another who began by telling us that his name was Warden, before any one was heard to ask him; by Mr. French, who was so very ill, or had been so very ill for several days, that he was very sorry at being called upon and forced to speak to their ears, and gaping mouths, which were no inlets to any understandings; by a Mr. Grady, who is a rare specimen of an Irish posture-master, sometimes addressing his toes and sometimes the ceiling, sometimes his right and sometimes his left elbow; by a Mr. Hand, who was a very poor hand at politics, or at any sign of a character necessary to work political reform, and again by Mr. Hunt. Mr. Hetherington, a printer, the present secretary, who is not over-burthened with the capacity to be a reformer, declined to take a part in talking over this really much ado about nothing. A duller or less instructive public meeting, or more really mis-spent time I never witnessed. Mr. Hunt talks over just the same stuff we had from him twelve or fourteen years ago. He has learnt nothing in all that time, or if he has, he does not put it forth. To have heard him once, is to hear all that he has to say. His companions, who do not last him long, are much of the same stamp, some of them have moved on; but he stands. Daniel French of 1829, is a good representative of Gale Jones of 1818. Grady, though less solemn, is something in character like Dr. Watson; and rather than an improvement, I perceive a falling off in the intellectual character and in the respectability of the appearance of his companions. You look now in vain for the energy and the daring of the Radical Reformers of 1816 to 20. There was then a general expectation that the cry of Radical Reform was to be followed by insurrection; there was then courage required to be its advocate; the country was agitated and the halter and the dungeon stared one in the face; but now, it is tame, it is hopeless, it is flat, stale, and unprofitable. I am more than ever a reformer; but I could not act with and join in the doings, the littleness, of these men, who now call themselves Radical Reformers. I seek, I crave nobler game than Co-operation" or that which is called Radical Reform. I would call my countrymen to better action and to co-advocacy of that kind of reform which should never assemble a thousand persons without giving them some instruction and without leaving them a higher stimulus to action than they had before. No possible good can arise from such proceedings as that which I witnessed on Monday night. The only way to work a change, and all say a change is wanted, is to have free and fair discussions, by talented men, before public assemblies of the people, on the most interesting and important subjects. To put aside religion, or to put aside any subject in which all are interested, is to play the coward, the shuffler, the hypocrite: it is to do no good. What new liberty has been gained for the press, or for the people generally, but that which the Infidels have gained in the last ten years, by their uncompromising perseverance? The ground which they

have taken is the only ground on which a change can be worked in this country; and to talk theoretically about what the state of things shall be, when the change is brought about, and not about the means of making the change, is like the madman's dream about heaven, future state, and immortality. No good can come from it.

RICHARD CARLILE.

RESURRECTION OF NINE HUNDRED COPIES OF THOMAS PAINE'S POLITICAL WORKS, WHICH HAVE BEEN BURIED IN A WAREHOUSE ABOVE THIRTY YEARS!

THIS edition, printed for the late Mr. Symonds of Paternoster Row, who suffered four year's imprisonment in Newgate, is bound in one volume, and will be sold at the low price of eighteen pence. The volume contains, "Common Sense," "Letter to the Abbe Raynal," "Rights of Man, 2 parts," "Letter to the Addressers." and several short letters and miscellaneous pieces, entirely political and unconnected with his theological writings. They wil make very useful political pocket books for those "Radical Reformers," who are yet simpletons enough to make a political chart of Magna Charta. The resurrection is well timed; for the present pinching distress is likely to send our grown-up children to school for the study of politics; and they can find no better initiating schoolmaster than Thomas Paine. They can now be initiated cheaply, and Mr. Carlile will supply them with the higher branches of political knowledge, as fast as they can take it.

INFIDEL MISSION.

Copies of Letters sent to the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel, with copies of our Circular challenge.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. MAY it please your Grace-To be informed, that within the last five months, the enclosed circular challenge has been sent to the Heads of Houses at the University of Cambridge, and to the Christian Advocate, and that the University has been formally challenged; and also, that four hundred copies have been sent to as many preachers in the line of road from London to Cambridge, Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Huddersfield, and minor places, and that it is now in the course of being sent to all the preachers of the Christian Religion in London and Neighbourhood.

The Infidel Missionaries feel it a duty which they owe to their country, and to all Christendom, to bring the preachers of the

Christian Religion to a free and fair discussion of its merits, assured that, under such a discussion, it cannot be maintained,

62, Fleet Street, Oct. 1, 1829.

Respectfully, RICHARD CARLILE.

To the Right Honourable Robert Peel, Secretary of State for the Home Department.

SIR,-The accompanying challenge has been presented to the Heads of Houses and Christian Advocate of the University of Cambridge, and to four hundred country preachers. It is now in the course of being sent to every preacher of the Christian Religion in London and its neighbourhood.

It is presumed, Sir, that this proposition for public discussion, narrowing the question as it does, and putting all the merits of the Christian Religion at issue, upon an historical shewing, that admits of no quibble, quirk, or subterfuge, that can be allied to no other passion than a love of truth, is worthy of the notice and encouragement of his Majesty and his Ministers; and, the subscriber respectfully requests, that you will be pleased to lay the challenge before his Majesty, as one that, more than any other thing, shews the real state of the church.

