every Christian means, to promote true piety among the different members of his class." Can you, Mr. Butler, first tell me what part of a man is his soul? And next, how the soul of one man can be entrusted to the care of another? Is the God of these Christian Reformers a farmer in souls, and every soul a soul-herd? It is your duty to do this, as, in impeaching my act, in saying these Christian men were not half Reformers, you, of course, undertake to defend them, and to shew that they are real or whole-length Reformers.

The last thing I have to notice is article 11, which says, "The doctrines to be held forth and promulgated here to be such as are contained in the Gospel, viz. Üniversal Depravity, General Redemption by Jesus Christ, and the necessity of persevering in the practice of every Christian virtue." If these men admit themselves to be universally depraved, Mr. Butler, how can they set themselves up as the Reformers of others, who, at any rate, cannot be worse than themselves? If general redemption can only be obtained by Jesus Christ, how can these men dare to call themselves Reformers? If I had seen these articles when I' called them half Reformers, I should have told them, as Mr. Hunt and his men have told me, that they have no right to the epithet of Reformers in any sense of that word. I am never afraid to repeat, that I have cast off every thing like religion from my mind; and I can only look on that mind as narrow and corrupted that has not. The quotation you make from the writings of Mr. Paine is as flimsy as the rest of your remarks, and nothing to the purpose. I will notice it: he says, Religion is a compact between man and his Maker; as man, finding himself in a world which he did not make, with every thing suited to his reception, his first act must have been devotion, and devotion will continue sacred to every man, according as he lives under this divine impulse." It is well known, that Mr. Paine held many notions about Deity, Souls, and a Future State, that are untenable, and this is one of them. Mr. Paine evidently means here to carry back his ideas to the origin of the human race, upon the supposition that mau was created according to the Jew Book tale of Adam and Eve: but from the manner in which human nature has been now explored, it is evident, that human beings, before they had formed a language, were mere brute beasts, and nothing superior in habits or manners to any other beast of the forest: therefore, man could have formed no idea of a

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Maker at such a period as that to which Mr. Paine alludes, no more than a horse or a cow can now form the idea. Man becomes a reasonable creature only by the power of speech and conversation in an association with others of his species. There are millions of men now on the face of earth who have no more idea of a Maker than any dumb animal has, and are brutes in every sense of that word: there are thousands of such men in this Island at this moment. Mr. Paine has written as if man first started into being full grown, and as perfect as he is at present. The idea is ridiculous, and, as I said before, an idea impressed upon his mind from the stupid fable about Adam. I would as soon believe that the earth, at its formation as a distinct planet, was covered with full grown trees and ripe fruits, as I would believe that the human race started into existence, full grown, and capable of instant reflection and judgment, as at present. This, I admit, is travelling back where no proof can be had: but there is no analogy in Nature to lead us to suppose otherwise than that every animal started into existence from a fœtus, and every vegetable from a seed.

I deny that religion is any compact between man and his Maker. There can be no compact in the matter; for man has now no more knowledge of the power that produced him than a horse or a dog has. There can be no compact between parties where those parties are not known to each other, either personally or by agents; and until we have a better proof of revelation than the obscene Jew Books afford, I will admit no agency; and as to the Deity, as a principal, we know nothing of him but as what we call Nature. If to contemplate and admire the various workings and produce of Nature be Mr. Paine's meaning as to religion, then it is good; but Christianity, nor nothing else called religion, has ever taught any thing of this kind; and what is known under the term devotion is nothing more than a mind that grovels on the dung-hill of Superstition. Religion is a very improper word to be connected with the word Nature. There is no religion of Nature: there is no natural religion. All talk of the kind is delusion and a remnant of mythology and idolatry. I know well, Sir, that a very great portion of the Reformers, a majority of them throughout the country, are fully up to those sentiments; and the whole of them would have been so before now, was it not for the rank hypocrisy exhibited by a few individuals who profess to lead them, and who feel that some kind of delusion upon the multitude is as necessary to their

distinction, as to that of the Priest. They are all a species of Priests who attempt by word or deed to support the delusion about religion.

Your concluding sentence is an empty, a paltry, and a notoriously false boast, considering the daily examples you witness to the contrary of your assertion. You say, "The Christian religion needs not the support of the civil power; it is quite adequate to the defence of its own principles, and it fears no attack, let it come from what source it may." The Stage-Managers of that Theatre, called the Christian Church, know better, they know that every Performer would be hissed off the Stage, if they could not mix a powerful Police throughout the Audience to enforce a silence, a gloomy silence, and to imprison those who murmur and cry, "Off, off." The Christian religion is founded on a gross and obscene fable; and although the Hero of the Romance is made to utter a few common-place moral precepts that had been circulating among mankind for centuries before his alleged era, still the nonsense imposed upon him, as well, renders the whole story ridiculous, and it cannot stand the attack of free discussion. Give me a clear stage, or a shop, into which no Royal or Priestly Robber shall enter, a free Press, and fair play, and I will soon shew you what Christianity is made of. If every other Press and shop in the country was engaged in defending it, I would be bound to beat it down. Like your Northern Union, Sir, it has no moral base, nor moral support.

