Behold how divided,

The judgment decided,

Poor sinners bewailing their folly in hell,

But glory to Jesus,

Believing he'll save us,

With angels in glory his praises we'll swell.

These may give you some idea of the miserable state in which intellect exists pretty generally in America. There is, however, every reason to hope that a better order of thinking may gain ground there in time. The Universalists are already fast multiplying in the New England States, and a schism has lately occurred amongst the Quakers of New York and Pennsylvania. One of their preachers, named Elias Hicks, has proclaimed the fabulous origin of the earlier parts of Bible History. Mr. Fellowes introduced a quotation from his published sermons into the preface of the late edition of Mr. Paine's " Age of Reason." I believe you have a copy of that edition.

Deism, as you say, is not a much less objectionable form of religion, than any other of her hideous forms. Its influence on the mind is the same, and the same results are produced under whatever view is taken of a fancied Author of Existence. It is ignorance persisted in owing to the prejudices and fears instilled by false education, and the impressions confirmed by the general infection prevailing in society. Tyrants and priests maintain the delusion. The man who proclaims the inconsistency of established belief with natural facts is immediately proscribed and crushed. The simple fact, that it is not possible for an uncircumscribed expanse to be comprehended and controuled, is sufficient to shew the absurdity of

belief in a God: the truth cannot be too often reiterated in your publication. I should like to see a well-drawn answer to the argument of Dr. Sam. Clark for the existence of a Deity.

Have you in your possession the sinall work written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which gave occasion for his expulsion from college. I am, dear Sir, with much regard,

F. P,

In my late voyage from America, one of my companions was the secretary to the Columbian Congress from Bogota, and I was pleased to find in his possession an Abridgment of Dupuis in Spanish.

TO MR. RICHARD CARLILE, 135, FLEET STREET, LONDON.

DEAR SIR, Bolton, Dec. 6, 1825. In the name of the Republicans of Bolton, allow me the liberty of congratulating you on your happy deliverance from a merciless gang of CHRISTIAN ROBBERS, and on your complete triumph over an accursed PRIESTHOOD. Your SIX YEARS of imprisonment will be a stigma on his Majesty's advisers, and will be read by future generations with horror and disgust. But you have triumphed; you have taught mankind a lesson, that, if they, in reality, wish to be free, they have nothing to do but will it. You have likewise taught them to take no opinions upon trust, and not to rest on the mere words of a horde of mercenary priests; but to call upon them to give proofs of the authenticity of that religion, by the means of which, they have so long, and so successfully stultified the minds, and enslaved the bodies, of an ignorant and unsuspecting people. Happy would it be for mankind in general, if they would act in conformity to the spirit of this lesson. If they were to do this: we may soon bid an eternal adieu to the many numberless moral evils (aye, and some physical ones too) which have so long disgraced and brutalized the greater part of mankind.

The bright beams of science are now rising above the moral horizon, and have already begun to break through and dispel the dark thick clouds of ignorance, and superstition. Let us fondly anticipate, that their benign, all-cheering, and benevolent influence will never again be obliterated;-but that they may majestically spread through the moral and intellectual world, till the happiness of man be as complete, as the nature of his organization will admit. What a sublime and beautiful prospect it is to the philanthropic mind, to look forward into future ages, and contemplate the supreme bliss of his fellows! No tyrant King to awe them into obedience to absolute and despotic laws; no cruel and deceitful PRIEST, to hoodwink and frighten them into his base and wicked designs, by preaching up to their weak and bewildered imaginations, the horrible idea of a jealous, revengeful, and vindictive GOD. No cruel persecutions, no bloody massacres, no torturings, no hangings, no burning for the glory of a DEMON GOD, and for the honour of as Inischievous and as detestable a religion, as ever was or ever could be invented: a religion that encourages every species of vice, by holding out to its deluded followers, the hope of a future state of never-ending happiness: only to be obtained by those happy mortals, who are so fortunate as to be able to stifle their reason, and blindly to pay implicit obedience to the Priest: and, that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance !" I challenge the world, to produce one sentence half as immoral as this; one, that has a greater tendency to demoralize mankind, and make them the willing voturies

of vice and crime. I defy all the art and sophistry of the whole combination of Priestcraft to make it appear that any other meaning can be attached to it than the following;-The greater the crime, the greater will be the reward. Match this who can! If it cannot be matched, why should I express a doubt, when I am certain it cannot be done? then let us hear no more babbling about the horrors of Atheism, nor of the evil consequences attending the non-belief in a conscious state of future identity.

But I have digressed from the original intention of this letter. Whenever religion happens to cross my path, this is going to be a "slip," in colloquial conversation, "God only knows," when I shall have done. Shebago says, that he is "but a weak advocate," but were I able to wield a pen in such a masterly manner as he can do, I would trouble, if not benefit, the world with more of my " daily and nocturnal lucubrations."

Your friends, here, stand on the very tiptoe of impatience,anxious to see you; and peremptorily call upon you to redeem your pledge, "never wilfully mispledged," "tak' your ain words back again," that you would, when you had the power of locomotion, visit every town, village, and hamlet, that contained any of your openly avowed friends. With this you will receive a number of the Bolton Chronicle, in which are contained a few observations on the subject of your liberation, which I thought worthy of your notice.† I do not agree with the whole of the remarks; but, taking a variety of local circumstances into consideraticn, they are decent, and confer an honour on the Editor. You will likewise receive a few verses made on first hearing of your liberation, by an acquaintance of mine, and a bold advocate for Matealism. Yours, with every sentiment of respect,

JOHN CAMERON.

I will move for this purpose early in the spring.-R. C. I was much pleased with this article. It is one of the best and most candid that I have seen upon the subject.-R. C.

