The Debate in the House of Commons, on Wednesday, March 26, 1823: On Mr. Hume's Presenting a Petition From Mary Ann Carlile, a Prisoner in Dorchester Gaol (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from The Debate in the House of Commons, on Wednesday, March 26, 1823: On Mr. Hume's Presenting a Petition From Mary Ann Carlile, a Prisoner in Dorchester Gaol

Mr. Hume, in presenting a Petition from Mary Ann Carlile, complaining of hardship, and praying for redress, felt it necessary to state that he was aware there was a great prejudice against the name of Carlile; but he hoped the House, would in the present case divest itself of all prejudice against her, on account of her brother. He conceived that a very important principle was involved in the case of Mary Ann Carlile. The prosecution against her was instituted, not by the Attorney or Solicitor General, who he (Mr Hume) conceived were the only legal preservers of the peace and good morals of the community; but by Societies which he had long viewed with great jealousy, namely, the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the Constitutional Association. These Societies were little better than conspiracies against the liberty of the subject; and the individuals prosecuted by them might be justly considered as their victims. By a joint purse they were enabled to bear down individuals even in point of expence; and thus render it quite useless to make resistance. The operation which their influence was calculated to produce on the minds of a jury was no small matter. Such had been the case in many trials: but he was desirous of confining himself strictly to the present case. He had had the Petition in his possession exactly one month. He had been unwilling to present it, until he could ascertain who had been the Petitioner's prosecutors. She was tried on the same day at the suit of the Constitutional Association for a seditious libel, and acquitted, and at the suit of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and found guilty. He had been anxious to discover who the prosecutors in the latter case were; but he had been ten or fourteen days in finding out the Members of the Society for Vice (a laugh). Well! he could prove that the Society was one not for Suppression, but for the Promotion of Vice. On enquiry he understood that there had not been a list of the Members published since 1803, or at latest 1807. The difficulty that he experienced in ascertaining the names of the Members, assisted in leading him to the extraordinary conclusion that those individuals must of necessity be infidels, men who shunned the light, who disbelieved the Christian religion, and who wished to diffuse the principles of scepticism as widely as possible (a laugh).

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