diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-03 05:42:35 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-03 05:42:35 -0800 |
| commit | 42dc5f7bd72771ba41d98b64667756ca407c8a9f (patch) | |
| tree | bc2fb5b0bb027b0886a37ded57401bc07baa5a6c /39123.txt | |
| parent | c43572e3957d726630cf7c7aad1c6aebd9e8c7f0 (diff) | |
Diffstat (limited to '39123.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 39123.txt | 1983 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 1983 deletions
diff --git a/39123.txt b/39123.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 81defa5..0000000 --- a/39123.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1983 +0,0 @@ - LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD CARLILE - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: Life and Character of Richard Carlile - -Author: George Jacob Holyoake - -Release Date: March 10, 2012 [EBook #39123] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD -CARLILE *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger. - - - - - *LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD CARLILE* - - - _By_ - - *George Jacob Holyoake* - - - _London_ - - _1849_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PREFACE - LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD CARLILE - CHAPTER I. HIS PARENTAGE, APPRENTICESHIP, AND MARRIAGE - CHAPTER II. THE PUBLISHER AND THE PRISONER - CHAPTER III. THE EDITOR AND THE ATHEIST - CHAPTER IV. HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER - ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL - - - - -PREFACE - - -When I first entered London, one Saturday evening in 1842, I was not -known personally to half a dozen persons in it. On reaching the office -of the Oracle of Reason, I found an invitation (it was the first I -received in the metropolis) from Richard Carlile to take tea with him on -the next afternoon at the Hall of Science. There was no name known to me -in London from whom an invitation could have come which I should have -thought a greater honour. The conversation at table was directed to -advising me as to my defence at my coming trial. He requested me to hear -his evening lecture, which he devoted to the policy of sceptical defence -which he thought most effectual. At the conclusion, he called upon me -for my coincidence or dissent. I stated some objections which I -entertained to his scientifico-religious views with diffidence but -distinctness. The compliments which he paid me were the first words of -praise which I remember to have trusted. Coming from a master in our -Israel, they inspired me with a confidence new to me. I did not conceal -my ambition to merit his approval. On my trial at Gloucester, he watched -by my side fourteen hours, and handed me notes for my guidance. After my -conviction, he brought me my first provisions with his own hand. He -honoured me with a public letter during my imprisonment, and uttered -generous words in my vindication, when those in whose ranks I had fought -and fallen were silent. It was my destiny, on my liberation, to be able -to pour my gratitude only over his grave. In his Life and Character, -here attempted, I am proud to confess that 1 have written with affection -for his memory, but I have also, written with impartiality--for he who -encouraged me to maintain the truth at my own expense, would be quite -willing, if need be, that I maintain it at his. - - G. J. H. - - - -LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD CARLILE - - - - -CHAPTER I. HIS PARENTAGE, APPRENTICESHIP, AND MARRIAGE - - -I have accomplished the liberty of the press in England, and oral -discussion is now free. Nothing remains to be reformed but the ignorance -and vices of the people, whose ignorance cannot be removed, while their -bodies are starved and their church remains a theatre of idolatry and -superstition.' These were the proud and wise words uttered in the last -periodical edited by Richard Carlile. They are the history of his -life--the eulogy of his career--and the witnesses or his political and -religious penetration. - -Of Carlile's family, I can gather little beyond this, that his father -had some reputation as an arithmetician. He published a collection of -arithmetical, mathematical, and algebraical questions. His talent was -individual though mediocre. He put his questions into verse and -intermixed them with paradox. His career was various and brief: first a -shoemaker, he aspired to be and became an exciseman. Like Burns, his -habits suffered by his profession, and he often fell into intoxication. -Of his own accord he retired from the Excise, became successively -schoolmaster and soldier, and died at the age of 34, no person's enemy -but his own.(1) Carlile's mother was now left a widow, with three infant -children. For several years she was in a flourishing business, but it -began to decay with the pressure of the times, about 1800, and she was -afflicted alternately with sickness and poverty. Thence to the time of -her death, she was assisted by Carlile, who was her only son. As a woman -she was virtuous, as a mother kind and indulgent. She died at the age of -60. It is an evidence of Carlile's honourable notions of duty, that out -of thirty shillings per week, which he earned as a journeyman, he -supported his wife and several children, and spared an offering for the -support of his mother and sisters; and it deserves to be mentioned in -his behalf, that the first dissatisfaction he experienced in married -life arose from the opposition which he received in the discharge of -these generous duties. - - 1. Carlile to Lord Brougham, Gauntlet, No. 8, p. 113. 1833. - -Richard Carlile was born in Ashburton, Devonshire, December 8, 1790. He -was but four years of age at the death of his father. He early felt his -father's ambition. Before he was twelve years of age, he determined to -be something in the world, and afterwards his unexpressed ideas were -ever at work and accumulating. His dreams by night, and his thoughts by -day, all worked one way, and vaguely contemplated some sort of -purification of the church.(1) But how far he was from understanding the -part he was to play is clear from the circumstance, that on the 5th of -November, he used to gather faggots to burn 'Old Tom Paine,' instead of -Guy Fawkes; and it was not till 1810, when he was twenty years old, that -he first saw in the hands of an old man in Exeter, a copy of the Rights -of Man.