coarse food, is the profit, of their masters: so that a country monarchically governed may be looked upon as a large farm, the owner of which is the king, and the mass or majority of the people, all whose labour can be used, are to him but one species of labouring brutes, the worst fed and hardest worked of all the species of brutes on the soil. To be sure, they are provided with priests to comfort them, to tell them that they are immortal and are to be very happy in another life if they are quiet and submissive in this; but this is only an aggravation of the original evil. If human affairs were conducted as they should be, if mankind were not so ignorant so easily cheated, they would not labour for a monarchy, but for themselves, and become joint free holders of the soil on which they live. They would not allow a class of men to take of the public produce what pleased and to leave what pleased; but they would keep no more public officers than were necessary and pay them no more than was necessary. Mr. Thompson has laid it down correctly in his work on the Distribution of Wealth, that, whatever is taken from the property producing man against his consent, is, in fact, a a robbery. This will be seen as labouring men grow wiser and more powerful. But for this labouring class of people, a king could find no ornaments for splendour, no luxuries for revelling, no power for despotism. All that is good to all spring from the labour of mankind. Even if property be obtained by war or plunder, that property must have sprung from the labour of some part of mankind. The maxim, with mankind, should, therefore, be, that all should labour, either mentally or bodily, for the greater benefit of each and all that an idle man pensioned on the labour of others, should not exist. But the point of this letter is, that mental splendour and brilliancy is the only splendour and brilliancy that is worthy of human encouragement, and that that which is merely a matter of show, such as monarchy, a rich priesthood and aristocracy, masonry and mountebankery, should not be encouraged, but should be cried down as mischievous, debasing and impoverishing to the community as a whole. A single pauper, who is not a cripple, is a disgrace to a country; but pauperism comes from monarchy, priesthood, and the ignorance and wickedness that support such follies. I am, Sir, your prisoner, RICHARD CARLILE. TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE have reprinted Nos. 1 and 3 of Vol. I. Republican, to complete all imperfect sets and to supply further demand. The sheets of the first days proceeding of Mr. Carlile's Mock Trial, that were stolen by the Sheriff and never returned nor accounted for, have been reprinted, to keep on sale that very cheap edition of Paine's Age of Reason, under the form of a trial. Price half a crown. It was read in Court chiefly for that purpose. Several other prints and reprints are in the press, and we hope by Christmas, to have the whole catalogue of promises and O. P.'s completed. Then comes the Joint Stock Company, to sweep the filth of prejudice with its thousand brooms: to collect in the English Language and in the neatest form, every good work that bas been written that is here known or unknown, and that can be procured. Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 135, Fleet Street.-All Correspordences for "The Republican" to be left at the place of publication. The Republican. No. 12, VOL. 12.] LONDON, Friday, Sept. 23, 1825. [PRICE 6d. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, GEORGE FREDERICK GUELPH, DUKE OF YORK, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE BRITISH ARMY, ROYAL ARCH MASON, &c. COMPANION! Dorchester Gaol, September, 6, 1825. NoT in arms, but in masonry: you are the last fool of note that was made a Royal Arch Mason; therefore, to you, I am about to inscribe my description of that degree." I begin to see, with Professor Robison, that the main object which preserved or revived Freemasonry, about a century or better ago, was to preserve or to increase, jesuitically, the interest of the Stuart Family in this country; but. this object failed, while the nonsense has been preserved; and now we find it espoused by the members of that royal family, which finally supplanted the Stuarts, by your family! It is further singular, that this very instrument, which was intended to restore one royal family, expelled from their country by a revolution, should survive its purpose and merge into an instrument for the expulsion of almost every royal family on the continent of Europe, in accomplishing the most singular and most terrible revolution recorded in the history of mankind. We may see, in this circumstance, the impropriety of playing with fire-brands; for a private association of any kind is easily converted into a political fire-brand. You and your brothers might have hoped to sway it, as an instrument or firebrand, in the favour of your family; but you little dream of the fickleness and inconstancy of men, who are weak enough voluntarily to join such a private associations. Such an association can never be managed for any individual or family benefit. It resembles, in some, measure, the society of Jesuits; and that association was