The 'balttle-axe of thought' which Mazzini handled in his school at Hatton Garden has done more to leaven the intellects of the Italian people, and ripen them for political liberty, and bring the Italians to a consciousness of their degraded condition, than all the cannons that ever went forth to do their bloody work can ever achieve for the liberation of a people.

Who makes slaves? The slaves themselves. Who makes kings? Those who will have them. What power has a man, an aggregate of dust, over millions of his fellow men, if these do not surrender to him that power, and inake themselves his willing tools?

I have not at this moment the time to follow out this subject. An answer to the treatment of madmen and wolves, on being assailed, may be found in any celmentary work on Peace.' An excellent exposition of the question is given by Thomas Cooper, styled Two orations on taking away human life.'

Men of principle have nothing to do with expediency; they must hold out on their principle for good or evil, whatever the consequences may be. To perish in a good cause, or for a great idea, is not to die, it is beginning to live. The man-the flesh, bones, and blood-may utterly disappear; but an idea, started by the leath of a man of principle, lives for ever and will for ages transmit its glorious light to a grateful posterity. ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

THE RIGHT OF ADDRESSING PUBLIC MEETINGS.

DEAR SIR,-I am charged, in your periodical, with attempting to 'deprive a thousand men of their rights.' So serious a charge is no joke; and, though sorry to inflict anything upon the readers of the Reasoner, I must, with the best possible grace, get out of an awkward

scrape.

Upon the strength of 'a paragraph which has lately gone the round of the public prints,' your contributor says, 'I persisted in thrusting myself upon a meeting of Wesleyans'-which is half truth and barely that, for the meeting on which I 'thrust' myself was not exclusively Wesleyan. It was a meeting to sympathise with Wesleyans, which surely may be done by other people than Methodists.

Another of this correspondent's half truths is that I thrust myself upon a meeting of the Wesleyans 'contrary to the wish of the majority;' whereas the majority of the meeting were not appealed to, and certainly did not decide against me. The chairman and some score or two of leather-lunged fanatics caused all the uproar and confusion that was caused. My conviction is that but for them I should have been heard right willingly by a majority of that meeting. How could they object to so lively a speaker as the man from London,' when speaking on their side of the question, which he unquestionably would have done, and went for the avowed purpose of doing?

No doubt, Mr. Editor, the Methodists have as much right to take their own views of matters as others;' but if Methodists, or any other

* The writer was that day leaving for the Peace Congress at Paris.-ED.

denomination of Christians, invite a public discussion of their grievancesif they challenge inquiry, and publicly put in a claim to public sympathy on the ground of being scandalously oppressed-I want to know whether asserting my right to speak under such circumstances involved an outrage upon that right in others?

But the part of your correspondent's letter which more than all the rest disgusts me is that condemnatory of my attempt to address the meeting, not merely against its wish, but 'the moment it was formed;' for even the public prints' show that I waited patiently to hear three speeches before addressing myself to the chairman. Not before the first resolution had been moved and seconded did I leave my seat or open my lips. But no more of this. Perhaps, possessed by the green-eyed monster, your correspondent envies the high position I have attained in Lancashire, and as contributor to the Reasoner. The Lancashire Beacon may be an eye-sore to him. Jealousy is an unaccountable feeling, under which men do unaccountable things. But Abraham Tucker is assured that Charles Southwell, who knows something of twenty-four pounders, is not alarmed at popguns.

It may be asked which of the many meetings of 'your own' have been broken up by such 'disturbers' as myself? Pray name one or two, as at present I am in a state of worse than heathenish ignorance respecting

them.

Hall of Science, Manchester.

CHARLES SOUTHWELL.

[We recall to our correspondent's recollection the names of Brindley, Duncan, Callow, Puddefoot, Sparkhall, Mrs. Vaughan, Christian' Smith-not to recite others-who, in the same manner and upon a similar principle, have for years broken up the order of our assemblies. -ED.]

THE BIRKBECK SCHOOL, LONDON MECHANICS'

INSTITUTION.