(2) - -Carlile received all the education that village free schools could -afford. The educational routine where his own Gifford had before been a -scholar, was confined to writing, arithmetic, and sufficient Latin to -read a physician's prescription. His first place seems to have been with -Mr. Lee, chemist and druggist, in Exeter, but, being set to do things -which he deemed derogatory to one who was able to read a physician's -prescription, he left the shop after four months' service. Being too -much of a man to go to school again, he lived idly three months, amusing -himself with colouring pictures to sell in his mother's shop. His -mother's principal wholesale customers were the firm of Gifford and Co., -which consisted of the brothers of that Attorney-General who had such -extensive dealings with the son afterwards, in a different line. At the -pressing wish of Carlile's mother, he was apprenticed to a business -which he never liked, that of tinplate working, and, like Bunyan, he -became a tinman. He served seven years and three months to a Mr. -Cummings, whom he has described as a hard master, as one who considered -five or six hours for sleep all the recreation necessary for his youths. -Carlile had no knowledge then of the 'Rights of Man,' but he betrayed -some knowledge of the rights of apprentices,(3) and his impatience under -injustice was then manifested, as his term of service was one series of -conspiracies, rebellions, and battles. On being relieved from this worse -than seven years' imprisonment, he resolved to follow that business no -longer than he should be compelled. His ambition then was to get his -living by his pen. - - 1. Gauntlet, No. 8, p. 113. - 2. Repub. vol. 5, p. 134. - 3. Republican, vol. ii. pp. 226-7. - -The office of an exciseman, which was offered him, he refused, -remembering the fate of his father, and continued to follow his -business, as journeyman tinman, in various parts of the country, and in -London, where he first arrived in February, 1811. He returned to Exeter -the same year. In 1813, we find him in London again, working at Benham -and Sons, Blackfriars Road. A short sojourn in Gosport, in the previous -year 1812, led to his acquaintance with the person who became, after two -months' courtship, Mrs. Carlile. He was at that time twenty-three, and -she thirty years of age. Mrs. Carlile was not without accomplishments as -to personal appearance; and temper excepted, was not without most of the -qualifications necessary to a good tradesman's wife.(1) - -Mrs. Carlile had talents for business, which were of the greatest value -to her husband in the course of his career. He, bent on propagandism, -never paid that attention to the details of trade which was necessary to -keep a business together. But their difference in education, in age, in -intellectual aspiration and their opponency in disposition, early -converted their union into an intimacy tolerated rather than prized, and -entire separation ensued twenty years after. Peculiar conduct on the -part of relatives was alleged as promotive of these results, but this -conduct I do not particularise as the explanation of the parties -concerned is not before me, and cannot now be obtained. Of personal -causes, temper seems to have been a chief one. Writing to Mr. Hunt, in -1822, Carlile said, 'Knowing Mrs. C. to possess a _warm_ temper, as I -do, I wonder,' etc.(2) In 1819, the separation of Mr. and Mrs. Carlile -was arranged to take place, so soon as he had the means of making a -sufficient settlement for her comfort: it was not, however, till 1832, -when the annuity of L50, bequeathed him by Mr. Morrison, of Chelsea, -cleared itself of legacy duty, that he was able to provide for her. Then -it was that they parted, she taking all the household furniture and L100 -worth of books. - - 1. A Scourge, p. 18. 1834. - 2. Rep. vol. vi. p. 15. - -His elder sister remained a violent Methodist, and was never reconciled -to his anti-religious labours. Mrs. Carlile, as well as his younger -sister, who both incurred imprisonment on his account, did it rather -from natural resentment at the injustice practised for his destruction, -than from any sympathy with his opinions. But, in this respect, they -behaved with a bravery worthy of their name; they resolutely refused to -compromise--the sister the brother, or the wife the husband, at all -risks to themselves. None of his family, save a first cousin, -countenanced his proceeding; he stood alone on his own hearth, as he -stood often alone in the world. - - - - -CHAPTER II. THE PUBLISHER AND THE PRISONER - - -It was in 1816, while employed as a tinplate worker, by the firm of -Matthews and Masterman, of Union Court, Holbom Hill, that he first -essayed public life. He was then twenty-six years of age. Before this -time he had read no work of Paine's; but the distress of that year -excited him to inquiry. Knowledge speedily prompted nim to action. He -wrote scraps for the newspapers, (principally the _Independent Whig_ and -the _Newt_) which scraps were all condemned: 'A half-employed Mechanic -is too violent;' this was the notice in answer to correspondents. He -annoyed Mr. Cobbett by a foolish acrostic, on the name of Hunt. He wrote -to Hunt himself, and paraded one night, two hours in front of his hotel, -in Covent Garden, before he could muster courage sufficient to ask the -waiter to take his effusion up. At this time he burned to see himself in -print; although, as he afterwards confessed, he was not able to write a -single sentence fit to meet the public eye.(2) - - 1. Repub. vol. xi. p. 101. - 2. Repub. vol. xii. p. 2. - -In 1817 _The Black Dwarf_ made its appearance, which was much more to -Carlile's taste than _Cobbett's Register_, but as the Habeas Corpus Act -was suspended, and Sidmouth had sent forth his Circular, there was a -damp among the newsvendors, and few would sell. This excited Carlile -with a desire to become a bookseller. The story of Lackington beginning -with a stall encouraged him. He resolved to set a good example in the -trade of political pamphlets. Finding the sale of the _Black Dwarf_ very -low, he borrowed L1 from his employer, and invested it in one hundred -_Dwarfs_, and on the 9th of March, 1817, he sallied forth from the -manufactory, with his stock in his handkerchief, to commence the trade -of bookselling. He traversed the metropolis in every direction to get -newsvendors to sell the _Dwarf_, and called every day to see how they -sold. He inquired also after _Cobbett's Register_, and Sherwin's -_Republican_, but finding that they did not want pushing, he took none -of those round. Indeed, he refused to avail himself of the profit he -could have made by taking _Cobbett's Register_ because it did not go far -enough.