Page images
PDF
EPUB

Jury, inviting them, or some of them, to dinner and so on, Nothing can be conceived more disgraceful than a garrulous judge: his office and duty requires the utmost reserve, and he should sit on the bench as if he was ignorant of every thing that was passing out of doors. Officially, he should know nothing beyond the walls of the court in which he sits, as above all others, the office of judge is an office where silence indicates dignity and imposes respect. The political dispositions of our present judges, and the adulatory remarks that pass between them and certain persons at the bar, with the garrullity so prevalent in all the courts, must be painful to every reflecting mind, and affords a strong presumption that corruption has extended her baneful influence where, aboye all other places, there should be a manly independence, free from the slightest taint of servility, aud an exception from all earthly controul. A judge whilst in a court of law or justice, should not open his mouth, but to enforce a regularity of proceeding, to expound the law, or to pass its sentence on offenders. He is the representative of the law whilst sitting on the bench, and should regulate himself as a machine, and not display all the foibles common to man in society. But to come more closely with Judge Bailey, we would first observe, that his observation to the Editor of this publication previous to passing sentence, was as hypocritical as it was false: " that had he the Editor directed the purchasers of his Deistical publications to their antidote at the same time, such as the writings of Lord Littleton, Soame Jenyns, and the Bishop Watson of Landaff, it would have been an extenuation of his conduct. The Editor cannot think but that it was known to Mr. Justice Bailey that he had published a cheap edition of Bishop Watson's reply to Paine, and that he was at all times ready to give facility to the distributors of all kinds of religious tracts, by giving them the liberty to stand behind his counter, and supply gratuitously all his customers. This was as notorious in London as the present persecution of the Queen. Mr. Justice Bailey took care to make this paltry excuse for the severity of his sentence, when he knew there was no opportunity of contradicting it.

[ocr errors]

His conduct at York, on the trial of Messrs. Hunt and others, evinced a gross partiality, and an endeavour to conceal the merits of the case the better to ensure a verdict. His sentencing Knight and others for attending a meeting at Habergam Eves to two years imprisonment, and Mr. Hunt for attending that at Manchester to thirty months imprisonment,

forms a proof that he is as willing to be led by the nose by the present ministers, as any man in the profession of the law.

His late address to the men who pleaded guilty to the charge of High Treason, because their employers had no voluntary evidence to bring against them, and thus were glad to get out of the business by promising safety to the prisoners, was as presumptuous as it was false and delusive. God of Nature! to say that thou decreed poverty, misery and starvation to man, the better to draw his attention towards thee, was as blasphemous as it was infamous, and in my opinion, delivered as a deluding and deliberate falsehood, knowingly and with intent. Mr. Justice Bailey is one of those fanatics that is alarmed for his religion or favourite idolatry, and begins to fear and tremble when he sees it exposed to the test of reason. He is conscious that the Goddess Reason will triumph over his idols, and then he will have written his commentary on the book of Common Prayer in vain. He fears a just exposure before he is prepared to leave his post, and writhes under the idea that he is the detected advocate of delusion, error, and falsehood. EDITOR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REPUBLICAN.

"Who dares think one thing and another tell,
"My soul detests him as the gates of hell.”

My dear Sir,

"Who was the meekest man? MOSES!!!"'

Upon a perusal of the gross impostures of the Jewish lawgiver, an unprejudiced person would, I should imagine, naturally conclude that the answer to the above question, was intended as the severest satire, the bitterest sarcasın, that could possibly be passed upon such a mau! He could not, for a moment, believe that it was a question seriously put, in order that it might as seriously receive the above affirmative reply. Who was the meekest man? Moses, say Jews and Christians. So, perhaps, was Mahomed in the seraglio; and I question whether, upon the whole, he had not a much better claim to such a character than his brother impostor, Moses. And yet, what do Christians represent him? Every thing that is vile, brutal, and infamous. And why? Because, say they, and very justly too, he established his religion in blood and desolation!-blaspheming the Most High, by representing himself as commissioned by him, to reveal his will to man, by such horrid and abominable means. But how did Moses establish the stupid and ridiculous religion of the Jews? Was it not by the same cruel and unjustifiable means? Did he not practice the most savage deeds, in the propagating

of his

doctrines-deeds, upon the bare mention of which, the soul shrinks affrighted with horror and disgust; and is still more astounded and appalled at the awful consideration, that there are thousands, and tens of thousands, even in the present day, who consider him in the light of a prophet, and as one approved of, and commissioned by, the Great Creator of the Universe-the Parent and Benefactor of the whole human race!

"The priest, who plagues the world, can never mend;
"No foe to man was e'er to God a friend.

"Let reason and let virtue faith maintaiu,

“All force but this is impious, weak, and vain.”

