to such injustice and cruelty, and, as my last resource, to protest in the name of the injured laws and constitution of my country, against the whole of these oppressive proceedings, in the sixteen following reasons. 1. Because, no man can in justice be made criminally auswerable for mere abstract opinions, which result from the honest convictions of his reason. 2. Because, the publication of opinions on abstract, scientific, and speculative subjects, is no criminal libel, breach of the peace, or social crime; but is a duty which every honest man is bound to perform, that if true they may be adopted, and if false may be refuted. 3. Because, no opinions can be exceptions to the preceding rule, for if it be said that certain doctrines are from God, and ought therefore not to be disputed, It is evident that doctrines which emanate from an allpowerful deity, cannot be shaken or overturned by man, and therefore the publication of any adverse opinions of man, must necessarily be harmless, 4. Because, it is evident, that the employment of the force of law, which implies the civil and military power of the state, to maintain opinions, affords a demonstrative proof, that those who resort to this weapon, well know their opinions to be false, are conscious that they are not upheld by God, and feel that they cannot be defended by reason, and will not be supported by the irrisistible and omnipotent power of God. 5. Because, on matters of religion there can be no standard of truth, but human reason, or the alledged operations of the spirit of God, and conviction is the result of either or both; and this result, as a natural or supernatural effect, is a question between a man and his own powers of reason or between a man and his God, and not cognizable by any other man, or by any human tribunal. 6. Because, the very attempt making on this occasion to render a court of law, or mere human tribunal, the standard of theological opinions, has led to all the wicked, bloody, and disgraceful martyrdoms, which stain the pages of history; and at which, every succeeding age blushes for the errors, absurdities, and crimes, of the preceding age. 7. Because, if the present erroneous, persecuting vindictive, and intolerant proceedings were to lead to the cruel punishment of my body, the proceedings of this court and all concerned in thein, would be viewed by sensible, just, and liberal men in this age, and by all men in future ages, with the same abhorrence as we hold the courts of Inquisition, and all the courts of tyrants and barbarous times, in which similar martyrdoms have been perpetrated. 8. Because, it is not only wicked and blasphemous, but absurd and unjust, for any man to set up his opinion as a standard of theological faith for any other man; I have avowed myself a Deist, or a believer in one eternal and omnipotent God, and in the social principles, that virtue is its own reward; a belief in which I feel with due reverence, and a principle which I endeavour to practice in all the relations of life; and I solemnly call on all other men, and on those composing this tribunal,. whatever be their faith, as they respect the power and competency of God to affect all mens' minds with alldesirable truth, not to be parties in this persecution, or in any vindictive punishment. 9. Because, it has been invariably found, that where the mind has had its free exercise, mankind have founded different points of faith on the same system of religion; and that such variation arises from the varied dispositions of men, and argues strongly the absurdity of restraint, or of legislating on matters of opinion. (To be Continued) SUBSCRIPTION for MRS. CARLILE. A Meeting will be held in the course of a few days for the purpose of appointing a general meeting in order to promote a subscription for the benefit of Mrs. Carlile and three young children, all her property having been seized by the crown for Mr. Carlie's fine, at a time too when Mrs. C. was far advanced in a state of pregnancy. In the mean time subscriptions will be most thankfully received by Mr. Fisher, at the Statesman office, 194, Strand; by Mr. Davison, publisher of the Republican, Duke street, Smithfield; or by Mrs. Carlile, 55, Fleet street, (private door.) Printed and Published by T. Davison, 10, Duke street, Smithfield. No. 18, Vol. I.] LONDON, FRIDAY, DEC. 24, 1819. [PRICE, 2D. THINK, when you read this letter, that you are addressed by the whole body of the English People ;-think that you behold them thronged around the door of the House of Commons, and calling upon you to preserve their rights from invasion, and their persons from insult; behold them withered by the blast of famine, still preserving all that dignity which Nature has attached to humanity, when it is not sullied by disgraceful vices; be touched by their calamity, and expose yourselves to the danger of being hurried to the BRITISH BASTILE, in defence of your Country's Rights. Surely men like you cannot dread the solitude of a dungeon; you cannot dread the reflection of a peaceful and virtuous mindthey are pleasing, Gentlemen; and equally