(1) He carried the _Dwarf_ round several weeks, walking thirty -miles a day, for a profit of fifteen and eighteen pence. At length an -information was lodged against the publisher, and Mr. Steill was -arrested. Carlile at once offered to take his place. - - 1. Repub, vol. xi. p. 102. - -Mr. Wooler, however, arranged the matter, and Carlile's offer was -declined Mr. Sherwin, then a young man, (formerly keeper of South-well -Bridewell, Nottinghamshire,) editing the _Republican_, perceived -Carlile's value, and offered him the publishing of his paper, which he -accepted. Carlile guaranteed Mr. Sherwin against arrest, which left him -free to be bold without danger. The shop on which he now entered was -183, Fleet Street, which Mr. Cobbett afterwards occupied. Carlile's -first ideas of politics were, that neither writers, printers, nor -publishers were bold enough; and he now commenced to set the example he -thought wanted. 'I did not then see,' he said, in the decline of his -life, 'what my experience has since taught me that the greatest -despotism ruling the press is the popular ignorance. I made the -calculation, which has been an error embittering my whole public life, -that the entire people would assist and applaud an attempt, however -humble, to set the press free. I have found myself like our -parliamentary reformers idolizing a virtue of the imagination not yet -brought into existence. I correctly made the calculation of having to -pass through five or six years' imprisonment, to appease the angered -authorities of having defied their will; but I had not calculated that, -after having conquered the authorities, by self-sacrifice, the greater -difficulty would remain, of having to conquer the ignorance and vice of -the people, by still more painful sacrifices.' - -His first step was a resistance to the attempt of the poet laureat, -Southey, to suppress the sale of his early Poem, 'Wat Tyler.' He sold -twenty-five thousand of that poem in 1817. - -The second was a prosecution, defence, and imperfect verdict gained -against Thomas Jonathan Wooller. - -The third was the reprint of the political works of Thomas Paine, by -himself and Mr. Sherwin. - -The fourth was the trials and acquittals of William Hone, which Carlile -forced on, by reprinting those suppressed political squibs called 'The -Parodies on the Book of Common Prayer.' - -The Parodies cost him eighteen weeks' imprisonment in the King's Bench -Prison, from which he was liberated with out trial, on the acquittals of -William Hone. - -By the end of the year 1818 he had published the Theological Works of -Thomas Paine. The prosecutions instituted induced him to go on printing -other similar works, such as the 'Doubts of Infidels,' 'Watson Refuted,' -'Palmer's Principles of Nature,' 'The God of the Jews,' &c. &c. By the -month of October, 1819, he had at least six indictments pending against -him. Two of the indictments were tried from the 12th to the 16th of -October, and verdicts obtained against him. He was committed to the -King's Bench Prison, and on the 16th of November sentenced to fifteen -hundred pounds fine, and three years imprisonment in Dorchester Goal. In -the middle of the night he was handcuffed, and driven off between two -armed officers to Dorchester, a distance of one hundred and twenty -miles. - -The first thing he did, at the close of his trial, was to print the 'Age -of Reason,' in twopenny sheets, as part of the report of the trial, -having taken care to read the whole in defence. Of these he sold more in -a month than of the volumes in a-year. For this publication, a -prosecution was instituted against Mrs. Carlile, but was dropped on her -declining the sale. She was not however long unmolested. - -Under pretence of seizing for Mr. Carlile's fines, the sheriff, with a -writ of _levari facias_, from the Court of King's Bench, took possession -of his house, furniture, stock in trade, and closed the shop. It was -thus held, from the 16th of November to the 24th of December. Rent -became due and it was then emptied. - -Under Mr. C.'s desire Mrs. Carlile renewed a business, in January 1820, -with what could be scraped together from the unseized wreck of their -property. In February she was arrested; but the first indictment failed -through a flaw in the verdict. She was immediately proceeded against by -the Attorney-General, and became her husband's fellow-prisoner in -Dorchester Gaol in February 1821, after having done good service in the -shop for a-year. - -Carlile's sister Mary Ann succeeded Mrs. Carlile in the management of -the business, but was also immediately prosecuted. The first indictment -failed in this case, by the honesty of one of the jurymen. In the second -the judge (Best) suppressed the defence. By the month of November, 1821, -his sister was also a prisoner in Dorchester Gaol, and under a fine of -five hundred pounds. - -In the course of the year, 1821, a new association had been formed, -called the "Constitutional Association." It asked for subscription to -pay the expenses of prosecuting the assistants of his business. Six -thousand pounds were subscribed, and the Duke of Wellington saw fit to -put his name with his money, at the head of the list. Carlile's sister's -trial was the first check the Association received. The unsuccessful -prosecution of Thomas Dolby, the second. Then came a troop of assistants -to the encounter: to wit, Susanna Wright, George Beer, John Barkley, -Humphrey Boyle, Joseph Rhodes, William Holmes, and John Jones. All -these, save Jones, sustained terms of imprisonment, from six months to -two years; but they succeeded in breaking down the "Constitutional -Association." - -Then came James Watson and William Tunbridge, both meeting imprisonment. - -In the month of February, 1822, Mrs. Wright being then in possession of -the house, the very week that Mr. Peel had taken possession of the Home -Office, a second seizure was made of the house and stock of 55, Fleet -Street, and the house finally wrested from Carlile. This was done on the -pretence of satisfying the fines; but neither from this nor the former -seizure was a farthing allowed in the abatement of the fines, and -Carlile was detained in Dorchester Gaol to the end of the sixth year, -three years' imprisonment having been taken in lieu of the fines. - -Joseph Trust was the only person prosecuted in 1823, and the Lord Chief -Justice Abbott intimated that enough had been done; but in May, 1824, -there came a new rage for prosecutions from the government, when Charles -Sanderson, Thomas Jefferies, William Haley, William Campion, Richard -Hassell. Michael O'Connor, William Cochrane, John Clarke, John -Christopher, and Thomas Riley Perry, were severally arrested, and the -last nine imprisoned, through