or wilful false swearing, in a matter material to the issue, when the party is duly sworn to declare the truth, and subornation of perjury. To this class may be added Blasphemy, which consists in denying, cursing, or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government, or final judging of the world, or by cursing or reproaching Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost, or the Scriptures. Blasphemy,' however criminal in the sight of heaven, is by our laws punished as a civil offence of a very dangerous tendency. To procure credit to human testimony, and to secure the fidelity of officers in public stations, all wise legislatures have devised some act of religion. By our laws, Witnesses and Public Officers are bound by the sacred obligations of an oath in the name of that Being, who will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain. If, therefore, any person might with impunity revile and contumeliously reproach the Sovereign of the Universe, his attributes, his providence, his son, his spirit, or his word, a reverence for his character and perfections would be impaired, a regard to his omniscience and justice would be diminished, and the solemn sanction of an oath would degenerate to an idle ceremony.

2. Other misdemeanors are against good morals,--as Adultery and Polygamy. Although the persons principally injured by these offences are the innocent parties, yet they violate the rights of the marriage bed, and poison the endearing charities of domestic life. Lascivious cohabitation between man and woman, when either of the parties is married, and open gross lewdness, whether the party is or is not married; also the crimes against nature, which formerly were felonies, but now are reduced to disgusting misdemeanors.

3. Some misdemeanors affect the rights of persons, as As

1 Stat. of July 3, 1782, vol. 4th. p. 150.

2 Stat. 17 Feb. 1785, Vol. 5, p. 234-5.

* Stat. of Feb. 28, 1785, vol. 5, p. 241. Repealed. The Stat. of 1805, c. 88, p. 104 and the Stat. of 16 Mar. 1805, vol. 8, p. 666–7, punish the offence by solitary imprisonment.

saults and batteries; and the malicious maiming or disfiguring the person of another.2

4. Some misdemeanors depend on, or are greatly aggravated by the intent with which the act is done. As Assaults,3 with the intent maliciously to maim or disfigure another, or with the intent to commit Robbery-Rape-or Murder. In this last description, are included all who fight a duel, and their advisers and seconds, when no homicide ensueth. Also the giving or accepting a challenge to fight a duel, when no duel be fought. Also the entering in the night time, without breaking, or the breaking and entering in the day time, any dwelling house or any outhouse adjoining and occupied with it, or any office, shop, warehouse, ship or vessel, with the intent to perpetrate some felony.*

5. Some misdemeanors affect the rights of property, among which are, the malicious killing, maiming, or disfiguring the cattle of another. The receiving of stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen; this offence may be prosecuted and punished as a misdemeanor before the prosecution of the principal. Counterfeiting any gold or silver coin current within the State, or uttering or having in possession any such counterfeit money with intent to pass the same as good, knowing it to be counterfeit. Or the having in possession, or the making or mending any tools, with the intent to use them for counterfeiting any coins of this description. Forging or altering certain instruments and securities, both of a public and private nature, including bank notes lawfully issued, with the intent to defraud others. Or the uttering such instruments or securities with such fraudulent design. Or the

1 Hawk. P. C. B. 1 c. 62.

2 Stat. of Mar. 15, 1805, vol. 8, p. 644.

? Vide preceding note, and Stat. of Mar. 16, 1805, vol. 8, p. 693, & Stat. 1805, c. 97.

▲ Stat. of 1805, c. 101, or Mar. 13, 1806, p. 122.

5 Stat. Mar. 16, 1805, vol. 8. P. 661-2.

• Ibid. p. 696-7.

7 Stat. of Mar. 15, 1805, vol. 8, p. 637.

8 lbid.

having in possession, with the intent of fraudulently uttering, any forged or altered bank note. Or the having in possession the tools or materials for forging such notes, with the intent to use them for that purpose.

6. There are some misdemeanors which endanger or disturb the Public Peace; as the publishing false and malicious libels,' affecting the conduct or character of others, whether they are public officers or private citizens. Barretry, which consists in stirring up suits and quarrels among the people, either in the country, or in courts of law." And when three acts of barretry have been committed by any man, he may be indicted as a common barreter. Riots, routs, and unlawful assemblies.3 A riot is the unlawful assembling together of three or more persons, with the intent mutually to assist each other in doing an unlawful act, or even a lawful act in an unlawful manner, and proceeding to execute their design to the terror of the people.

