expedition abroad, or for the ordering and directing of the affairs of Government at home. But this was no very great inconvenience to any class of his subjects; he was docile and manageable; and thus when any of his Ministers had conceived a penchant for a part of the dominions of any neighbouring State, they had only to persuade the good old King that it was the interest of the nation to expend a few millions in a war with the said State, in order to humble their fancied enemy, and keep the nation in a kind of floating equilibrium between poverty and riches. Saturn immediately acceded to the proposal; and thus a respectable troop of generals, recruiting-serjeants, army and navy chaplains, agents, contractors, foreign and domestic spies, messengers, couriers, and admirals, were brought into play at once; and every one of the gang opened his mouth in praise of the gracious monarch by whose judicious conduct he was enabled to live an idle life. It is true, much of the wealth of the nation inevitably flowed into foreign channels, and the industrious peasantry were frequently reduced to starvation; but these petty considerations were not of sufficient weight to deter the monarch from following the sublime plans of his Ministers. The turbulent, the proud, the avaricious, the cruel, and the daring, find it their interest to promote and encourage war; and as the greater part of mankind is comprehended in one or the other of those classes, so the majority of every nation delight in blood and slaughter. During this monarch's reign a very memorable event occurred in that part of the world. One of the neighbouring nations having for ages suffered the despotic and wanton cruelty of a long race of tyrants, conceived the glorious project of living without any other master than the laws. The great nation arose in one mighty and irresistible mass-it demanded its liberty in a voice that ascended to heaven, and shook and unsettled the throne of every tyrant upon earth-the tyrant was instantly annihilated, and the nation was declared free! But surrounded by slaves and despots, they were threatened on every side, they were told that no people could live without a King, notwithstanding they themselves were a proud monument of the falsehood of the assertion-the nations took arms to deprive them of that liberty they adored-but unintimidated by the fulminating decrees of Despotism, they threw down the gauntlet, and appeared in arms, ready to dispute their freedom with the tyrants of the world. Saturn himself beheld with apathy this great political convulsion that shook the universe; but his Ministers were frightened to death. They

spared no expence to draw over to their party a certain orator, who was the Demosthenes of that day in every thing but integrity, whose splendid powers of description were well calculated to mislead a credulous, well-meaning people, and a still more credulous King, and they succeeded in prevailing on the cheated, bewildered nation to declare war against the children of Liberty. They did more. In order to destroy a few bold, weli-meaning subjects, whose honest candour they had reason to dread, they terrified old Saturn with the phantom of a plot, which their wicked imaginations had created, and sowed so much distrust into the minds of their fellow-citizens, "that it was not altogether safe in that plotting age to ask what it was o'clock, since no one knew but some over-sage coxcomb might from that most wicked question cause you to be apprehended for a Jesuit, as having some treacherous conspiracy to execute, at such an hour, that made you so inquisitive about the time of the day."*

However, Saturn and his Ministers sent out a Fleet, and transported armies into the land of Freedom-and they were annihilated to a man; while the credulous People were amused with Gazettes Extraordinary, announcing triumphs and victories. More taxes were exacted, more fleets, more armies equipped; Royal Generals were sent into the field, and outwitted, defeated, and disgraced! Furious with chagrin and disappointment, the vicious Ministry of the good old King could think of no way to revenge their disgrace but by publishing falsehoods about the Government whose wisdom they hated in vain, and caricatures of the Generals who had conquered their armies. Mean and futile revenge! But it amused an ignorant populace-and they determined the populace should remain ignorant for one of Saturn's favourite Declaimers laid a tax upon the papyrus on which the ancients wrote their books.

At length they were obliged to make peace with the free country; but the wound their pride had received still rankled at their heart, and they secretly determined to seize every opportunity which offered itself to annoy their noble, philosophical adversary.-Such is the picture of the reign of Saturn.

Amongst the numerous children of Saturn there was a Son called Jupiter, who beheld with envy and discontent the long reign of his father. He had been flattered into a belief that he possessed an immense capacity, and all the *Charles Blount. Preface to Philostratus's life of Apollonius Tyranæ.

virtues and talents that constitute a great prince. His youth had been spent in the most lawless riot and debauchery; which gave the Nation vast room to hope to find in him, what Titus and Trajan afterwards were, the model of a perfect King. With these fallacious prospects before them, the Nation beheld with joy their ancient Sovereign stripped of the insignia of Royalty, and descend from the throne into a second minority! They beheld his graceless son wield the sceptre with a hand enervated by luxury-play with the pretty bauble for a few minutes-then, finding it too weighty, or too rough for his effeminate grasp he threw it down on the arena amongst his vulture-like followers, who set up the war-whoop at the sight, and retired to the couch of Venus, to enjoy the sweets, no matter who supported the weight, of much envied, miserable Royalty.

Under the reign of this Prince mankind made hasty strides towards liberty. They perceived the feeble hands that directed the vast engine of the State were inadequate to the task-they saw the immense sums of money which were torn from the very vitals of the Country to support the prodigality and profusion of the court-they saw religion degenerate into a State trick, by which the Ministry attempted to crush the free spirit of enquiry-they saw knaves and coxcombs in possession of every situation of honour and every place of profit-and they determined to take their affairs into their own hands, and to go on in future without a Ministry, and without a King.

