questions about it. A military despotism would perhaps be the government after your own heart; but then the People, who may take it into their heads that they will be consulted on these affairs, may not admire that species of misrule and as to a Republic, it is very probable that you detest the name; since I am told that even the very title of this publication has alarmed some of the newly initiated. I know it has not alarmed you that would be impossible; veterans are seldom frightened at squibs. However, though its title may have an alarming signification in the estimation of a corrupt and vitiated administration, it would be perfectly harmless in the opinion of a government that respected the RES PUBLICA which it is said to signify.

But

It has been my fate to peruse within these last few days such a mass of detestable nonsense, wherein this paper and its former editor have been abused in such an ignorant spiteful manner, that it almost disgusted me with politics, since such a mob of ridiculous scribblers presume to meddle with it. Some of them are perhaps men of fortune; and such are sure to fall upon poor scribblers without mercy, tell them they write in a garret, &c. not considering that good sense has sometimes been written in a garret, and the most despicable nonsense in fine chambers of state. the real secret is, they find those poor garreteers, whom they abuse in such an unchristian manner, to be in the right, and they cannot bear the reflection that poor men should think more correctly than themselves. I do not tell your Lordship this, because I in the least suspect you of patronizing such ignorant scribblers, but because I would advise you to disclaim them when they insinuate such an infamous falsehood, and to punish them for libellers if they dare to persist, I could write a great deal more, but I fear I have. already trespassed too much on your Lordship's patience and good-nature, and therefore conclude by wishing you may one day or another meet the reward you richly deserve. I remain, with the most profound respect,

Your Lordship's most affectionate fellow citizen,

JULIAN AUGUŠTUS ST. JOHN,

SIR,

To the Editor of the REPUBLICAN.

I HAVE enclosed the sum of £1. 1s. in behalf of Mr. Carlile, and should you think the few observations accompanying it, worthy of insertion you are at liberty do what you think with the same.

proper

R. S.

As you would that men should do unto you, do you also unto them, is the only religion of the Deists; and indeed if acted upon by all mankind, there would be no necessity for the millions who are supported to deceive the weak, and mislead the superstitions. Want and poverty could no longer have existence, but universal happiness and contentment would be diffused amongst every species of the creation. Charity instead of persecution-Love instead of hatred and revenge-in short the fierce torrents of vice and immorality, we should then see converted into bright and lucid streams of virtue and benevolence. It is necessary to shew their attachment that men should act agreeable to their professions, and this cannot be done better than by relieving the necessities of the distressed, In breaking the iron arm of persecution, by yielding consolation to the oppressed, and endeavouring by every exertion to dispel the gloom and despondency that invariably hang around the unhappy inmates of a prison. I would ask Deists, the great professors of this golden rule of life, if they will let pass unnoticed an opportunity of shewing their distinguished adherence to its principle, by deserting an individual the organ of their opinions-one who has subjected himself to be cast, weighed down by manacles, amidst the horrors of a loathsome jail? or will they not rather shew their devoted zeal in maintaining it by coming forward in a period of dismay, and helping the fatherless children and widow, whose means of existence has been cut off by the arms of power and oppression? They should recollect the eyes of all mankind are cast upon their proceedings, anxiously awaiting the establishment of their claims, as the supporters of so sublimea maxim, which has been raised as the guide and standard for their directions, Can it be forgotten when the recent persecution of the Protestants by the Catholics in France occurred, that the benevolence of the Christian character was shewn by their lending pecuniary aid to their unfortunate brethren, aliens by birth, and made enemies of each other by the unjust systems of corrupt administrators; and can they, possessing the recollection of these occurences, withhold their assistance from a being who has most nobly and disinterestedly published what he considered truth, and opinions with which they entirely coincide?

But why appeal to Deists alone? where are the devoted followers of Jesus-where exist the pillars of piety and religion, the believers in Christ? Do they forget it was the rule of their great master to love his enemies, to do good to them that hated him, and to lend assistance to his adversaries, with a hope of being rewarded by the justice of his God? Are all these practices of Jesus lost, and has Christianity degenerated into nothing but a name. If these things are thought good, and not acted upon by believers; then might those who deny its truth, justly exclaim in the language of the founder of the Christian religion, "Woe unto you hypocrites, ye pay tithes of mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith."

Let it be recollected, it is in a country professing Christianity that long imprisonment, and heavy fines have been imposed on one who differs from the established religion of the land, and as no hope can be entertained, that the period of imprisonment will be shortened, so nothing else can wipe the stain of so unjust a proceeding but by Christians, as well as Deists contributing to the payment of the fine, therefore I would advise Deists for the sake of their character, and Christians for the maintenance of their religion, to contribute each their mite for the abatement of the misery of a fellow-creature.