various periods, from six months to three -years. - -Two years Mrs. Carlile was kept in Dorchester Gaol: so was his sister, -a-year having been taken for her L500 fine. After this it was reported, -that the Cabinet, had, in council acknowledged Carlile invincible in the -course of moral resistance which he had taken, and no more persons were -arrested from his shop, while no one of his publications had been -suppressed. - -His imprisonment in Dorchester Gaol was in some respects, severe. The -first magisterial order was that he should be led into the open air only -as a caged animal, to be exhibited to the gaze of the passing curious, -half an hour each day, or an hour every other day, or as the gaoler -might be pleased. This, and similar orders caused him to pass two years -and a-half in his chamber, without going into the open air. - -When he came to trial in 1819, he had no clear understanding of the -subject of his defence, it was compiled from the pleadings of others for -toleration and free discussion. In this mental state he entered -Dorchester Gaol. He had taken the impression from the hint of an aged -political friend, that all the evils of mankind rooted in the -superstition and the consequent priestcraft practised upon them, that he -resolved to devote the solitude of his imprisonment to the study of -religious mysteries, and fearlessly and faithfully to make the -revelation for the common good of man. His defence, on his first three -days' trial, alarmed the Emperor Alexander of Russia, who issued an -Ukase, forbidding any printed report of it from being brought into his -territory. His first defence was much interrupted; his second was -entirely suppressed. - -When he was liberated from Dorchester Gaol, in 1826, the freedom of the -press was complete, as far as government or aristocratical societies -were concerned. His shopmen were detained to complete their sentences of -three years' imprisonment, not much to the political merit of Sir Robert -Peel, who gave up not a day in either case, save that of a bad young -man, who had unprincipledly intruded himself among them. To honest -opposition he yielded nothing, but was, in every sense of the character, -an inveterate persecutor. - -Though the freedom of the press was accomplished in 1829, something more -remained to be accomplished, which was the freedom of public oral -discussion; and on this object Carlile set his thoughts. - -When Mr. Taylor was prosecuted and imprisoned, in 1828, Carlile was -called into action in his new character. He immediately converted a -large room in his house, 62, Fleet Street, into a Sunday School of Free -Discussion, and introduced a public debate on all useful political -subjects on the Sabbath Day. This had not been done before by any one -anywhere. By a subscription he got Mr. Taylor well supported in prison, -and on his liberation accompanied him to Cambridge, as an infidel -Missionary, to challenge the University to public discussion. They -passed from Cambridge to Liverpool, presenting a printed circular of -public challenge to every priest on the road. One only accepted it, the -Rev. David Thom, of Liverpool, who quailed at the very onset, and -withdrew. This was done in 1829. - -In 1830 he sought a larger sphere of action for public meetings than his -own dwelling-house, and engaged a series of buildings and theatres -called the Rotunda, in Blackfriars Road. Soon after he gained possession -of this building, the second French Revolution broke out, which gave a -new impetus to political feeling in London. Giving to every man liberty -of speech in his theatres, the Rotunda was attended bv all the public -men of note out of parliament; and the public meetings there became so -frequent and so large, that the government took alarm, and the prophecy -of the day was, that the Rotunda would cause a Revolution in England. -While the Tories remained in office, they did not molest him, but the -Whigs no sooner took office, than they very foully made war on him, and -caused him thirty-two months imprisonment in the Compter of the City of -London. - -The Rev. Robert Taylor was also prosecuted under the Whig -Administration, and filled out two years in Horse-monger Lane Gaol, for -his preaching in the Rotunda. - -In 1834 and 1835, Carlile passed ten weeks in the same Compter, for -resistance to the payment of Church Rates; making his total of -imprisonment nine years and four months. - -These church-rates were assessed upon his house, 62, Fleet Street. When -his goods were seized, he retaliated by taking out the two front windows -and placing therein two effigies--one of a bishop, and the other of a -distraining officer. After a time, he added a devil, who was linked -arm-in-arm with his Grace. Such crowds were attracted, that public -business was impeded. Eventually, Mr. Carole was indicted for a -nuisance. The court was less virulent than before: it was externally -courteous. He defended himself in a speech of coherency and good sense, -but was found guilty, and ultimately sentenced to pay a fine of 40s. to -the King, and give sureties in L200 (himself in L100, and two others in -L50 each), for good behaviour for three years. The spirit in which he -met this award was characteristic of the veteran martyr. - -'They have sentenced me' said he, 'to three years' imprisonment. So much -for their leniency! It is a mockery to say that I may, if I please, -purchase my liberty. I cannot do it. I shall have more liberty in prison -than in walking the streets at the discretion of one set of men, and at -the hazard of L100 penalty to two others. It is a case in which I will -not interfere to abate one hour of the imprisonment. When the gates are -open to me I will walk out, but I will not pay or do anything to procure -release.'(1) And he wrote to Mr. Cope, keeper of Newgate, to desire that -he would get him removed to the Compter, and he quietly announced next -week that he had been removed to his old room.' - - 1. _A Scourge_, No. 12, pp. 89, 90. - -Before sentence he made a deposition in court. As this was his last -imprisonment, I quote the concluding words of this deposition. They show -the temper in which the dying lion shook his mane. - -'And deponent further saith, that in case the court should think a -penalty necessary, this deponent has no other property from which he can -pay a fine than printed books; and from the political business in which -this deponent is involved, he cannot reasonably ask any other person to -become his sureties, that his future proceedings may not be construed -into political offence; not but that this deponent is anxious to live in -peace and amity with all men, _but that there do exist many political -and moral evils which this deponent will, through life, labour to -abate.'