and Mead. Who now reads that trial without feeling, and expressing his admiration at the firm, and virtuously obstinate conduct of both defendants, and Jurors, and their execration of the opposite, though obstinate conduct of those who presided as Judges in that Court. Jurors, make this your example, and both yourselves and families, will find a lasting approbation, and an honest pride will result from it, oppression will be banished from the country, and liberty and reason resume their Empire. SIR, R. CARLILE. To the Editor of the REPUBLICAN. IF you think the following Acrostic worthy of a place in the pages of the Republican, you will, by inserting them therein, oblige one, who really prizes your invaluable work, and hails it as the morning star of freedom; an opinion, which is held by thousands, as well as by your constant reader, No. 2, Rutland Place, Upper R. SMITH. Brave Sons of Albion, sleep ye in this hour? Try ev'ry effort-like the whirlwind's force, 'At once resolve, to conquer or to die, $ hall wait your steps, and England shall be free! The curiosity of the Publie has been excited in consequence of a Gold Snuff Box, brilliantly set with diamonds, having been presented to the Prince Regent in the Isle of . Wight, having three verses from the Bible engraven on it, which if we may believe the reports of the Newspapers, produced something like a feeling and reflection in his mind. I may venture to assert, from probabilities, that it must have been a present from some person who is or has been a friend of the Regent, and who has sufficient discrimination to perceive the danger he has exposed himself to, as it is not likely that any person holding Republican principles would have put themselves to such an expense. A Gentleman has furnished me with the identical inscription, whose respectability leaves me no room to doubt his veracity; it is a copy of the 25th, 26th, and 27th verse of the 21st chapter of. the book of Ezekiel, taken from the book called the Bible, which is one of the most treasonable and seditious books that ever appeared in print, and I hope, that in consequence of the selection that has now been made from it, the Attorney General will feel it his duty to file informations against all the publishers. and vendors, and even readers of such a book. Mr. Bllamy, who is preparing a new translation of it, which he dedicates to the Regent by permission, will no doubt make it a new thing, and more consonant to the feelings of Royalty. At least he should do what many translators have done, who have been more modest than the authors of the works, leave a blank to all the obscene, voluptuous, false, scandalous, malicious, and seditious passages, and state that they are pot fit for public view and young minds, then Mr. Bellamy will make a very thin and convenient volume of it, to what it is at present. The verses are as follows: Ver. 25." And thou, profane, wicked Prince of Israel, whose -day is come, when iniquity shall have an end. 26." Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.. 27. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is,* and I will give it him." DEAR SIR, THE gratitude that you are so justly deserving, and will not fail to receive from me, (as well as from every other unprejudiced, honest, and well-disposed person, who has had the benefit of reading your late invaluable publications), is beyond what the most powerful language can possibly express. But I am exceedingly sorry to find that there are yet a cousiderable number of those persons who ought, above all things, to testify the greatest gratitude to you, for your unparalleled exertions to rescue them from tyranny and religious slavery; but who, The People's. in return,,are only disposed to manifest their malevolence by endeavouring to suppress your publications, and that thereby the majority of the People may be kept ignorant of their birthright, and their yery best interests. However, I am inclined to allow, that there may probably be some excuse for this malignant spirit and brutal stupidity still existing among men. The world has been so long under the baneful influence of superstition, and taught to reverence the errors of fanaticism, that let truth appear in whatever form it may, mankind have so often opposed it with such energy, that the universal good and happiness it will ultimately produce for the human race, has hitherto been but very triflingly felt. The numerous false systems of religion which have been and are now forced upon the different nations of the world, only serve to barbarize the hearts and enslave and stupify the minds of the People; thus their attention is eutirely diverted from the real and only object worthy of adoration, (the God of Nature) whose book of revelation and divine instruc tion (the universe) is ever open, night and day, to be read, and understood, by every intelligent being. Until I had the good fortune to read those invaluable works of the ever-memorable Thomas Paine, I was like the greatest part of my fellow-countrymen, deluded into the practice of worshipping a man (Jesus Christ) instead of the true God; but I must here confess, that I always felt an innate reluctance to embrace the Christian faith; however, this natural unwillingness to believe was, of course, subdued by that abominable thing, Priestcraft, which alone has been the cause of so much misery in various parts of the globe. Since I embraced that genial religion, Deism, my heart has been continually telling me, that I have great reason to be sincerely thankful to my Creator for having given me an existence; and I can now worship him with love, sincerity, and delight, and I feel consciously sure, that he is an infinitely just, wise, merciful, and a beneficent God. But while I was under the influence of the Christian religion, I never could, and instead of being thankful for my creation, I had ample reason to execrate the day of my birth and so far from the worship of a real Christian being the service of the true God, and perfect freedom, it is, in my opinion, nothing less than complete slavery; this I know from terrific experience. There