The

nour bound to pay any portion of it. It is nobody's debt. debtors are dead or nearly dead; but so far as it can be shewn that a property has been made of the accumulation of this debt, so far should that property be applied to its extinction. You may also avail yourselves of all the corporate property in the country, all that is not an investment in commerce, all that is not in reality individual property. As the debt is a corporate property, as the corporation heroes have been the chief supporters of the system that has accumulated the debt, let all corporate property, that of the church included, be applied towards its liquidation.

There is one thing as certain as death to mankind: the debt of this country cannot be paid through the medium of taxation. The system of taxation now carrying on to pay the interest cannot be much longer carried on, therefore, the payment of the principal is no longer a question: it cannot be paid in any other shape than as ? a bankrupt's compounding with his creditors. It is nobody's debt... I do not feel that I ought to contribute any thing toward the pay- : ment of either principal or interest. I cannot allow that the fundholder has a claim upon me. I have entered into no contract with him, either in person or by my representative. What then is the claim of the fundholder upon me, other than the claim of tyranny which takes my earnings at its discretion? The legislature may tax me toward the payment of the interest of this debt and I must pay or leave the country; but come another kind of legislature that will not tax the people for this purpose, and will. the people voluntarily tax themselves to pay the interest of this alarming nominal debt? Not they. The debt and the payment of the interest of that debt is an affair depending on the breath of a peculiar kind of House of Commons; such a house as we now have; but let the current once turn against the debt and away it will go leaving not a name behind. Three years would erase all the effects of the extinction and render it almost forgotten.

R. C.

JULY THE NINETEENTH.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE CORONATION OF GEORGE THE FOURTH.

THE bells are ringing, because the reigning king was crowned on this day! How ridiculous the fancied festival! What a fuss about a trifle! The ringers are but a part of the machinery that makes the noise and not to be blamed. They are working at their trade. But who pays them? Vicar or the parishioners? This is the most important part of the thing. Who pays? Am I to contribute my mite toward the coronation peel? or is this tax to be paid exclusively by those who rejoice on the occasion? Rejoice! There is.

no rejoicing beyond the ringers. But for the noise of the bells, a tenth part of the tradesmen in Fleet Street would not have remembered that it was coronation day. No greetings, no conversations, no feastings pass upon the subject. To day, the belis ring because we have a king; a few years hence and some ears will hear these same bells ringing because England has no longer the burthen and taxation of a king. Perhaps the same ringersif they are young men, will be the agents to pull the ropes on a new occasion. Nothing more likely. Long life to George the Fourth and may he outlive all who claim hereditary right to his office. A very good toast for the royal and loyal, for all who like good order: my toast, though a dry one.

I have a sincere respect for the passive royalty of the present king and honestly wish him a long life, heartily wish that he may survive all his heirs. The expence of coronations is one reason why I wish this, and another is that I fear the Duke of Clarence was not sincere enough in his declaration, that when he came to the throne, he would unship the bishops. I like the passiveness of the present King as preferable to the probable royal activity of York and Clarence. Ignorant men make bad reformers and the more active they are the more mischief they do.

The taxation of the country is working round a crisis, and distress promises to be the only availing tocsin for a change. When it comes, I have only to hope that it will be effectual, and that nothing desirable may be left for further change. Then will be the crowning day: then the day for the grand coronation peel. R. C.

ANECDOTES OF THOMAS PAINE AND NAPOLEON

BUONAPARTE.

(Taken fram Redhead Yorke's “ Travels through France and Switzerland.")

WHEN Buonaparte returned from Italy to Paris, to take the command of that army of France with whose left wing he afterwards set off to conquer the department of the Thames on the burning sands of Egypt, he called on Mr. Paine, and invited him to dinner. In the course of his rapturous ecstacies, he declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected to him in every city of the universe; he also assured him that he always slept with his book under his pillow, and conjured him to honour him with his correspondence and advice.

When the military council at Paris, who directed all the movements of Buonaparte, (though he has the merit of them) came to a serious consultation about the invasion of England, Mr. Paine

• The Rights of Man.

was invited to assist at the sitting. After they had ransacked and examined all the plans, charts, and projects of the old Government, Buonaparte submitted to them the propriety of hearing what Citizen Paine had to say upon the subject. But I should have stated that, without one dissenting voice, they were all of opinion, that the measure was impracticable, dangerous even in idea, and still more so in the attempt. General D'Arcon, a celebrated engineer, was one of the council, and present on the occasion. He laughed at the project, and said, that all those plans and schemes had better be made cartridge paper of; for there was no Prince Charles (meaning the Pretender) now-adays; and that they might as well attempt to invade the moon as England with its superior fleet at sea. "Oh !" exclaimed Buonaparte, but there will be a fog!"-"Ah!" replied D'Arcon, "and there will be an English fleet in that fog!""Cannot we pass?" said Buonaparte. "Doubtless," answered the other, "by diving twenty fathoms under water:" then looking stedfastly at the hero," General," said he," the earth is our own, but not the sea. We must recruit our fleets before we can hope to make any impression on England; and even then the enterprize would be fraught with perdition, unless we could raise a division amongst the people!" Then Buonaparte-"That is the very point I mean here is Citizen Paine, who will tell you, that the whole English nation, except the Royal Family, and the Hanoverians who have been created peers of the realm, and absorb the greatest part of the land property, are ardently burning for fraternization."

