cession, since “divine, indefeasible, hereditary right and passive obedience, were buried in the same grave.

The hour, however, is at length arrived, for us to speak to our Countrymen without disguise: the vile incendiaries who are at this moment lighting up the torch of discord throughout the land, and endeavouring to fritter away the last remnant of English Liberty, under a false and assuming pretext, call aloud for exposure it is our duty to tear off the mask, and rend asunder the chains already forged for our devoted Countrymen. The base and damnable system of espionage is at work to an extent unparallelled. The innocent, the unsuspecting dupes of the Borough Faction have been induced to hazard the event of another Meeting in Manchester; we unhesitatingly pronounce this measure, at this juncture, as calculated in our opinion, to strike dead to the ground the cause of Freedom in England.

We reluctantly enter upon this important topic; our hearts bleed for the distracted state of our Countrymen, who are goaded to madness and sinking in despair. Every one is asking, "What is to be done?" Manchester is thrown into the most dreadful alarm, and well indeed it may-thedreadful note of preparation is sounding in the streets-the utmost fear is visible on the countenances of the constituted authorities. Wooler aptly compares them to a drunken man, and says, "they are drunk with the most imortal of all poisons-Fear, and their awkward attempts to look brave and indifferent, but ill-disguise the cold shivering fits: that agitate every limb of the multiplex monster. They say, indeed, they are not afraid! No, they are not! they are not afraid of themselves, but they must protect the loyal part of the community. Their maasures are as great a proof of alarm as the reeling of a drunken man is of his debauchery. The drunkard swears it is not him who staggers, but that every one is reeling round him, while he alone is stationary. When he is further told to look at the walls and the posts, to prove by the evidence of stationary things, that his eyes deceive him, he is not to be convinced, but answers with at fresh oath, that "the walls and posts are drunk ;" but " that he, God mend his accusers, is as sober as a judge." In spite of demonstration, the ministers and patrons persist that the nation is mad and rebellious, while the rebels and the mad-' men are only to be found among the ranks of those who raise the outcry."

Printed and Published by T. DAVISON, 10, Duke Street, Smithfield,

Cap of Liberty.

A London Weekly Political Publication.

No. 17, Vol. 1.] Wednesday, January, 5th, 1820. [PRICE 2d.

SIR,

THE BEAUTIES OF PRIESTCRAFT.

WE that are bound by vows and by promotion,
With pomp of holy sacrifice and rites,
To teach belief in good and still devotion,

To preach of Heav'n's wonders and delights;
Yet, when each of us in his own heart looks,
He finds the God there far unlike his books.

[Chorus of Priests in Lord BROOK's Tragedy of "Mustapher.”

TO THE EDitor of the Cap of LibERTY.

I have prefaced my Letter with a citation from Lord Brook, because I am very fond of supporting my opinions by the authority of great men; and, to shew that I am not singular in my way of thinking with regard to priestly sincerity not that I mean to confine my remarks to those fellows only, no, I would scorn to write a whole letter upon sò despi-, cable a subject, even though that single letter would fay all the priests in the world, devil and all, in the Red Sea. Those writers who had the misfortune to live two or three centuries ago, always confined their attacks upon Priestcraft, to the ancient advocates of Paganism not but they thought Priests of all religions the same, however diversified their costume-but because it was unsafe in those days to speak otherwise. The Priest always kept one ear of the sovereign to himself; and, as those species of animals are seldom very sagacious, he instilled what ridiculous notions he pleased into the mind of the royal dupe, and, not unfrequently, made him quite outrageous. If a book spoke a little freely of these saintly ambassadors of the devil, the author was immediately denounced as an impious atheist, who wished to set all the gods, and devils, and men, and priests in the universe by the ears. Almost every good book that ever was published has had the priests for its enemies, and been prohibited by some ridiculous Government or other: and thus this conclave of secular and ghostly tyrants reason, when any book that is worth reading comes before the public: "Your power," says the Priest to his lord and master the King, "is built upon my influence-in proportion

Printed and Published by T. DAVISON, 10, Duke Street, Smithfield.

as that influence is small or great, your power is contracted or extended; this writer is the seeming friend of monarchy, but he is the enemy of religion-and you know that monarchy is supported by religion; ergo, this writer is the enemy of monarchy." What reasoning could be more conclusive? The royal logician (and, in general, kings are precious logicians) was immediately convinced that the safest barrier between the throne and the people, was the ignorance of the latter; he therefore gave orders, with all the pomp and stupid rhodomantade of ignorant majesty, that the book of such and such a philosopher should be burned by the hands of the common hangman.. Ah, Monsieur Monarch, why not burn the author too? it would be quite as rational, and, to a writer, perhaps as kind. That is the very manner in which you wonld have proceeded in the darker ages-those golden ages of monarchy and priestcraft; but now what would the world say, and how would the people bear it?" aye, there's the rub!"

But you ought not to fear the censure of the world it can never think much worse of you than it has done, and for its thinking better, there is not much hope of that neither. The thinking world is now modelled à la Republique—it is quite the mode; the divine hereditary right of kings is justly considered ridiculous, except their divine right of being always suspected of tyrannical designs; or,

wrong.

