terialism, or to shew that the principles of political and moral Government, which these words define, excel all others, and that they are of themselves sufficient.

Our prospects brighten as the last struggle between liberty and despotism proceeds, for it is a matter of impossibility that open despotism such as that which is now avowed in Europe, can succeed and conquer. It has no real physical power to rest upon, for the soldier who fights for pay will fight for whoever will pay, and change his employers accordingly as they can best pay: so that the despot has no power but in the money he possesses, and in the taxes which he can impose. There is now no such thing as attachment to Kings: no fighting for the glory of Kings: all fighting is for pay on the one side and for liberty on the other; and as soon as the advocates for liberty can hire and pay the more corrupt and ignorant part of mankind to fight on their side, there will be no longer a despotism to oppose.

This is the great time for mental energy and bodily exertion, a man should not be idle for a moment at such a crisis. All the materiel of war that can be sent into Spain will be like planting so many daggers in the carcase of despotism. "Britons srike home!"

Respectfully yours,
R. CARLILE.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ABERDEEN.

TO MR. R. CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL.

SIR, Aberdeen, May 28, 1823. 1 CANNOT omit to mention a circumstance which has just occurred here, and which has attracted the public attention in a very marked manner to your writings. Professor Kidd, who has long been distinguished as a preacher, by a kind of fire-side eloquence, an appearance of blunt honesty, and extraordinary zeal, having had some of your publications handed to him, promised to appropriate a day to the discussion of the question in dispute between Deists and Christians.

About twenty years ago, when a candidate for his present situation, he rendered himself extremely popular by his opposition to the Deists. “You Deists" (he would say) "I have often called on you to come forward and answer me, but you perhaps think, I would take advantage of the situation in which I stand, to brow-beat you; perhaps you feel it a delicacy to stand up in the middle of this congre

gation to answer the minister; therefore to remove every scruple, I now propose to meet you in any house, public or private, that you may appoint before a dozen of respectable witnesses: I shall treat you in the most Gentleman-like manner, and I pledge myself to refute every argument you can advance to the satisfaction of all preseut." The Deists, however, poor timid souls, durst not venture to encounter this Goliah, at that time; but some of your friends, thinking it might serve the cause of truth, and excite a spirit of enquiry in this corner, to get this Champion to renew his challenge, wrote to him lately, urging him by every motive as a man and Christian to come forward and answer Mr. Carlile, by arguments worthy of himself and the cause which he so nobly advocated: and as he has always effected a degree of magnanimity, and liberality of sentiment, they hinted to him the propriety of applying the collection towards the payment of those enormous fines, on account of which you and your sister still languish in prison beyond the term of your sentence, and without such aid, may remain for life, to the disgrace of Christianity, and its professors!

It appears, however, they entirely mistook their man, for this saint, who shows an extraordinary degree of sympathy and fellow feeling with malefactors on the scaffold, has " a heart as hard as the nether-mill-stone," as he lately told his own managers, from the pulpit, because they would not advance his salary.

He has, however, favoured us with the long promised arguments. On Wednesday evening last, after advertising it in both Journals,. he preached a sermon in defence of Christianity against the Deists, to a very crowded audience. He began with his usual appearance of candour, by saying that he did not approve of shutting men up in dungeons because they differed from us in opinion, and instead of throwing Mr. Carfile into prison, he would have an Act passed to compel the clergy to answer him, and those who would not, or could not do so, should be obliged to resign their situations to those who were able and willing to undertake that duty. Although he had taken a month or six weeks to prepare himself, and had, contrary to his usual practice, for he always preaches extempore, committed his sermon to paper, I can by no means say, that it was, although a very laboured discourse, well arranged, or that it displayed much judgment, or taste in the execution; and had it not been for occasional sallies of invective and abuse against "illiterate mechanics, silly fellows of weavers, beggarly lawyers," &c. &c. who support the opinions of Carlile, his audience could not have withstood its narcotic effects and might at least have enjoyed two hours sound repose to compensate for the loss of the literary treat which they had promised themselves.

Any thing like argument to be gathered from this heterogenous mass might be comprised in the following: "I challenge you Deists to say where but in the Bible can you discover any satisfactory account of the creation of the world, and of the "origin of man?" (he had seen the Aberdeen correspondence in "The Republican,")

How, without the Bible, can you prove the immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punishments? How can you account for the origin of sin, and the sad perversion of the human faculties?" Then he took occasion to refer to four unfortunate men who were laying here under sentence of death, but I can follow him no farther. Alas! Sir, I have just witnessed a scene of the most heart-rending nature, three of those unhappy men have just been launched into eternity! Young men, who, if they had been under a wise system of Government might have been useful members of society; one of them in particular, Buchanan, had a most prepossessing appearance: his manner and address were really engaging! He had received, what he called, a good education and seemed to deserve a better fate. These three suffered for theft and house-breaking; while the man convicted of murder, although, as the Judge declared on his trial, a murder of a more aggravated nature than that for which Mr. M'Kinnon suffered at Edinburgh, has received a respite.

