The Chief Justice: If you will be crushed, it must be by the weight of your publication. If you have done something that cannot be defended without impugning the law of England, then you cannot be allowed to go into that kind of defence.
Mr. Carlile: My lord, I don't see that the law is against me.
The Chief Justice: Sir, I have already given my opinion on this point.
Mr. Carlile: My lord, you said that by the recent statute, but one of the provisions of the Act of William and Mary was repealed. I say that the three provisions were repealed.
The Chief Justice: Well, sir, that is your opinion; it is for the jury to say whether they will take the law from you or from me.
Mr. Carlile: My lord, the law is a very dubious thing.
The Chief Justice: Your course is very wrong. If you urge matter irrelevant, it is a loss of time; if you urge what is profane, it is still worse.
Mr. Carlile: My lord, what was written by Mr. Paine was also written by other eminent men, who were not prosecuted.
The Chief Justice: It does not follow that if the offences of those men were not punished, that others are to follow the same course with impunity.
Mr. Carlile: My lord, Mr. Gibbon has attacked the Christian religion in the most insidious manner. I am at liberty to go into its examination.