THE WEEK'S LECTURES. [These lectures are quoted from the official an nouncements of the respective institutions. When we discontinued this list, friends arriving from the provinces, as well as those residing in the metropolis, so complained of the want of this guide to the lecture room that we have renewed it, and take much trouble to perfect it.] LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION, John Street, Fitzroy Square.-November 16th, [8] Public Meeting of the National Reform League. 18th (7), Thomas Cooper, Life and Genius of Milton.' HALL OF SCIENCE, City Road.-Nov. 18th (7), Mr. Samuel Kydd, Life, Character, and Writings of Cobbett.' INSTITUTION, Carlisle Street, Edgeware Road.November 19, (8) John Epps, Esq., M.D., ' On Homœopathy.' SOUTH LONDON HALL, Webber Street, Blackfriars Road.-Nov. 18th (7), Mr. G. J. Holyoake will Lecture. City Mechanics' Institute, Gould-sq., Crutchedfriars.-Nov. 19 (8), a Lecture. City of London Institution, Aldersgate Street.Nov. 20th (7), Mr. Edward Miall, The Professional Sentiment.' Finsbury Hall, Bunhill Row.-Nov. 19th, (83) a Lecture. Eclectic Institute, 72, Newman Street, Oxford Street-November 18 (8), J. B. O'Brien, B.A. The Application of Scriptural Truths to the Practical Business of Life.' South Place, Moorfields.-Nov. 18 (11 a.m.), W. J. Fox, M.P., will Lecture. Institute, 1, George Street, Sloane Square.Nov. 18th (7), a Lecture. SECULAR SCHOOLS. [Friendly to the principle of secular instruction we publish this list of schools to aid in procuring them support, as well as to apprise our friends where the best kind of education can be had for their children.] Finsbury Birkbeck School, City Road.--Superintendent, Mr. J. Runtz; Principal, Mr. Thomas Cave. Hours, half-past 9 till 3. John-street, Fitzroy-square.-Principal, Mr. A. D. Brooks. Hours, 91 till 31. Ellis's Academy, 8, George-st., Euston-square.Open to both sexes. Principals, Mr. & Mrs. Ellis. Hours, 9 to 12; from 1 to 4. Birkbeck School, London Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings.-Patron, Earl of Radnor. Principal, Mr. J. Runtz. Hours, 9 to 3. Quarters, first Mondays in January, April, July,and October. Half-quarter pupils taken. National Hall, 242, High Holborn.-Superintendent, Mr. W. Lovett. Hours 9 till 3.-Girls' Schools, same hours. Conductress, Miss Sunter. Aurora Villa, North End, Hampstead.-Principal, Mr. H. L. Harrison. Pupils boarded & taught. Birkbeck School, Windsor Street (back of the Mansion House), Lower Street, Islington.-Conductor, Mr. Wells. Hours, 9 to 3. DIETETIC DEPOTS. [Considering that a more extensive use of farinacecus food would conduce to public health and private economy, in order to facilitate experiments, we publish this list of houses known to supply the specified kinds of food in their best state.j Miller, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square.- Pure Bread, white and brown-brown flour also. A Public Meeting of the new National Reform League' will be held at John Street, on Friday, the 16th inst., at half past 8. Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds in the chair. Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Holyoake, and Mr. Linton will address the meeting. We have received the interesting and elaborate prospectus of this League, which we cannot notice more adequately than in the language of the correspondent enclosing it, who says:-'I think you will agree with me that there are not many Bil's of Rights" that have a broader basis than this, or which recognise more explicitly the doctrine of the natural equality of human rights-that grand doctrine, without the full appreciation of which we can never be men in the true sense of the word, but only slaves, tyrants, snobs, gents, shams-anything but real humans. Some few weeks ago, in your Reasoner, you called out most appropriately and opportunely for programmes from all reformatory parties. I, for one, thank you heartily for that article. Well, here is our programme, to which, if you will draw attention, we shall be obliged.', THE LETTER OF MAZZINI. This letter, which a Member of Parliament lately declared had been read and re-read by every states" man in Europe, is published by the Italian Refugee Fund Committee. It makes a threepenny pamphlet, but it will be sold at a penny, as it is intended for national circulation. We fulfil our promise of apprising our readers that