an attempt to accomplish a universal Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 135, Fleet Street. hierarchy, not for the benefit of a family, but of a Church or Priesthood. The symbolical connection of Masonry with the expelled family of the Stuarts is every way clear. They are the murdered Hiram Abiff, to find a substitute for whom is the prominent pursuit. It was but to sound the political notions of the novice, and, if favourable, to whisper the allegorical allusion, to give him a clear insight of the whole fabric. Masonry predominated in Scotland in the last century much more than in England: and in the degree of Scotch Master, which was very common among the partisans of the Stuarts on the Continent, as well as in Scotland, we have a solution of the riddle, why the dagger is introduced, why each candidate is made to assassinate a traitor, and why revenge is the pass-word. In no sense can the subject of this degree apply to the simple traditionary matter of masonry. The assassins of Hiram Abiff were murderers but not traitors. And the manner, in which the candidate is taught to dispatch the man in the cave, is a breach of all ordinary political and judicial rules. There must have been some other meaning in the framing of that degree, than that which the simple tale and ceremony displays. It was soon seen on the continent, where discussion on political or religious matters could alone be carried on in such a secret association, that if such an institution was calculated to shake one royal family from a throne, it might be so constructed as to shake all such families: and, under this view, all the philosophers of France and Germany espoused it and moulded it to the general improvement of mankind. But, unfortunately, the system was necessarily masked, and other and baser principles grew up with it, which eventually pruduced the horrors of the French Revolution. The secret views of Mirabeau, Diderot, D'Alembert, Weishaupt and others were noble; but being carried on by a private association, in which there were no means of checking the introduction of the views of other men, their scheme was in a great measure baffled; though, in the midst of much evil, much good has been produced. We are now so far advanced, as to be able to maintain openly all the designed good which these philosophers inculcated privately. And, by this advance, we can exclude all the mischief that was inevitably mingled with secret associations. Our present position is most cheering; it is open at all points, unassailable, or impregnable if assailed, and sure of producing much good, and nothing but good, to mankind. We flourish in moral power and bid We I defiance to physical power. We spurn secret associations and have even driven the enemies of improvement for all mankind to support themselves by such associations. have turned the scale: the disgrace is not now to be what is termed seditious or blasphemous, anti-christian, atheistical or infidel; but not to be of this class of people. We court publicity, you and your class dread our publicity, as it becomes your exposure. The warfare and the only warfare that is now carried on against us is, to suppress, as far as possible, our publicity, without resorting to prosecutions; and to be silent where that publicity cannot be suppressed. I cannot say, but that, in this view, you, act wisely, in the object of preserving your system as long as you can; but you must yield; for, to novelty, always influential with mankind, we add and shew them their prospective improvement, in an eradication of all the evils that oppress and degrade them. We profess, and that profession is open and sincere, to war with nothing but the' evils which afflict mankind, leaving the good to flourish unimpeded, and strengthening it with additional good. We cannot err, we cannot be suppressed, we cannot be checked; for our basis is as firm as the natural powers of matter. started as an individual, in my present career, without a shilling of my own in my pocket, unknown to, and uncountenanced by any man of influence, until my conduct pressed itself upon the attention of such men, and obtained me their friendship; now, look and see what I, but eight years ago an obscure individual and a mechanic, have done. years out of the eight, I have spent in different gaols; but even that circumstance has told against you, and has greatly added to my influence. In another year, I will have formed a powerful joint stock company for the full supply of all such books as royal families and priests and aristocrats dislike. Thus we progress: and thus such as you must fall. In vain, will you associate with Free Masons: in vain, will you form any kind of secret associations: knowledge can only be well and rapidly communicated in an open manner; that is the ground we take, and knowledge among the mass of the people is your bane; but the good man's antidote against the bane of royal and priestly tyranny and oppression. Prythee, if you would know a grand masonic secret, it is, that you can only pass through the remainder of your life happily, by yielding to circumstances, and by giving me, and such as me your best support. That secret will produce you some good, if you will act upon it; but, in Six |