If right divine does ere to crowns belong, They lose that right when once the kings do But our sage Constitution-makers foresaw this objection, and wisely provided against it by laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that the King can do no wrong. 1 do not know whether it is or is not a solecism in philosophy, to assert that any substance can impart that which it has not; but this I know, that our Constitution-makers pretended to invest the King with a quality in which they were most eminently deficient, since that self-evidently ridiculous imposition, that the King can do no wrong, proves that they could do so how ever, and that too in the most bizarre and palpable manner in the world. But such are the precious legislators who have always been intrusted with the guardianship of the brightest appendages of humanity; such are the men who have eternally trifled away the liberties of nations, under pretence of legislating for them-such are the grands esprits who have invariably monopolized riches and power, and knowledge and distinction to themselves-while the wretchedly ignorant and grovelling peasantry have been bartered, hawked, and merchandized between Priests, Nobles, and Kings, till they

were thought no more of than the hounds of a superannuated Fox-hunter, with whom they have frequently been put upon a level. And yet the peasantry is the wide basis upon which all their fine structures of government and tyranny have been erected: the remark is perfectly trite and common-place, that they can do nothing without the peasantry; but is nei ther so trite nor so well known that they can do what they please with them, at least such has been the case. If philosophy continues to be cultivated by the common people with all that ardor with which they have commenced their career, it may not be the case much longer, for when philosophy has attained a certain eminence in the road to Freedom, its progress will be invincible; it will liberate mankind, whether they will or no. Not that I am enthusiastic enough to consider philosophy as a real Being, as Brutus the first of patriots did virtue, but that I know every cause when acting upon a proper medium, will produce adequate effects, and will produce them inevitably. Freedom and equality, without which Freedom is a mere phantom, will be the necessary consequence of the diffusion of philosophical principles in England, unless Indolence or Avarice snatch the Torch of Science out of the hands of the people. The government have foreseen that one or the other of these is likely to do so, and have consequently modelled their measures, into that form which is most likely to awaken those mean and selfish passions in the human heart. Our tricking lawyers are much wiser than people imagine; they know well how to attack avaricious men to advantage; my only hope is that they have come too late with their ACTS OF PARLIAMENT; I hope that Republican writers will not be awed into inaction, through fear of being banished to the sweet and salabrious climates of Italy or France; or to the less salubrious though not less honourable air of Newgate or the King's Bench; and that Republican readers will not be deprived of the pleasure, and instruction to be gathered from the perusal of the Journals of Freedom, because by the arbitrary measures of their government, iheir price has been unnecessarily augmented. Such a conduct would argue the basest cowardice on the one hand, and the meanest most detestable avarice on the other. I will never helieve that such a thing can happen till I shall see it with my own eyes, which by the bye is a very elegant phrase, and a favourite one too, in a certain Book, which I have read more than once, when I was at School.

1

Mr. Editor, there is nothing in the world that would advance the cause of Republicanism more than a critical history of Monarchy, from the first Crusoean King in the

Garden of Eden, to the moment when the dark veil of mys tery and divine right was torn from the hideous phantom in the closing scene of the French Revolution. The eyes of mankind were opened at that instant: they remain open still; no magician can again lull them to sleep there is nothing but Death can close them: and the best antidote against priestcraft would be its own history. But who shall write them?

It is in vain that some timid reasoners would separate religion from the cause of despotism; religion, or superstition, which is much the same thing, has always been its basis; the one cannot exist without the other, and vice versa. They are so intimately intwined, united, and blended together, you cannot separate them; and should liberty ultimately triumph over its foes-should thrones, and crowns, and sceptres be annihilated before it, what would be the use of the priest? Can any man be so stupid as to imagine that the gates of heaven will be shut against him, unless he is introduced to the door-keeper by a retailer of old scraps of divinity? Can any man, who does not profess himself a candidate for Bedlam, suppose that the Almighty will reject his petitions, unless they are presented to him by a learned hypocrite dressed in black, with a little narrow piece of white lawn about his neck? If there are such men, let them continue to worship their priests and pay tythes in the name of God. Philosophy disclaims such votaries,

The old and hacknied arguments against Priestcraft I shall never willingly use. I shall confine myself to one, but one that has been infinitely diversified; and that is, it is the support of tyranny, and what savours of tyranny ought to be destroyed by every nation that wishes to be free. They will preach for any master that will pay them, and wink, or seem to sleep, while they fleece their silly followers-they will harangue in praise of any villian who happens to be invested with power; and mangle, and twist, and modify some opinion of that good old tale, the Bible, to suit any purpose under the sun-or above it, if they could get there. As philosophy (says a certain writer whom I will not name) applies itself to Reason, so doth Religion to Passion; and therefore none are so successful as those fanatical sellers of words who are most quarrelsome with their pulpits; whereby they have a double advantage; first, they appear more zealous to the world; and secondly, (the anthor speeks of the people of his day) the nonsense they deliver is not so easily discerned by the credulous multitude, who are ever ravished with the tone and noise" "Now