P. S. I hope there will be a further Subscription here for you.

I MUST beg an excuse from all public answers to letters with subscriptions, throughout the present volume. My friends at Hull, and every where else, will, I am sure, excuse that which has more of formality than use in it. My thanks are given in this short note with the same feelings as if it filled a number of pages to express them.

R. CARLILE.

ISRAEL VINDICATED.

(Continued from Page 768.J

LETTER XXVII.

Bible Societies-Character and Views of the Missionaries.

DEAR ISAACS, INDEPENDENT of the Society for "Ameliorating the condition of the Jews," there are upwards of twenty societies in this city, entitled Bible, Missionary, Religious Tract, and Education Societies, all labouring to propagate the Nazarene faith. A great proportion of these institutions consists of females, whose temperament renders them more the dupes' of craft and of fanaticism than the other sex. You would be surprised to witness the zeal, with which these infatuated creatures devote themselves to a system, in the belief of which they have been nurtured from their infancy, and which, as far as respects their own judgments, they know as little as the worshippers of Brahma. Girls, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty, engage in this task of "soul

saving," as if this was the only end of their creation and, instead of studying to acquire those correct notions so essential to their future welfare as wives and as mothers, their whole aim seems to be how they shall obtain fame in the arena of religious disputation. They are ambitious only to excite the admiration of fanatics like themselves, who are jointly pursuing a track foreign to their sex, and in which they will never find any thing but disappointment and remorse. Even the mothers, by their example, lend their aid in corrupting the principles of their daughters; and, as it the waste of time, and the total neglect of rational education, were not enough, these heads of families deprive their offspring of their legitimate rights, that they may have money to promote the cause of superstition. Instances have come

under my own observation, where mothers of families, filled with these fanatical notions, have actually appropriated the produce of their husband's labour, while their children had scarcely a morsel to eat, to aid a foreign mission, or to assist in establishing a Tract or Bible Society.

It is in this way, dear Isaacs, that the Nazarenes find the means of disseminating their pestiferous doctrines. It is true, they assail the weak-minded of both sexes; but they have not to learn, that when the object in view is the promotion of religion, the weaker sex are always foremost in the ranks, and promptest in drawing the strings of their purses. With those who have the management and disposal of these funds, interest is the grand stimulant to action. If it is the multiplication of books containing the Nazarene dogmas, this gives employment to such members of the society as follow that particular profession. and who, it will be found, are much more zealous for the promotion of their comfort here than hereafter. Patronage is always desirable. The creation of a public fund, whatever may be its object, is calculated to afford no small gratification to those who are entrusted with its appropriation. The money raised for Bible and Missionary Societies, thus becomes a source of profit to one part of the community, and the means of gratifying the vanity of another; while the great mass who give them their support, are persuaded that they are doing God service in denying themselves the comforts of this life, and bestowing the fruits of their labour in promoting the "holy cause."

When a mission to convert the aborigines of this country, is the purpose in view, it is then that the objects selected, come more directly under our observation, as selfish, interested beings. In general, the men employed to carry the

"light of the glorious gospel among the heathen;" those youths, whom the pious care of some Female Missionary Association has rendered qualified for such a task, are of a low origin, and of indolent habits, but possessed of sufficient cunning to perceive, that a comfortable living may be made out of the superstitious credulity of others. Enemies to labour, and the pursuits of an honest calling, they affect a sanctity of manners and aspect, which passes with the vulgar as a proof of holiness; and having thus gained the first step towards the accomplishment of their ulterior views, they boldly pretend to divine illumination, to be the inspired of heaven, the peculiar favourites of the Almighty. Nothing 'more is wanting to qualify these barefaced pretenders for preaching the Nazarene faith to the unenlightened and simple, who, in every country, are fond of novelty, and disposed to listen to those who amuse their fancy, without informing their understandings. A Nazarene missionary, is at all times a man who makes up for his lack of knowledge by the audacity of his pretensions, and the seeming piety of his conduct.

Not to speak of other countries, I observe, dear Isaacs, that the Nazarenes of this, and of the eastern states, are exerting themselves in an uncommon degree, to send missions among the Indians, and even to supply the southern states with preachers. To judge of the influence which the Nazarene faith has hitherto had upon society, it is in vain to expect that these efforts will produce a beneficial result. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that even the condition of the rude and untutored savage, will be rendered worse by placing him under the guidance of these spiritual directors. Attempts, similar to those now going on in the United States, have for several years been making by the British in their East India possessions, which have terminated in a way that demonstrates the absurdity of the missionary system, which is there conducted pretty much in the way that it is conducted here, and by the same efficient

means.

