We have seen so very few specimens of Christian mercy, that we do not imagine that Mr. Phillips' advice given in the ensuing sentence, will be followed; and yet we have before expressed our opinion that such a line of conduct would be more conducive to the real welfare of Christianity, than immuring Mr. Carlile in a dungeon for life.

"I hope, too, in what I say, I shall not be considered as forsaking that illustrious example; I hope I am above an insult to any man in his situation; perhaps had I the power, I would follow the example farther than I ought; perhaps I would even humble him into an evidence of the very spirit he assumed; and as our creed was reviled in his person, and vindicated in his conviction, so I would give it its noblest triumph in his sentence, and merely consign him to the punishment of its mercy." This is a sentence which, from its forementioned reasons, we despair of. This itinerant orator thinks that the Deists are a very naughty set of men, for they won't believe "in the Prophets, in Moses, in Mahomet, in Christ, but they believe Tom Paine!" We suppose that Mr. Phillips believes in all of the forementioned personages except the last-and if so, we wish him joy of his consistency. He concluded his lengthy speech with the following sentence, upon which comment is needless, it allows all that Deists have been contending for, viz. that the Christian Religion is ambiguous, and therefore cannot be the Word of God: With ALL ITS AMBIGUITY, I shall die in the doctrines of the Christian faith; and with all its errors, I am coniented to live under the glorious safeguards of the British Constitution." By "glorious safeguards" we presume Mr. Phillips means Major Trafford and the Manchester Corps of Yeoman Cavalry!!! Mr. Phillips must not be led away with the idea that his speeches upon religious topics will raise him in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen, or that his flimsy nonsense will stand before the sublime reasoning of the immortal Paine, or even before the following quotation from a letter of Earl Chatham's which we have seen in last week's "REPUBLICAN.' 'Let him blush if he has entertained such egotistical ideas; let him retrace his steps, and henceforward sacrifice at the shrine of the Muses only, where he will, we hope, long continue to add wreaths of poetic fame to those which have been already turned around his brows.

ود

"But this religion of reason, which all men are capable of, has been neglected and condemned, and another set up, the natural consequences of which have puzzled men's understandings, and debauched their morals, more than all the

lewd poets and atheistical philosophers that ever infested the world; for instead of being taught that religion consists in action, or obedience to the eternal moral law of God, we have been most gravely and venerably told that it consists in the belief of certain opinions, which we could form no idea of, or which were contrary to the clear perceptions of our minds, or which had no tenedancy to make us either wiser or better, or which is much worse, had a manifest tendency to make us wicked and immoral. And this belief, this impious belief arising from imposition on one side, and from want of examination on the other; has been called by the sacred name of religion, whereas real and genuine religion consists in knowledge and obedience. We know there is a God, and we know his will, which is, that we should do all the good we can; and we are assured from his perfections, that we shall find our own good in so doing."

A LETTER TO PARSON PIKE,

And other Reverends who signed the famous Manchester Police "Declaration;" or, prelude to the "Peterloo Massacre."

Legitimate, and worthy descendants of the right reverend father in iniquity, blasphemously nicknamed father in God, Bishop Bonner!

I have waited with some anxiety, and a good deal of curiosity, to see what notice would be taken of the share which you have had in producing the "venial excesses of undebauched loyalty" which are so deeply engraven on our hearts, and on our memories, in characters of blood. Nothing to allay the one, or gratify the other has yet met my eye; and however inadequate I may be to do justice to your merits, the necessity of emblazoning them, and handing them down to distant posterity, outweighs every objection to the attempt. In the education of a divine, a certain course of retrocessive instruction is pursued, driving him through ways impervious to ordinary capacities, and as far off as possible from common sense: hence perhaps the reason that in every record of unnecessary wars, cruel oppressions, and merciless persecutions the most active agents are found amongst the clergy.

Heartless men! will no lapse of years, no growth of social intercourse, lessen your reverence for the precepts and example of your prototype? Will the simple slaves whose

your

hard earnings have raised you from native obscurity and whose credulity teems into your insatiate maws the food their pining families ought to enjoy, never cease to be the objects of your priestly hate ?-recal to your recollection the Police Declaration" signed by a string of worthies, many of whom Jack Ketch would deem a disgrace to his modus operandi; conspicuous in the never-to-be-forgotten roll of infamy stand your reverend names; and, as if courting notoriety, the places wherein you preach " peace on earth, and good-will towards men," are vauntingly placed as addendas in italics! On that " Declaration," a petition was framed praying for a renewed suspension of the Habeas Corpus, the inhabitants of Manchester invited to enter into armed associations," to cut their neighbour's throats, and other measures put in train, and since acted upon, the bare recollection of which freezes with horror every particle of blood in every vein that has not emptied itself of every thing Bri tish or human. Let me impress it on the public mind that there is an unbroken chain of connection betwixt the "Declaration" you signed, and the dastardly butcheries which you affect to deplore. The base slaves who originated the former, are fairly entitled to rank with the bloody perpetrators of the latter.-That you are incapable to comprehend the dreadful whole of the Manchester police's schemes, to foresee that they were anticipating with almost breathless anxiety a banquet of mangled corses, at which they might quaff tears of misery, and pledge their pale and mealy" coadjutors the Yeomanry Cavalry in goblets of gore, will not now avail you. The declaration pointed to dangers which did not exist, and prayed for measures which no honest man 'dares say were necessary. The want of reform of some sort, is confessed by every person of sane mind throughout the kingdom, who is not either knave or fool, although all are not agreed as to its extent. To promote cordiality, to generalize the public feeling, to afford to all parties an opportunity of being heard, and to pave the way for a peaceful change, meetings were held from time to time, in various places, and eminently distinguished by native talent, and exemplary temper: nay, indeed, were so provokingly quiet, that the wretches, misnamed men, who prostitute their pens for hire, were as much posed as Parsen Ethelstone, and other base panders to Goody Sidmouth, for plans to disturb them. They raved and ranted and abused both speakers and hearers, and even bespattered the women with their filth! But, poor hacks, their shafts have long been pointless and themselves regarded only as a nest of owls, whom a ray