it can now be had through Mr. Watson. Published by C. Fox, 67, Paternoster Row. A UNION OF EDITORS. W. Charnock desires, as many others do, to see a union of the various editors of the progressive journals issued in the metropolis. Such a union of editors is not impossible, but a union of the readers is a very different thing. A dozen editors might agree to write in one paper, but it is very unlikely that their respective readers would agree to buy it. MR. HOLYOAKE'S LECTURES. On the next and the following Sunday, Mr. Holyoake is engaged to lecture at the South London Hall, Webber Street, Blackfriars Road. MR. COLLET'S ENTERTAINMENTS. REASONER SHILLING LIST. J. Body, per Mr. E. Truelove... Richard Fenton, Manchester ADVERTISEMENTS. 229 6 5 0 20 3 0 2 6 1 Volney's Lectures on History, cloth boards 1 6 1 0 1 0 3 0 1 0 2 6 1 6 1 0 1 0 1 vol., cloth lettered,.. 1 6 .... Just Published, 2nd edition for the million, Pages 313, closely printed, and neatly bound in cloth, with full Table of Contents and Comprehensive Index, Price 23., AMERICA COMPARED WITH ENGLAND: the respective Social Effects of the American and English Systems of Government and Legisla. tion, and the MISSION OF DEMOCRACY. By R. W. Russell, of Cincinnati, United States, Counsellor at Law. 'He compares, in a very masterly manner, the respective systems of government and legislation in England and the United States.'-Law Times. The object of the work is to show, by contrast, the working of the democracy of America and the aristocracy of England.'-Spirit of the Age. Just Published, in 1 vol., cloth lett., Price 3s. 6d., Cooper's Wise Saws and Modern Instances. -Baron's Yule Feast. 1 vol., wrapper To be had of J. Watson, 3, Queen's-head Passage, Paternoster-row. COALS. JOHN CRAMP, of the firm of NEAL and Co., Coal Merchants, Old Jamaica Wharf, Surrey side of Blackfriars Bridge, informs his Social Friends that he is desirous of giving them the advan. tage of the wholesale market, by supplying Coal of the best quality at the lowest pric for ready money; the rate of charges being always only four shillings advance on the prices in the Pool, as advertised from the Coal Exchange: Present Price, 23s. SPURR'S TEMPERANCE COFFEE HOUSE, 10, Williamson Square, Liverpool. Travellers accommodated upon the most reasonable terms. J. S. informs his friends and others who are about to Emigrate, either to the Canadas or United States, that he has entered into arrangements with a respectable shipping house, and is prepared to furnish information as to cost of passage, time of sailing, &c., &c. All communications must be post-paid, and contain a postage stamp, or they will not be answered. INTIMATIONS. The Reasoner is sent free by Post, the Quarter's Subscription 48. 4d., on thin paper 3s. 3d., and issued in Monthly Parts and Half-yearly Volumes. All post office orders to be made payable to George Jacob Holyoake, Chief Office, London. RECEIVED.-W. Crabtree. (Euclid has been posted.)-W. Knowles. (The Bosjesmans and other communications.)- Gracchus. (Thanks for extract.)-R. Fenton. (We hope to meet the requirement of his friends shortly; and if so, we shall be obliged by his drawing their attention to it.)-John Hunter.-G. Brooke. (The assurances which accompanied his subscription have been read with interest.)-C. P. Blair. (The alteration in quantity was, as we stated, a matter of necessity; but we hope the necessity is diminishing.)-A Friend, Galashiels. (We are not sure that we have acknowledged the amount accurately.)-A Young Inquirer. (If it seems desirable, notice will be taken of the article he alludes to.)-Macc.esfield Courier and Herald, No. 2174.-Commercial Journal and Family Herald, No. 46.-Scotsman, No. 3110. London:-Printed by A. & H. Holyoake, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row, and Published by J. Watson, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. Wednesday, November 14, 1849. THE REASONER No. 21.-NEW SERIES.] EDITED BY G. J. HOLYOAKE. [PRICE 28. AN author, from whom better things might have been hoped, exalts to the uttermost the fact, if it be so, of this age being free from fear of the faggot, or the torture-chamber. Fear of the social circle, fear of the newspaper, fear of being odd, fear of what may be thought by people who never did think, still greater fear of what somebody may say-are not these things a clinging dress of torture? A mean and cowardly reserve upon the most important questions of human life, is the characteristic of modern times.