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ed pistol in his hand, only demands the ready trifles you have about you, watch, purse and rings of any value.

I am sorry that our court and legislators oblige us so often to recur to beggars and robbers for suitable comparisons; for we are well aware, that it is only in certain cases where comparisons are odious; but while under the influence of truth, and indignant at wrong, the etiquette of dandyism and the affected politeness of phrase, are laudably neglected or properly forgotten.

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The King's messages to parliament in money concerns, seldom troubles them except in that case, these are now the ouly acts of grace, always amount, as far I can see, to a demand. Were the demand made with prudent or cautious concern for the well-being of the people, kept within the bounds of moderation, or even introduced with any kind of admissible apology, we might acquiesce and comply with some degree of satisfaction, although even hunger should stimulate us to reproach.

What are the offspring of kings, to the man who is insulted, enslaved and starving? Why call for the morsel from a famishing peasant's child, to supply the luxury ofan infant Royal Duke or the relatively well provided for child of a Royal Duchess? O shameless, rapacious Royalty. For kings and princes, who have so much, who wallow in the luxuries of the earth, who enjoy a paradise every day, to ask for more, from people who are taxed and tythed up to the starving point, feeling famine already rending their heart. strings and want destroying them by piece-meal, is rapacity in deed. To begor to take from them under such circumstances implies a ferocious propensity to plunder, as well as an insatiably avaricious thirst for it in the rulers.-O depravity! what is too mean or too atrocious for thee to perform? Reluctantly submitting to such wanton imposition, amidst stifled murmurs, rising in tones of sorrow and hopeless com plaint, is strongly indicative of despair. Its efforts, when strained to the pitch of acting, will effect more in a day, than the vain, unmanly, degrading petitions of a starving populace to a careless, corrupt house of commons could ac complish in any number of years! That our aristocracy can persist to rob and abuse the nation as they do, is astonishing, with the example of France before their and eyes, would almost compel us to adopt Mussulman faith, and to become fatalists; but that we can account for such prepos terous proceedings, by a more simple and satisfactory mode of argument. Men possessing emolument and power, no

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matter however obtained, never relinquish either while they can by fraud, force or cunning, retain them. Wisdom would dictate to resign the charge or use it for the benefit of their fellow creatures: but pride and depraved sensations confer other sentiments. Even on the day on which justice wrenches plunder and power out of their grasp, they fortify themselves with the impulsive idea, that they can keep them one day longer. And when incapable of contending with success against superior energies, they stand prepared to remonstrate against the justice of the decree which condemns them, as if right was only theirs, and the world and mankind their personal property. When deprived of their usurped power, and of the fruits of their rapacious robbery, they run howling through the world, tormenting mankind with the story of their woes, as if a banditti had robbed them, or fire had destroyed their hard earned substance, and lay impudent claim to pity and condolence, insisting, with clamorous importunity, or the right of regaining their lost plunder, to reinstate them in power, that they may again rob and punish with impunity.

This was actually the case with the French nobility from 1793, until ths battle of Waterloo. That a similar fate, at no distant period, awaits the British Nobility, I am certaiu. Nor ought they to grudge to repine at an age of misery. They stand much in need of a lesson or two from adversity, to restore them to lost humanity. My Lord Bolingbroke, who was something of a political prophet, as well as a sensible man, a fine writer and a heretic, has said, about a hundred years ago, that if ever England was enslaved, it would be when a despotic prince reigned and a corrupt house of parliament legislated for the country; and these, when they meet, will produce both slavery and revolution.*

When the King, the Nobles and minions of government, have obtained all they can obtain, and the people have lost all but their lives, a reaction succeeds, when least expected, they rise unanimous with the simultaneous action and unexpected shock of a winter thunder clap. Hunger and oppression unite all their feelings, destroy the pitiful political barrier of religion, and make them see with Lynx-eyed sagacity their common benefit and common danger. The formidable aspect of despair annihilates all thought of self,

Then England has had a permanent slavery; for since a Legislature or House of Commons has existed, both have existed together with few exceptions.

R. C.

despises prudence, inspires courage and resolution to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard, and, in proportion to the distress they have suffered, will ever be the misery they inflict and the revenge they take. England's paper money alone seems likely to accomplish such an event.

They who see and sincerely mourn such distracting calamity, have not the power to retard its progress or prevent its approach. The deprecations of misery are ever held in scorn and contempt by the unfeeling prince, the proud peer, the haughty, self-sufficient statesman and the insolent, mer cenary, officer. It is only amidst the thunders of vengeance and revenge, amidst the borrors of retributive justice and the crash of falling power, that the voice of the people is heard with attention or their claims to justice admitted to an impartial audience; and even then, we find them cajoled by running, hushed to a calm by false promises, and insinuating flattery, reposing in confidence on the seeming candor of their tyrants, who artfully prepare them for general destruction. The people are like tame Lions or Elephants, they know not their own strength; their peaceful avocations make them habitually cowards, and habit binds them in slavery. . It is despair only that can call forth their ener gies, or guide them to freedom and happiness, by teaching them to despise personal danger and smile at death!

