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from the object pursued. Bad government is not the cause of the sufferings of the people; they are both effects of the same cause; and when that cause is removed, both evils will cease to exist. It is an error to suppose that an economical government could prevent a recurrence of the present distresses; no government can do this, it rests with the people alone. Were all taxation to be immediately discontinued, thousands of the labouring class would still remain on the verge of starvation, would still obtain for their labour barely a sufficiency to keep body and soul together. Such a measure would increase the amount of capital and give more energy to trade, and this would partially stay the progress which starvation and death are now making; but it would be only for a time: the evil must and will be occasionally recurring till the cause shall be removed from among mankind.

The progress of education cannot be measured, like the growth of a vine, we can only judge of it from appearances. Mechanics' Institutions, Scientific and Literary Book Clubs, and cheap periodicals embracing all kinds of knowledge, are bright indications of its progress at the present day. The press is free, and among its directors the number who teach sound and rational doctrines is daily increasing; and there is every reason to believe that a great change in the notions of the labouring class will be the ultimate result. The condition of the people is not to be mended by destroying corn-mills, as was done twenty years since nor by destroying steam-looms, as was done in the present year; nor by rousing the angry passions of men against the government, as the address of Mr. R. is calculated to do; but by self-imprvoement, by studying the Science of Man, and by acting individually and generally to remove the first or fundamental cause of want. Twenty years since this science was scarcely known, very few understood it, and fewer still saw what it was calculated to effect for suffering humanity; now it has its advocates in almost every village, the intelligent among our labourers can debate its merits, and thousands are convinced of its powers and utility. Let us not then say that education is not in a state of progression. Knowledge will do for mankind all that the warmest hearted philanthropist can reasonably hope for; but it cannot be done at once, time and perseverance alone can work its accomplishment.

These, then, are the objects I would have the teachers of mankind keep constantly in view to teach men to reason and to point out to them the subjects on which their reason can be most profitably exercised. This is the education I would advise; this is the kind of education I will endeavour to advance.

These remarks may perhaps lead Mr. R., and others who reason like him, to think again on the subject of distress among the people, to study it more deeply, and to form new views of the necessary education. The intentions of Mr. R. are, doubtless,

as good as my own, but I think that he is deficient of that knowledge of the science of man which can alone qualify him to be a useful teacher. I would persuade him to study Mills' Elements of Political Economy, Place on Population, and M'Culloch on Wages; for these authors, I think, would convince him that the government has nothing to do with the primary cause of want. To view distress, lament it, and curse the existing government as the cause, have been the occupation of philanthropists for hundreds of years; our better knowledge should direct our actions to more efficient purposes. We will pour forth our lamentations no longer, but strive to remove the cause; we will cease to blame one evil effect as the cause of another, but endeavour to root out the cause of both.

R. H.

TO MR. CARLILE.

DEAR SIR, Aug. 8, 1826. THE great King of Prussia, (and they are all great who are great butchers of their fellow-creatures) in his correspondence with D'Alembert, asserts, the biped to be so silly an animal, that if driven from one superstitious practice, he will be restless and uneasy till he has grouted out another; and Voltaire observes, that superstition is as natural and precious to the two-legged animal as garbage is to a hog. And, indeed, upon a superficial view of the matter, this might be presumed to be the case, but to what ought we to attribute such a wretched propensity? Surely not to a want of capacity in the human species for information or rational ideas, but to a horribly depraved system of education, which all children directly or indirectly receive from a tribe of Sangsues, who are interested in keeping mankind in a state of profound ignorance, as being thereby more easily plundered; and who, while lounging in idleness and vice, have the assurance to tell us that "those who will not work shall not eat"†—(a pre

Hobbes observes, that religion is a superstition in fashion, and superstition a religion out of fashion; and that any Bedlam rant or fustian gibberish, if countenanced and supported by Government, always becomes

the TRUE RELIGION.

+ What the Devil work do these Fire-shovel-hat Gentry do? If they work at all, it is on the Lord's Day, as the snuffling gang term it, when they are forbid to do any kind of work. If these brawny lubbers (for observe, there are none but able-bodied men whose privy members are not cut off, nor their stones broken*) were sent to the plough-tail, the forge, or the saw-pit, it would be a great blessing to the world.

* See the Jew book, Deut, chap. xxiii.

cept from their heavenly Jew book) and who, at the time they are grubbing after "filthy luere" with more than swinish greediness for garbage, stare us in the face and modestly assure us that a rich man is a lost mutton, and that kingdom-come is for poor persons and little children exclusively, "c'est adire for lice and dirt, and clouts and cacking-chairs," verifying the observation of Hudibras

"That he who has but impudence,

To all things has a fair pretence."