62, Fleet Street, Oct. 1, 1829.

I am, Sir,
Respectfully,
RICHARD CARLILE.

Our Circular has been sent to the following preachers and papers, in and near to Reading, Berkshire.

With the Rev. Mr. Hinton, the following correspondence has taken place:

Reading, Oct. 2, 1829.

In reply to the circular, which Mr. Hinton has received from Messrs. Taylor and Carlile, he has only to say that, if they wish to see him, he is at all times readily accessible. For their own sakes, he is sorry that they have undertaken so hopeless a task as their circular announces; but, for Christianity he has no fears.

London, Oct. 5, 1829.. The Rev. Robert Taylor and Mr. Carlile acknowledge the receipt of the Rev. Mr. Hinton's note of the 2nd instant, in which a willingness for a private interview is expressed. The point at which Messrs. Taylor and Carlile aim, and which they think to be above all things necessary, in relation to the Christian religion, is public discussion, where statement shall be immediately met by counter-statement, to the eviction of truth. On this ground, they challenge the merits of the Christian religion, and will be happy to find that the Rev. Mr. Hinton has sufficient confidence in its historical evidences (for all others are nothing if these are not good) to submit them, in public discussion, to the public of Reading or elsewhere.

We have also sent a copy of our challenge to all the London newspapers, saying, as a matter of news, that it has been thrown down to the University of Cambridge, and to four hundred country preachers. The " John Bull" Sunday paper, has copied it, in a long tirade about blasphemy and the danger of the church, and has mixed us up with the free-thinking Christians, who have lately put forth an advertisement, in which they describe the doctrine of the Trinity, as set forth in the Athanasian Creed, to be blasphemous toward the one true God. They also denounce the church establishment of this country, and every dissenting church but theirs, as not the church of God. They impugn the doctrine of the fall of man, and of the atonement, as unchristian, and in short, they attack every thing that any other sect of Christians has thought of as being Christian. Still they call themselves Christians and religious men The Infidel Missionaries have felt it to be their duty, to send to the "John Bull" newspaper, the following disclaimer of all connection with, or similarity to the free-thinking Christians. They can defend themselves against the imputations of all the sects; therefore, they do not desire to be mixed up with any. All they ask, is, discussion with all who may avow a dissent from them, and from whom they dissent.

To the Editor of the John Bull.

62, Fleet Street, Oct. 6, 1829.

SIR, The Infidel Missionaries complain of unfair treatment at your hands, in your placing them in the columns of your paper of Sunday last, in company with the free-thinking Christians. They claim for themselves the distinction of being open and avowed, and because open and avowed, honest Infidels, and honest men. They cannot be deceivers; or if they do mislead others, the fault is not theirs. They lay no claim to the title of Christian; because

they have taught themselves, that the Christian religion is neither historically true, nor socially useful. They may be in error. On this head they are not positive. But with them, error, if it do exist, is not wilful; and they desire to be corrected, or to correct others, by free and fair public discussion. They have sent their yet unanswered challenge, to these people who call themselves free-thinking Christians, and who, presumptuously, not to say preposterously, style themselves the only true church of God.. For persons truly and sincerely attached to the common Christian faith, the Infidel Missionaries have respect and desire mutual instruction, by the only means in which it can be obtained, by amicable discussion, with good feeling, and the charitable allowance of good motive for each others errors. But for such persons as the saints of the day, who profess to be super-eminently religious, and to treat the people of the establishment as mere heathen; for the Unitarians, who pick and choose of what they call divine revelation and the miracles, who profess to be reasonably religious, and religiously reasonable; and for the free-thinking Christians, who, with the Unitarians, contemn the doctrine of the trinity, the fall of man, the atonement, indeed, all the essentialities of the Christian religion, and still call themselves Christians," John Bull" himself cannot feel more contempt, than do the Infidel Missionaries. We uniformly denounce these latter persons, not as dishonest Christians, but, we are to sorry to say it, as dishonest Infidels.

And furthermore, Mr. John Bull, I must individually complain, when you charge me with caricaturing the Almighty, a charge which I repel, which I disclaim, and at which I am most reasonably offended, and defend myself, in the retaliation, that I have never so far caricatured the Almighty, as to profess to conduct a newspaper for his benefit. No publications are more free from superhuman blasphemies, or blasphemies toward superhuman things, than mine. You cannot know them, or you would not have so misrepresented them. Thine, in civic fellowship, One of the Infidel Missionaries. RICHARD CARLILE.

THE SORROWS OF A PRIEST.

Probitas laudatur: at alget,

Probity is praised: but it shivers.

MR. RICHARD CARLILE.

A word with you. You affect to be, and I believe in my heart you are, a right honest man. I have read your publications. I am quite at home to all you aim at. But it is my misfortune to be that (in your eyes )despicable character, a Priest. Your readers are pretty generally led to look on all whose fate has bound them