SHEBAGO.

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 135, Fleet Street.-All Correspordences for "The Republican" to be left at the place of publication.

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The Republican.

No. 18, VOL. 12.] LONDON, Friday, Nov. 4., 1825. [PRICE 6d.

TO JOHN S. HARFORD ESQ. OF BLAISE CASTLE, NEAR BRISTOL, A VENDER OF PAPER MONEY IN BRISTOL, A MEMBER OF THE VICE SOCIETY AND AUTHOR OF A VILLANOUS MEMOIR OF THOMAS PAINE.

Dorchester Goal, October 22, 1825. SIR, of a corrupt era, WHAT think you now of Thomas Paine and Richard Carlile? Where are you now? The clamour of radicalism is extinct and the doctrines of Thomas Paine flourish more than ever. You told us, in 1819, that they were one and the same thing. Had they been so, had radicalism rested upon the principles of Thomas Paine, it would have triumphed, it would have secured a victory over every thing that was corrupt in the country. Thomas Paine always moved upon well grounded principles. The Radicals had none. Their dogmas or clamours were universal suffrage and annual parliaments; but they were so blind as to ask the monarchy Aristocracy and priesthood to be pleased to grant this, and not to fear a loss of power and profit by it! Mr. Hunt made it a peculiar boast, in 1819, that he had not read the writings of Thomas Paine, and that he would not allow Thomas Paine nor any other writer to form opinions for him, I now sincerely believe him : for though Thomas Paine could, with ink, write imperishable and incomparable opinions on government, he could not write imperishable ink, incomparable, matchless blacking, and superiorily prepared roasted grain..' These are the articles for Mr. Hunt to deal in, and not the opinions of Thomas Paine. Had he flourished politics. with the aid of a people infuriated with distress, we should have had some rare quackery in government, Mr. Cobbett, too, denounced both the political and theological pinions of Thomas Paine, as soon as he set foot in England; but what has he done without them? Where is he as a political and theological writer? With great powers of argument, he has allen among the lowest of the low, from the want of advocating

Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 135, Fleet Street.

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better principles. You, Mr. Harford were quite premature in saying, that these men were following Thomas Paine. Hadl come out of court with a verdict of approbation on the part of the packed Jury, they would have done it; but they waited to see which way. the wind would blow, and they turned that way. Mr. Hunt was no longer my "bosom companion," as you called him, I never saw him alone afterwards; but where and what is he? and where and what are the doctrines of Thomas Paine? The one is down, the other flourish as green as ever in polities; and Christianity still writhes, still gasps, before his "Age of Reason" supported by all the more important publications which it has brought forth. Had every human being in the country turned from me. had my wife, my sister, had every friend deserted me, I would have clung to the works of Thomas Paine, in the assurance of eventual triumph. I now have that triumph. Though in prison, I feel it not: and with respect to political or doctrinal influence, I do feel myself to be the most powerful man in this country. This may be egotism; but it is truth,-truth which I mean to display to the conviction of all. I consider my career as hardly yet begun. This prison has been my college. Here I have been tu tored. And soon I shall receive a call to go forth to preach (in print) to people and to nations. Let what I have done be considered but a preparation for what I intend to do. As yet, I have hardly considered myself as possessing any thing of individual character. I am now moving toward independence and powerful means, and " so help me God." I will make the very best use of them. My pleasure, my gain, my every thing interesting and desired lies that way. What think you now of the " impious Carlile," whose moral testimonials were as nothing without the obligations of Christianity? What think you now of the country, your last hope of which was my removal from London in 1819?

You have been one of my immediate persecutors, as a member of the Vice Society, and from the pamphlet before me, professing to be a description of Thomas Paine and his principles, and a connection of the Radicals with them, in 1819, I shall shew you to be as vicious a man as ever put pen to paper. In a pretended defence of your country and its present principles of government, you as a professed suppressor of Vice in others, have resorted to the most wilful lies, You have made up a memoir of Paine, with additional abuse and lies, from others of similar character; that of Cheetham, pronounced wilfully false by as American Jury: that under the name of Francis Oldys, a forgery or fable that emanated directly from a government office in 1792, under the direction and purchase of the present Lord Liverpool the late George Chalmers, then a Clerk to the Board of Trade, being its author; and that by Cobbett, which, read by a reflecting mind, could never injure any reputation but that of the auther, parts of which even you have been ashamed to copy. These are you base authorities, and the only fair memoirs of the man published

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