ction of the Legislature of Alabama; and a
similar piece of brutality has been recommended by a committee in the
Pennsylvania Legislature recently. The following is quoted from the
History.

THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE AND THE SPIRITS--PROPHECY IN THE ALABAMA
LEGISLATIVE HALLS--RETRIBUTION.

Sometime about the month of January, 1860, the Legislature of Alabama
passed a bill declaring that any person or persons giving public
spiritual manifestations in Alabama should be subject to a penalty of
five hundred dollars.

We have given the substance, though not the exact wording of this
edict, which was met by considerable opposition, not only on the part
of great numbers of Spiritualists resident in the State, but also by
the governor himself, who refused to give his sanction to the bill.

Mr. George Redman, the celebrated physical test medium, had just
passed through the South, and remained long enough to create an
immense interest throughout its length and breadth.

The author was already engaged to deliver a course of lectures in
Mobile, and numerous invitations were sent to her from other parts of
the State.

As Mrs. Hardinge's visit was anticipated at the very time when the
bill above named was in agitation, its friends in the Legislature
considered themselves much aggrieved by the governor's refusal to
sanction its passage, and deeming either that he was suspiciously
favorable to the cause it was designed to destroy, or that their own
case would be aggravated by the advent of the expected lecturer, they
passed their bill over the governor's veto, just twenty-four hours
before the explosion anticipated on her arrival could take place.

On landing in Mobile, Mrs. Hardinge was greeted by a large and
enthusiastic body of friends, but found herself precluded, by
legislative wisdom, from expounding the sublime truths of immortality
in a city whose walls were placarded all over with bills announcing
the arrival of Madame Leon, the celebrated "seeress and business
clairvoyant, who would show the picture of your future husband, tell
the successful numbers in lotteries, and enable any despairing lover
to secure the affections of his heart's idol," etc. Side by side with
these creditable but legalized exhibitions, were flaming announcements
of "the humbug of Spiritualism exposed by Herr Marvel," with a long
list of all the astonishing feats which "this only genuine living
wizard" would display for the benefit of the pious S