At one of thefe bleffed periods, an iufult was offered me, which I remember with horror; and produced an univerfal alteration, both in my fentiments and conduct. Charlotte was fo offended at the prudery and ill-nature I had practifed, and I conceived fo ill an opinion of her principles, that for the fhort time he continued at my father's, we avoided each other with the fame industry we 247 had formerly fought occafions of converfing; nor did I fail to rejoice when a matrimonial engagement removed her for ever from my fight. Confcious innocence, notwithftanding confcious indifcretion was it's concomitant, was now the support, the confolation of my folitude. As I ftrolled from room to room however one day, I luckily found the way to my fifter's library, where for ornament, rather than ufe, was a very confiderable collection of the best authors, all which I eagerly perused with wonder and delight-now I exulted in my deliverance from ruin, and then I defpifed the folly I had been guilty of. In this state of fluctuation did my mind continue for above two years, when the tranquillity of reafon began to dawn upon me. As I was drinking my tea, one afternoon, with a volume of the Tatlers in my hand, the parlour door unexpectedly opened, and an elegant young fellow entered. I beheld him with furprize-he apologized politely for his intrufion, and afked me if my name was not Mifs Hawkins? Having anfwered in the affirmative-he refumed-You feem furprized, madam, but be affured, you are not more fo than myself. I vifited this house with the utmost repugnance ;-one's inclinations cannot always obey even a paternal command. I was prepared to encounter a haughty fupercilious lady, but I begin to apprehend the generous motive of that defcription it was in order that I might receive the deeper impreffion of your apparent gentleness and fenfibility, nor has it failed of the wifhed-for effect. At this moment the mystery was unravelled. My father, with his eldest daughter in his hand, inftantly joined us, and I received a fignificant look to withdraw myself. Falfe modefty, in conjunction with actual apprehenfion, restrained me from communicating the compliment I had received-but as all concealment is in general blameable, so I have abundant reafon to regret that ever I practifed it. This young gentleman, under various pretences, found opportunities of addreffing me, and declared, that however his dependance on an auftere father compelled him to temporize for a time, I was the only ob ject |