_ - -This was the tone of his entire career. When in 1819, a law was proposed -by Castlereagh, to inflict banishment upon him for a second offence, he -wrote:--'In some cases, this power of banishment might amount to a -deprivation of life; but for my own part, I think nothing of it, and -hope to show, that it will not have the least tendency to change my -course.'(2) 'Indictments and warrants have never affected me--they have -been the life of my business.' He was present at the 'Manchester -massacre,' and escaped narrowly falling a victim, first to the soldiers, -and afterwards to the police, who let him pass, not knowing his name. -The danger he ran on all hands was imminent. On the morning when the -government chose to reveal the Thistlewood plot of their own concoction, -they arranged that their agents of the vice society should arrest Mrs. -Carlile,(3) to associate, as far as possible, his family in that -proceeding. Not only were parties inculpated without fault, but tried -without defence. The humble advocate was bullied into the abandonment of -his political client, and the powerful one was bribed. Mr. Cooper was -frowned into silence and threatened. Mr. Cross obtained a silk gown for -his _defence_ of Brandreth and Mr. Justice Best won the same distinction -by his _defence_ of Despard. So virulent were the rulers of that day -that Peel refused to liberate Mrs. Carlile after thirteen months -detention, though in daily expectation of accouchment which might occur -at an hour when assistance could not be had.(4) In addressing Mrs. -Gaunt, of Manchester, Mrs. Carlile observed in reference to the position -in which she was placed, 'My spirits and strength are good, or I should -have everything to dread in childbirth in such a place as this -[Dorchester Gaol], where humanity is a marketable commodity, and where, -what is still worse, I am one of those excluded from the market at any -price.(5) - - 1. A Scourge, No. 12, p. 90. - 2. Republican, vol. ii. p. 5. Idem. p. 60. - 3. Republican, vol. ii. p 254. - 4. Republican, vol. v. p. 301. - 5. Republican, vol. v. p. 608. - -Of the risks Carlile ran from espionage, he has detailed many instances. -I quote one passage in his own words. He is speaking of Paine:--'I -revere,' says he, 'the name of Thomas Paine; the image of his honest -countenance is constantly before me. I have him in bust [now in -possession of Mr. Watson], in whole length figure; for which I may thank -the late government of Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth, who -appointed Edwards the spy to this task, he, who when he failed to get me -hanged, caused the death of Thistlewood, and others. Edwards occupied -_six months_ of 1819, in excuse of making this statute to keep at my -heels. He followed me closely until I was in Dorchester Gaol. There I -escaped him; and then, immediately, he was put on other game with which -he succeeded. The very men that he hanged, he brought about me in the -King's Bench Prison, offering me their lives, if I would use them for -any purpose. I had then, a clear sighted purpose of my own, which these -men did not understand. At that age I should have had no objection to a -little physical force fighting; but I was sober enough to see its -impracticability, and thus I frustrated the acquaintance, which -Liverpool, Castlereagh, Sidmouth, and their spy Edwards, wished to bring -me into with Jack Ketch. I found Edwards a tradesman in Fleet Street, as -an artist, before I got there, and I so became his next door neighbour. -He succeeded, in occupation, the shop which William Hone had, and where -he published his famous Parodies. When I came to No. 55, in January, -1819, Edwards had been two years at No. 56, so I had little ground to -suspect his spyship. - -I had known him as a customer through that time. He pleaded that his -father had been an old politician: nor was my suspicion excited by his -having a brother in the Hatton Garden Police. When I entered upon No. -55, he pleaded what a great convenience it would be to him in business, -if I would allow him to lodge in my house, as he had a shop next door -without a dwelling-house. I had almost yielded; but the shrewd -suspicions of Mrs. Carlile, re-acting upon his villainous countenance, -put it aside. He was then placed in an upper story lodging of the -opposite house, (where was born my statue of Paine) in the under part of -which was placed a man of the name of John Carlisle, a bookseller, to -oppose me, in conflict with another class of publications. This was the -work of the government, superintended by their agent, John Reeve. -Edwards did not scruple to talk to me about meeting the Archbishop of -Canterbury in Windsor Castle; but left me to infer, that it was about -his art as a modeller, not as a spy. I can now see, that he was placed -in Hone's old shop, to keep out a political publisher; and I have since -divined a deep history of the spy system of that time, which I never -feared, because I had nothing morally to fear in what I purposed to do. -One, I have marked, as an old acquaintance, a man connected with the -Stamp Office, very regularly at my lectures for years. From, or in the -house of John Carlisle, by Edwards, was concocted the plot called the -Cato Street Conspiracy. In beginning, middle, and end, that was wholly -the work of Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth, with Edwards as an agent. -After the finish of that political tragedy, Edwards was provided for in -one of the colonies, it has been said, the Cape of Good Hope. John -Carlisle dwindled into great poverty in Fleet Street, was made permanent -constable, and at last very strangely got his house burned down, just -after I came triumphantly from six years' imprisonment in Dorchester -Gaol, and established myself _ruinously_ in splendid No. 62.'(1) - -Yet it was in such times and amid such dangers that Carlile formed the -resolution, and adhered to it to the day of his death, never to cease -any publication so long as any prosecution or intimidation menaced it. - -Placing himself always where danger was to be braved, his position was -from the first prominent, and attracted to him many leading political -characters, who saw in him a vicarious sacrifice for that freedom they -were willing to enjoy, if it could be done without paying so troublesome -a price as the ministers of that day charged for it. But, as the danger -grew imminent, they began to pull him back and condemn his open -conduct.