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from impending danger-friends in need. Was it not God who put it into the hearts of persons enjoying power and wealth, to relieve the distresses cxisting in the manufacturing districts? Would this have been done, had not the Christian principles existing amongst them through schools and other institutions, caused them to be meek and patient under their late sufferings? Will not these afflictions be sanctified, and cause them to put their trust in providence? Ask amongst our poorer brethren, whether in the distress with which they have been surrounded, those who have been the most contented, are uot those who have been most diligent in attending the means of grace; and the most miserable, and the least able to bear adversity, those who have led dissolute lives?-Christianity takes away the danger of prosperity, and the sting of adversity. The wicked can have no comfort without it. However they may be absorbed with the cares, the pleasutes, or the vanities of the world, dreadful thoughts of death and eternity, will sometimes steal upon them; whereas the Christian is consoled let whatever may befall him. Though the righteous are generally more prosperous in temporal concerns than the wicked, yet there are many who undergo severe afflictions. The Martyrs of the Primitive Church for instance; and Lazarus, we are told was poor to his death. But such characters enjoy a serenity of mind, which is worth all the honours and emoluments that the world could give them."

We have only the authority of the reporter for the accuracy of these heads; but though such a reporter may err on points, he is generally accurate upon the whole. The Bishop tells all the distressed people of Lancashire, and indeed of all the country, that their poverty arises from their wickedness, their misfortunes from their imprudence!

I support the doctrine, that where all start fair in the race of life, misfortune generally arises from misconduct; but here there is an exception; here the labourers of Lancashire do not start fair with the Bishop. The Bishop taxes the produce of their labour, and labours not in turn to a reciprocal advantage. They, therefore, may accurately trace a portion of their distress to the maintenance of such an official character, rather than to their own wickedness and imprudence. Or, if the Bisbop will insist upon wickedness and imprudence, it is clear, that it consists, to a certain degree, in the support and countenance which those distressed labourers give to him.

At the beginning of his sermon, he tells us, that the poor wickedly and imprudently bring their poverty and distress on themselves. At the conclusion, that such characters enjoy a serenity of mind, which is worth all the honours and emoluments that the world could give them. If the Bishop really thinks what he has preached, what more easy for him to do, than to renounce his honours and emoluments, and to place himself among the poor, distressed cotton-weavers and spinners of his diocese?

The Bishop says, that it was God who put it into Christian hearts to relieve the distresses of the people of that neighbourhood. But who caused that distress? The wickedness and imprudence of the people? Why did not the same God foresee

and frustrate that wickedness, that imprudence and that cotise quent distress? What is his providence worth, if he allow pain to accumulate just for the pleasure of lessening it? The Bishop

he has nothing to do with those who do not admit the existence of a god, omnipresent and with eyes. He ought to have something to do with such persons. He ought to preach to them. in preference to all others to question them and to be questioned by them, until he either prove or disprove the existence of such a god. With reference to the dogmas of theologians, I so far deny the existence of their god, as to say, that they give us no proof of it. If instead of preacliing menaces to distressed people, and telling them that their distresses were consequent on their vices, how much more honest would it have been in the Bishop, to have takea my" EVERY MAN'S BOOK," and "EVERY WOMAN'S BOOK," to shew these persons that the existence of au intelligent provident power, beyond themselves, was yet a question, and hardly a question on the negative side, and that the sum total of the remedy for their improvement was a political principle which entirely depends on themselves. The distressed Tabourers of this country must not look to any leaders, or legislators, or ministers, to amend their condition, they must act pofitically for themselves: they must denounce and remove whatever improperly taxes their labour; and when they do this, they will have no Bishop of Chester to preach nonsense and contradictions to them.

It is always worth a trifle to have the sayings and and doings

fute their doctrinal points, where they step out morals or mix w up religion with their moral precepts. I could make almost every sentence of the Bishop's here recorded a text for a sermon, not to support but to refute it but enough is done to shew an instance that good sense can no where be put in union with religious doc-. "trines or with the common theory of a god.

these highly official men recorded, for it is easy to re

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The foregoing may be considered a specimen of the state of the preaching of religion in the Established Church of this counistry. During one of the ceremonies in the parish-church of Bolton, a woman laughed at something that the Bishop said, and 3 made him very angry. He threatened to put a stop to the proceedings, if he saw another smile, or any improper behaviour, and Stalked of putting the woman out of the church!

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91 The dissenting preachers fill their chapels, which is all that they can do: and the Rev. Mr. Taylor fills his, and preached last Sunday one of the finest moral and oratorical discourses that ever x came from a pulpit. We want more of such preachers; for there is not a question but a thousand of them would fill as many chapels. It is worthy of remark, that there is less of the savage nature visible among religious, people, it seldom breaks out, into fury, now that infidelity is making such rapid strides among

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them. They have given up the offensive to assume the defensive, and with the loss of all hope of putting infidelity down, combatant like, they are content to keep it off from themselves as long as possible.

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"John Bull," who writes" for God, the King, and the People," meaning, of course, the God of Mount Sinai, and not of Mount Olympus,* refused to insert my advertisement of "Every Man's Book, or, What is God?" In this case, John" behaved as if it were a matter of certainty, that his God is well known and an unquestionable character. John" often boasts of what he dares to do, and he boasts of it in the very paper in which my advertisement should have been; but he dares not to be honest in his dealings with me. He can attack Bible Societies and dissenting fanaticism,, with argument; but he bellows only at infidelity, He talks about writing "for God;" but he fears to ask himself and others, What is God? what is the word, or thing, or phantom, for which he writes ?

