emanated from Priestcraft. If in the present instance, therefore, I labour wore in developing the cause, than in describ

as still supporting the title I am writing under, which I deem equally comprehensive with that of toleration, upon which entire treatises have been published.

The Priesthood of every Sect promulgate dogmas, which they assert are es sentially necessary to be believed by those who wish to obtain salvation. They shew some ancient traditions, which they tell us are infallible, and were written by divine inspiration; that they are the words of eternal truth; and that if we cannot enthusiastically believe every iota of them, we shall be consigned to everlasting damnation.

ther the acknowledgement of such sentiments has not always been attended with certain loss, and caused the individual to be viewed with horror and sus-ing the effect, I trust I shall be considered picion, by the ignorant and narrow minded, who form the mass of society; besides being persecuted by the Priests and all fanatical bigots. A man can only be credulous, or abound in faith, or incredulous, and be a sceptic,according as those things which are proposed for his belief strike his understanding, over which he has no command; he must submit to be guided by the impressions it receives, whether strong or weak, right or wrong. He is much more likely to be governed by ambition, pride, vanity, ostentation, and sordid avarice, when he puts on the garb of religion, (so current a commodity with the world in general,) than if he confessed himself an infidel, which would immediately raise the public voice against him, and cause him to be looked upon as a bad man, who, wanting faith in incomprehensibles and incredibles, could not possibly possess good morals, or be a worthy member of society. The ignorant, bigotted, and superstitious, are many; the enlightened, rational, and sceptical, very few, and those few often concealed. The stimulus to action must therefore be on the side of the hypocritical religious, rather than on that of the ostentatious Deist. But I cannot, easily believe that there are any persons who have faith and profess infidelity, because I can see so few cases where a person would have an interest in so doing. Nothing is more absurd than to think people cannot be sincere in the opinions they profess, merely because they appear monstrous or ridiculous to us. Such is the effect of education, habit, situation, and circumstances, that I can credit the superstition even of learned Bishops, and eminent Philosophers; and such is the force of human reason, when once the mind is set free, that I can equally give credence to its arrival at the speculations of Deism, the doubts of Scepticism, and even the cold and cheerless decisions of Materialism (so unflattering to self) with the same implicit sincerity as the dying Christian, or Mahomedan, yields his soul into the hands of his Maker.-The reason why I have said thus much of the Priesthood, without coming to Religious Persecution, my favourite theme, is that I consider the spirit of persecution to have

In consequence of these doctrines, the nurse begins to impress certain notions on our memory the moment we can talk; next the school-master confining them through the medium of a catechism, whereby we are asked certain questions (the wisdom or absurdity of which our infantine capacities are not capable of comprehending) and answers are put into our mouths, ready cut and contrived These, by constant recapitulation, are deeply imprinted on our minds, and we believe them the dictates of reason and truth.-Then comes the Priest, who puts his seal to the statement, already writen upon the blank sheet of our youthful un derstandings; inforces, with a particular emphasis, those ideas which have previously been infused in the mind; and inspires us with a peculiar reverence for sacerdotal offce. Having been brought to this trade, like other men to their respective avocations, he works upon the ig norant and superstitious with the same facility that the skilful musican plays upon a well tuned instrument. We are instructed by him to read certain books and to believe implicitly every word they contain; to study them with a view to applaud and adore the matters they treat of; and we are terrified at the infamy with which those are branded who are so unfortunate as to doubt or disrespect any thing mentioned in those books, or that is uttered by the priest. We are honored up by the horrid sentence of an eternal roasting, if we should die without being able to believe n those points, which our priest says are requisite to procure us a pass-port to the

mansion of bliss. He carefully conceals from our knowledge every thing likel to bring his calling into discredit, or t injure the profits of his craft, We thus grow up, bigotted to a variety of opinions adopted without examination, and which we have no better ground for erediticg than that we have been told they are correct, and that our friends and those around us think as we do. We are taught to refuse the evidence of our senses, to give up our reason as an unfaithful guide, and blindly to conform ourselves to the mandates of our spiri tual director, whose interest it is to continue us in these errors, of which he only reaps the advantage.

FRASMUS PERKINS.