THE Special Committee appointed to establish a Day School in connection with the London Mechanics' Institution, beg to inform their fellow members and the public in general, that the Birkbeck School was opened in the Lecture Theatre of the Institution on the 17th of July, 1848, where every facility is afforded for the highest mental development of boys from the age of seven years and upwards.

The course of education is purely secular.

The subjects taught include reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, composition, history, geography, drawing, and vocal music; the elements of a'gebra, geometry, mensuration, mechanics, and of the natural sciences.

The children are likewise instructed in the laws of health, and in the principles of Social and political economy, in order that they may understand how much their health, longevity, and general happiness are dependent upon themselves, and that they may also the more fully comprehend their position in society, and their duties towards it.

Particular attention is paid to moral training.

The system of education adopted is that which modern science and experience have shown to be the most in accordance with the constitution of the human mind, and the best ca'culated to strengthen, develop, and rightly direct its faculties, by presenting to them the objects naturally adapted to call them into their most varied and healthy activity.

Instead of forcing the pupils to commit long sentences to memory, by which so much mental labour is wasted, while the matter itself is lost, or, at least, but little understood, in consequence of the effort necessary to retain the simple words of the lesson, the subjects of study are presented in a form the most enticing and agreeable to the minds of children. The attention of the pupils being thus maintained rather by the natural activity of the mental faculties than by the fear of physical torture, the school is transformed from a place of tears and trembling into one of amusement and happiness; while the acquisition of knowledge is regarded, not as laborious task work, but as one of the most agreeable as well as one of the most elevating of pursuits.

The moral training is based upon the principle, that the moral feelings, in common with the physical and intellectual powers, can only be strengthened by actual exercise; that the mere teaching of moral precepts in itself is insufficient, since they constitute but intellectual truths for the guidance of the feelings, and their acquisition is simply an intellectual operation; they must therefore be enforced by practical exercise, for which purpose the school is so organised as to form, as nearly as possible, a model of the world without; the conduct of the boys in their intercourse with each other being so regulated, that on leaving the school they may enter society already trained to become worthy and orderly, as well as active and intelligent citizens. J. ANGELL,

Hon. Sec. of Birkbeck School Committee.

QUESTIONABLE EFFECTS OF HANGING IN
ABERDEEN.

SIR, The Aberdeen Assizes, which have just passed, exhibit a remarkable increase of capital crime, following a hanging-match which took place last June-the first exhibition of that kind which has taken place in this city for eighteen years. At that period a poor woman was hanged for poisoning a worthless husband. The commencement of a new era of hanging was ushered in by the case of a man for poisoning his worthy wife; and now, as you will see by the Aberdeen Herald-a copy of which I send you that five individuals have just been tried for four murders. One of them was attended with such horrible atrocity that the case was tried with closed doors, and the newspapers repressed the full particulars. The use of intoxicating liquors was proved to have excited the animal propensities of all the criminals to a state of extra-insanity. It is singular that such an increase of crime should follow the residence of royalty in this northern country. But what can we expect? Royalty and the ministers of religion countenance not the Temperance movement, but pander to the vices of the age, by joining in vulgar drinking usages. No wonder that royalty countenances gin shops, when we consider that taxes on liquors help the revenue.

The following were the cases :-A woman for secreting her pregnancy, and murdering the infant; a man for a rape on an aged female, followed by murder-this case was attended by disgusting atrocity; a man for drowning his illegitimate infant; a man for a rape on a child of 13 years of age; and a man for the murder of his wife, assisted by his concubine -this was a cunningly devised murder.

In the supplement you will see an excellent letter on the closing to the public, and even to students, college and other libraries-legitimately belonging to the people. The talented and liberal-minded Professor Blackie has manfully, both by writing and lecturing, tried to break down the narrow system of education followed in the colleges, and to open the libraries to the public. And the system has got such a shake, from the worthy Professor's intellectual blow, that it is reeling to its fall. Aberdeen, September 25, 1849. ARTHUR TREVELYAN.

WHAT CAN THE POPE DO?

