During the week an agitation has been begun for the
total abolition of the laws against blasphemy, the immediate cause being the sentence of four months' imprisonment recently passed upon Thomas William Stewart at the Staffordshire Assizes. We have seen no statement of the actual words employed or, indeed, any detailed report of the case, and therefore cannot presume to express an opinion on the particular issue. We cannot, however, help thinking that the Blasphemy Laws should be abolished, or, at any rate revised. Nobody in a public place should be allowed to say things so gross, brutal, or indecent that, human nature being what it is, people of strong religious feeling will be provoked to a frenzy of angry resentment and so cause a breach of the peace. If the preaching or speaking of Stewart was of this nature, i.e., calculated to lead to a breach of the peace, by causing great pain to those who heard him, then he certainly ought to have been prevented by punishment from repeating the offence. Here is a matter for the police, not for special Blasphemy Laws.
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