Louis, and we are called upon to consider this trifling coterie of the friends of parental sovereignty, as the nation of France. Oh, it is quite "impossible (says the Times) but that there must be a great many that are "devoted to the parental government of "Louis." And this great number did absolutely nothing at the only time when any thing could be done. Unattended by an armed force that deserves any consideration in a country like France, the Emperor reached his capital without any molestation: yet this we are told is no proof he was wished-for by the people. The air resounds with general acclamati ons and 'tis merely the cry of the rabble. But when the real rabble begin to cry out on their side, their feeble cries are the Mr. COBBETT, he infamy of the voice of the nation, forsooth! and we "Times" newspaper needs not any fur- are not to look in the capital of France ther illustration than what has been given for the voice of the people; but in the to it by a variety of your able correspond-obscure retreats, which are the patrients, in addition to your own invaluable mony of those who are interested in raisefforts in the gorious cause of exposing ing the delusive hope of effectual resistpubnc delusion, and attempting to de-ance. I am, &c. JUVENIS. stroy that redulity of our countrymen which renders then the perpetual dupes of any one who will attempt that species of deception, which is now almost proverbial with the conductors of our daily press. But there is one palpable contradielion to itself, which will, perhaps, cause even sonte of its readers to blush at the confidence they repose in it, when they see the wretched prevarication and contemptible double-dealing it is obliged to resort to, to give its rhapsodies even an ideal plausibility.

PEACE OR WAR?

Is then my Country so perversely blind,

To what experience must have taught mankind ?
To what her welfare dictates as to dare,
Without just cause, plunge madly into War ;
will she unsheath her bloodstain'd sword again,
And swell the dreadful Ist of England's slain ?

Because a nation, to the World has shewn

Its right to hurl a sov'reign from the throne,
Rais'd to the dang'rous height, by foreign choice,

By foreign arms, against the people's voice ;
Because they've placed the sceptre in the hand
Of one, they think more worthy to command ?
In such a cause, will England wreck her fame,
For ever lose her once-respected name ;
That name, which made despotic monarchs fear,
And which to Britons, should be always dear.
No! if one spark of honour yet remains,

You have doubtless perceived. Sir, that the editor of the Times, constantly asserted, that the people never were in favour of Napoleon; that they detested hint; that the movements had all originated with a few discontented individuals, and that this was the truth, the Editor pledged his veracity, (no great risk to be sure !) Notwithstanding, all this Bonaparte has reascended his throne-not a shot being fired in opposition to either If British blood still flows within our veins, himself, or his pretensions. And yet If love of country still can warm the heart, all this has happened in direct oppositi From its pure dictates let us not depart ; on to the mass of the population of Let us not headlong on destruction run, France. Very well. Now let us look at the other side. A few, confessedly, But keep those laurels, we have nobly, won, assert the claims of Louis, in the South Does not the precipice, on which we stand, France. This is immediately exalted Appal the hearts of those, who rule the land ? into a proof, that the population, or a large proportion of them, are in favour of

Do they not know, REFORM alone can save

This hapless, sinking country, from the grave

That she must bend beneath a foreign yoke,

If by CORRUPTION, her proud spirit's broke;
Or, that her sons, to desperation driv'n,

Will seek, by force, those rights by Charter giv'n?
Who could extinguish then the dreadful flame?
Who the wild spirit of the People tame?
From fatal blindness let us now awake,
When all that's dear to Britons is at stake;
Let us the proffer'd olive-branch receive,
And by REFORM, our tarnish'd name retrieve;
By WAR we are to certain ruin hurl'd,
Disgrac'd, despis'd, unpitied by the world.
Buckinghamshire.

AMOR PATRIÆ.

RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM.