7. Public nuisances form another class of misdemeanors. The erecting of a public nuisance, which, from its nature or situation, may affect the lives, health, or accommodation of the citizens, is an offence deserving at all times particular enquiry. It is also a public nuisance to place obstructions in highways and on bridges; or to suffer them to be out of repair and dangerous to those who have occasion to use them.5 They are so necessary for the safe, easy, and expeditious passage from place to place, that sufficient labor and expense in keeping them in repair is in fact the best economy.

8. The last class of misdemeanors, Gentlemen, to which I shall call your attention, are those which relate to the laws providing for the instruction of youth, and the diffusion of

1 Hawk. P. C. B. 1 c. 73.

2 Hawk. P. C. B. 1 c. 81.

3 Hawk. P. C. B. 1, c. 65.

4 Hawk. P. C. B. 1, c. 75. Stat. of June 7, 1785, vol. 5. p. 281. Stat. of Mar. 4, 1800, v. 7, p. 395.

5 Stat. of Mar. 5, 1787, vol. 5. p. 615, Stat. Feb. 28, 1797, vol. 7, p. 63, plantations.

religious knowledge through the State. Without public schools,' the children of many citizens will grow up in ignorance, without a knowledge of their rights or duties, and will become a burden on that government which it should be their duty to support. The laws therefore enjoin us to teach the rising generation to be good citizens, and to provide, as nearly as possible, equal advantages for all, who are to possess equal rights.

The diffusion of religious knowledge is also essential to the well being of the State. And it cannot be effected, but by the settlement and support of teachers in towns, parishes, and societies incorporated for religious purposes. Some persons have professed dissatisfaction with our constitution and the laws made in obedience to it, for its interference, as they supposed, with religion; and they have considered the people as assuming a power which the founder of it reserved to himself. A short review of the subject may, perhaps, satisfy us, that the people not only had a right, but that it was their duty to provide by law for religious instruction.3

Every well regulated government, established for the people, ought to contain within itself the principles and powers necessary to promote and secure their happiness. This happi

1 Stat. of June 25, 1789, v. 9, p. 18. Add. Act. v. 7, p. 380. Feb. 28, 1800.2 Const. 3 art. of Decl. of Rights. Stat. of Mar. 4, 1800, vol. 7. p. 405. 3 [Very lately, the third article of the Bill of Rights, prefixed to the Constitution of Massachusetts, has been amended, in respect to the features praised by Chief Justice Parsons. By that article, as it originally stood, the legislature were authorized to require of the several parishes and towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily; also to enjoin upon all the subjects (this last word is used in the Constitution) an attendance upon the instructions of these public teachers. The amended article, however, while it secures to the several religious societies of the Commonwealth the right to elect their pastors or religious teachers, and to raise money for erecting and repairing houses for public worship, &c. makes it no longer incumbent upon the towns and parishes to make provision as abovementioned for public worship, or upon individuals to attend upon the instructions of teachers of religion.] ED. JUR.

ness must result from the practice of a correct system of moral duties, founded in the nature of man as a reasonable and social being. The knowledge of such a system the civil magistrate is, therefore, bound to spread among the people, and to exhibit the most rational and effectual motives for its practice. But the practice of a part of this system cannot be enforced by temporal penalties. The moral duties of imperfect obligation, as charity, liberality, hospitality, gratitude, parental affection, filial attachment, and all the benevolent acts which constitute good neighborhood, cannot be the object of human legislation. To compel by law the practice of these virtues would destroy their nature.

Further, human laws can punish offences only of which there is evidence. Crimes committed in secret are, therefore, out of the reach of the civil magistrate. Thus, our lives and our property lay at the mercy of every man who can assail them without witnesses, and who has no restraint on his actions but the dread of temporal punishment. What then could the people do to provide a remedy for these defects, necessary in a government merely civil? Like all wise legislatures, they called to their aid the unceasing operations of religion.

In Christianity they found a pure and perfect system of morals, embracing all ranks, stations, and conditions of men, and exhibiting the strongest motive to the practice of it by declaring the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments. Here every citizen could learn all his civil and social duties,—and here, the man meditating mischief would be informed, that though wrapped in darkness, he was not unseen, but was in the presence of a Judge, whose wisdom he could not deceive, and whose justice he could not escape. The people, therefore, as a wise and indispensable means of civil and social security and enjoyment, established the religion of Protestant Christians; not any one sect, but all sects indiscriminately, without subordination,—and giving to each equal protection and equal privileges.

To diffuse the knowledge of this excellent system, that