at command, when it suits their tyrannical projects to be at allconciliating. Neither the Catholics of Ireland, nor the Reformers of England, are, however, any longer to be cheated and bamboozled by the fallacious and superficial rhetoric of either Castlereagh or Canning. Some unprincipled marauders will, doubtless, strain every nerve to form a strong phalanx in support of public robbery, but if we continue firm and united-if we continue true to ourselves and to our country, these infamous Traitors shall ere long expiate their offences upon the s-ff-ld!

The Catholics of Ireland are perfectly correct in their idea that the Radical Reformers are friends to religious freedom, as well as political. They would even, perhaps, go a step further than the Catholics, and allow of no Established Religion whatsoever. Indeed, the system is worse than atrocious, which compels one man to pay another for preaching that which he does not choose to listen to, nay, which he actually conceives to be blasphemy. Those who are ever bawling about an established Church, are either shortsighted fools or interrsted hypocrites. We could name several of the nobility, who esteem an established Church as a very great national benefit; as a blessing conferred as it were by Providence, which they are resolved to support, while they are able to stand or speak, and for doing which, they can adduce arguments unanswerable. For instance, the EARL of POWIS, a man, or if he will have it so, a Lord, who was never ordained, actually receives as RECTOR of OSWESTRY, something about £5,000 per annum.! Such an argument as this in favour of an established Church, is certainly unanswerable. Aye, my Lord-" Church and State for ever!"—don't mind the stupid blockheads,-let them shew an argument that can weigh down five thousan pounds per Annum: the foolish boobies "Church and State for everHurrah!" King, Lords, and Boroughmongers-Hurrah! "Hurrah! Hurrah!

The exultation of self-interest may thus reiterate its plaudits, but they are drowned in the jarring elements of woe and misery, indignant at the plunder, the open unmasked plunder, which laughs at the wretchedness of its victims. Britons, Britons, awake! be no longer the dupes of those hypocritical wretches, who grieve for your distress only, because you have nothing left to satiate their rapacious appetites for plunder.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CASE OF MR. RUSSELL, FOR PUBLISHING THE PARODIES OF MR. HONE.

HAPPY, thrice happy, is that country which knows no laws but those of Nature and of Justice! Where that which is guiltless in the person of one individual, cannot be criminal in another; and where those who are elected to preside, have no other interest than the welfare of the community. In such a country the public expression of opinion, uncontrolled and unharrassed by the exertion of arbitrary authority, would produce the most essential benefits to mankind in general, and an uninterrupted life of happiness to cach and every individual who was fortunate enough to first breathe the vital air without its confines. Universal knowledge is ever the result of a free and fair canvas of opinion; mutual good will, mutual friendship, and mutual confidence, are the inevitable results of a general diffusion of knowledge. Thus, those countries whose governments are established upon the most liberal principles, have always been remarkable for the production of the greatest philosophers, and also for the tranquillity which reigned between the People and their Rulers. We have been led into these observations, by the circumstance of judgment having been called for against Mr. Russell, for selling the "Parodies on St. Athanasias's Creed." Mr. Hone was the original pub Isher of these Parodies; he was prosecuted by his Majesty's Attorney-General, and although Lord Ellenborough gave it as his opinion that the publications were libellous, yet a British Jury nobly exercised their reason and judgment, and his Lordship was compelled to register on his three different trials a verdict of acquittal. Thus were the Parodies proclaimed not to be libellous by six-and-thirty Englishmen, and the Publisher declared" Not Guilty." Yet, after a lapse of a year or two, à vender of these same Parodies is prosecuted, tried, found guilty, and committed to a prison, (which, Heaven knows! ought rather to be the asylum of those who sent him thither) friendless, indigent, and with a family dependent on his exertions for a bare subsistence. What sort of a system of jurisprudence is this? The vendor (who it is to be supposed has not perused every work which he offers for sale) is consigned to a dungeon, while the publisher, who must be aware of the contents of that which he publishes, is declared innocent by six-and-thirty of his peers. The publisher of a work only should be considered

It is

legally responsible for its contents, and when that publisher is tried and acquitted, all prosecution should cease: against a mere vender a prosecution never should commence. a duty we owe to the Public to severely animadvert on the speech of Mr. Justice Bayley, when giving the judgment of the Court against Mr. Russell. We do not exactly recollect his words, but they were to the following effect: That the offence of selling those Parodies was aggravated on the part of Russell, because that, on the trial of Mr. Hone, Lord Ellenborough had given his opinion that they were libellous and profane. Such was the learned speech from the very learned Mr. Justice Bayley. Spirit of Jefferies! why dost thou not descend and clear thy blackened memory from half its odium, by allowing the Public to draw a comparison between your conduct and that of others who now hold similar places of similar emoluments? Mr. Justice Bayley, is, we conceive, one of those self-opinionated, conceited ignoramusses, who imagine that no one knows any thing but a Judge, and therefore that a Judge's ipse dixit should be law, the only law which could at all be depended upon. We will grant him that the ministry depend more on their construction (we had almost said perversion) of the law, than upon the law itself. Surely no man of common sense or reason could imagine that the crime of selling any work could be aggravated, because a Judge had given it as his opinion that the matter contained in it was libellous and prafane, when an independent and uninterested Jury declared it to be harmless. This Justice, however, being a man of uncommon sense, sets the Verdicts of the Jury at nought, and holds fast by the opinion of the Judge. The simple fact of the matter is, that the publishers of these works are generally men of talent and information, and with an intelligent Jury would be able to overcome and defeat all the quibbles of both Lawyers and Judges; while many of the unfortunate venders are ready to sink with terror at the bare mention of an ex officio. It is at these, therefore, the cowards direct their attacks, under an impression that if they could be deterred from selling every publication that discusses freely the conduct of Government, opposition must fall to theground. Poor simpletons! They have not the sagacity to reflect that the People, jealous of every attack or innovation upon the Liberty of the Press, will all repair to the publishers, to satisfy their thirst for political and theological knowledge, and thereby throw into his pocket double the profits he would otherwise have received. Although there may be a great deal of wisdom in this world,