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of light always sets a screeching. Much as these hirelings are below the level of humanity, degraded as they are in the opinions of every well constituted mind; not even the basest of them, the low, vulgar, grovelling scribbler Doctor Slop, dared to suggest anything beyond the gag or the Dungeon-yet you, who of all men, should dabble least in politics, you to whom the sinking poor crowd for consolation for assurance of a better when this world dissolves-you are found at the first beck of corruption's basest satellites, ready tools to frame or countenance à tissue of falsehoods, as a fit prelude to the imprisonment and indiscriminate slaughter of unoffending and defenceless men women and children! Will all your rant and cant, your prayers and preachings, your Judas-like whinings and lamentations over the sins of the people, wipe out this "damned spot," think you?alas, no-long as memory holds her seat in the brain, Parson Pike and his cotemporaries will be identified with the insolent, unfeeling, unlettered magistrates of Manchester, and the pre-eminently, contemptible cowards, shaven or mustachioed, who bathed their maiden swords in bosoms, where affliction ever finds its kindest pillow!

The majority of your hearers are at very little trouble to think for themselves, and with more mechanism than devotion perhaps, adjust their eyes and ears to your stated exhibitions of sound and grimace. The hard phrases with which you occasionally interlard your discourses, are either misunderstood, or believed to retain a meaning which you are aware is quite obselete. The imitation of words is with them a subject of curiosity not of investigation-hence they are ignorant that in the clerical vocabulary, persecution is called wholesome chastisement; aiding the police in cutting your neighbour's throats, having pity on their poor souls; poverty and dejection, meekness of spirit; patience under insult and injury, Christian humility; stifling the evidence of our senses, paying becoming deference to those placed by Providence in authority over us; an attempt to preserve our rights, sedition; to love mankind, to do unto others as we would that others should do unto us, to wish for the liberty of our country, to manifest a disposition to venture life for its restoration, downright Huntism, "privy conspiracy, hatred and rebellion;" to enjoy sparingly, and to contribute largely from our share of the bounties of Providence, gratitude for his unmerited goodness; who teems abundance into our hands only in trust for the higher orders, and enjoins us to lay up treasures in heaven, that they may riot in luxury at our expence, on earth. Charity, which flourishes

in every clime, locates in no country, owns no limits, is as diffusive as creation, and as free as the winds which kiss the expanding lilly's bloom, or rocks the giddy mountain to its base, faction, profuseness, or combination; of all this your hearers are ignorant. Henceforth, I trust, they will redeem their characters; sit under you not as puppets, wearing not only the exterior semblance of humanity, but in the full exercise of those glorious faculties which bound the respective claims of man and brute. Closer observation of yours, aided by the above short glossary, will teach them to assign you your proper rank in the scale of Society. Zeal in a good cause is never officious and rarely too warm; the zeal which you manifest is the offspring of pride, ignorance and cunning; it operates by folly, fraud, and force, beats down truth with blows, and mistakes the fury of a savage for the tempered courage of a man. Religion disowns all such votaries; it teaches us to lessen the troubles of a "heart that is vexed," and "not provoke a man in distress."

Recommending your conduct to impartial investigation, and sincerely hoping the day is hasting on, when the projectors, and dastardly perpetrators, of the foul murders, which even princely ministers cannot qualify, will receive ample punishment.

I remain, Reverend tools,

Brighton, Oct. 22.

Your obedient humble servant,

R. S.

OBSERVATIONS ON Mr. WYVILL'S LETTER TO LORD GRANTHAM.

We were so much pressed for room last week, owing to the length of the Proceedings, Address, and Resolutions of the late Meeting in Finsbury Market-Place, that we had no space in our pages unoccupied, or we should have commented at some length upon the Letter of Marmaduke Wyvill, Esq. to Lord Grantham, tendering his resignation of his captaincy in the York Hussars. This young Gentleman's conduct is honourable to his character as a patriotic Englishman; and doubly so when contrasted with the wanton and savage barbarity of Major Trafford and his inhuman Corps of Yeomanry.

The real duty of a soldier is justly appreciated by Mr. Wyvill. A soldier should preserve, at the hazard of his life, the liberties of his country-and not lend his assistance in their destruction, even though bidden by a RoY AL TYRANT. He is sworn to protect his King and the Constitution; but,