LINES ADDRESSED TO MR. CARLILE,

ON HEARING OF HIS LIBERATION FROM DORCHESTER BASLILE.

THRICE welcome, my friend, from the gaol's dreary cell,
Wherein thou hast long been unjustly confined,

And welcome among us once more for to dwell,
Thou firm friend to truth, and to freedom of mind,
Awaked to the wrongs of an injured world,

In darkness, and chains, under PRIESTLY Controul,
Thou boldly step'd forth, and the banner unfurl'd
Of reason, and light, to awaken the WHOLE.

And thousands emerge every day from the gloom,
With anticipations of joy in the time,

When black superstition and PRIESTCRAFT shall come
To be banish'd for ever, from every CLIME.

And mayest thou live to behold it complete,
And reap thy reward (who alone gave it birth),
When every bosom toward thee must beat,

With feelings of gratitude over the earth.

I am, dear Sir, your sincere WELL WISHER, and one who dares OPENLY to speak his mind, ROBERT BLAIR, AN ATHEIST. Bolton, Nov. 26, 1825.

MISSIONARIES.

Owyhee-Captain Cook-Tomyomyo-The Cape Coast Missionary Embassy -The King of the Ashantees-Mr. Hutton, &c.

I HAVE Something to say about these people, having had my eye upon them for nearly thirty years; but scarcely considering them worthy of the notice of a sensible man.

This was wrong. It is by over looking trifling incidents and minute occurences, that we suffer faults, follies, and errors to become spreading abuses, solid vices, and invincible crimes. Under the specious pretence and imposing idea of civilizing the barbarous and rendering the destitute comfortable, of introducing the arts and sciences of polished life, among the savage and the ignorant, and teaching the wild and uncultivated the benefits of experience and wisdom, the missionaries first set out on their laudable, dangerous, and arduous undertaking; and whatever might have been the design of the first projectors, it was cloaked under the modest veil of devotion and humanity.

To assist the friendless, to give knowledge to the ignorant, to instil into the brutal savage ideas of moderation, equity and justice, to teach the forlorn children of nature, the mild and salutary doctrines of social intercourse, civil right, moral obligations, the benefit of just and impartial laws, the beauty of order, and the peace, security, interest and happiness of the whole, established on and combined with the welfare of the individual-in short, to teach economy, regularity, sobriety, honesty, truth, chastity and industry, to the savage of the wood, or the barbarian of the desert, seemed to be the ostensible motive, firm resolution and exalted duty of the philanthropic and devoted missionary. At least, such was the public opinion of the benign undertaking.

In order to carry such a design forward with success, it would, in the first place, be absolutely necessary, that the missionaries should be men of good character, liberal education and masters of some trade or useful calling, and be both able and willing to work for their sustenance, so that they should be no burden to the poor savages; that they might at the same time show them the excellent example of independence, the domestic virtues of patience, cheerfulness, constancy in labour, and the forethought which insures success in whatever we undertake, the pleasing prospects arising from necessary industry, and the value of personal labour. They should, by their behaviour, gain the good will of their neighbours and convince them of their superiority, before they presume to dictate any thing for their interest or observance.

This I know from experience, would have been easily done, at least, in all the vast range of beautiful islands in the North No. 25. VOL. XII.

and South Pacific Oceans. Where the natives are mild, gentle, docile and curious, and where abortive experiments have been made by the worthy missionaries. Of these, I shall speak here, and see whether Messieurs les Missionaries will prove my statement of facts a miserable fabrication like their own lying letters and insane journals.

I have described such a man as a missionary ought to be. Were, or are, the men sent out on the missionary business any way so qualified? No! I knew several of them personally, many more from report, and true saints of the new school they were, and in general as fair candidates for Tyburn and Botany Bay as ever was a footlink that crossed the herring-brook. They were chiefly half-bred tradesmen of the weaver-breed, ignorant of every thing but Bible knowledge, incapable of an idea beyond Scripture tactics. They knew by rote how to spiritualize the holy text to suit every occasion of fraud, chicanery and laziness. They were vain, conceited, proud, foolish, and obstinate; prone to drunkenness, full of contradiction, quarrelsome and lascivious.

Now to the proofs. Now for the progress of the divine missionaries.

In the year of the Christian imposition, 1795, the missionary's ship, Duff, Captain Thomas Wilson, commander, sailed from London with a cargo of missionary priests, bound for the Sandwich and Friendly Islands, and to visit the north west coast of America, to try if any impression could be made on the Indian tribes. They carried various toys to attract the natives, and thought, ignorant fools as they were, that a race of hardy warriors, endued with strong sense and acute perceptibility, would be pleased with beads, ribands, buttons, seals, lockets, and other trinkets, which only find acceptance in the eyes of girls, children, and highly spoiled ladies. Not one thing of value or use was sent out, but the most trifling baubles which imbecility could collect, or idiotic vanity receive, which the women and children alone accepted, and which trash, by the advice or command of their husbands, they flung on board the ship the next day. The ferocious looks, forbidding manners, and determined behaviour of these independent savages, warned the devout priests of the holy mission, that they had nothing to expect but the crown of martyrdom, and they discreetly declined the honour and glory of such mere spirituality, and sailed away to communicate the glad tidings to the more placable natives of the Society and Friendly Islands.

About twenty of these Bible and Testament heroes were, by the consent of Tomyomyo, the king of Owyhee, landed upon that island. His majesty's reception of the raggamuffins was highly gratifying to men of their taste and very limited knowledge. He received them as schoolmasters sent by a friend who recommended them for their learning and abilities to instruct his ignorant subjects. He bestowed on each pastor two men's share of land,