(2) Cobbett at first said, 'You have done your duty bravely, Mr. -Carlile; if every one had done like you, it would have been all very -well.'(3) But afterwards he censured him without measure. Wooler, whom -Carlile offered to save, said that the publication of Paine's works -would put a stop to all the political writings of the day. But whatever -ground there appeared for these fears, a wise publicist should have -given Carlile all possible support, since he _ought to have_ triumphed -in his course. Major Cartwright deprecated the republication of Paine's -works as mischievous, to flying in the face of Juries; that when a jury -had once declared these works to be libels, the very _errors_ of that -jury ought to be respected. Yet against this dictum of the influential -veteran, Reformer, Carlile contended. He encountered greater obstacles -among such friends than among his enemies. It requires more courage to -fight against friends than against foes. Carlile illustrated the remark -of Mr. Miall, that 'martyrdom in the past tense is madness in the -present.' Then the Reformers Degan to call themselves 'Christian -Reformers,' 'Religious Reformers,' and by other safe conventional names -to distinguish themselves from 'Carlile and his party.'(4) No man should -lightly compromise his party by a dangerous step. Carlile is not -amenable to blame on this account. He took a necessary step for general -progress, and his triumph justified his penetration. A weaker man than -Carlile would not have been justified in the course which he took, as a -weaker man would have failed. But Carlile was a Buonarotti. - - 1. Christian Warrior, pp. 27-28. - 2. Repub. vol. ii. p. 257. - 3. Repub. v. pp 283-4 - 4. Christian Warrior, p. 10 - -Such was the difficulty of obtaining the forbidden books, in which he -set the example of dealing, that twelve guineas were offered for twelve -copies of the Age of Reason,(1) and L5 for five suppressed twopenny -Tracts.(2) In order to destroy a trade which they could not intimidate, -the Government arrested his shopmen with a rapidity intended to exhaust -them. To defeat this intention, books were sold through an aperture; so -that the buyer was unable to identify the seller.(3) Afterwards they -were sold by clockwork.(4) On a dial was written the name of every -publication for sale. The purchaser entered, and turned the hand of the -dial to the book he wanted, which, on depositing his money, dropped down -before him without the necessity of any one speaking. The Vice and -Constitutional Associations we both defied and defeated; notwithstanding -that the honoured name of Wilberforce was found on the list of the -members of one of the societies, and that of the Duke of Wellington -headed the other. The circulation of Carlile's books were quadrupled, -and a cheering crowd around his shop windows perpetually testified their -approval of his courage, and at public dinners in the provinces, the -health was drank of 'Carlile's invisible shopman.' Martyrdom, he said, -was contagious, and could he keep it up, he should glory in a perpetual -sessions at the Old Bailey. The result of his course he expresses with -honourable exultation. 'In this country the Age of Reason was spellbound -for twenty years, with the exception of a few copies put forth by Daniel -Isaac Eaton. From December, 1818, to December, 1822, I had sent into -circulation near 20,000 copies. Let corruption rub out that if she can, -as Mr. Cobbett said his 40,000 Registers.' By the month of June, 1824, -in the fifth year of his imprisonment, his calculation was verified; the -press was freed, and the Government, who had beaten Napoleon in a -physical conflict, was beaten by Carlile in a moral struggle--so -impotent is power to overcome the right, when brave men champion the -right. - - 1. Repub. vol. ii. p. 183. - 2. Christian Warrior, p. 29. - 3. Repub. vol. v. p. 56. - 4. Repub. vol. v. p. 264. - -Carlile was liberally supported, and found powerful friends. The third -and fourth years of his imprisonment produced subscriptions to the -amount of L500 per year, and for a long period his profits over the -counter were L50 per week. An idea of his occasional business may be -formed from the circumstance that once when a trial was pending, Mrs. -Carlile took L600 in the shop in one week. When he came from Dorchester -Gaol one friend lent him L1,000 to extend his business. But he got out -of money as fast as it came, and his ambition leading him to give the -greatest possible effect to his advocacy, he contracted liabilities at -62, Fleet Street, which embarrassed him. Indeed, continually torn from -his home by government prosecutions, he had ill opportunities of -maintaining business habits. The latter part of his life was passed in -the vicissitudes and anxieties of fallen fortunes. - - - - -CHAPTER III. THE EDITOR AND THE ATHEIST - - -During Carlile's imprisonment in Dorchester Gaol, he edited the -_Republican_, a Weekly Journal, which he conducted through fourteen -volumes. Its circulation reached at one time as high as 15,000. He saw -that a work had to be done, and he prepared to do it; if he could not do -it so well as he could wish, he resolved to do it as well as he was -able. He offered his ardour in the public cause as an apology for the -want of a grammatical education. Drawn into authorship by the force of -events, he hardly knew in what grammatical accuracy consisted, till he -felt his own deficiency through the criticisms of his correspondents, -some of whom did not hesitate to tell him, that he was unfit for a -public writer. This state of things continued till the fourth volume of -the _Republican_, where he wisely resolved to put his prison hours to -educational uses.(1) But his editorial duties were his best education, -and this he admitted; 'I give,' said he, in 1825, 'a receipt to the -criticism of my friends upon my writings for the better part of the -knowledge that I now possess.'(2) Some of Carlile's correspondents were -men from whom it was an honour to receive direction. From Francis Place -he gleaned all his ideas of Political Economy, and what Carlile called -the 'all-surpassing question of the regulation of the numbers of the -people.' It was from Jeremy Bentham, through Mr. Place, that he was -instructed not to attempt the building of any system of his own, but to -go on pulling down existing errors, every item of success in which, was -in fact, so much good building.(3) In Carlile's last days he spoke of -Francis Place as 'his old tutor who had a hard task to beat all the -superstition out of him.' - - 1. See Repub. vol. iv. p. 191. - 2. Lion, vol. i. p. 373. - - 4. Christian Warrior, p. 13. - -While others were calling Carlile 'Atheist and Infidel,' Place was -calling him 'the most, obstinately superstitious fellow alive;' but -always paid him the compliment of admitting that he was worth the -trouble, and that if he could be set right he would keep right.