so when enjoyed in a dungeon as in a palace,-independent minds spurn the base apprehensions which have been excited by the commencement of the reign of terror, and persist in the steady course their firm and enlightened souls have sketched out. They will turn neither to the right hand or to the left, though destruction rear its horrid front before them, and threatens to devour them at every step they advance; they feel that they are Men, and are determined to act with a firmness becoming the manly character, they are not to be Printed and Published by T. Davison, 10, Duke-street, Smithfield. frightened by sedition nor libel bills; they perceive in the east the dawn of a glorious day, and till the Sun of Liberty shine upon them in all its noon-day splendour, they will not be satisfied. Perhaps you now have it in your power to make England a flourishing, or miserable country, for centuries to come-you have not only our destiny in your hands, but that of our children's children, who will have occasion to bless or curse your name, in proportion as you behave with firmness in this eventful crisis, or basely recede from your duty. There is no middle course-you must either side with the people, and take part in their wrongs and injuries, or with their oppressors, and consent to share the spoils of an unhappy miserable nation,and judge, with an unbiassed mind, which is likely to procure you most honor; judge which is most calculated to hand down your names with respect and veneration to posterity-which is the most likely to cover you with glory, or overwhelm you with the black waves of infamy. Ah! my right honourable fellow-citizens, if you value your fame, which is dear to every honest man, if you wish to hand down to your children a name unsullied by corruption or by vice; if you are ambitious of the title of Patriot, draw aside the veil which now obsoures your character, and appear to the world, either as the unequivocal assertors of your country's rights, or as the open and unabashed advocates of arbitrary power. I hope, for the honor of the English nation, for your own, for that of humanity, that you will choose the former of these two paths: you cannot hesitate as to the cause on whose side virtue stands; the charaeters in which her decisions are written are so plain, "that he who runs may read them." Earl Grosvenor has already asserted, that "if the wishes of the people were fairly met and considered, if their claims were attended to, instead of being opposed by measures of a tyrannical nature, the whole mass of the population would be conciliated, not even excepting those Radicals of whom ministers appeared to be so much afraid. What were the people to think when they saw governments alarmed at the diffusion of knowledge, and hostile to those systematic exercises in schools and villages, the best adapted to the improvement of the strength and spirit of mankind ?" Nothing can be more true than the assertion of the noble lord in the former part of the paragraph which I have cited: there are vast numbers of Englishmen who would be content with a moderate reform; they do not expect that the petty frauds and little impositions of the government should be done away with; they merely want a reduction of the taxes, the displacing, or otherwise disposing, of some of the most obnoxious among the ministry, and the disbanding of the army, whose very existence they are well aware is inimical to the cause of freedom. But there are others, I am convinced, who would be satisfied with nothing short of a REVOLUTION-they consider the State as an old ship too crazy to repair, or not worth mending; and they would set another afloat in its stead, better capable of weather ing the storms of the ocean, and better calculated to afford comfort and security to the passengers. But it is possible that gentle measures might win even these over to the cause of monarchy; for they are not the most irrational of the community; and, however they may have been misrepresented, not the most rebellious. There are many, however, whom no measures bạn soften, no concessions conciliate-they have been injured, and nothing short of revenge will satisfy them: they must see their oppressors laid low, before they can feel the pleasures of existence the consciousness of being becomes irksome to man, when he knows that the continuance of that being is at the mercy of his most bitter enemies. These are the bold original spirits who think in a manner peculiar to themselves; they do not borrow fine phrases from the rhetorical sophists of the house of commons-they do not make long speeches about the excellency of a constitution which is now, no more; or call upon heaven to grant them that liberty which they are convinced their own exertions can alone procure them; they compare their physical force with that of their opponents, and the result does not seem to disconrage them. These, my most honourable fellow-citizens, are the men from whose exertions the friends of arbitrary power have every thing to fear; these are the "turbulent spirits," who are, as a certain writer has |