etc., etc."

{180} Perhaps had this been published, the Government would have assailed
it as a libel on the church service. They got into the way of defending
themselves by making libels on the Church, of what were libels, if on
anything, on the rulers of the State; until the celebrated trials of Hone
settled the point for ever, and established that juries will not convict
for one offence, even though it have been committed, when they know the
prosecution is directed at another offence and another intent.

HONE'S FAMOUS TRIALS.

The results of Hone's trials (William Hone, 1779-1842) are among the
important constitutional victories of our century. He published parodies on
the Creeds, the Lord's Prayer, the Catechism, etc., with intent to bring
the Ministry into contempt: everybody knew that was his _purpose_. The
Government indicted him for impious, profane, blasphemous intent, but not
for seditious intent. They hoped to wear him out by proceeding day by day.
December 18, 1817, they hid themselves under the Lord's Prayer, the Creed,
and the Commandments; December 19, under the Litany; December 20, under the
Athanasian Creed, an odd place for shelter when they could not find it in
the previous places. Hone defended himself for six, seven, and eight hours
on the several days: and the jury acquitted him in 15, 105, and 20 minutes.
In the second trial the offense was laid both as profanity and as sedition,
which seems to have made the jury hesitate. And they probably came to think
that the second count was false pretence: but the length of their
deliberation is a satisfactory addition to the value of the whole. In the
first trial the Attorney-General (Shepherd) had the impudence to say that
the libel had nothing of a political tendency about it, but was _avowedly_
set off against the religion and worship of the Church of England. The
whole {181} is political in every sentence; neither more nor less political
than the following, which is part of the parody on the Catechism: "What is
thy duty towards the Minister? My duty towards the Minister is, to trust
him as much as I can; to honor him with all my words, with all my bows,
with all my scrapes, and with all my cringes; to flatter him; to give him
thanks; to give up my whole soul to him; to idolize his name, and obey his
word, and serve him blindly all the days of his political life." And the
parody on the Creed begins, "I believe in George, the Regent almighty,
make