not be seriously contemplated without hopeless dismay, seems to form the grand object of the parliamentary session.-The representative interests of the country would appear to be confined to autho rising schemes of finance of an almost unbounded extent, and of course, fraught with the eventual ruin of the people. To speak of the extravagant wasting of public money, of the corrupt purposes for which it is expended, and the grinding system of taxation by which it is furnished, is now become so very trite, so tamely common place, that it makes but little more impression on our " thinking "people" (as they have been phrased) than the usual cursory remarks on the prevailing weather. What is all this senseless apathy, this base supineness, Mr. COBBETT. The gross mis-ma- this stupid direliction of public spirit nagement of the political concerns of the owing to? To say that we are degene United Kingdom of Great Britain, seems rated, is a simple affirmation of an to have acquired a sort of sanction from undeniable fact; but it would be imporhabit, so that all animadversion on the tant to state the cause of the degeneracy, subject is deemed hackneyed, is regarded for the purpose of retracing our wayward as a story too often told to interest fur- steps, that some chauce may be afforded ther attention. But, Sir, you know very of the British Isles being once again well, that the axioms of morals are not inhabited by Britons; that is to say, by less steady in their influence than those a people worthy of those, who by manliof physics, and that if it be physically ness, simplicity, courage, and wisdom, impossible to render unequal means ade- acquired the renown that raised and esquate to given ends, so is it alike imprac-tablished the British name and character, ticable to pursue ruinous courses of conduct, without ultimately incurring the inevitable ruin, attending such moral necessity. Is not, therefore, the scheme of expending national treasure at the rate planned by the British Government, so widely unequal to the resources of the country, that it must, sooner or later, induce unavoidable ruin? Can the individual having five hundred pounds a year, afford to expend at the rate of five thousand? Would he who could be at once so profligate and entertain an idea of lasting solvency, he deemed compos mentis? Would not the Lord Chancellor of these realms, on application for that purpose, issue a decree of lunacy against the person who would attempt to vindicate such an insane procedure? If small things then may be compared with great, what a dwarfish case of wasteful and wild expenditure is this, compared with what is gravely, is indeed legislatively, done and doing by the existing mode of Government? To provide for the exigengies of the day, without regarding the tremendous workings of a debt that can

1

This luckless degeneracy has for the most part grown out of the miserable taxing system, and the consequent unblush, ing dissipation of public money for ends and objects, at irreconcilable variance with the constitutional laws and liberties of the land. Money is a powerful ongine of corruption, and the immense sums that have been wrung from the labours, and from the necessities even, of the people have been audaciously employed in purchasing, pensioning, and enslaving a large portion of the political independence of the country.

No character is so despicable, either in self estimation or in public opinion, as the person who accepts a pecuniary consideration for indefinite services. In native and in honourable feeling, the Galley slave is a magnanimous being, compared to such a revolting wretch. The sen tenced slave, has his person only fastened to the Galley, whilst his mind may be as free as the air he breathes, and alive to every just and generous sentiment that constitutes the genuine pride and orna-ment of human existence; but the bought

and sold parasite, the dangler after pelf at the expence of all morality, possesses not a feeling but what degrades him beneath the beast of the field, and marks him out as an object of universa! disdain and contempt. How is this annihilating degeneracy to be reclaimed? You, Sir, have often answered the question, and if your admonition had been adopted,' this country would have been at the present-Retrenchment means lopping off usemoment, at once the model and envy of the civilized world. You, Sir, have repeatedly said, that an unrestrained liberty of the press, a real annual representation of the people in parliament, with such retrenchment and economy in the national expenditure, as would supersede all necessity for burthensome taxation, would strike the hydra evil at its very source, would regenerate our fallen state, and cause our once happy nation, Phonix-like, to emerge from the ashes of its own destruction, into resuscitated purity, vigour, and prosperity.--Why then is not this remedy tried? Can there be any risk in the experiment? America has furnish-secure; the shafts of falsehood will not ed a convincing proof of the beneficial reach it, whilst the purity of truth will effects of an unshackled press. It is, imperishably establish it. The American indeed, true, that it prints a great deal of Government has this sort of moral secu falsehood; but then it also fearlessly tells rity, and will continue to have it as long the whole truth, which infinitely counter- as it shall retain its present equitable and balances and destroys the influence of enlightened system of legislation. Its inwhat is false. It is the liberty to publish trinsic worth will be its stable support, the false, and the restriction imposed on and all the powers on earth will not be making known what is true, that do all able to overthrow it whilst it remains true the mischief. Mr. Sheridan ouce affirmed to the sacred principles of freedom on in the British House of Commons, that which it is bottomed. Let the decrepid, with the aid of a free press, he would defy the mutilated, and debased parent rewhatever fleets and armies, state in-ceive wholesome instruction from its offtriguers, spies, parasites, and traducers, that might be marshalled against him; with that weapon alone, he would repel them all, would strip them of their imaginary power, and triumphantly hold them

and authorises its application; but British apathy and corruption have at least suspended, if not annulled this sacred privilege. If this master right were fully resumed, corruption, in all its forms and degrees, would soon shrink out of sight, and quickly cease under its bene ficial influence; and without it no radical or lasting amendment can be effected.