are many, I doubt not, who merely profess to be Christians, and may live tolerably happy under such a profession; but there is an inconceivable difference between these and those who endeavour by all possible means to live a life equal to their profession. This life of the real Christian I long strove to live, but I found it was unattainable. Therefore, Sir, as I consider that it is through your instrumentality that I have arrived at such a degree of happiness as I now enjoy, (namely, the emancipation of my miad from those slavish fears inseparably connected with the Chris tian religion) I beg that you will accept of my most grateful acknowledgment; at the same time, hoping that the ardent and meritorious desire you have hitherto evinced for the good of mankind may never abate until the rays of Truth reach every British subject, I remain, dear Sir, your most sincere well-wisher, St. Mary's Street, Stamford, September 26, 1819. J. B. SMITH. SIR, To the Editor of the REPUBLICAN. LAST Sunday morning I had occasion to go to Acton, Middlesex, and having arranged the business upon which I went before 12 o'clock, and being at a loss how to consume my leisure time in a strange place, while dinner was preparing, I strolled into the Gospel shop, commonly called the parish-church. The parson, a very young man, soon after mounted the rostrum, and took his text from St. Paul's 2d Epistle to Timothy, chap. iii. ver. 1, "This know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come;" he then pulled from his pocket a sermon, enveloped in a black cover, which I soon discovered had been ready cut and dried for him to preach by some time-serving black locust. He had not proceeded far before I perceived the contents of the sermon were as black as the cover. However, from the awkwardness and bad oratory of the young parson, it was evident, no doubt, to many present besides myself, that he was the preacher,only, and not the composer of the discourse, which was remarkable merely for the gross lies and bit ter invectives it contained against a man that I and many thousands in this metropolis esteem as a truly virtuous man, need I say the immortal Paine. Indeed, it occurred to me at the moment, whether this sermon had not been manufactured (for it smelt very strong of the shop) of the Society for the Suppression of Reason (I beg pardon) I mean Vice, and sent round to the country parsons in a similar way as Lord Sidmouth sends his circulars to the Magistrates. The preacher began by telling his hearers, that the words. of his text applied to the times when the inspired Christian writers ceased to live and propagate Christianity, which were perilous times, by reason of the attacks the clergy endured from infidels, who accused the black gentry of that day of promoting the Christian faith, more to suit their own sordid interests than for the salvation of mankind. After defending the primitive parsons from sinister views, he proceeded to shew that the present times were otn less perilous than those spoken of in the text, for that Infidelity had again reared its head in the works of that great leader of the French infidels, Thomas Paine, and others his cotemporaries of the present day (which, by the bye, I thought was having a slap at you). The infidels in question, he said, were endeavouring not merely to upset our sapient Government, but actually trying to dethrone the Almighty. Had it not been for disturbing the congregation, I certainly should have left my pew, and rid my hearing of such cant and balderdash. He next adverted to Reform, which he admitted was a word of a virtuous meaning, but that it was now used by infidels to cloak their real intentions. If the logic of this wise-acre is admitted as a truism, what infidels must a certain great Black Suppressing Society be, who are always cloaked with apparent virtue, and whose unceasing efforts are employed in effecting a reform amongst the reformed. On the subject of Reform, however, he concluded, that they who wanted such a thing, whether political or theological, meant nothing less than rebellion. He then introduced much irrelevant matter about the French armies and British navies, and summed up his fulsome sermon by appealing to Locke, Bacon, and other eminent men, to support his perversion of truth and defence of despotism. Sir, I am one of those who think a political Judge and a political Parson two of the most dangerous characters that infest society. And when I see an army of black locusts, whose very subsistence is derived from the vitals of a distressed and starving People, marshal their hypocritical forces in array against the People, and abuse and insult them, and pollute the People's pulpits by becoming the cat's paw of the Ministers, I cannot, as an honest man, suppress the indignation I feel, that a religious vocation should be so shamefully perverted to answer political purposes. To such meddling fellows I would recommend the perusal of the Archbishop of York's Sermon, preached before the Lords, January 30, 1700, page 6, as more appropriate than any thing I can advance in condemnation of clerical interference in State matters. The Archbishop says, "If, indeed, a preacher should in the pulpit présume to give his judgment about the management of public affairs, or lay down doctrines as from Christ about the forms or models of kingdoms or commonwealths, or to adjust the limits of the prerogative of the Prince, or of the liberties of the subject in our present Government, I say, if a divine should meddle with such matters as these in his sermons, I do not know how he can be excused from the just censure of meddling with things that doth not concern him. This is, indeed, a practising in State matters, and is usurping an office that belongs to another profession, and to men of another character; and I should account it every whit as indecent in a clergyman to take npon him to deal in those points, as it would be for him to determine titles of lands in the pulpit which are in dispute in Westminster Hall." I am, Sir, your constant reader and admirer, West Street, Soho, Monday Evening, |