still are we confident that a very small portion of it has fallen to the lot of the present Ministry! They are nothing better than a desperate set of pickpockets, who will (in the words of Parson Ethelstone) one day come to be hanged, for plundering the poor of that which should have been spent in the support of their starving families. This language is so low, that we almost blush to use it, but really it is our firm persuasion that the subject deserves no better. What! shall we pick and choose our language in speaking of desperadoes who breathe the air of a Country which contemns them, even while it is contaminated by their presence? We are aware that in the House of Commons petitions will not be received, unless, forsooth, they are respectfully worded; or, in other words, unless the truths contained in them are rendered palateable, by a sufficient intermixture of servility, such as would, and really does, disgrace those who would be considered an independent People. It is absolutely ludicrous to see those in whom the Sovereignty, is acknowledged to rest, petitioning their own servants for permission to breathe the very air; or, as Sir Francis Burdett said very appropriately, "to wear their own noses on their faces." We will just try our hand at a sample of the general run of petitions, and let the Public judge whether they are worthy a land of Freedom.

We, the inhabitants of, most respectfully approach your Honourable House, humbly craving that you will be most graciously pleased to take into your most gracious consideration the difficulties under which we labour, owing to the extravagant administration of his Honour's Honour, Lord Castlereagh, and furthermore, we humbly pray that the enormous taxes, which have reduced us to the brink of starvation, may be lightened in such a manner, as to your Honourable House may seem fit and expedient. The war which was the occasion of those taxes, was (under your Honour's favour, and with all becoming deference to your Honour's better judgment) unnecessary and unjust, and therefore we pray that your Honours Away

with such humiliating, degrading language!-PETITION !— PETITION!-curses light upon the word!-the scorn and contumely of the brave attend it! Let Slaves PetitionFreemen will demand their Rights! Petition for that which it is our duty to demand! No, no!-we are content to risk every thing for our Rights and Privileges as Freemen—we will bleed for them-die for them, if necessary;-but we never, never will Petition. The fawning sycophant may lic kthe hand that spurns him-the wretched slave may

kneel and supplicate for mercy from his tyrant, but the free and independent spirit will nobly strike for freedom; or suing for mercy only from his God, will quit this sublunary. sphere unsubdued by even a torturing death. The Constitution of England is nothing more than the degree of liberty of action and expression of opinion, which Lord Castlereagh and his colleagues choose to allow the People-a sort of privilege, which these worthy gentry allow them the enjoyment of on high days and holidays. In short, it is a mere plaything in the hands of corruptionists, who throw it aside when it does not suit them, as a child would a disagreeable toy. The people are no longer to be gulled and politically cheated by the cry of "Church and State," King and Constitution." The imposition and rapacity of the Church they would most willingly rid themselves of, if they had only the power or ability so to do. Its influence over the minds of the People is lost, is almost annihilated would that the body could as easily be enfranchised from its tyranny. The State the People have at present neither share nor interest in, and they are consequently careless how soon, it may go to pieces. The Representative of the King is deaf to the remonstrances and unparalleled sufferings of the People, and it therefore cannot be wondered at that, the People's respect for Monarchy should be, if not entirely lost, at least greatly diminished; and for the Constitution, whatever it might once have been, it is now a mere nullity, which, if the People are not awake to the imposition, will most assuredly delude them to perdition.

PICTURE OF PARSON EMERIS, OF LOUTH. ''

ALTHOUH we are not fully in possession of the circumstances which Mr. Henry Holland alludes to, yet we can perceive that he writes under feelings deeply wounded, by some unmerited injury, which injury was inflicted by a lergyman of the Church of England. As far as we can understand him, he has lost a farm, which he has held under a very good landlord, owing to the malicious and slanderous. fabrications of the Rev. Mr. Emeris; fabrications of such an atrocious character, as to endanger the life of the party under accusation, being no less than the dreadful charge of Arson. It appears that Mr. Holland can prove an alibi in a most satisfactory manner; having been seen at the time alluded to, by more than fifty people, at "a large town in Yorkshire." Mr. Emeris should have been cautious, (what

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