will have their minds prepared to meet it, or know how to act at such a crisis for the benefit of the whole community. I am sorry to say, that many whom I have conversed with, talk of the breaking up of the funding system, and the obtaining of a reform, as if they were subjects entirely unconnected, of as if the former was a thing of little or no consequence in short, the whole subject is too generally spoken of, as if the Boroughmongers were going to take part in it, and furnish what is asked for by piecemeal, just as the expedient-hunting, temporising, half-frightened, and less than half-honest Moderates choose to call for it! It is an outrage committed on our reason to pretend to expect such a thing. When did either King, Lord, or Commoner, do any thing for the good of the people? From the earliest period of our history to the present time, whenever they do any good, it is either what they cannot avoid, or it is done in a mistake. Did they ever intentionally pass one Act, but either to plunder and delude the people, or to protect themselves and the stolen goods they have got possession of? Let the Six Acts give the answer. It is worse than canine madness to expect them to reform themselves, or to grant us one particle of liberty that it is their interest to keep from us. Besides, they have not the power, even if they had the will, to reform themselves; if they had power to do this, they would have the power to make themselves absolute. I again repeat, they cannot reform themselves, and if they could they are not worth reforming. Each man has the private interest of himself, and his connections to serve, independent of the general interest of keeping up the system. It is not because the different parties are fond of each other that they act in concert, they are as envious and as jealous of each other as possible: but, as Paine observes, "interest is like love, it works secretly," and it is this, and this alone, that makes them act in concert against the people in every question where the interest of the people is involved. This is the way they have always acted; and the same motives and circumstances that have caused them to act in this manner will continue as long as the paper system continues, and, of course, they will be compelled to hurry on from one precipice to another, catching at expedient after expedient, enacting one thing one day and its direct opposite the next, till they are rendered as powerless as they are obnoxious by the total and instantaneous breaking up of their own resources. I am so well convinced, in my own mind, of this, that I dare venture to assert, if all the labourers of England could do without both food and clothing, that the interest of the Debt would wind up till the produce of all the land, and the yearly earnings of all the labourers in the Island, would not be sufficient to pay one month's interest. And can we, who have thought on these things, sit and look supinely on without warning others of the fate that awaits them? Whatever may be your feelings on this subject, I consider it to be a sacred duty; and I look

upon every man as a traitor to his country, and to all future generations, who knows these things, and notwithstanding his knowledge, exhausts his strength and spends his time in calling upon others to assist him in hunting after expedients, which can only end in chagrin and disappointment, and too frequently without any object but individual emolument. I call upon such men, if they ever intend to be citizens of a free state, to shake off the odious trammels of party, and assist in a general diffusion of that knowledge which can alone elevate man to his proper dignity, and make the country fit for our children to live in. Whether my call will be listened to or not is not a question; we ought not to supplicate the assistance of the proselytes of any party if they will not march on with us; it is not likely we should go back to them. Republicanism knows no party but the public good; and I would not hold up my hand to vote for any change short of it. We have nothing to hope for, nor any thing to look to but our own exertions; let each individual act as though all depended upon himself; let us do our duty by disseminating knowledge on the subject, and wait the result. We have nothing to fear for ourselves, our own minds are free, and no man can be punished against his will; he only is punished who has not made up his mind to bear it. Let us, then, endeavour to do our duty to the rising generation by preparing one another's minds to meet that shock with perfect composure that I have alluded to in the toast, when 66 a bushel of Bank of England notes will not buy a pair of shoes." This may startle those who have not examined the matter, but I am satisfied it is inevitable. There are two days fast approaching that very few people have ever thought of-one day a Bank of England note will buy a man something to eat, and the next day a cart-load of such notes would not, as currency, buy a pound weight of bread. And mark what I say! there will not be a day betwixt, except it be the time that it will take to convey the news to different parts of the country. To those who have not thought on these things, I say read, and judge whether you are in a fit state of mind to act the part of the philosopher and the man, when such a crisis arrives, or not. I say no one can act in such a case so well as those who are prepared for it, by foreseeing it, and watching and weighing it in all its bearings. Ask yourselves how you will feel when no man in the country will have any property but those who have the hard money and provisions in their possession, especially, if you should happen to be possessed of neither. Can any but men of principle act with prudence in such an emergency? What is to prevent the mad enthusiasm and the mistaken zeal of partizans from shedding innocent blood, on such an occasion? Can any thing prevent this but inculcating the pure principles of representation upon the plan of universal benevolence, till an over

whelming majority can see that their true interest is in promoting the peace, comfort, and happiness of all? There is no country in the world that is in so much danger of suffering by a premature movement as England. Look at the envious feelings towards each other of the different sects of religion, and think what would be the consequence if any thing short of Republican Government, without an established Priesthood, should ever be attempted. There is scarcely one sect that would not wade up to the knees in the blood of the other to be wormed in with the State. But supposing this would not be the case, what have we to hope from such an adulterous connection, even if it should be peaceably accomplished, did not the Protestants drive the Catholics out of their monasteries and creep in themselves, with all the fraud and as much of the cruelty as the knowledge of the people would suffer them to practise? It is not because either the Priests or the tyrants of the present day are less cruel, it is because the people are more enlightened, that both Mr. Carlile, and all who have the honesty to avow the principles he advocates, are not burnt in Smithfield. And after all our complaints of the abuses of Government, (which are more to be attributed to the inevitable consequences of the paper system than to the natural disposition of the individuals in office) we owe our present existence more to the Tory laws than to the fellow feelings of either the Whigs, or what is infinitely worse than the Whigs, the half-way Reformers. Then let us endeavour to snatch this bone of contention out of the hands of every sect of either Priest or partizan, by advocating a (To be continued.)