Goldsmith Street.

ROBERT STAMP.

REFLECTIONS ON LAWFUL THEOLOGY,

Written after hearing a popular pulpit Orator, with Christian liberality, dispensing his " Anathemas Maranathas.”

WITH confidence which party lore inspires,
The zealot mounts the throne of the Creator,
And deals damnation in a future state,
To all who doubts his doginas while on earth!
Good, better, best, let oxthodoxy be,

But vehement declamation nothing proves :
Opinions cannot make and unmake facts,
Even Bible proof can't fix this earth on pillars,
Får less prove contradictions to be true.
The moral may be good, that man's last breath
Wafts him into the PRESENCE of his God,
To witness what his living notions were;
But if it be a doctrine which implies
The ABSENCE of the Deity on earth,

Men

may at least be left, each for himself,
To form his own opinions, and maintain them.
If men now live, and move, and have their being
In an omniscient, omnipresent God,

Can they dwell NEARER in another planet,
However distant from our native globe?
What proof can be adduced for the opinion,
That when men cease to live, and move, and be,
Their something-nothing, nobody knows what,
With new-born instinct, or magnetic charm,
Through boundless ether wing their trackless way,
Quick as the twinkling of the smartest eye,
To the celestial mansions of the blessed,
Where dwells the presence of the Omnipresent,
In light so pure, and atmosphere transparent,
That minus eyes, the invisible is seen!

The saved to roam on their parole of honour,

The damned, sent thence, to durance vile in limbo,
To wait the assize of an assembled world?

But it were well, if lawyers left the priests
To punish sceptic libellers of ghosts,

By ghostly penance in a ghostly state.

Had Carlile's judge and jurors but considered

That he from priests dissented not one point

More than they did from hin, they would have spurned

The more than human task, the impious farce

Of propping truth divine by human law!

Man is not competent to punish mind,
'Tis God's prerogative alone to judge
The motives which govern a man's opinions:
Society requires a mutual pledge

Of liberty from each, for general good;
But overt action only own its rules,
Opinion scouts all human legislation.
The most unheedful of the passing scenes,
Must have observed, amid the war of creeds,
The Spain-like arguments of English saints:
As if the livings of tithe-lifting priests,
The secular rewards of legal faith,

And Bible Quixotes, vending bales of Bibles,
Were not a match for one poor, plain Berean,

Who, in obedience to the Christian-code,

Searched for himself, that he might all things prove,
And hold fast only that which he found good:
That such an one should be esteemed a sun
Whose beams of reason would eclipse the Bible,
As Sol eclipses Luna at noon-day,

Implies a foul suspicion of that book,

Unworthy of the origin assigned it:
It savours of a public, plain admission
That all the host of priests and mitred heads
Shrunk, self-condemned, unequal to the task,
Till armed with the brute-argument of force!
Good souls! their Maker must be in their debt,
For this their pious aid in time of need!
Their friend, the Devil, must be also grateful
For Devil's duty done to Dick Carlile!
Admitting that the Age of Reason's nonsense,
And the whole Bible a consistent book

Of well-attested, heaven-born truths sublime,
Since faith and doubt depend on no man's will,
But as the evidence to him appears,

Belief's no merit, unbelief no crime.
Did Deity shew favour to the few

Who style themselves his favourites on earth
Were they exempted from the ills of life,
The losses, crosses, which perplex the mind,
The thousand pains, and sicknesses, and death,
Which level all,-were saints from these exempt,
None would be doubters, all would be believers,
The substitution-system would prevail,
Without the aid of poverty's last penny,
Till the grim tyraut death, with all his train
Of life-harassing, peace-destroying ills,
Would vanish like the mist before the sun.
But facts are stubborn witnesses of facts,
The faithful and the faithless share alike-
Each stands alike in his own room and stead-
Each for himself enjoys, and lives, and dies!
Can man by proxy eat, or drink, or sleep?

Can man by proxy suffer or enjoy?

Where lives the man whose faith hath stretch'd life's span, Beyond the verge of healthful nature's bounds?

The reveries of the fancy may amuse,

But true philosophy keeps pace with knowledge:
Facts must be facts, opinion cannot change
Our present state, nor influence our future.---
Place-hunting Counsellors may rant and rave,
And vomit Phillippics to gull the crowd,
May laud the faith indigenous to the soil
Where popery, priests, pigs, and potatoes thrive;
But this side of the water, chilish things,
Are giving place to mauly, common sense.

Statesmen, for statesmen's ends, may priests support,

As state theology supports the state;

Plain truth no favour asks from courts or kings,

But justice measured by the golden rule: