No. 26, VOL. 10.] LONDON, Friday, Dec. 31, 1824. [PRICE 6d.

LOCAL FRAY.

IN Dorchester, there has been established, about three years, a paper, called the Dorset County Chronicle. Several tradesmen tried to keep it up, but could not. It has been in the hands of three or four different parties, and, at last rumour says, that it has been taken up by the Earl of Shaftsbury. At any rate, its character is very much changed; money seems to be no object in getting it up, and it may be called a respectable CHRISTIAN AND THINGS AS THEY ARE OR WERE PAPER, or the DORSET NEW TIMES.

Seeing it to be fond of discussions upon various matters, 1 have been watching an opportunity to step my foot into it, and the reader may be assured, that some judgment was nenessary to do this in such a paper. But I have done it to good purpose, as the following article, which was its leading article for the 23d inst., will shew.

At this hallowed season of the year it may not be amiss to compare the soul-inspiring views of the Christian with the cheerless and gloomy forebodings of the Infidel, and to trace the effect of both on the good order, the happiness, and general well-being of mankind. To these considerations our mind has been directed by a circumstance which has recently occurred to ourselves. We certainly did not anticipate that we should ever have had to reckon among our correspondents the unhappy man who is confined in - the prison of this town in consequence of his blasphemous publication; but so it is that individual has chosen to address to us the following letter:

"To the Editor of the Dorset County Chronicle.

"SIR, "Dorchester Gaol, Dec. 17, 1824. "YOUR Correspondent in this day's paper upon the subject of Lord Byron, Mr. Murray, &c. speaks of the new school of morality and religion. May I be permitted to correct him, and your readers generally, by saying that the new school' teacheth MORALITY without RELIGION. It professeth nothing with respect to religion, but to pull it down. I am, Sir, at times, your much amused reader, "RICHARD CARLILE."

We shall presently state our sentiments on the ridiculous egotism of this miserable creature in identifying himself with the

Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 84, Fleet Street.

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"New School" which is to work so powerful a change in human nature as to "pull down" Religion. But first we mean to consider what was actually done toward such an attempt in an age and country not very distant from our own. The immortal pages of Burke supply us with at once the most perspicuous, the most eloquent, and the most convincing reasonings on this part of our subject. "In the Revolution of France," says that profound Statesman, "two sorts of men were principally concerned in giving a character and determination to its pursuits-the Philosophers, and the Politicians." We shall pass over what he says of the latter; but of the former he thus truly and forcibly speaks: "The Philosophers had one predominant object, which they pursued with a fanatical fury; that is, the utter extirpation of religion. They who have made but superficial studies in the natural history of the human mind, have been taught to look on religious opinions as the only cause of enthusiastic zeal; but there is no doctrine whatever, on which men can warm, that is not capable of the very same effect. They who do not love religion hate it. The rebels to God perfectly abhor the author of their being. They hate him with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, and with all their strength.' He never presents himself to their thoughts but to menace and alarm them. They cannot strike the Sun out of Heaven; but they are able to raise a smouldering smoke, that obscures him from their own eyes. Let no one judge of them by what he has conceived of them when they were not incorporated and had no lead. They were then carried along with the general motion of religion in the community; and without being aware of it, partook of its influence. But when the possibility of dominion presented itself, then the nature of this infernal spirit, which has 'evil for it's good, appeared in full perfection. Without reading the speeches of Vergniaud, Français of Nantes, Isnard, and some others of that sort, it would not be easy to conceive the passion, rancour, and malice of their tongues and hearts. They worked themselves up to a perfect frenzy against Religion and all its professors." So far Burke: but Vergniaud and the orators were soon exceeded in practical atrocity by their own pupils. We have before us the decrees and despatches of Fouche, afterwards Duke of Otranto. This monster being sent on Mission through the Departments, notified that "the French people could acknowledge no other worship than that of universal morals." So, we see, he sat out upon the very same basis as Carlile: let us observe to what course it led. This preamble was followed by ordering that no corpse should have Christian burial, but over the places of sepulture should be written Death is an eternal sleep. In his subsequent letters he informs his master Robespierre, that he had procured several millions of francs by the plunder of the churches and gentlemen's seats, and had pulled down the churches and planted the tree of liberty on their ruins. Proceeding to the once rich and flourishing city of Lyons, he there caused to be celebrated a fune

ral solemnity in honor of one Challier, a notorious Robber; at which solemnity an Ass, covered with a sacerdotal habit, was conducted in the procession, dragging at his tail through the mud the Old and New Testament. "The body of Challier was burnt," says Prudhomme, a cotemporary writer, "and its ashes piously distributed to the disciples of his morality. The Scriptures were also burnt: but their ashes were scattered to the winds: and the ceremony concluded with making the Ass drink out of the Communion Cup."!!! These horrible impieties were followed by massacres as horrible: "the guillotinings and shootings," says one of Fouche's associates, "go on not amiss. Sixty, eighty, two hundred at a time are shut: and every day we take great care to put a proper number under arrest, that the prisons may be replenished." Fouche himself says "let us show ourselves terrible, that we may not fear becoming weak or cruel. Let us annihilate in our wrath, and at one single blow, all the rebels, all the conspirators, all the traitors." About this time he received at Lyons the news of the recapture of Toulon, on which he thus expressed himself::-"Let the perfidious and ferocious English be assailed from every quarter: let the whole Republic turn itself into a volcano, and pour forth the devouring lava upon them. May the infamous island that produced these monsters, who no longer appertain to the human species, be buried for ever in the waves. We have but one way of celebrating our victory: we shall this evening send two hundred and thirteen Rebels under the fire of the thunder." Be it observed that this is no exaggerated picture drawn by an adverse hand: it comes from the pen, and manifestly from the black diabolical heart, of the very author of the crimes: and be it further noted that this was not a solitary instance of cruelty. The same bloody tragedy was acting in the Capital of France, and throughout all its provinces, until the whole nation was covered with blood and mourning.

Surely these things are recorded for our edification! Surely we ought not to overlook or to forget lessons so deeply written in the misery and degradation of a neighbouring people! And is a system which produces such results to be compared with the charity, which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things?

Look here, upon this picture, and on this!

See if any man, with faculties to distinguish from a brute, can prefer to eternal light, and purity, and peace, the darkness, and blood, and horror of a short and perishable existence shut up in an eternal sleep! The one is morality without religion; the other is the morality of the Gospel.

But Christian charity is inseparable from Christian faith and Christian hope. Life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel: and with an eye intent on that glorious pros

pect we can walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But how does the unbeliever faint by the way; how sadly his spirits sink within him! Lord Byron's genius was a thousand fold more lofty and brilliant than the clod-like ignorance of Carlile; but there is not a more striking trait in his Lordship's poetry than the melancholy which absorbs him when in contemplation he approaches the margin of that fathomless abyss where unassisted reason sees nothing but an infinity of doubt and darkness. Thus in the suppressed stanza of Childe Harold, since printed by Mr. Dallas, we find him apostrophising the believer in a future

state:

Thou pitiest me;-alas! I envy thee,

Thou bold discoverer, in an unknown sea,
Of happy isles and happier tenants there.

Having thus considered the question of Religion generally, we do not think it necessary to say much of Carlile. He is a low illiterate, ignorant person, who has offended the laws of his country, and who avails himself of the indulgence which those laws permit, even in a prison, to repeat his offences, and to heap new insults upon every thing sacred and venerable: and yet perhaps we shall, in the course of the next Session of Parliament, hear Mr. Hume, or some such sapient Legislator, move for the release of this obdurate offender. To such a motion we think the answer is very short: either Carlile is a fanatic in his irreligion; and if so, the example of Fouche shows us what atrocities may be expected from him if suffered to obtain a lead among his deluded followers; or else Carlile is a crafty knave, who makes a trade of gratifying the worthless and ignorant by abusing what they see elsewhere treated with respect. We confess our judgment inclines to the latter opinion. When Carlile was a journeyman Tinman, his idleness, or his incapacity had reduced him to the verge of starvation. Now that he professes Infidelity, he has comfortable apartments in Dorchester Gaol, and is supported at his ease by the dupes who buy his blasphemous and seditious libels.

I read this article with surprise and pleasure, notwithstanding its abuse and falsehoods. The first thing I did was to send the Editor half a dozen of the last numbers of the Republican, as "specimens of my ignorance and illiterature," hinting, that he might possibly learn something from them: and, at the same time, assuring him, that I would send him a complete refutation of his article, and have a public apology, or an action, for his last but one sentence. On Christmas day, I received his compliments, with a notice, that he would wait on me, on the Monday morning, being the earliest time he could gain admittance. I will append the particulars of the interview, if possible, this week; but cannot delay the present matter for them. The following is my answer to his article, which, if it gets insertion, will do more good than his paper has done before. Dorchester Gaol, Dec. 26, 1824.

R. C.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DORSET COUNTY CHRONICLE.

SIR, Dorchester Gaol, Dec. 23, 1824. As your leading article of this day concerns me, so it calls for an answer. With one exception, it has but added to that ordinary amusement which your paper affords me. That exception is contained in the last but one sentence, and that sentence must be the subject of a private communnication; but here, may I be allowed to proclaim it a falsehood? Your whole article, contrasted with my short, letter, is to me, a pleasing illustration of that Christian Charity of which you boast. Dear and painful experience has made me perfect in what Christian Charity consists.

Your statement of the case is thus: a certain miserable creature, an egotist, a clod-like, ignorant, low, illiterate, person, an obdurate offender of the laws of his country, a crafty knave, or a fanatic, of the name of Carlile, has written to you a short letter of explanation simply to say, that the new school of philosophers teacheth MORALITY without RELIGION, and professes nothing with respect to religion, but to pull it down.

This calls from you a long angry article, in abuse of Carlile, of the French Revolution, and of Mr. Hume; by which, I shall verify the proverb, in shewing, that anger makes a wise man a fool. The ignorant and illiterate mau will shew, that your anger has made you to write bad argument, bad logic, and bad grammar, to draw inferences without arguments or premises, to distort history in your applications, and to contradict yourself.

In the way of a little more egotism, I will begin with saying, that, I shall be proud of the opportunity, to give proofs, of the state of my ignorance, by either an oral or a scriptural discussion, with you, or with any disputant that you can bring against me, on physics or morals, on politics on religion, on history or literature. I never could have written, even when at the mechanic's bench, about suffering a man "to obtain a lead among his deluded followers." I should have known, that he could not have followers without the act of leading them. In the midst of such a vituperative article, with, at least, one deliberate falsehood, I never should have written, that, I belonged to a system of charity, which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own" (but that of others?) "is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things"