-Arthur Helps. us. THE INCONSISTENCY OF THE LATE 'THANKSGIVING.' THE Thanksgiving' is over: we however think that human gratitude might have taken a more useful and also a more complimentary form. The public press proved too far advanced to allow a Fast' to be attempted as a means of mitigating the Cholera. It was felt on many hands that to impute this calamity to God was to libel him, seeing that its fatality was caused by vice and uncleanliness. This was sensible: but the Thanksgiving' seems a return to the old bad reasoning from which we have enjoyed a partial escape. To thank heaven that it has spared us, is to assume that after all it did inflict the late epidemic upon Can that gratitude be pleasing to Deity which carries with it so offensive an imputation? Yet even the clear-sighted and usually rational Spectator, which so ably objected to a Fast, coincides with the appointment of a Thanksgiving.' The Form of Prayer' read in the Churches says, that there was no help in man,' God alone did deliver us. Did any of the persons who drew up, or who have repeated this prayer, believe this? Did they trust to Heaven? Did they not rather trust to the help of man? Many who remain thus to deny the efficacy of human help, owe their existence to it. This is poor gratitude to the memory of the many intrepid physicians who perished in their efforts, and successful. efforts to save others. This Thanksgiving seems to us wanting in good taste. In the late mortality many have fallen who better deserved to live than many who survive, and we cannot-without vanity-glorify that we are left when we think of many who are gone. Gratitude could find a far more becoming and generous mode of expressing its emotions and one which we presume could not have been unacceptable to Heaven. It might have caused Lectures on the sanitary duties of citizens to have been delivered, which would have gone farther than Sermons to save many hearers from premature death, and by rendering them cleaner. inhabitants of earth have rendered them no less fit for the kingdom of heaven. But the logic of the Church is not very consistent in any virtuous respect. One of the anti- Post Office fanatics-for so we must call the unscrupulous opponents of the new Sunday regulations-has advertised [No. 182, Vol. VII.] a story about a dead letter carrier who asked the Rev. Mr. Pears, a clergyman in Bath, who was to pay him for his soul, if he carried letters on a Sunday and so lost it?' A very sensible question, we think, to a clergyman whose church sells the cure of souls. The letter carrier must have been quizzing Mr. Pears. The Times refused the advertisement-being, we suppose, of our opinion. The absurd jargon of piety which Manning has been suffered to write, under the tutorship of the Gaol Chaplain of Horsemonger Lane, is another evidence of the inconceivable pretensions of the Church. It was attempted, in the short space of a fortnight, to prepare Manning and his wife for heaven. Society-hopeless of fitting them for human society or home-despairing even of fitting them for the choice company of Norfolk Island-dooms them to the gallows; yet the chaplain, on certain signs of repentance appearing, was ready to dismiss them to the company of angels. Either angelic people are not very select in their associates, or that clerical art which thus can fit criminals for the skies, might restore the vicious to virtue-which would be far more edifying to the inhabitants of the earth. The Morning Chronicle pretends that Mrs. Manning was an atheist. A woman who thanked God she had satisfied her revenge, and had ideas of reading prayers over the body of O'Conner-if ejaculatory atheistic was practically imbued with religion, for that which sways conduct is a deeper sentiment than that which sways the tongue : and when the same Chronicle tells us that nothing but religious teaching can save us from such criminals, it displays great ignorance of human nature. No amount of preceptive teaching would prevent a strong and vicious nature like that of Mrs. Manning's from falling before the temptation of vicious circumstances. Such organisations are only to be saved from crime by being judiciously trained and innoxiously placed. G. J. HOLYOAKE. SUGGESTION TO THE GOVERNMENT ON THE HANGING