above all things, and desperately wicked." Open confes sion and communication, I conceive to be the best purifiers of the heart; and thorough repentance the most acceptable offering to God for sin. It was by this that David, after committing the most horrid crimes, was especially beloved: it was by this, that one sinner saved is more esteemed in beaven than ninety-nine of the righteous. To give the benefit from this, I repeated his inadvertent speech about turning King's evidence. He was at first angry, you told me, but I shall venture to say, he is now pleased that it was spoken of: he must, by this time, have seriously reflected on the subject-seen that he was wrong, and tightened his principles accordingly. I put on record, your speech as to getting £500. and £600. a year by teaching the classics, in noblemen's families; and your saying, that you would not exchange your living here of £300. a year, for one of £1000. elsewhere. This could not but stagger my belief; and I wished you to think of its impropriety, if it was not true. The more I reflect upon it, the more it seems duty to bring you to confession on the subject. It appears to me, that if you could make £200. a year by teaching the classics, it was a great deal; and, that you could not be justifiable to your family, in giving up a larger for a smaller income, where the employment was respectable. You will do credit to yourself, and I shall like you the more, if you frankly call on me on Monday or Tuesday, and acknowledge this; you may then put what question you choose: and, if you suspect any thing to be wrong in my sentiments or conduct, it is your sacred duty, thus invited, to chatechise me strictly. Before I committed the act in the lobby of the House of Commons, which caused my confinement, I consulted a friend as to the propriety of that act, and he approved of it. He signed his name to a declaration of my principles; and a packet sealed up, in my possession, contains this declaration. I offered to the Speaker of the House of Commons to shew this to any one member of Parliament, in my defence. I mean soon to write a letter to the King, wherein I shall make a similar offer, and I now wish you to put your name on the back of the sealed packet, to witness my intention. In all that I have written to you, the magistrates, and the governor, I have kept in view that my letters should form a train of evidence as to my being of sound mind, a matter of vital import to me; and, being thus apprised, you will more gravely consider matters. I deny that I have committed any crime to justify my imprisonment in this House; and yet I thank God for it, seeing that the quiet and retirement of the place enables me to get over a time of trouble-to reflect on past life, and put my affairs in order. They who have put me bere are precisely circumstanced as those persons who brought a poor woman before Christ for condemnation. They accused me of madness, and most hypocritically arrayed mad doctors against me, in open Court, even after they knew, that their accusation was false. Can there be any thing more wicked? Is there a felon in this Prison who deserves punishment more than men who can be guilty of such conduct? This shall be delivered to you tomorrow after service. Take it home with you: read it to your family: reflect upon the whole of it well: call upon me and discuss every point:-finally, lay this before the Magistrates here on Thursday. I am still of opinion, that you ought to furnish me with Carlile's Republican, for review. I say so, not because I am under any necessity to ask it; for I could get the book elsewhere, if I chose; but to remind you of a moral duty. You, and the Magistrates may also yet consider of allowing me to visit the yards, and make enquiries, along with you, as to the various circumstances of prisoners: their progress to improvement, and the means which may accelerate this. Yours sincerely, ROBERT GOURLAY. TO THE CHAIRMAN OF VISITING MAGIS TRATES. House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, SIR, ABOVE I have copied out a series of letters addressed by me to the Chaplain. I expected he would have laid the last before the Magistrates according to my request, but he called only two days ago, and said he would not do this. It will be remembered, that I pledged myself to exhibit to the Magistrates whatever I wrote as to the prison, and therefore I now furnish you with these copies for perusal. Though the Chaplain and I differ in opinion, we have parted good friends. He says it is really true, that he made £500. a year before coming to this House, though he worked hard for it; and also, that he would not accept double the sum, and be obliged to give up his present charge. He has told me of a Clergyman near Oxford, who has acted on the same principle, and prefers a mere trifle of stipend, where he now resides, to advancement in the Church, and affluence. On this subject it remains for us only to pray, that the infection may spread over the land. The Chaplain will not yet supply me with the volumes which his interference deprived me of; and, as to visiting prisoners, continues to say, he is under the guidance of the Magistrates. He would not sign his name on the back of my packet, but has put his mark, with the date, which will do for me. The Magistrates, after due reflection on the contents of this, and the accompanying sheet, may, if they choose, forward these to the Secretary of State. Your obedient Servant, ROBERT GOURLAY. NOTICES. WE have published the Posthumous Pieces of Elihu Palmer, with his memoir, in a separate pamphlet.-Price Sixpence. ERRATUM. THE Republican is still filled with these; and I must entreat the reader's patience and pardon, as I fear it will never be otherwise whilst I am a prisoner, and I cannot at present afford to pay a competent reader to attend the office. I have many friends who would willingly correct the proofs at their homes; but we find that this cannot be regularly attended to with a periodical work. In the first page of No. 24, Christianical should have been Christianicidal. means a killing of Christianity. A new word certainly; but I feel the same right to coin words as all who have gone before me and my printer feels the right to change them to what he pleases. So, between us, we make sad work. RICHARD CARLILE. It SUBSCRIPTION IN LIVERPOOL FOR THE BENEFIT OF RICHARD CARLILE, AND HIS IMPRISONED SHOPMEN. John Hobson H. M. F. T. November 21, 1824. d. £. s. 0 5 0 0 10 0 |