Paine, being called upon, said, "It is now several years since I have been in England, and therefore I can only judge of it by what I knew when I was there. I think the people are very disaffected, but I am sorry to add, that, if the expedition should escape the fleet, I think the army would be cut in pieces. The only way to kill England is to annihilate her commerce." This opinion was backed by all the council; and Buonaparte turning to Paine, asked how long he thought it would take to annihilate the English commerce; Paine answered, that every thing depended upon a peace.

From that hour, Buonaparte never spoke to him; and when he had finished his adventures in Egypt, and had stolen back to France, he passed by him at the grand dinner that was given to the Generals of the Republic, a short time before his usurpation, staring him in the face, aud saying to General Lasnes, in the hearing of Paine, "The English are all alike in every countryThey are all rascals!"

He directed the siege of Gibraltar, in the American war.

TO MR. CARLILE FOR “THE REPUBLICAN."

LETTER VI.

SIR,

THE object of the commission which our Lord gave to his Apostles to convert the nations was to destroy idolatry,' and its debasing effects. This commission was executed in Egypt, as well as in the other provinces of the Roman empire. The persons executing it assumed the new name of Therapeuta, intimating by it the moral power of reforming the world, with which they were possessed, and the worship of the one true God as its foundation. Philo on noticing this circumstance immediately subjoins a specimen of the energy and eloquence with which the preachers of the Gospel assailed the contemptible divinities of Egypt. "The materials of idols and statues," says he, " are wood and stone, entirely rude and shapeless, till they were conveyed from their native place, and invested with form by the hands of the artist. Substances of the same quarry, or of the same stone, are often destined for less honourable services, being wrought into pots or tubs, or into such still meaner vessels as are used in darkness rather than in the light. The Gods of the Egyptians it is disgraceful even to name. These people have raised to divine honours not only brute animals that are tame, but the fiercest of every kind under heaven, which the earth, the sea, or the air can supply the lion, the crocodile, the hawk, and the ibis. They worship these creatures, though known to be produced, to stand in need of support, to be insatiate for food, to be full of excrements, to be prone to poison the blood and devour the flesh of man, and to be liable to perish by various diseases, death, and violence. By such debasement the laws of reason and nature are inverted; for civilized and reasonable beings bow before fierce and irrational creatures-they who bear the image of God prostrate before monsters which are not on a level with the beasts of the field; and animals which nature intended to fear and obey, receive homage and submission from their lords and masters." Representations eloquent, powerful, like these, must have produced very sensible effects even on the debased natives of Egypt; nor could the adversaries of the Christians by any means counteract them but by having recourse to force and persecution. The priest, the scribe, the artist, and the magistrate, when too much hardened by the deceitfulness of sin to reform, too proud

What is Christianity but idolatry? Where is the reality of the God or Gods which the Christians worship? Idolatry indeed! All religion is idolatry; and the idolatry of the Christians is by no means an improvement on the general idolatry of the Pagans.-R. Č.

No. 2. Vol. XIV.

1

to learn, and too worldly-minded to resign the love of gain, necessarily influenced the populace against the authors of such reasonings, and instigated them to violence. Flaccus was now prefect of Egypt, and the Jews at this time had, under his government and the sanction of the Emperor Tiberius, enjoyed not only every privilege, not only protection in person and property from an impartial administration of justice, but peace, prosperity, and respect, in an unexampled degree. Jesus foretold his disciples that he came to send on the earth not peace but a sword; to arm man against man; to divide the son against his own father; the daughter against her mother; and to make the enemies of man the members of his own household.' While this proved true in every place where the Pagan system was attacked, it was preeminently verified in Egypt, a country debased beyond all others by ignorance, bigotry, and superstition. Philo, who was an agent in the scenes that ensued, thus describes them :-" Flaccus after this permitted every man that had a mind to plunder and destroy the Jews, as if they were captives taken in war. And what was the conduct of those who received this permission? The city being divided into five parts, two of these were appropriated chiefly to the Jews; nor were the three other destitute of Jewish inhabitants. Of these they were deprived, and forced into one very small portion, which being unable to contain but comparatively a few, the multitude rushed in torrents to the shores, into buryinggrounds, and into desert places, there to abide, though now deprived of all their goods. Their enemies finding their houses thus defenceless, entered and plundered them, and divided the goods among themselves without any restraint or compunction. They also broke open the shops and work-houses, and carrying out whatever things they found valuable, divided them in the marketplace, as if they were the rightful owners. In consequence of this cruelty, the Jews were unable to follow their daily business; and they were exposed to famine, not less by being deprived of their goods, than being prevented to enjoy the fruits of their accustomed employments."

The sufferings of the Jews in this situation, according to Philo, exceeded all description: and these sufferings were aggravated by the consideration, that the want under which they laboured was surrounded by plenty, the country that year having been unusually productive, and that they were caused by a people who a little before were their friends, and who became their enemies by those very means which ought to have perpetuated their friendship. "Being unable," continues he, any longer to bear hunger, some went about to their friends and relatives begging a little bread; others disdaining to beg, as ignoble and servile, ventured to the market

2 Better that he had never come. Better that the system of Christianity had never existed.-R. C.