OF THE MANNINGS. [From the Daily News, Nov. 14, 1849.] SIR, The government, true to its conviction of the moral efficacy of hanging, have given the public of London another great lesson in Horsemonger Lane. But why should so great instruction be confined to one district? Why should not the gallows be made portable, and when the culprits are strung up, the whole moral apparatus made to perambulate the streets of London-so that to the dwellers in Belgravia, May Fair, and around the Regent's Park, may be conceded advantages so liberally bestowed on the obscure inhabitants of Southwark? Why should I be condemned to travel from Tavistock Square and endanger my life in the great concourse assembled for instruction in Horsemonger Lare, while the more favoured inhabitants of locality can have these great means of i: provement brought home to their own doors? Trusting that so long as hanging is considered a good thing, the government will in future make the most of it-I subscribe myself A LOVER OF IMPARTIALITY. [G. J. HOLYOKE.] GEORGE SAND AND THE NATION.' ABOUT a month ago Mr. Duffy, the editor of the Nation, published, in that journal, two articles of great interest and characteristic ability, entitled A French Invasion.' The object of these papers was to warn the Irish youth of both sexes from what the writer considered to be the dangerous tendencies, demoralising doctrines, and 'gross abominations' of French novel literature in general, and, as the sequel showed, of the works of George Sand in particular. We have no doubt the course pursued by the writer will defeat itself; and, as is usual in cases of a like description, this powerful and sustained attack will attract much more attention to the writings of the proscribed authoress than that bestowed upon them previous to the publication of these articles. To the first we have no objection to offer. The writer is candid, enthusiastic even; and does not fail to do ample justice to the artistic side of the woman, on whom, as a teacher, he felt bound to expend a great deal of honest indignation and hot invective in his second paper. Much as we regret the tone, and still more the substance of this second article, we feel bound to state that we do not see how it could have been otherwise penned from the writer's peculiar point of view. Those who attack, expose, and strain every nerve to destroy the present corrupt and corrupting institutions of society must expect resistance. Mr. Duffy's contributor belongs to the section who can yet live and work in that society. He is evidently a man who belongs to the age, with settled convictions in religion, and democratic convictions in politics. With George Sand's democracy he can sympathise; George Sand's lofty genius he can appreciate; but with George Sand's religious faith and moral teaching he neither feels sympathy nor can keep terms. It is his abhorrence. He is within the pale of the existing Church; the subject of his consideration, the object of his attack, is without. His opinions and convictions are bounded by priestly dogmas, and theological interpretations of religious books. It is clear, with the daringly protesting spirit of George Sand, then, that he can hold no communion. The natural consequence of this is that he reads her books with an oblique vision. He sees in them what is not there; as he expects from his own religion results which cannot flow from it. The doctrines which Sand teaches appear to him grotesque, hideous, even as the children of the devil. Before him they arise as the offsprings of perversion, depravity, impiety, scepticism. All this is inevitable, when a theologically religious man takes up the works of an author who contradicts, disturbs, and, possibly, sometimes controverts his dogmas. And when results of this character are inevitable, allowance should be made for them in our estimate of the publicist who feels called upon to make public his criticisms. To charge him with wilful misrepresentation would be very unjust; as misrepresentation was inevitable on account of the state of the medium through which we receive the matter presumed to be represented. The most that could be said is, that the writer of the articles in question does not possess a brain sufficiently clear, unprejudiced, and di-passionate to perform what he attempts to perform-namely, to tell the Irish nation what it is which he has in |