be glad if you will, with this paper, insert your reply the first opportunity.

I am sorry you have made it a rule to admit no fictious signatures, and consequently must subscribe myself,

5, Marchmont Street, Russell Square.

R. MILLS.

To Mr. WHITAKER of Bedford Square.

SIR,

I thank you for the sum you were kind enough to contribute toward paying Mr. Carlile's fine; but as the pages of the Republican ought by no means to be devoted to theology, still less to polemical divinity, I decline the honor of answering your long letter on the Truth of Christianity. I shall however observe, that the passages you have quoted from Suetonius, and Tacitus, and the letter of Pliny's which you refer to, are nothing at all to the purpose; and have no weight whatever with a man who wishes to think for himself.

To the English People on the Attempts which have been made to Abridge their Liberties.

FELLOW CITIZENS!

THIS is no time for doubt or suspicion; 'tis, certain the ministry have shown to the world their intention of making you all Slaves-they have proposed bills in both houses of parliament which were intended to feel, as it were, how far you would suffer them to go; to try whether you were the bold enlightened men which republican writers have represented you to be: in short,

to observe, by the manner in which you expressed your feeling at their arbitrary measures, whether you were to be duped into slavery or determined to be free. This is evidently their intention, it carries its character on its face; the motives which induced them to proceed in this manner are not sufficiently concealed, but that your good sense can easily penetrate the flimsy veil, and detect the tyrants in their intricate and tortuous path. But I conjure you by all that is sacred,and all that is venerable and dear to man; by our sufferings, which are unparalleled in the annals of the world; by that constitution, which our ancestors held in so much veneration; by the feelings of every honest mind, not to become a race of tame and despicable slaves! If they they insult you, bear it with patience; if they tax you excessively to support their extravagance, petition to have your burdens lessened and your wants attended to; if they place in their service a whole army of priests, which they command you to pay, hesitate; but if once they openly and wantonly attack your rights; if once they indicate an intention to make slaves of you; if they shall despise your petitions and violate the constitution, act the reverse, and do not submit till you have obtained a free government; and an honest administration.

This is not advising acts of violence-this is not sedition, nor any thing like it, it is what the British constitution allows, and the laws of God and man approve. No man has an understanding so stupid as not to know that liberty is natural to man, and perfectly inalienable: slaves and tyrants are monsters, which God and nature never intended should exist, they are violations of his sacred laws, which plainly point out the liberty and equality of men: they are not to be interpolated, misconstrued, or sophisticated: they are engraven on the heart of every human being, still more on that of every Briton; and they cannot be totally obliterated without tearing that heart to pieces.

In every country and in every age, what has been the issue of a conflict between a nation and its would be tyrants? who have succeeded in the end, the men of public liberty, or the base unprincipled despot? Does not history teach, philosophy demonstrate, and wisdom declare their decisions just, that the people will always prevail in the end? That tyrants, with all their glittering shew, are mere pageants, the work of an hour, and the sport of fortune? When he reclines on his bed of state, which has been fabricated out of the misery of

his subjects, is the tyrant happy? Are his reflexions calm and undisturbed? Does he sleep in peace? No; he is never at peace. And is such a situation so much to be desired? Will man for ever sacrifice conscience, and fame, and happiness, to be in possession of such splendid misery? Will he never be convinced that the honest and equal citizen is happier than the guilty monarch, or his more guilty minions? Will he never be convinced that 'tis the citizen of a free state who can can alone be happy? And that freedom can never be purchased too dearly.

Let the people of England keep these reflexions in mind, let them remember that to be flourishing or happy they must be free-that is, have no masterbut the laws--and that they will never be free until they shall be permitted to think as they please, and to express those thoughts without fear of transportation or banishment. I hope that that day is not far distant, and my hope is founded on the knowledge of which the people are in possession; they cannot now be cheated into slavery without knowing how or by whom; to be enslaved they must first be conquered, or nearly exterminated, either by famine or the sword; both are the arms of despotism and both have frequently been employed to enslave nations; and of the two famine is the most destructive, perhaps, and the most effectual; but not the most certain: it often excites men to acts of patriotism of which they never would have had the most distant idea, had they been fortunate and well-fed; and this consideration has frequently induced tyrants to distribute corn and the necessaries of life to their famished people. Wishing you to reflect on these things, I remain,

Your Fellow-Citizen,

J. A. ST. JOHN.

REPUBLICAN IDEAS.

Translated from the French of De Voltaire.
(Supposed to have been written by a Citizen of Geneva.)

BY JULIAN AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN.

(Continued from a former Number)

XXIX.

It appears very strange that the author of the social contract should take it into his head to say, that all the English people ought to sit in parliament, and that it ceases to be free when all its rights consist in being represented in parliament by its deputies. Did he wish that three million citizens should assemble to give their vote in Westminster? Do the Swedish peasants appear any other way than by their deputies? (4)

XXX.

It is said in the same work, that monarchy seems only to accord with a powerful and wealthy nation, aristocracy with one that is moderately rich, and democracy to poor and petty states. But in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, the Venetians were the only rich people in Europe: yet Venice never has been, and never will be a monarchy. The Roman republic was immensely rich from the time of Scipio to that of Cæsar. The republic of Lucca is very small, and very poor, and yet is an aristocracy. Athens, the most opulent, ingenious, and magnificent city in the ancient world, was a democratic state. There are very rich citizens among us; and our government is a jumble of aristocracy and democracythus we shall find it necessary to distrust those general rules which exist only in the brain of certain writers.

(4) Voltaire seems to have written this article merely out of opposi tion to Rousseau; and his ideas do not seem to have been very clear on this head.

L.

It is perhaps necessary that there should exist two parties in a republic, because one will watch the other; and men have great need of inspectors. It is not so shameful as might be believed, that a republic requires mediators; it proves, I confess, that there is much obstinacy on both sides, but it likewise proves that there is also much spirit, much knowledge, and great sagacity, in interpreting the different senses of the law; 'tis then that arbiters are required, who may unfold the mystery of the disputed laws, who may alter them should the exigences of the state require it, and who may foresee as much as possible the changes which time will render necessary. It has been repeateda thousand times, that authority has always a tendency to increase, and the people to complain; that we ought not to credit all its representations, nor reject them altogether; that liberty and power equally demand some restraint; that the balance ought to be held in equilibrium: but where is the point on which to set the ballance? who shall fix it? the accomplishment of this would be the master-piece of impartiality and policy.

LI.

Men are all born equal; but a poor Barbary slaze does not even suspect the existence of this truth. (5)

LII.

This equality does not consist in the annihilation of subordination: we are all equal men, but not equal members of society. All the natural rights of man belong equally to the Sultan and the Bostange: both ought to dispose, with equal power, of their persons, families, and estates.- -Men are all essentially equal, though they are different characters on the scene of life.

(5) The expression "bourgeois de Maroc," which I have translated Barbary Slave," literally means a commoner of Morocco”—but as the common people always were slaves in those countries, I thought I might be allowed the expression: it applied most exquisitely to the common people of our own country a few years ago; but, thank heaven! they are now sensible of their rights; they think, they reason, and they are determined to be imposed upon no longer.

EDITOR.