It appears to have been the wish of a certain class of the Nazarenes in England, to obtain the sanction of the government in favour of sending out missionaries to the east. A legislative measure was lately proposed in the House of Commons, to that effect; on which occasion a member* eloquently, and at great length, exposed the dangers attend

*Charles Marsb, Esq.

ing this measure, and demonstrated, in the clearest manner, its pernicious tendency upon the morals of the natives of Hindostan, where much blood had been shed, in consequence of the indiscreet zeal of the missionaries. Speaking of the pretensions of the men that had been sent out by the London Missionary Societies, he observes, "that every inspired cob ler, or fanatical tailor, who feels an inward call, has a kind of apostolic right to assist in the spiritual siege, which has been already begun, against the idolatries and superstitions of that degraded and barbarous country." How applicable is this description to the missionaries employed in the United States, and how nearly does the language which they use to describe the poor Indians, resemble that of their brethren, in the east, when speaking of the Hindoo nations.

The speech from which I have taken the above extract, is so fraught with good sense, and forcible argument, that I cannot refrain, dear Isaacs, from recommending it wholly to your perusal. Meanwhile, I transcribe the following additional passage, aş immediately applicable to the subject of this letter. After dwelling at some length upon the moral character of the Hindoos, and vindicating them from many idle and unfounded aspersions, the speaker proceeds :-" If Christianity is sent out to them, attributing to the beneficent Author of Nature, the same morose, capricious, revengeful passions, which agitates the human tyrant, but with infinity to his power, and endless duration to his inflictions; if it was the primary tenet of that doctrine, that the same being had made a fanciful and arbitrary destination of a large portion of his creatures, without blame or delinquency, nay, before their birth, to everlasting misery; and to have as fancifully and capriciously destined the rest to an eternal happiness, unearned by one real merit, or one virtuous aspiration :-and if in this gloomy creed, an assent to mystical propositions was the chief claim to salvation, while it pronounced the purest and most exalted morals to be equivalent to the most abandoned wickedness;-reason and common sense might be allowed to throw out a few scruples against the subversion of the established morals or theology of India, however absurd or superstitious, if such was the system by which they were to be superseded. Suppose then, that the missionaries of this persuasion were to establish their creed among the natives of Hindostan. It is obvious that they will have lost all the excellencies of the Hindoo system; but who will say that they have got the advantages of the Christian? Compute their gains. Among other prominent peculiari

ties of their religion, its severe and inviolable prohibitions against the use of intoxicating liquors will have been overthrown. It is scarcely possible to estimate the complete revolution, which this single circumstance will produce in their manners and morals. It will destroy every shade and tint in their national character; it will overturn the mounds by which they have been secured from the whole rabble of vices which scourge the western world; vices of which drunkenness is the prolific parent, and which renders the mass of the population of our own country the most profligate and abandoned in Europe. It is not that other religions do not prohibit this species of intemperance; but the Oriental are the only ones that render it impossible. I leave it to those who are versed in moral calculations, to decide what will have been gained to ourselves by giving them Calvinism and fermented liquors; and whether pre destination and gin, will be a compensation to the natives of India for the changes which will overwhelm their habits, and morals, and religion?"

The application of these pertinent remarks to the Missionary Societies established in America, is clear and incontrovertible.

Farewell, dear Isaacs; may you have abundant wealth, a numerous and healthy offspring, and enjoy every happiness compatible with the present state of society.

NATHAN JOSEPH.

LETTER XXVIII.

Character of the Quakers-Persecuted in the United States.

DEAR ISAACS.

I HINTED to you in a former letter, that even in the United States, where every man is entitled, by the general constitution, to worship God in the way he may think best, there has not been wanting instances of persons, influenced by a fanatical spirit, who would fain have deprived their fellowcitizens of this invaluable right. It would have been greatly to the honour of humanity, if, in a country so justly renowned for its liberal institutions, nothing of an intolerant aspect had ever appeared. The truth, however, is, that in all places where the Nazarene religion has been introduced, the spirit of persecution has accompanied it. Would you believe it, dear Isaacs, that the men who fled from England,