I COME now to unhappy France. I tell you that the Pope will not yield an inch of his sovereignty by the grace of God.' To demand such a thing of a Catholic Pope, who possesses, by the consent of the Catholic powers, spiritual infallibility, and who, in the name of this infallibility, sacredly reserves to himself the absolute sovereignty of the temporal as well as of the spiritual order, would be asking him to become a Protestant. M. de Falloux, who is a good Jesuit, could not seriously think of that. But he could easily make his colleague, Odillon Barrot, believe that it was night at noon-day, or, what is more in accordance with Papal politics, that it was noon at midnight. What could you expect, in religious affairs, of a man stupid enough to vote, as a member of the opposition, 37,000,000f. to the Catholic worship on the State budget, while he declared that the law ought to be atheist. At any rate, this was not atheism at a cheap rate. The Pope is, then, reinstated in the temporal sovereignty. This was what he wished in appealing to the Catholic powers who had restored his pontifical throne, and in announcing to General Oudinot that he would he guarded only by Spain. The latter had nothing to do but to leave Rome, after his masterpiece of military diplomacy. He will be rewarded, it is said, by the pious Napoleon, with the baton of a Marshal of France. The Pope has named a delegation of three Cardinals to reorganise the Roman government. delegation has commenced its mission by reopening the dungeons of the Inquisition, just abolished by Oudinot, for the confinement of Achilli, a former Roman priest converted to Protestantism, and exercising the Protestant ministry. It was an outrage, and I should not be astonished if England should take this occasion to express its opinion against the conduct of France on the Roman expedition. The Protestant powers ought, in my opinion, to demand the surrender of this man. The religious discussion is thus opened by this incident, and while it is attemped to crush the revolution by political compromise, it will be reproduced in a more serious form, and this time, definitely, in assuming the religious direction, that is to say, in going to the foundation of the social order, which still reposes on the authority of faith. Abjurations, in favour of

This

Protestantism, I will venture to predict, will now make a noise at once in France, in Spain, and especially in Italy.

The Italians now in London have already combined to this effect. The journals will give the report of their meeting. My opinion is that it is necessary to follow this course. Let those who admit the infallibility of the church, on the conditions laid down by the Holy See, remain Catholics, and consecrate the domination of human reason by Catholi cism-nothing better. But let all for whom the infallible authority of the Pope is not a truth, and who remain by indifference within the pale of the Church, detach themselves from it. We shall see what the Reac tion will think of this, and if the true Catholics will not perceive that in combining against Socialism with Malthusians and stock-jobbers, in sacrificing on the altar of Baal, they have prepared a struggle against Catholicism far more dangerous than that of Luther. Remark that in England it is the ministers of the Anglican Church who are the most inclined to Socialism, and they will very soon be justified in the contest between the temporal power of industry, and the abominable political economy which says-Knock, and it shall not be opened to you; ask, and ye shall not receive, or, at least, if you ask without offering in proportion to the demand, you shall pay dear, and the poorer you are the dearer you shall pay.'

As if the ideas which I advanced on the Bank and the Bourse needed a new proof, the recent report of the Bank of France shows the same increase of specie in the vaults, and the same diminution of discounts. And, on another side, all the journals seem to have undertaken to publish an account of the fluctuations of the Bourse since the Revolution of February. A table of these changes gives the true thermometer of the counter-revolution. There is only one thing to modify in the reasoning of the journals on this subject; they present the fluctuations of the Bourse as the effect of the events, while in reality they are rather the cause. When the governments do what the Bourse wishes, there is a rise in stock; there is a fall when their policy contradicts its speculations; whence it follows that in every country where progress takes its true direction, which consists in diminishing the exploitation of labour by capital, the government, if unhappily it is indebted, will be forced to come under the yoke of the Bourse; and hence in our European governments, so heavily loaded with debt, the Bourse will always have the control of politics, so long as politics shall not control the Bourse. How is this to be brought about? I will hereafter answer this question, and meantime I will congratulate the United States on not being burdened with a heavy public debt, and I hope that it will not be too ready to contract new loans, under any circumstances.-JULES LECHEVALIER, French Correspondent of the New York Tibune.

'AMERICA COMPARED WITH ENGLAND.'

THIS is a work on the respective socal effects of the American and English systems of government and legislation, and the Mission of Democracy. When we first reviewed this work we expressed an opinion