them, for their own safety1; for, in my opinion, it is impossible that a man can be a good man unless he is a religious man, and that a christian too.

Beau. Your worship, suppose I was to say that I was a Jew. The Jews do not beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Heath does; they believe in Jehovah.

Mag. Well, then I should swear them on the Bible, which would be sufficiently binding to them; but to swear that fellow, Carlile, or any of his opinions on the holy scriptures, would be of no use; for that Carlile is a fellow, if I could have my will of him, I would sweep him off the earth? Some of those fellows would stamp the Bible underfoot, What company do you keep Beauchamp? Do you know that Bickley in Blue Buildings? He denies the Bible and Testament too. The other day, Mrs, Bickley, his wife, came to me to lay a complaint against a person, and, before I took her oath, I asked her if she believed in the gospel. She said she did; but that her husband did not believe a word of it.

Beau. Your worship, I never identify myself with any sect or party; neither at prayer meetings nor love feasts, but I am always free to join in conversation with any man, who appears to have intellect to advance any thing of useful knowledge. I never saw Mr. Carlile, but I have heard that he is a very good man.

Mag. A good man! Why sometime back, I recollect seeing some of his blasphemous publications, where it said that God Almighty was a fool, to damn the whole human race for no other crime than the eating of an apple 3.

Beau. That, Sir, is an observation of Mr. Paine's, which Mr. Carlile published in the account of his Mock Trial for selling the Age of Reason; and since that, I have been very shy of praising Christianity, lest I should be laughed at by the sensible part of the people. Sir James Macintosh says, in his pamphlet, that the people stand in no need of Church

And why has not Beauchamp a right to call theirs in question?

R. C. 2 Mr. Hardy would not repeat that after an hours conversation with Carlile, and I invite him to come and try it, promising him as much civility, at least, as he shewed to Mr. Beauchamp.

R. C.

3 I save myself from all such ridiculous expressions or arguments, by shewing that there is no god almighty with capacities to play any such pranks. If there were such a god, I would endeavour to make him wiser.

R. C.

teaching any longer, and thinks they may dispense with the establishment.

Mag. Why sometime ago, I saw an account of a parson wanting a coal merchant to apply to the devil to obtain the order to serve him with coals, supposing him to have a very large fire in Hell, as they pretend the scriptures inform us. If they do not believe holy writ themselves, it is very unkind of them to prevent us from thinking the Bible true; for we have nothing else to rely upon. They take all our comfort away and give us nothing in return, seeing we have nothing to rest on whatever but the Bible-no promise of future happiness in the next world, for our good doing in this. The lower order of ignorant men, of little schooling, are easily caught by these Atheists; for, when they read the Bible, it contains many passages which cannot be understood by us, nor does god mean that we should understand it all:-so they directly conclude that it is priestcraft, and call on us to prove it true. That is impossible, for no man can say the Bible is all truth: we only believe it and it cannot do us any harm, nor the Atheist; for when we die and meet in the next world, I think it will not be any cause of unhappiness to the Atheist or the Christian, to have believed the gospel.

Beau. Yes, your worship, as I am a dealer in that article coals, it may turn out very profitable; for the Testament, gives us an account of an everlasting fire, and you say you believe.

Heath.-I know Mr. Hardy, that Beauchamp has many times in Enfield openly and publicly denied the truth of the Bible and Testament too: and such a fellow as he should not be allowed to take an oath, to hold such a respectable person as I am to bail to the quarter Sessions.

Beau.-I never publicly harangued an audience in my life; I do not think my ability great enough; but I may have talked of something which your mud-head cannot understand.

Mr. Hardy, at least, seems to have a religion that is tempered with good humour. I have a sort of notion, that he is only politically and magisterially a religionist. R. C.

5 We cannot prevent any thing of the kind. Believe and damn yourselves in this life, if you like: we will neither believe nonsense nor fear your damnation in the next. The fault is, that ignorant men in power, the truly wicked, Mr. Hardy, call on more intelligent men to believe that which is repugnant to all reason, and for no other reason whatever, than because immense profits are associated with it and desired to be preserved. R. C.

6 What is the next world?

R. C.

Mag. Why, Mr. Heath, I have put every question I can think of to Mr. Beauchamp, and he has given me such answers as prove him to be a Christian; I cannot legally refuse to take his oath :-and what is more, Beauchamp, I will not hesitate to say before these gentlemen, this evening, whether you are a believer in the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or not, you are a sensible man and I must not refuse you an oath, so take up the book and I will swear you.

Beau. When I come to trial, your worship, I expect Mr. Heath's counsel will question me severely as to my faith.

Mag. Yes, undoubtedly, Beauchamp, he will prepare his counsel with such argument as to endeavour to destroy yours. But you need not fear the greatest counsellor in London; you are prepared to answer all the questions he can ask, for you well understand the matter.

Then the worthy magistrate proceeded to bind Heath in two sureties of £20. each, to appear at the Sessions 12th of September to answer to the assault.

T. P.

TO RICHARD CARLILE DORCHESTER GAOL.

