bel (Shelley's _Queen Mab_), the prosecution having been
instituted by Henry Hetherington, who had previously been condemned to
four months' imprisonment for a similar offence, and wished to test the
law under which he was punished. In the case of _Cowan_ v. _Milbourn_
(1867) the defendant had broken his contract to let a lecture-room to
the plaintiff, on discovering that the intended lectures were to
maintain that "the character of Christ is defective, and his teaching
misleading, and that the Bible is no more inspired than any other book,"
and the court of exchequer held that the publication of such doctrine
was blasphemy, and the contract therefore illegal. On that occasion the
court reaffirmed the dictum of Chief Justice Hale, that Christianity is
part of the laws of England. The commissioners on criminal law (sixth
report) remark that "although the law forbids _all_ denial of the being
and providence of God or the Christian religion, it is only when
irreligion assumes the form of an insult to God and man that the
interference of the criminal law has taken place." In England the last
prominent prosecution for blasphemy was the case of _R._ v. _Ramsey &
Foote_, 1883, 48 L.T. 739, when the editor, publisher and printer of the
_Freethinker_ were sentenced to imprisonment; but police court
proceedings were taken as late as 1908 against an obscure Hyde Park
orator who had become a public nuisance.

Profane cursing and swearing is made punishable by the Profane Oaths Act
1745, which directs the offender to be brought before a justice of the
peace, and fined five shillings, two shillings or one shilling,
according as he is a gentleman, below the rank of gentleman, or a common
labourer, soldier, &c.

By the law of Scotland, as it originally stood, the punishment of
blasphemy was death, but by an act of 1825, amended in 1837, blasphemy
was made punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.

In France, blasphemy (which included, also, speaking against the Holy
Virgin and the saints, denying one's faith, or speaking with impiety of
holy things) was from very early times punished with great severity. The
punishment was death in various forms, burning alive, mutilation,
torture or corporal punishment. In the United States the common law of
England was largely followed, and in most of the states, also, statutes
were enacted against the offence, but, as in England, the law is
practically never put in force. In Germany, the punishm