Our Christian Champion attended on the scaffold, he wept, prayed, sung psalms, kissed them, and bid them adieu! So far he deserves praise; but after the poor men had, one after the other, addressed the crowd, their ghostly prompter came forward, and said:—“ I am commissioned by these dying men to declare that they were Deists and neglected their Bible; he would therefore exhort the multitude present, not to keep company with Deists: he entreated them not to read any of Carlile's books, especially what he calls his New Testament; and he called on them all to stand forward in defence of Christianity, as affording the only source of consolation when we come to die, as might be seen by these unhappy men, who die full of the hope of immortality, and like the thief upon the cross, expect in a few minutes to be with Christ in paradise!" I stood immediately under the scaffold, and heard the whole of this address, and likewise what the culprits said: and, although each of them spoke two or three times, they never said a word about Deism; nor do I believe they had ever heard of the name of Carlile! they only lamented their disobedience to their parents, and having kept bad company; so much for Christian candour and honesty! Now amidst a multitude of reflections which a scene like this awakens in the mind, I could not help lamenting the short sighted views of legislators, and the little account they make of human life. Instead of aiming at the prevention of crimes by a wise system of laws, they suffer the minds of youth to be perverted by false religion, a degrading superstition is substituted for sound morality, and they never acquire any fixed principles. Such scenes, in my opinion, are a disgrace to a civilized country.

C. H.

་

TO MR. R CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL.

SIR, London, July 1, 1823. YOUR Correspondent I. G., in your Republican, No. 24, Vol. 7, June 13, in his observations upon the letters which have passed between you and Mr. Fitton, upon the subject of design in the formation of matter, declares that to him" it appears that every part of creation, or the universe, bespeaks design in its construction." I will trouble your readers with a few of my ideas in answer to those put forth by I. G.

Until lately the disbelief of an almighty supernatural intelligent power was principally confined to the learned, to collegians, and priests, who by tacit consent kept up the deception of the existence of such a being, "to keep the dull rabble in awe." Since Mr. Paine's "Age of Reason" appeared; and since you have taken up the cause of free discussion and advocated the principles of Materialism, the people, I mean the useful people, begin to be less terrified in exercising their rational powers, in tracing natural causes by their effects, and in combating the delusive dogmas promulgated by priests and visionaries. The effect of this reasoning I expect will be to overthrow a spurious morality, and of establishing in the minds of mankind, a love of moral rectitude and equal justice.

I shall, before I proceed farther, concede to I. G.; that IF any single part of matter, or of the universe, animate or inanimate, could not have existed without a designer; every part or all parts, of the stupendous whole required a designer also: but I must request that your readers, will have the goodness to give their attention to seemingly insignificant words: especially to some of the little monosyllables, which are used in the reasonings of controversalists; for they are sometimes most powerful and important auxiliaries; upon them frequently depend the whole force of an argument.

I have, in the last paragraph, just used one of these mighty commanders in the character of IF, to decide all the properties and qualifications this little fellow carries about him, might often lead us into all the mazes of the most intricate subjects, that occasion the most knotty and violent disputes of mankind.

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Your if is the only peace-maker, much virtue in if."

1. G. has, in the commencement of his reasoning, made use of a dissyllable, which possesses the virtue of shewing that modesty which usually characterizes the most learned of mankind, in writing or speaking upon subjects beyond the compass of human mind to decide: he says, that to him it appears, that every part of the universe bespeaks design, this is very modest; though I am inclined to believe I. G. is deceiving himself, for some parts certainly evince little of intelligent design, in their composition, but I am willing to concede again to I. G. that many parts of organized matter do appear to bespeak design; in the construction of their component

parts; but that is all; they do not prove it: and it can be no more than conjecture or guess-work, that they had an almighty designer, at their primary formation: and though Materialists cannot probably prove to all minds, that no supernatural agent could be employed, in their production, they can go a step beyond their opponents; in scientifically reasoning from the operation of the elements, in shewing the possibility of nature producing by her own inherent properties, a living being.

Nature has been extremely playful (if I may use so light a word without giving offence to the fastidious philosopher) in her productions, and has almost illimitably diversified their component parts; but that this has proceeded from design, what man can say, or saying so, can carry conviction to the scientific and enquiring mind; for though I have admitted that some parts of organized matter appears to have proceeded from design, there are other parts, if it were so, that shews the artificer to have been a great bungler. I. G. departing from the caution with which he set out, and from the modesty which no doubt as a rational person he really possesses, upon the undecided questions of materiality and spirituality, and of natural and supernatural agencies, immediately, but seemingly unconsciously, falls into the accustomed dictum posittivum, which intrudes itself upon the human mind from the force of early ideas, impressed upon it, we scarcely know how, and which we often find extremely difficult totally to erase.

1. G. instantly commences the support of his opinion by saying: "The hard and impenetrable shell of the tortoise, for instance, IS designed to shield the body of that animal from external accidents and injuries, to which, owing to the slowness of its motion, it IS continually exposed"-then mentions the structure of the hare as compensating for the want of either offensive or defensive organs, which structure he declares Is designed for speed; by which means it escapes numerous dangers and accidents to which it otherwise would be continually liable, and declares also, that its eyes are so placed on each side of its head as to enable that animal to take in a whole circle; the design of which evidently IS that it may the more readily perceive its enemies.

I. G. again says, "the long and flexible trunk of the elephant is designed to accommodate that unwieldy animal."

I. G. will doubtless perceive, that if his declaration, that such and such a thing in nature is designed, was to be rebutted in the saine arbitrary stile of argument, by a person of opposite opinion; by saying that it is not designed: the party would be in danger of being considered by philosophers and men of science a mere dogmatist, and would probably be abused as such by bigots.

That all that I. G. has stated of the qualities of the tortoise, the hare, and the elephant, is true in effect, no one will doubt; and that it all appears to the inventive, imitative, mechanist creature, man, orto most men, to be also the effect of design, may be allowed to be and is founded in truth; for to the aggregate of mankind (who think upon the subject) all that I. G. has stated really does appear to pro