less places, pensions, and emoluments, as the morbid excrescences of a corrupt and vitiating Government. The labourer is, indeed, worthy of his hire, but there should be no worthless hirelings for sinister purposes. The indispensable of fices of Government should be frugally filled, and the most rigid economy should he observed in every department of the State. A system of Government founded on public justice and economy, will sustain itself by its own importance to the people. It becomes at once the basis of social order and of all public and private virtue. It will therefore be invulnerably

up to merited derision and execration! By a real and an annual representation all the sham work and foolish mockery of a wise institution would be avoided, whilst the shortness of the sitting would soon repossess the electors of that suffrage which they would take care to confide where it would not be likely to be abused. By this only wise and politic mode of procedure, an incessant check would be imposed on the representative, and the represented would be always able to correct the faults of representation. The British Constitution has provided this guardian principle of political justice,

spring. Let America, in all its youth and vigour of legislative wisdom, admonish the councils of the British Government to unshackle the press, to give truth an unlimited imprimature, to be real in its representation, to be annual only in its legislative confidence, to abolish all useless expences, to be economical in all the out-goings of the State, to bring taxation within the moderate and natural limits prescribed by the unavoidable disbursements of Government. Then, indeed, and not till then, will the political condition of the British realms be regenerated and become worthy of her American sons, whose inimitable greatness, however, it must be confessed, originated from a virtuous abandonment of British degene ray.

A TRUE BRITON.

No WAR WITH FRANCE.

try before the last war, aud to compare it with the present. Let us also compare the state of France at the commencement of the war with its present state. France had then innumerable difficulties. to grapple with; a civil war, an unsettled government, no armies prepared for war, comparatively speaking, no experi enced commanders to direct even those armies, and her finances in bankrupt state. But now all is tranquil within her borders; a man of sublime and peculiar energies is placed upon the throne, who has the confidence and ar dent affections of his subjects; numerous veteran soldiers, panting to be led forth to battle, to wipe off the disgrace which has been cast upon her by foreign soldiers polluting her soil and lier capital with their presence as Conquerors, are at her com mand; also experienced Commanders who have risen from the ranks to exalted diguity solely by their merit. Her finan ces are in a flourishing state, having scarcely any debt to contend with. Indeed in the midst of war she alone has prospered in every thing. England was plunged into a war when France had allthose evils I have enumerated, and many more, to contend with, and yet what has been the result? We have come worsted from the contest; our debt has enor mously increased, and our means of defraying the expences of the state decreased. As that has been the result of the last war, it cannot be doubted that worse will be the consequence if we madly rush into another war against human liberty. If we are desirous of preserving our honour, our country, our independence and

MR. COBBETT.-It is with pleasure I see the praiseworthy and patriotic evertions you are making to avert that dreadful evil, at this eventful crisis, a war with France to reinstate hereditary imbecility on the throne of that fine country. I trust your endeavours will prove successful. Surely the evils that have befallen this country, during one and twenty years of war, will teach our ministers moderation, and prevent them from madly rushing into a war, for the express purpose of placing upon the throne of France a man, who has no other title to it, than the proud claim of legitimacy. They have not, now the fallacious pretext to justify themselves, that the people of France are sighing for the " paternal "government of Louis, or that Napoleon's ambition is so unbounded, that an honorable or advantageous peace cannot be concluded with him; for he has declared by the advice of his council, "that he will faithfully observe the treaty of Paris." He says, "his own "sentiments are contrary to that, but he will wave them, as it is considered advantageous for France to remain at "Peace," and he has renounced all idea of aggrandizement by conquest. The progress of Napoleon with a small band of followers from Frejus to the Metropolis itself nearly across the whole territory, is so great a manifestation of the national will in his behalf, not only of soldiers, but likewise of the people, that it must be allowed, if ever man was cal-liberties, let us attempt to stem the tored to the throne by the voice of a nation rent of evil and to preserve ourselves from that man is Bonaparte Even the a destructive war, ruinous in its tendengreatest sticklers for Louis are con- cy, and infamous in its principle, being strained to acknowledge it, and as they contrary to our Constitution, because it are forced to abandon the subterfuge of would be a war against the principles Napoleon's tyranny, they dispute the which placed the house of Brunswick on right of every nation to choose its own the English Throne. Let us then implore Sovereign; a right which our own con- the Prince Regent, that England may not stitution ensures to us, and which has be made a party in war against France, been exercised in calling our present in consequence of France having chang Royal Family to the throne. But over-ged the head of her government, by call looking all this, and regardless of the ing Napoleon to the throne, and expelling consequences, it is to be feared that mi-Louis XVIII, nisters are determined to renew the war, for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs of France. With such prospect before us, it becomes every one to take a view of the state of this coun

Your's, &c.

HAMPDEN.