(1) - -When Carlile's days of thinking began, he began with himself. He knew -himself well, and this was the source of his strength. Like Cobbett he -could write always well of himself. His first study was to form a mind -of his own on the basis of the best known principles.(2) Carlile began -to write a man. Nature made him for an agitator. He had an iron will and -limitless self-reliance. I have been told by one who advised him -frequently, that no man could control him. His first papers in the -_Republican_, are thoughtful, manly, self-possessed, nervous, and -resolute. Sherwin preceded Carlile in the publication of a work, called -the _Republican_, but, after the fourth number, it was changed into -'_Sherwin's Weekly Political Register_,' on the ground that people were -afraid of its name. But Carlile resumed its title, and selected those -articles only which had the real names and addresses of the author -appended. He called upon the friends of his opinions to avow themselves, -and declared himself ambitious of incurring martyrdom, if martyrdom was -necessary to the cause of liberty.(3) - -Carlile's political and religious prototype was Paine. Carlile always -wrote with manifest purpose, and seems to have emulated the plain vigour -of Cobbett and the invective of Junius. - -Carlile's habits were marked by great abstemiousnesss. Seldom taking -animal food,(4) he refused wine(5) when offered a dozen at Dorchester -Gaol, preferring good milk. He was morally as well as physically -particular. In the rules of the Deistical Society, he provided that only -persons of good character should be eligible.(6) 'It is important to -you, Republicans,' wrote he, from Dorchester Gaol, 'that however humble -the advocates of your principles may be, they should exhibit a clear -moral character to the world.'(7) He never sold a copy of any work which -he would hesitate to read to his children.(8) He expressed a hope, when -fairs were popular, that fairs would be put down all over the country. -He was one of the first thus to oppose what the pious then approved. - - 1. Christian Warrior, p. 26. - 2. Gauntlet, No. 8, p. 113. - 3. Repub. No. 1, vol. i. - 4. Repub. vol. ii. p. 148. - 5. Repub. vol. ii. p. 234. - 6. Repub. vol. v. ft. 31. - 7. Repub. vol. vi. p. 3. - 8. Repub. vol. vii. p. 36. - -There was no intolerance in Carlile's habits. 'I have no wish,' these -were his words, 'to force my opinions on any man--if he wishes to have -them, he must either buy them or challenge me to defend them; and, in -this last instance, it must be some one whom I consider worth contending -with, before I would open my mouth.'(1) He was of a retiring turn, and -utterly incapable of obtruding himself, where there was the possibility -of his not being desired. It was a sense of duty alone that made him -brave, his moral courage was great, but it was the courage of -conviction. Carlile was an illustration of Bulwer's remark, that courage -in one thing, is not to be mistaken for courage in everything. He who -opposed himself without fear to the spies of Sidmouth, and the edicts of -Castlereagh, who singly withstood public opinion on the questions of -Marriage and Religion, when that opinion knew no reason and no mercy, he -felt, through his whole life, a want of fair confidence in himself, when -addressing a public audience. Large numbers, called together by his -name, produced in him a sense of disturbing responsibility and -embarrassment.(2) When liberated from imprisonment in Dorchester -Gaol--an ill discipline certainly for oratory--he trembled at committing -his reputation to the lapses of an inexperienced tongue. His friends -thought he would never make a speaker, but his perseverance prevailed. -Still his efforts were irregular; sometimes he was as eloquent as the -best, at others timidly hesitating. Probably his stolid nature wanted -passion to excite it--some nature's, like deep waters, are only to put -in motion by a storm. A paralytic stroke, in March 1841, affected the -muscles of the mouth and tongue, and diminished his acquired power. - -Hume has said that Christian sects manifest intolerance, which increases -in intensity the nearer their valuing creeds coincide. This has been -true of some classes of infidels, but Carlile wisely regarded with -favour the approximation of sects to reason. He encouraged the Rev. -Robert Taylor's Deistical friends, because, like the Unitarians, they -would break up some part of the superstition of other sects. His -impression was that, 'Though not themselves free from superstition, they -would lessen the sum total among all the sects, and, in so doing, do a -certain amount of good.'(3) - - 1. Repub. vol. iv. p. 33. - 2. Gauntlet, No. 30 p. 385. - 3. Repub. vol. xvi. p. 130. - -Carlile's writings abound in instances of great political penetration: -thus he placed on the title page of the second volume of the -_Republican_ these words--'Liberty is the property of man: a Republic -only can protect it.' The same volume contained his qualification ot -equality. 'Equality,' says he, 'means not an equality of riches, but of -rights merely.'(1) Yet the contrary is asserted to this hour. -'Timidity,' wrote he in 1828, 'maybe seen sitting on the countenance of -almost every Politician. He speaks and speculates with a trembling which -generates a prejudice in others. As it is the slave who makes the -tyrant, so it is timidity in the Politician which creates the prejudice -of the persecutor.'(2) In words to this effect, he pourtrayed that -conventional caution of the newspaper press, which is to this hour the -bane of popular progress. He had a distincter conception of the part to -be played by education in public reform, than any other agitator of his -rank at that time. 'I have before advised your majesty,' said he, in -dedicating vol. 12 of the _Republican_ to George IV., 'to patronise -Mechanics' Institutions, and you will become a greater monarch than -Buonaparte. Kings must come to this, and he will be the wisest who does -it first and voluntarily.' Republicanism was not with Carlile, as with -so many--politics in rags; he never divested it of efficiency and -dignity. To one who said that his exacting L100 shares for his Book -Company was aristocratic, he answered, 'Call it what you please, that is -republican which is done well.'