I know it has been urged, even by the more enlightened and liberal· professors of Christianity, as an extenuation, or rather, as an apology for such savage proceedings on the part of this man and his deity, that the gross ignorance and barbarity of the Jewish people, which, strange to say, exceeded those of any other cotemporary nation, combined with other circumstances, rendered such a line of conduct absolutely indispensable, in establishing them as a nation, confirming them in the belief of one Supreme Being, and convincing them of his great and awful attributes. But, surely, in converting either an individual or a people, the same means that would be considered inconsistent with the character and attributes of deity in the present day, must have been considered equally so from eternity. The attributes of omnipotence, wisdom, and immortality of the Divine Being, do not permit the idea for a moment to obtrude itself upon the mind, that any individual, or people, whatever may or might have been their character, circumstances, or situations, could cause Hin, who stands unrivalled both in heaven and earth, in power, justice, mercy, and benevolence, to deviate from those principles which are the necessary and exclusive characteristics of deity. And if it were requisite, in order that any portion of mankind might possess a correct knowledge of their Maker, that miraculous, or any other interposition of the. deity should take place, it would not be such an one as would, in after ages, tend to destroy, or, at least, to render doubtful the divine attributes; but, rather, one that would tend to explain and confirm them. With as much propriety might it be urged, that according as the constitution of man varies, so ought all surrounding nature to vary, in order to accommodate herself to its weakness and infirmities; as that the conduct, and consequently the attributes of the deity ought to vary according as the situation or circumstance, ignorance, or inprovement of mankind varies. If man wishes to be the healthy and athletic being he is said at one time to have been, he must use the means to become such. He must live more temperately, and pamper less his body, and not expect a miracle to be performed in the healing or the strengthening of his animal, any more than of his mental frame. It never has been, and never will be, done, whatever a crafty priesthood may affirm to the contrary.

Strange and unnatural, indeed, must have been the disposition of

the Jewish people to be convinced of the omnipotence of their deity, only by a display of powers which were equally possessed by his creatures of his justice, by the fostering of them to the exclusion of the rest of mankind-of his love and mercy, by his forbearance towards themselves, and his cruelties toward others of his forgiveness, by requiring an adequate compensation or satisfaction for their transgressions; and of his immutability, by the frequent withdrawing of his love, and his still more frequent declarations of repentance and remorse, that he had ever selected them from among other nations, as the people of his peculiar love and favour

Who was the meekest man? Moses, say the priests; and had the question been who was the meekest amongst priests? we might, perhaps, have hesitated before we questioned the correctness of the reply; especially, when recent events, as well as those that have transpired in the darker ages of the world, have tended to confirm us in the belief that none are so cruel, oppressive, vindictive, and unrelenting, as prophets and priests, whenever a fair opportunity is afforded them of manifesting their real dispositions.

Who was the meekest of men? Moses, reiterate the priests, and those who have no eyes, no ears, no understandings, no opinions independent of these men, of which there are an immense multitude, readily believe them. But what do priests really think of this man? Any thing but what they represent hin; and no doubt amongst themselves, Moses is a nick-name for the devil, or every thing that is pestiferous. Thus, when speaking to each other of any particular scoundrel, impostor, robber, plunderer, murderer, assassin, or instigator to the vilest and most abominable crimes, they say, a more inhuman monster never existed; unless, indeed, it were MOSES. And surely, if to kill a man, merely for striking another, be murder ;t if to encourage an individual or people to borrow what they never intended to return, be robbery-if to instigate men to the destruction of their

* Instance the miracles of Aaron's rod becoming a serpent; of the waters throughout Egypt being turned into blood; of the frogs; of the lice; of the flies, and other miserable miraculous interventions of the Jewish deity; all of which, it is said, the Egyptian magicians could as readily perform; except in the solitary and dirty instance of the lice.

+ Exodus, c. II. And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together; and he said to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known,

Exodus, c. XI. XII. And the Lord said unto Moses, yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharoah, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out

:

[ocr errors]

*

nearest and dearest relatives and friends only for difference of opinion, be the most inhuman persecution if to invade the country of an unoffending people for no other cause than that of plunder, and to order the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and children, be the most blood-thirsty violence+-if to be irritated at the conduct of men, for performing the most common act of humanity, in their attentions to the softer sex, whose protectors they had massacred, indicate the most brutal insensibility; and if the ordering of such of those women, who had known man by lying with kim, to be put to death, under the pretext, that they had se

hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave them favour in the sight of the Egyptians; so that they lent unto them such things as they required: and they spoiled the Egyptians.

* Deuteronomy, c. XIII. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers, Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him: thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

+ Deuteronomy. c. II. And the Lord said unto me, (Moses) behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess that thou mayest inherit his land. Then Sihon came out, he and all his people, to fight at Jalaz. And the Lord our God delivered him before us, and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women and the little ones of every city; we left none to remain only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.

And

Numbers, c. XXXI. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all the cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. they brought the captives and the prey, both of men and of beasts and the spoil unto Moses and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan uear Jericho. And Moses and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all the women alive?

And

« PreviousContinue »