We are informed that you are the gentleman who weaved the handsome counterpane sent to Mr. Hunt last year from Bolton; and I, as a public writer, and as a professed guardian of public morals, must be meddling here to shew you an error, and give you a word of advice upon that matter. I do not mean to say that Mr. Hunt was not entitled to this present; I think otherwise; I think he was well entitled to it from the manner in which he had associated his name and person with the Reformers of Lancashire. I further acknowledge, that he was of all others, after the death of the Queen, the most entitled to such a mark of public respect: but as such a present is always considered to be the reward of public virtues, care should have been taken that the article presented should have been consistent with and managed with an eye to public morals. The idea that struck me upon the matter evidently did not strike you; but you will judge from what I have said, and I have no desire to colour the matter, that a counterpane

was the most unlucky thing you could have hit upon, as a public present to Mr. Hunt, and in presenting such an article, the Reformers of Bolton were unintentionally guilty of a public breach of public morals, or a public connivance at that which, however unfortunate or excusable, has been too much thrusted upon public attention even where it should have been known that concealment and privacy was due to the feelings of all parties, and could alone have prevented the blushes that must inevitably have arisen.

I shall take the liberty of introducing a subject in the conclusion of this letter; which, though it does not concern you, I wish to notice here, and must beg your excuse for it; as I really from my heart, wish to avoid all further jarring with Mr. Hunt. In the same number of the Memoirs, in which I find your letter, I perceive that Mr. Hunt has been obliged to retract the falsehoods he has suffered to be published under the signature of his man, Wilde, respecting Mr. Joseph Johnson; and Mr. Hunt, to excuse himself as far as possible, says, it is all my fault that such falsehoods were put forth; and again (by what power of face I am at a loss to conceive) puts forth the assertion, that in writing to him at the end of February, I made an attack upon Mr. Wilde, and refused to do him the justice due in inserting his answer in "The Republican." I seriously declare, that in the course of writing that letter to Mr. Hunt, I have no recollection that the name of his man, Wilde, ever entered my head; and I defy any other eyes than those of Mr. Hunt and his man, Wilde, to discover the most distant allusion to him in any shape whatever. I had no ground or reason for attacking the man. I could not do it; for personally I did not know him, and my sister had always spoken to me highly of the marked civility she had always received from Mr. Wilde, and not above a month before that period, he wrote me a most flattering letter to which I gave him an answer that was suitable and respectful. If Mr. Johnson feels hurt at my having inadvertently noticed his name and connection with Mr. Hunt, I sincerely beg his pardon; and I beg to assure him that I had always the conviction of his being a most honourable man; which conviction is strengthened by the ready manner in which he has demanded an explanation from Mr. Hunt. To Mr. Hunt, I protest, that 1 I never heard from Mr. Johnson, or any other person, that there was any money concerns between them, though from what I had seen, in other cases, I conjectured the difference could have arisen from no other cause. I was never in Mr.

Johnson's company alone, and never but once in the absence of Mr. Hunt, neither have I ever exchanged a line I with him since the summer of 1819, and then but once, on the subject of my trial. I am, Sir, a Radical Reformer, which you cannot be, if you are short of the principles of R. CARLILE.

TO MR. R. CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL.

SIR, Huddersfield, May 6, 1822. IN consequence of an application made to Mr. Humphreys respecting your subscription he has thought proper to address a production to you and me jointly, which production I herewith transmit to you, and upon which I shall make no comment, as, I consider, it carries its own refutation along with it, but, as a friend to free discussion, I thought it my duty to forward it to you, as requested, leaving it to yourself to dispose of it as you may think proper. I am personally acquainted with Mr. Humphreys, and believe him to be an honest man, and though he boasts of having something in manuscript to prove the existence of immateriality, yet I, as a materialist, have some hopes that he may yet be led to see that it is a species of madness, or the effusions of a disordered imagination.

I remain, Sir, yours respectfully,

ABEL HELLAWELL.

P. S. A friend of yours and mine at Marsden, has had a book sent from America, intitled "Israel Vindicated," by the same Author as "Ecce Homo," which, if you have not already seen, be requests me to say, is at your service, to make what use you please of it, either the whole or a part, and return it when you have done with it. You may expect to hear again from me in a short time.

SIR,

TO MR. ABEL HELLAWELL, HUDDERSFIELD.

I HAVE received A request from you to communicate intelegence as soon as possible, of what I am willing to subscribe to your present subscription for Mr. Carlile. From A personal interview, you have been lead to expect, that I should have no objections at all to contribute somthing, as now requested. This is what I have fully intended to do since you first made the application. And I now publickly (for 1 desire you to forward this to Mr. Carlile, and request him to offord it a place in his republican) pledge myself to reduce that intention to practice, to the following extent, upon the following conditions-I will, that my name stand for A donation of five shil

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