able assembly before, if we except the good men who were once established in the Compter on the same ground. ner. The Aldermen are jealous of their neighbours, and doing them all the injury possible, by slanders, by insulting all their visitors, and by denying them the means of procuring proper food. Undressed food is not allowed; and dressed food must be mangled, in being cut to pieces by some filthy men or women employed for that purpose, before the prisoners can get it! No visitors admitted without lying like a Christian, by saying that they are relatives. Then, the most respectable of females must submit to be stripped, by two of the most disrespectable; and after all, to talk through a double row of iron gratings four feet apart! The management of Newgate is a disgrace to the City of London; and worse than it ever was at any former period. Much of this is owing to the supercilious conduct of the new Gaoler, WontWhen I was in Newgate, a few days in 1819, I was treated, by Mr. Brown with the greatest possible kindness, and every friend who applied was freely admitted to see me. And why should not this be the case with those who are now confined on the same ground? Nothing can be worse than the present treatment. The prisoners have bad food allowed them in but a scanty portion, and every obstacle is opposed to their purchasing better. A Gaol Committe has lately met to hear the complaints of these brave men; but nothing was done to improve their condition, beyond allowing them a bedstead for their mat, and the use of boxes. Aldermen Waithman and Wood could see no impropriety in restricting them as to the means of obtaining food-no impropriety in excluding all friends who are not relatives, (and it is but rare that relatives are friends)-no impropriety in subjecting those relatives (if females) to the insults of being searched bytwo ill-mannered women, even to the stripping of stays. I can tell these Aldermen, Waithman and Wood, that brighter men than themselves would have visited these prisoners in Newgate, if they could have done it freely, and as at other places. It is abominable, that these men, who call themselves Reformers of the practices of others, should take upon themselves to sanction such proceedings against men every way, as to worth, their equals, and worth a deal more as useful and active, and real Reformers, and men confined upon such grounds too. Let them be at liberty to purchase what food they please, and to see all persons who may wish to see them. Any thing short of this is acting in union with the Recorder, who has sentenced them to years of imprisonment in spite of all law and all decency. In conjunction with these London prosecutions, an attempt was made to carry on the same game in Edinburgh; but the laws or rather the practices of the courts, which constitute law there, leave a man no chance of defending himself, without a certainty of being transported as a felon. Mr. James Affleck was libelled, as the Scotch Lawyers call it, for having sold some blasphemous books; and, on acknowledging the sale of such books, it was received as a plea of Guilty, to the charge libelled. He was let off with three months imprisonment, by saying nothing to offend the Judges: and much as I should condemn this course in England, I think it the wisest course for Scotland, as our prosecutions in London affect them on the score of utility, as well as any other part of the island. When a man is sent to New Holland, he cannot be heard. But from any English Gaol, he can be heard as well as from any English house. In point of property, the Messrs. Afflecks have made a considerable sacrifice, and would as willingly do so in person, if they were situated as we are situated in England. The shamefully treated Joseph Swan has passed the gate of Chester Castle, after filling out his sentence of four years and a half imprisonment, in mind as honestly stubborn as ever. He has visited me in Dorchester Gaol, and on returning home to Stockport, will endeavour to carry on a little manufactory for himself as a hatter. Any friend disposed to throw in a mite to assist him in that object will be so good as to do it with all possible speed. A hundred pounds would set him a going handsomely, thirty of which it is understood were collected before he left the Gaol. RICHARD CARLILE. DIALOGUE THE THIRD. SCENE-Newgate. TIME-The Night between the JEHOVAH, JUPITER, AND JONATHAN HARDY. Jeh. Oh, my dearly beloved Jonathan! do decide in my favour against this grave looking Gentlemen with the thunderbolt. He is determined not to be satisfied with the decision recorded by my trusty servant Prudentius. [Hark ye, Jonathan, I've a wonderfully fine Paradise. Indeed I've three, according to that Eagle of the Divines, St. Thomas Aquinas. Moreover, St. Justinus saith, that men and woinen will rise again with the organs of generation. There will be fine doings I assure thee. Only, dear Jonathan, thou wilt decide in my favour.] Jon. May it please your Godships, I should be glad to know why ye come and awake me. I will have nothing at all to do with you. And thou of all the Gods, Yahouh, thou should'st be the last to refer to my arbitration. Hast thou not just shut me up here for denying thy supremacy? Dost thou not prevent me from seeing, even thro' the bars, all friends who are not relations? Of a truth the Yahouhanites treat us poor Physitheists worse than they do hogs; they do not even give us straw to sleep upon. And then there are these Cock-roaches Jeh. But, dearest Jonathan, it was not I put thee here, it was Mr. Maule, the Secretary of the