the judges, and they evidently hoped I should let fall some unguarded expression they might use to my disadvantage, so they encouraged me to proceed, which I did as follows: "Illegal assemblies, gentlemen, it appears to me, are assemblies where something is done contrary to law, such as tumultuously assembling in arms to conspire against the state; and I see none other to which it can be applied without losing sight of the correct meaning of words. If I were to extend its application, it is evident it should be to those meetings held in summer on Sunday evenings, where they play, dance on the green, quarrel with one another, and blaspheme their Maker on his appointed day of rest. Such assemblies might perhaps fall within the meaning of the declaration; however, I do not hear of any one being taken up for attending them, while the prisons are filled with those whose only crime has been praying to God. In the name of all that is sacred, gentlemen, how dare you give such an interpretation to His Majesty's declaration without trembling to think of the wrath of the King of kings? You who assemble nightly at balls, where they dance, speak evil of their neighbors, squander their money, and perhaps lose in gambling that which is wanted at home for the support of wives and children, to whom they prove a burden and a curse, rather than the blessing they ought to be. You, I say, who are now sitting in judgment upon others, will one day stand before the just Judge of all the world, and in that awful day, think you that He will condemn those who have worshipped him in spirit and in truth, or those who have frequented your assemblies?"
"Aha!" cried the President, "your rebellious spirit breaks out at last. You not only sermonize and reproach us, but you say the King issues declarations, wherein he forbids as-