J. A. ST. JOHN.

THE following inscription was made out three years ago on a cannon, near which the ashes of President Bradshaw were lodged, on the top of a high hill near Martha Bay, Jamaica, to avoid the rage exhibited against the regicides at the Restoration :--

Stranger!

Ere thou pass, contemplate this cannon,
Nor regardless be told,

That near its base lies deposited the dust of
JOHN BRADSHAW,

Who, nobly superior to all selfish regards,
Despising alike the pageantry of Courtly splendour,
The blast of Calumny, and the terrors of Royal vengeance,
Presided in the illustrious band of heroes and patriots,
Who fairly and openly adjudged

Charles Stuart,

Tyrant of England,

To a public and exemplary death,
Thereby presenting to the amazed world,
And transmitting, down through applauding ages,
The most glorious example

Of unshaken virtue, love of freedom, and impartial justice,
Ever exhibited on the blood-stained theatre of human action.
O, Reader!

Pass not on till thou hast blessed his memory,
And ever, ever remember,

THAT REBELLION TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR MR. CARLILE,

The following Letter has been received from Noltingham:

SIR,

Nottingham, Nov. 18, 1819.

AT a Free and Easy Society, held at my house on Thursday evening, a few friends of freedom, reading the heavy sentence of our old friend, Carlile, a motion was made by one of the company to raise a subscription for him. I am happy to inform you, that the sum of Ten Pounds Twelve Shillings and Sixpence was raised. I have no doubt but it will be followed by other houses in the town. They will thank you to inform Mr. C. what has been done, and to send ine word if I must remit the money, or put it into Mr. Fellows's Bank, as I have no doubt there will be more raised. I remain, dear Sir, yours, &c. CHARLES HEALD.

Golden Fleece, Low Pavement.
A Free Inquiry, and the Brave..

£.1 0 0

TO MR. CARLILE.

November 6, 1819.

MY DEAR SIR,

THE tocsin of fanaticism has sounded an alarm, and the warwhoop of bloodshed, persecution, and murder, is once more raised by the satellites of "the whore of Babylon" against all who are bold enough to think for themselves, and to attend to the dictates of nature and of reason. In the disgusting flattery, the palpable falsehoods, the coarse and vulgar abuse of the Irish Barrister on Thursday last, we have only heard the echo of the doctrines and sentiments of those, who are the supporters of every thing that is oppressive to mankind and degrading to human nature. Had not

this man in the most dastardly manner taken advantage of your present situation, not only to insult and traduce you, Sir; but to implore, under the cloke of sympathy for his fellow-men, all who were on the side of your persecutors to use every means in their power to crush you, and those who dared to think and act in concert with you; I would have passed over his silly effusions, his unfounded calumnies, with the contempt they merited; and have permitted him to enjoy unmolested his honourable triumph over an oppressed and fettered individual. Did it depend on this man, and some of those he had the honour of addressing upon the subject connected with the Bible, and the religion founded upon it, Smithfield would again be lighted up, and the free enquirer after truth would again be immolated at the shrine of the Christian's God: but thanks to the spirit of truth that is gone forth into the world, and whose progress is neither to be checked nor retarded by the sophistry, whining cant, and malignant efforts of its enemies.

"I despise as much as any man," says this consistent babbler, "the whine of bigotry-I will go as far as any man for rational liberty; but I will not depose my God to deify the infidel, or tear in pieces the Charter of the State, and grope for a Constitution amongst the murky pigeon-holes of every creedless, lawless, infuriated regicide." That a barrister, such for instance as Mr. Phillips, "would not depose his God to deify the infidel," or any one else; or "tear in pieces the Charter of the State" ou any account whatever, not even from motives of emolument or worldly aggrandisement, may perhaps be accredited; but who will believe, after candidly perusing the truly eloquent speech which gained him so much applause from his civic Majesty, and the admirers of his reign, that "he despises as much as any man the whine of bigotry," or that "he will go as far as any man for rational liberty ?” I must confess that I am wholly at a loss to understand this Gentleman's elegant metaphorical language when he talks about "groping for a Constitution amongst the murky pigeon-holes of every creedless, lawless, infuriated rigicide." No doubt it occurred to his mind whilst rumaging amongst some old briefs in the corners of his apartments for a piece of paper upon which to write his cious composition; but I'must also add, that if we were to judge of the "creedless, lawless infidel" by his practice, and of "the infuriated regicide" by his intolerant and murderous spirit, I should naturally have concluded that instead of alluding to you, Sir, and those who profess and act upon the same pure and philanthropic principles, this man was addressing the actors and approvers of the scenes at Birmingham towards Priestley, and at Manchester towards the Reformers; judge then of my surprise and indignation when I found that this man's calumnies were directed to you, Sir, and when I heard him state "that on your memorable trial at Guildhall, you were withering hour after hour with the most horrid blasphemies, surrounded by the votaries ef every sect, and the heads of every faith-the Christian Archbishop, the Jewish Rab

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