Another unequivocal sign of the decay of religion or insanity, and of the growth of sanity, is seen in the circumstance, that Christians are no longer horrified at the idea of infidelity. They now look upon it as a matter of course thing, and even admit that infidels may be moral. This disposition has arisen upon the abatement of persecution. It is the sanity that arises, as the insanity of religion recedes. Much has been done to improve the state of the people of this country on matters of religion, in shewing them its errors, its vices, its insanity; but much remains to be done. Enough is printed; but all do not read what is printed. The great object to be accomplished is that we instruct each other, and attack religion or error, vice and insanity, wherever we find. it.

R. C.

Formerly the Gods were supported by the sword: "God and my Country" was the warrior's cry: now, since the pen has become the universal weapon," John Bull," seeing the people more easily deluded than instructed, takes up the pen for god! A god that needs such an instrument as a goose-quill must be something below the goose. The goose is the more important animal, and "John Bull," though he can wield a goose quill, had better confess, that the gods are supported to keep men on a footing with geese. The goose has not, to my knowledge, been yet an object of worship, and as variety is the order in theology, an Englishman may as well take a goose for his god. God will then be visible. We may as well have a god of our own, an English God, as to go to Mount Sinai for one. The mere lack of a high mountain should not deprive us of a god. The Welch God may reside on Mount Snowdon. The English God, to be central, may be placed on some of the Derbyshire Mountains, though not too near to that vulgarly called place "Devil's (naughty word!) a peak!" And the Scotch theirs where they please. But then, those gods are quarrelsome, jealous fellows, and have constantly kept nations and tribes at war for superiority, to the great degradation and inferiority of the real combatants. So, upon the whole, it will be better to have none: neither the Jewish God of Mount Sinai, the goose, nor any other. Let fools keep gods: wise men can live better and happier without them.

NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

UPON the plan of pnblishing in numbers, or at three-pence per-t sheet and one shilling in parts of four sheets, I am about to commence the publication of a work under the following title:"A Dictionary of modern Anti-superstitionists; or, an account, arranged alphabetically, of those, who, whether called Atheists, Sceptics, Deists, Latitudinarians, or Religious Reformers, &c., have, during the last ten centuries, contributed toward the diminution of superstition."

A hundred times during the last seven years, I have been asked, if I could not get a compilation of the lives of Deists or infidel Authors. My answer has invariably been:-" it will be done by and bye," It is now about to be done and upon an extensive scale. It is impossible to say to what number of volumes the work will be carried, as almost every good writer has been a writer against superstition; and here will be no fearful suppression of what any author has usefully and boldly written.

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The author of this new biographical dictionary is so far well adapted for the work, as to add to a fondness for biographical reading and writing the necessary knowledge of languages to compile from originals and to make a purely original compilation. Where quotations are made, they will be frankly acknowledged. He does it too for pleasure and not for profit, sparing no expence for the perfection of his work, in the collection of books, and what is more, in typographical accuracy.

Several eminent men have volunteered their assistance for the advancement and improvement of this work, and I hope that it will be found a complete history of the progress of right thinking.

It will have the advantage over other biographical dictionaries inasmuch as it will be got up as a matter of principle and as a matter of maintenance of the right of free publication of opinion, and not merely to make a book to sell, which when a sale is established is spun out to an unpardonable length with useless and even objectionable matter. This Dictionary will be as brief as copious information will allow it to be. The common Encyclopedias and Biographical Dictionaries are works planned by Booksellers for sale and not by authors for merit and distinction..

Such a work is necessarily published in numbers to cheapen the means of procuring it: but our ideas of profit on it are prospective and we wait for the establishment of its character to give it an extensive circulation as a completed work.

No set time is appointed either for the appearance of the numbers, or the completion of the work. As it is compiled for

pleasure and not a task to be paid for, the compiler will pursue it with as much earnestness as pleasure will promote, or as will promote pleasure. The numbers will be published occasionally, something near to one every week.

The subscribers may rely upon perseverance, as the publisher holds it to be a breach of faith with the public not to complete a work where the completion is practicable.

R. C.

LONDON BURYING GROUNDS.

AMONG the many improvements which of late years have been made in the metropolis, it is surprising that nothing has been done in respect to burying grounds. Streets have been widened, new and strict regulations have been made for removing all filth, and vast expenses have been incurred to supply the inhabitants with wholesome water: this and much more has been done to improve the healthiness of this great city, and yet thousands of dead bodies are allowed to be heaped together, in thickly inhabited neighbourhoods, where they necessarily contaminate all the surrounding atmosphere with their noxious exhalations, Dead bodies ought to be disposed of so as not to injure the living; but in London they are allowed to poison the air we breathe.

It surprises me that the inhabitants who live near some of those foul laboratories, do not indict them as nuisances, nor endeavour to bring them before the notice of the Legislature. The removal of many minor nuisances has been loudly called for. The greater portion must be unaware of the evil produced; and those who feel it sensibly, must consider it unavoidable. We cannot otherwise account for their apathy. It is my object to show that the evil exists; and that it can be removed. I shall do this in a few words as the subject cannot be generally interesting to the readers of "The Republican."

In the most commodious burying grounds of the metropolis, the number of bodies interred is so great, that the surface of the ground, being so continually broken, has scarcely any sign of vegetation. Judging from this, the bodies must lie very thick in the ground, which being light, allows a free passage to the foul air. These burying grounds are mostly surrounded with very thickly inhabited neighbour

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