Now, Sir, this Gang, whose motto, as Helvetius observes, ought to be that of the sun-dial, IGNORO QUOD DOCEO, are, unfortunately for the peace and happiness of mankind, selected and preferred by cod's-headed adults as the only proper instructors for their children; and there is not a cat's-meat vendor, or a paltry retailer of gin or quids of tobacco, who is not proud to send his offspring to be taught by a Reverend Sir, who sputters out his nonsense to them about renouncing the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, as well as the lusts of the flesh, &c. (he should always add as I do) then comes a little gibberish about outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, and the body and` blood of their Maker, which the children are as much edified by as if he had mouthed out Adacadabra, or sung the old ditty of the Pigs they lay with their bumfiddles bare, &c. Now, while this sort of trash is crammed into children's noddles, I am afraid we shall get on at a snail's trot in moral improvement, (notwith-standing your great and powerful efforts to check the demoralization arising from so defective and vicious a mode of education) as there are thousands of these Jacks in a box who get up and jabber their holy balderdash twice every Sunday, to which almost - every person, young or old, is obliged to listen; add to which, the numberless tracts, Gospel Magazines, sermons, (distributed gratis, being paid for out of the taxes) 19 out of 20 of the newspapers, the corrupt and groveling dramatic pieces, &c. &c., with all the influence of the Aristocratic gang of lawyers, bankers, placemen, &c.; so that it seems not only an Herculean task, but what the French call la mer à boire to counteract it, especially while any publication tending to enlighten the world is sure to draw the vengeance of a tottering and corrupt Government upon the author, which you, Sir, have fatally experienced.* However, we must hope for the best.

Thomas Paine has happily laid the axe to the root of the evil by attacking the double-headed monster, Church and State; and while you tread in his steps, and follow up the blow with such force and intrepidity, some good must inevitably result in the long run, and millions yet unborn will bless the names of Paine and

* Eclairez les hommes, (says Voltaire) vous serez écrasé.

Carlile. And as I am convinced you cannot render a greater service to mankind, or adopt a more efficient mode of purifying the morals of society, than by attacking the Jew book, the great Vade Mecum of the Christians) and exposing it in its true light, I hope you will persevere; for while such a monster as David, who murdered his friend in order to debauch his wife, and who wished to wash his feet in the blood of his enemies, &c., is held up as a man after God's own heart, and consequently a model for our imitation, we may as well expect peaches on a bramble as good morals in society; and such wretches as Thurtel and Co. will continue to abound while they are assured that they will be saved, (as the Black Slugs term it, by the blood of the Lamb, (not mutton) who died for sinners, &c.) and that they shall enter the kingdom of heaven, (a kingdom, observe) if they will but snivel at the foot of the gallows, and confess their sins to a fire-shovel-hat gemman, who has probably been educated at college with a Clogher or a Jephson, cum multis aliis of the same stamp.

I should not, my good Sir, have troubled you with the above remarks or effusions, had I not been (as well as the other branches of my family, for we are a triumvirate) an ardent admirer of your very valuable work from its first commencement; and I would announce my name and residence, but I live in a village where every thing is under the cognizance of a toad-eating Parson and Just-ass, with half a score of rotten-pensioned Lords and Ladies, who are as malicious as their god, the Devil,* can make them at any thing that smells of Jacobinism, of which I profess myself the firm advocate; and having never entered the Fudge-office, called CHURCH, since my residence in the village, (now near 14 years) they all look at me as the Devil does over Lincoln, and turn up their Christian snouts as his Black Highness does at a pot of holy water.

You will be so good as to send 12 shillings of the enclosed sovereign to your three brave and worthy men in Newgate, and the remaining 8 shillings to Mrs. Wright, whose spirited conduct is above all praise, and merits the thanks of every good-disposed person. I wish them, as well as yourself and family, health and happiness, and that you may all live to see and enjoy a renovated state of society, (though I fear this cannot take place while the Jew book remains the corner-stone of education) in which your merits will be duly appreciated.

Swift's Legion Club.

EPICURUS.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

MR. BAYLEY POTTS" article is too stale a subject for the last Volume of "The Republican." Critical investigations of the Bible were useful seven years ago, but have ceased to be useful. No one now thinks of publicly defending such a book as the Bible. And the printed assaults upon it are numerous enough. To read such a letter as that now sent by Mr. P. is insufferably tedious. To print it would be an offence offered to the wellgrounded convictions of the general readers of "The Republican."

We have published for the Joint Stock Book Company, "Janus on Sion," at 2s. 6d. This book is a sort of classical attack upon the Christian Religion, not more severe than Gibbon's, nor more perspicuous. Our intention being to collect and publish all the books and pamphlets of the kind, we have taken this as one without any disposition to puff it off as an extraordinary production, which it is not.

We have also on sale a new print of Adam and Eve for the "Every Woman's Book." Proofs, One Shilling, on India Paper; Prints, Sixpence. Hitherto we have not sold the plates separate from the book; but now, having an engraving worth looking at, we do not scruple to sell them separately.

Subscriptions for WILLIAM CAMPION, THOMAS Riley Perry, and JOHN CLARKE.

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Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street.-All Correspondences for "The Republican," to be left at the place of publication.

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