ESTEEMED FRIEND.

London 3rd day 9th month. As thou hast at length effectually stormed the strong hold of my deep rooted and long standing prejudices, I can no longer desist from giving to thee a candid assurance of my conversion and ardent attachment to Materialism. After having been only eighteen months under thy, not magic, but material wand, the immaterial non-entities, which had been thirty years growing on my mind have totally disappeared; in spite of attending church twice every sunday, singing the hundredth psalm, Jehovah reigns, Glory be to thee &c. &c., and rehearsing all the stagnant dogmatical humbug and parasitical fulsomeness of Mother Church, even unto loathing. This confession is what is due to thee from hundreds, and it is a confession which ought to be made by all who are in my situation, and which would be made, did not the cruel illiberality of the base and the ignorant implicitly debar them from speaking the honest effusions of the mind. "THE BIBLE HAS LONG BEEN THE GAOLER OF TRUTH," but mankind will eer long throw off the mask and speak out. I only wonder that the old hag should so long elevate her gorgon head and that men of independant fortunes should still continue

The whore of Babylon

to bring their sons up to the church. and the mummery of England have passed their Zenith; we can measure their altitude; we can anticipate their fall; and that with confidence. That fall they have facilitated by their mutual recriminations and accusations of falsehood and of fraud.

Can it be supposed that men, possessing extensive scientific and literary knowledge, can be so far blinded, as to believe the monstrous, absurdities of the Christian Religion. Impossible! Not believing what they so strenuously advocate, they mischeviously and wickedly palm it upon the ignorant; for the purpose of emolument. We may fairly accuse them of being the really wicked. 'Tis they who reign the hecate of domestic hells. 'Tis I who have felt it, and it is I who am now an alien from my family, for merely differing in opinion from those hecates. With hearty wishes for thy success, I remain thine assured friend, EPHRAIM SMOOTH.

P. S. I have lately had a conversation with one of those deluded creatures, calling themselves " Odd Fellows," He appeared as rational as it was possible for a man to be, and agreed with thee in every thing, till he put one question to me.-whether I thought thou wouldest write an exposure of the society of Odd Fellows. I told him that I dared say, thou wouldest not grapple with all existing abuses, at one time; but, I had no doubt, if it was any thing by which one man could hold in mental darkness or dupe another, to an extent that merited thy notice, thou wouldest expose and sap its very foundations, as thou hadst done other crying abuses, although theyhad come before thee clothed in the omnipotent armour of parliament. At this my auditor turned pale, and he said I hope the -(a vile term, meaning thee) would first die in his cell." Now he could part with the old grey bearded dotard of iniquity religion. He thought the clergy an evil. He could bid a pleasing farewell to Masonry, when he saw her strangling in thy grasp. But he could not resign his hobby, with all the spleen of an irritated child, he stuck the cap of fanaticism upon his head and wore it in spite of my remonstrances.

Thy blow at masonry is a masterpiece and when completed will be one of the best Books for lending out that can be put in a library. I know several who intend to avail themselves of the reading of it by that means.

Note--I assure Ephraim Smooth and his "Odd Fellow," that I shall expose all the secret associations, as far as I can obtain information; and I wish some good fellows grown too wise to remain odd, would do what some ex-masons have done, to assist me in an exposure. These associations, though patronized by all classes, are a scandal to mankind.

No possible general good can arise from them; but much general evil does arise. The Orange Society in Ireland and even in England is as villanous an institution as was ever formed for the support of tyranny and cheat. The pretended secrets of this society are scarcely worth knowing, as the association is an avowed warring with all human improvement. Still, there is a satisfaction in seeing its ceremonies and secret purposes exposed. Perhaps Ephraim's odd acquaintance, growing ashamed of himself by a little reflection, will see the wisdom of renouncing and denouncing his odd fellows, And, to that end, I hope friend Ephraim will shew him this note and assure him, that I am likely to live long enough in spite of his malicious curse, to humble and shame all such characters.

R. C.

COPY OF A LETTER SENT TO THE KING, WINDSOR CASTLE.

SIR,

Dorchester Gaol, Sept. 2, 1825. THE Common ideas attached to monarchy are those of apparent splendour or brilliancy, not of mind; but of body, in dress, dwelling, diet attendance equipage, &c., a fancied superiority over other men in physical or legislative powers. It is seen also, that such a monarchy begets a gradation of such circumstances, and all who can get into that gradation extol the the system, under a hope that they shall thereby advance in it. The consequence of this gradation is, that all who attach themselves to it become debased as men and citizens and put off that independence of character which every citizen should hold, to put on a dependance upon every thing that is vile and that preys upon those who produce food and other property. Within the pale of the monarchy, there is nothing produced for the benefit of the nation, nor any thing fairly produced for the support of itself; for property is the all in all of a nation; even the people without it are nothing superior to other herds of cattle. But under a monarchy, they who do produce all this property are told that, like cattle, they are entitled to nothing more than the smallest amount of food that will keep them alive to labour, and that all other profit, beyond the value of that