a Priest's Day, or Idol's Day, would be more appropriate than Lord's Day, or day of rest and idle day.

This, then, is the view I take of your Sabbath; and this brings me to a consideration of the substance of your Book of Common Prayer and Notes. Not to trouble you with too much at a time, I will desist writing for the present, but I will endeavour to write to you more frequently, although I will not promise you a lesson for every Sabbath. I find that I ought not to tie myself to any such engagements, and I must apologize for having broken the one I have made. I want not the disposition nor the matter to do it, but I find it difficult to spare the space some weeks, and pay proper attention to other correspondences and subjects, although compelled to fill thirty-two pages weekly, that such good things may not be sold too cheap, and be too easily purchased by those who are enjoying your blessings of taxation, and all the advantages arising from the National Debt!

Farewell for the present, you and I shall soon meet again, if you and your Vice Gang have not changed more in disposition than I have by former encounters.

Dorchester Gaol, March 10, 1822, of the Era of the Carpenter's Wife's Son.

R. CARLILE.

CAIN.

LETTER FROM LORD BYRON TO MR. MURRAY.

DEAR SIR, Pisa, February 8, 1822. ATTACKS upon me were to be expected; but I perceive one upon you in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner you can be considered responsible for what I publish, I am at a loss to conceive. If "Cain" be " blasphemous," Paradise Lost is blasphemous; and the words of the Oxford gentleman, "Evil, be thou my good," are from that very poem, from the mouth of Satan; and is there any thing more in that of Lucifer in the Mystery?" Cain" is nothing more than a drama, not a piece of argument. If Lucifer and Cain speak as the first murderer and the first rebel may be supposed to speak, surely all the rest of the personages talk also according to their characters; and the stronger passions have ever been permitted to the drama. I have even avoided introducing the Deity, as in

Scripture, (though Milton does, and not very wisely either); but have adopted his angel, as sent to Cain, instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of, what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old Mysteries introduced him liberally enough, and all this is avoided in

the new one.

The attempt to bully you, because they think it will not succeed with me, seems to me as atrocious an attempt as ever disgraced the times. What! when Gibbon's, Hume's, Priestley's, and Drummond's publishers have been allowed to rest in peace for seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work of fiction, not of history or argument? There must be something at the bottom of this-some private enemy of your own: it is otherwise incre

dible.

I can only say, "Me-me adsum qui feci," that any proceedings directed against you, I beg may be transferred to me, who am willing, and ought to endure them all; that if you have lost money by the publication, I will refund any, or all of the copyright; that I desire you will say, that both you and Mr. Gifford remonstrated against the publication, as also Mr. Hobhouse; that I alone occasioned it, and I alone am the person who either legally or otherwise should bear the burden. If they prosecute, I will come to England; that is, if by meeting it in my own person, I can save yours. Let me know--you sha'nt suffer for me, if I can help it. Make any use of this letter which you please.

Yours, ever,

BYRON.

THE foregoing Letter of Lord Byron to his Publisher, Mr. Murray, will be read with some interest by the readers of "The Republican," as it contains an open declaration of war against all delusion and superstition on the part of this celebrated character, and may be deemed a challenge to the Attorney General, or the Vice Society, to prosecute him. as the author of "Cain." If, after the decision of the Chancellor that the publication is more fit to be prosecuted as blasphemous than protected as private property, the Attorney-General, or the Vice Society either, shrinks from the challenge of Lord Byron, what am I, what is the public, to think of their honesty, courage, or impartiality. It is said the King himself, has denounced Cain as blasphemous: the Keeper of his Seals and his Conscience! has done the same in his judicial character: all the hirelings of the Government have done the same through their portion of the Press, and here we find Lord Byron avowing what I pre

mised a few weeks back, that he is made of the wrong stuff to be alarmed at, or to care for any of them. He has now challenged them to their teeth to prosecute his "Cain." Will the Hypocritical Persecutors of myself and others, add cowardice to their other vices, and shrink from a contest with Lord Byron?

To stimulate them to this prosecution I purpose to pubI lish an edition of "Cain" at sixpence. I would respect the property of Lord Byron, or Mr. Murray, if the Lord Chancellor had done his duty, and protected "Cain," as he ought to have done, but as he has encouraged Mr. Benbow in his piracy, he has made it a sort of common property; I further purpose to shew this latter gentleman how easy it is for one person to undersell another, and how far his edition of "Cain" is from being a cheap edition, in point of quantity of print and paper. I shall contine myself to "Cain," as a publication within my line of business; I do not mean to follow Mr. Benbow in pirating other works of Lord Byron. I take." Cain" under my protection, because a prosecution and suppression is threatened.

R. CARLILE.

TO MR. RICHARD CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL.

NOBLE FELLOW CITIZENS,

It is with sentiments of the most ardent attachment to the great cause of Civil and Religious Liberty, that we feel ourselves bound thus publicly to express our unqualified admiration of the very gallant manner in which you are driving from the field of Philosophy, the enemies of Science, Truth, and Freedom.

Whether disguised under the garb of King, Priest, or Peer, or by whatever nicknames the tyrants of the world, mask their infernal agents, we rest assured, that they alike feel the powerful effect of your invincible arguments; the boldest of your opponents must have been staggered, by the unprecedented intrepidity of your literary career.

From the rage exhibited against you by the fiends of the Vice Society, as well by their sister Society of Devils, in Bridge Street, their intentions are sufficiently obvious, of wreaking their united, but impotent vengeance against the "TEMPLE OF REASON." Force, Fraud, and Hypocrisy, have declared war against free discussion! The sword against the pen! and "55, Fleet Street," has been the Thermopyle of Modern Philosophy; this, or any other

shop you may take is the post of danger, which we hope will be filled as long as one honest patriot remains out of a dungeon; the gratitude of all mankind is due to those individuals who have already filled this honourable gap, and the blessings of posterity await the list of heroes, who have so bravely volunteered to come forward in the same cause.

We, as friends to you, and the great and good cause you advocate, take this opportunity of requesting your acceptance of the sum of £2. 1s. 10d. as a trifling acknowledgement of the pleasure we have received from the perusal of your invaluable writings, together with those of the Immortal Thomas Paine.

Signed, in behalf of the Subscribers,

TO MR. ROBERT ARMSTRONG, STOKESLEY.

CITIZEN, Dorchester Gaol, March 3, 1822. I RETURN you and all friends in your neighbourhood my thanks for this fresh instance of approbation and encouragement. We are so strictly in unison with all our ideas of right and wrong, that I feel debarred from giving you a long answer, as nothing that I can say will be a matter of instruction to you. I can promise you that I will soon have another " Temple of Reason" open, such as the Robbers may not enter, and not only in London, but in other parts of the country as well. I will still bid defiance to all prosecutions, and finally stay them.

Yours, in civic esteem,

R. CARLILE. P. S. The Correspondence you have had with a Priest, you mention in your private information, I will print it if you will send it to me.