6 vantage of all his labours, great as they were, to combine with my own, and I have hope that I shall witness the conclusion of all he wished to effect: BRITAIN A REPUBLIC UPON THE BASE OF A COMPLETE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, WITH THE ABOLITION OF KINGCRAFT AND PRIESTCRAFT. This is a cause worth advocating. All below this is delusion, and mere momentary annoyance to the common enemy. Leave off all idle talk about sending Reforiners into the present House of Parliament. If such thing can be done as a matter of amusement, let it be done, but it is an object totally unworthy of general notice, or of exciting general attention, or of subscribing money to effect. It is high time that you assume the characters of men, and not suffer yourselves to be trifled with as children. Think and act for yourselves, and support no man whose views differ from your own. assume the name and character of Republicans, and act upon Once that title, and every kind of delusion will recede from your view. No longer bawl upon the name of any man, unless you are sure his views and motives extend with your own. Reflect, compare, and examine, and see whether the actions of a man who professes to lead you be consistent with his professions: try his honesty by every test possible, and do not laud him with praises until you are sure of his good intentions; and even then, the less adulation you bestow upon him the more likely you are to keep him honest. This is an outline of what the future pages of the Republican will contain. I shall study to make them worthy of the times in which they appear. Every species of delusion will here find an enemy; it matters not under what name it conceals itself: our maxim should be, to hold nothing sacred but truth; it shall be mine at any rate. nothing for antiquity's sake, nor bow before customs I cannot I venerate approve. To be happy upon correct and Republican principles, and to extend that happiness to others, shall be the chief aim of R. CARLILE. Just published, QUEEN MAB, a SHELLEY, with Notes, price 7s. 6d. other defiance to the Vice Society by indicted it, but shall not suppress it. Poem, by PERCY BYSSHE ON THE BIRTH-DAYS OF THOMAS PAINE, THE REAL ENGLISHMAN; AND THE FACTITIOUS JESUS, THE JEW. THIS twenty-fifth day of December, being considered by Christians a festival or holy day, and, although in a Gaol, .hearing much fuss made about it; in consequence of the prisoners getting a pound of beef, a few potatoes, a pint of small beer and a guinea to split among them, which serves to buy another pint, which, by the by, is the only animal food in its solid state, potatoes, or beer, or money allowed throughout the year to such as have not the means to purchase, I have been drawn into the reflection on the comparative importance of the birth-days of Thomas Paine and Jesus the Jew. I have repeatedly said, I can find no historical proof that such a Jew, as Jesus Christ is said to have been, was ever born, lived, or died at Jerusalem, or that any such sect as Christians was ever known there prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Many Christians, and among them Mr. Justice Bailey, admit that there were no Christians remaining in Jerusalem at the time of its siege by Vespasian and its destruction by Titus; but, say they, the Christians were forewarned of the destruction of Jerusalem and they quitted it in a body to escape destruction with the Jews. But this is conjecture: it is fiction: it is not borne out by the least probability. It is much safer, upon the total want of evidence to support the book called the New Testament, to believe that the sect of Christians was not known prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that no such character as the Jesus of the New Testament ever figured there. Thus much upon this matter for consistency sake, as to draw the purposed comparison, I must admit the existence of this Jew according to the tale or fiction of the New Testament. It was not until the Christian religion became very popular, and formed a kind of Republic to itself, that it held any festivals, and the origin of these was more to entice and make converts of the Pagan multitude, than from any other motive or purpose. It was an amalgamation of the Pagan festivals with the Christian religion, as an inducement to the ignorant to partake of them and an enticement to conversion. The season which we now call Christmas was the Saturnalia of the Pagan Romans. This Saturnalia was a grand festival for the Roman slaves, and whilst it lasted they enjoyed a temporary manumission in which custom entitled them to use language and behave themselves towards their masters in a manner, which, at any other time, would have cost them their lives; as the life of a slave was at the will and pleasure of the master. As the Christian religion first spread itself among these slaves, and the very dregs of the Roman People, both in the city and provinces, or such as are termed by the Aristocrats in England, the mob or order of St. Giles, and in France, the canaille, it was found necessary to substitute a festival for the Saturnalia, and the season was denominated the birthtime of their God, and thus appointed a festival. This was the origin of the festival of Christmas. It certainly, in this climate, falls at the best season for festivities, when the days are short and the time unfit for labour in many professions, forming what we are justified in calling, the night of Nature, in consequence of our recession from the sun, but think it high time to leave off countenancing this piece of folly and superstition, and substitute the auniversary of the Spanish