Treasury. Jon. Be that as it may, I must naturally be prejudiced against thee, and therefore I will not be Umpire. Jup. Mortal, it is precisely on account of thy impartiality that I have consented to refer our dispute to thee. So now listen. Thou art to know, that this barbarous triplepersonaged monster, this cherub-riding Signor of a little tribe of bloodthirsty Arabs, hath managed, I cannot tell how, to turn me and my club out of all our handsome temples; so that, never having tasted a single sacrifice for centuries, we are, I assure thee, in an absolute state of starvation, and, if it were not for the Poets, should be altogether annihilated. Jeh. Weep then, as at the death of thy son Sarpedon; I was not known to shed a single tear when my son died. But thou seeest, dearly beloved Jonathau, how superior I am to this half-naked piece of antiquity. When first I began to lay about me, I soon thrashed him and all his associates. Thanks to the prophecies of David and the Sybill, mankind was soon convinced that I only am supreme. Jup. Force made thy right, thou indescribable upstart! Look, Jonathan! didst thou ever see such a monster? My triple-formed Diana, and my triple-headed Cerberus were beauties compared to him. See how he turneth his back parts towards thee! Jeh. It is thus that I honoured my trusty and well-beloved servant Moses. No man shall see my face and live. Jup. Thou liest, monster. Moses spake to thee face to face. Jacob undoubtedly saw thy face, and so probably did the parents of Sampson. Jon. May it please your Godships-If ye use.not more civil expressions to one another, ye must turn out forthwith, and go about your business. Jeh. Thou sayest well, most upright Judge. Now observe. This Son of Saturn only ruled in Greece and Italy; whereas I, who had no father, and consequently inherited nothing, rule at present over almost the whole of Europe, and in various other parts of the world. I count among my subjects Ezra, Clemens, Origenes, Eusebius, Maimonides, Galileo, Newton, Locke, and a variety of other great men. The Jewish High Priesthood, the Popery of Rome, and the Archbishoprick of Canterbury, have been offices of far greater consideration than that of Pontifex Maximus ever was. Never will Mr. Cloud-compelling Egis-bearing recover his authority. It is true, those blasphemous wretches the Poets prefer the côterie of Parnassus to that of Mount Sinai, and imagine that singing Psalms in heaven is dull work, compared with rational amusements and philosophical conversations in Elysium. They dare to imagine that the Odes of Horace are superior to those of David; and that Orpheus and Homer have greater pretensions to inspiration than Amos and Habukkuk. Some of my rebels pretend to reason me into annihilation; others dock off two of my three persons; and one half of my subjects maintain, that my infinity is not every where separately present, in every wafer over which a priest hath muttered gibberish. But I've singed them well. Vanini, Savonarola, Servetus, and Wightman formed most delicious burnt-offerings, of which the savoury odour ascended up into my nostrils. Jon. Recollect Signor, to whom thou speakest. Boast not of thy murders to me; I abhor them. By abusing thy power thou hast shown thyself unworthy of it. I hate all tyrants, whether Gods, Kings, or Devils. Hark! there's William Campion sleepeth not over sound on his wooden pillow. Jeh. Ah that wretch Campion! how I should like to broil him à la Servéte with green faggots! Jon. If I awake the brave feliow, he will kick thy God, ship out of the grating much faster than than thou camest in. Jup. Thou seeest, mortal, what a bloody God this Yahouh is! He will go on wallowing in blood as long as men permit him to exist. It is useless to mention his slaughter of the Canaanites, of their very babes and sucklings-his Inquisition-his Star-Chamber-his St. Barthélemi-his massacre in Ireland, &c. &c.; but only recollect that he intendeth to broil alive for ever and ever all the human race, except the very few beings, whom he hath arbitrarily selected! -He opposeth faith to reason-I boast in protecting Poets and Philosophers. Jeh. Not quite so quick, Cretan-born. Who burnt the Pythagoricians in their school? Who banished Protagoras? Who executed Socrates? Who persecuted Aristoteles? Who martyred the early Christians? Jup. Lown indeed, and am ashamed to say, that my worshippers did sometimes interfere with the sentiments of individuals, but it was very rarely.-As to thy Christicoles, when they threw down my statues, and performed other disorderly pranks, I did indeed punish them according to the law of the land; but thy own subject Origenes hath born witness, that I made few martyrs for thee.-In general thy subjects have been most egregious liars-I should never have done relating the infamous calumnies, called "pious frauds," which they libellously edited to bring me and my club into contempt. A hundred years after that Apostate and wicked monster Fl. Valerius Constantinus, my subjects were obliged to renounce all allegiance to me under pain of death. Had I served the Christicoles, as the Christicoles have served me, I should have nipped their puny sect in the bud; but I tolerated the mysteries of Christ, as I tolerated those of Bacchus and Serapis, and then-here is Christian gratitude! Remark, Jonathan, that it was under my reign that the Grecians fiourished, the most noble of nations. Whom can Yahoub compare to Solon, Aristides, Phocion, and Epicurus? It is to my subjects, that those of Yahouh are indebted, for all that formeth their taste and that constituteth |