Revolution, which is New Year's day, and the 29th of January, which is the birth-day of our real and "famous countryman," Thomas Paine, who was, and is, and will be, through his writings and actions, a saviour indeed. He will go on to save mankind from the miseries of Kingcraft and Priestcraft. A joint craft which makes a hell of the earth. This will be a salvation indeed, and shall we not celebrate his birth-day? Let us revere his memory as a Man, and the Friend of Man, but not worship him as a God nor any other idol gods. The character drawn of Jesus the Jew in the New Testament is not altogether bad, although it contains some shades of folly, absurdity, and fanaticism. The character is Republican throughout, and it is doubtless a fiction of Grecian origin, after they had been conquered by the Romans, and who, as a matter of political safety, laid the scene at Jerusalem, at a time when it could not be contradicted, as Jerusalem was destroyed. The translation of the Jewish Scriptures by the Septuagint and their exposure of the Alexandrian Library had made them familiar to all the learned men of Greece, and it is probable, that in drawing the character of Jesus the Jew, they had more view of shewing what man ought to be, than of sketching a character who should be deemed a God and actually become an object of worship by millions! With some erasures, and which perhaps are interpolations on the original, the life of Jesus, as in the New Testament, may be considered a strictly moral treatise. It is just such a character, of which Plato had given the outline, of the man qualified to teach morality and useful knowledge: so that no disgrace could attach to a celebration of his supposed birth-day had not the ideal man been converted into an idol god, and made an object of superstitious worship. As it now stands, it is become far more rational, far more moral, to celebrate the birth-day of Thomas Paine. What has Thomas Paine done that we should celebrate the anniversary of his birth, or establish it as a festival? He wrote the pamphlets entitled "Common Sense," and the "American Crisis," which, aided by his personal exertions and example, formed the minds of the inhabitants of the United States for Independence, and directed them to the establishment of a Republic and the Representative System of Government; the fine example of which is now followed in so many powerful countries, and is opening so grand, so noble, so happy a prospect to the patriot and philanthropist throughout the earth. Thomas Paine might be justly styled the forerunner of Liberty, and the Liberator and Saviour of Mankind from the miseries of despotic Kingcraft and Priestcraft. He took part in every thing that was honourable to the French Nation in the course of its Revolution, and shrunk from taking part in all that was dishonourable. He laboured hard to prevent the commencement of a wanton shedding of blood in that country, and when he found he could not, he retired into privacy; refusing to be an actor in any such scenes, and had nearly made his life pay the forfeit of his humanity. As a citizen of the world he was both the common and the uncommon friend of man of every colour and clime. In writing his "Rights of Man" he laid the basis of political wisdom in this country, in sowing its seed on good ground which is now springing forth a most productive crop, and almost ready for the harvest, of which no Priest shall take his tithe, no King his half, no legal robber an atom: Every man shall reap that which he soweth, and none shall molest him. In writing his "Age of Reason" he gave idolatry its death blow, rescued our minds/from the gross darkness of superstition, and taught us to range in the fields of Nature. He was the first man who refused his reverence and complaisance to error and falsehood, and taught us to call things by their proper names. He not only destroyed the sophistry and hypocrisy of what is improperly called literature, but gave us a fine specimen and example of literary candour, and shewed us the very best method of inculcating correct principles. Thomas Paine has done all this, more than this, and more than my pen can describe; therefore, I call upon his countrymen, I call upon every honest man in this Island to celebrate his birth-day. Do it openly. Avow his principles for they alone can lead you to the goal of Reform and to political welfare and happiness. The 29th day of January is the day. I see there is a talk about celebrating the accession of the present King to his throne on that day, but that cannot interfere with the intentions of honest men. The name of Thomas Paine is of more value and consequence than that of all the Kings on the face of the earth, and all their adherents in the bargain. Meet then let the name of Thomas Paine resound among you not to burn him in effigy as I and many others have been ignorant and silly enough to do in our youths, but to speak of him as he deserves; to venerate his memory as a Republican, a Deist, a Patriot, a Philosopher, and Philanthropist. Send me an account of your number and proceedings, and I will announce them in the pages of the Republican. Dorchester Gaol, Dec. 25, 1821. R. CARLILE. CONSTITUTIONAL ASSOCIATION. MURRAY and Sharpe, the agents of these Robbers, are now outsetting their wages, by arresting my shopmen for a, pamphlet of which the sale is exhausted, save what they purchase. I can fully keep them employed, even at this game, for it is evident that they cannot go to trial with any thing as long as Garratt, who is one of them, remains Sheriff, unless they can enforce an attendance of special jurors, a circumstance upon which no reliance can be placed. I |