(3) Carlile took a view of the rationale -and initiation of revolution in England as manly as it was sagacious. -'In the beginning of my political career,' he writes, 'I had those -common notions which the enthusiasm of youth and inexperience produces, -that all reforms must be the work of physical force. The heat of my -imagination shewed me everything about to be done at once. I am now -enthusiastic, but it is in _working_ where I can work _practically_ -rather than theoretically; and though I would be the last to oppose a -well-applied physical force, in the bringing about reforms or -revolutions, I would be the last in advising others to rush into useless -dangers that _I would shun, or where I would not lead_. I have long -formed the idea that an insurrection against grievances in this country -must, to be successful, be spontaneous and not plotted, and that all -political conspiracies may be local and even individual evils. I -challenge the omniscience of the Home Office to say whether I ever -countenanced anything of the kind in word or deed. I will do nothing in -a political point of view which cannot be done openly.'(4) There is a -strong vein of political wisdom in all this, not yet appreciated by -popular politicians, and this has the merit of having been written at a -time, when (as indeed now) the maxim of English popular progressive -politics is not to find how much can be done _within the law_, but how -much can be done _without it_ and _against it_: a policy which dooms -Democracy to ceaseless antagonisms in the attainment of its claims, and -will, if persisted in, fetter it with impotence when the victory is won. - - 1. Repub. vol. xiv. p. 105. - 2. Lion, vol. i. p. 3. - 3. Repub. vol. xii. p. 3. - 4. Repub. vol. xiv. pp. 5, 6. - -The progress of Carlile's convictions respecting religion is evident and -honourable to his thoughtfulness. He was twenty-seven years old before -he conceived any error in the article religion. His attention was first -drawn to the fact by finding that the suppressed writings of his day -chiefly related to religion. When the Attorney General first called him -profane, for publishing Hone's Parodies, he was a very different man. -Through several volumes of the _Republican_ he was a Deist only. But -reflection led him onwards step by step. A first indication is in these -words--'Paine, in his lifetime, appears to have been the advocate of a -Deistical church, but such an attempt shall ever find my reprobation, as -unnecessary and mischievous.'(1) The reason he assigned was, that -science alone could lead to true devotion, and lectures on science were, -therefore, the proper worship. In his first controversy with Cobbett, he -avowed himself, as Mr. Owen always has, a believer in a great -controlling power of Nature. But at this point, Carlile's belief had -grown practical in its negation, as he wrote, 'I advocate the abolition -of all religions, without setting up anything new of the kind.'(2) By -this time he had become a confirmed materialist, and soon after, defined -mind as a portion of the organization of the human body, acted upon by -the atmosphere and the body jointly, and dependent upon a peculiarity in -the organization, in the same manner as voice and life itself.(3) The -definitions he gave, in 1822, of Religion and Morality were essentially -the same as those since rendered more elegantly by Emerson. Carlile -defined Morality as a rule of conduct relating to man and man--Religion -as a rule of conduct, relating not to man, but to something which he -fancies to be his Maker.(4) Next he observed, 'I may have said that the -changes observed in phenomenon argue the existence of an active power in -the universe, but I have again and again renounced the notion of that -power being intelligent or designing.(5) 'It is not till since my -imprisonment that I have avowed myself Atheist.'(6) - - 1. Repub. vol. iv. p. 220. - 2. Repub. vol. v. p. 201. - 3. Repub. vol. vi. - 4. Repub. vol. vi. p. 249. - 5. Repub. vol. vii. p. 26. - 6. Repub. vol. vii. p. 397. - -He reached the climax of his Atheism on the title page to his tenth -volume of the _Republican_, where he declared 'There is no such a God in -existence as any man has preached; nor any kind of God and this -declaration was so far carried out in detail, as to exclude from the -_Republican_ _God, nature, mind, soul_, and _spirit_, as words without -proto types.(1) - -The two extremes of Carlile's career exhibit a coincidence of terms, but -betray to the initiated observer a radical progress and distinction of -opinion. In his first work, he wrote, 'Science is the Antichrist;'(2) in -his last, 'Science is the Christ.'(3) When he wrote the first he was a -Deist, when he wrote the last he was an Atheist. - -We commonly find that extreme political enthusiasts in youth, pass, in -old age, like Sir Francis Burdett, into extreme Conservatism: but it is -a phenomenon in intellect, that Carlile, whose convictions, not his -passions, led him to hold positive materialism, should lapse into a more -than Swedenborgian mysticism. 'I have discovered,' said he, 'that the -names of the Old Testament, either apparently of persons or places, are -not such names as the religious mistakes have constructed, but names of -states of mind manifested in the human race, and, in this sense, the -Bible may be scientifically read as a treatise on spirit, soul, or mind, -and not as a history of time, people, and place.'(4) To insist on the -utility of such a theory, except as a mere theory of theological -explanation (useful as explaining it away altogether), was very strange -in Carlile. It seems like the artifice of a beaten man to conciliate an -implacable enemy. But Carlile was no beaten man. A few months only -before his death, he wrote to Sir Robert Peel, in reference to the -imprisonment of Mr. Southwell and myself, avowing his determination to -renew martyrdom, if Sir Robert persisted in reviving persecution. But -Carlile did make the capital error of proposing to explain science under -Christian terms, which was giving to science, which is universal, a -sectarian character. Hence, he was found using the words God, soul, -Christ, etc., with all the pertinacity of a divine, and scandalising his -friends by taking out his diploma as a preacher. In this, he manifested -his old courage. He was still true to himself, and was still an Atheist, -but veiling his materialism under a Swedenborgian nomenclature. - - 1. Repub. vol. xiv. p, 770. - 2. Preface, p. 14. to vol. i. of Repub. - 3. Christian Warrior. - 4. Christian Warrior, p. 30. - -But the adoption of Swedenborgian terminology was a virtual recantation, -and Carlile lost caste by it as did Lawrence. Lawrence gained no -practice, and Carlile no influence. Indeed, I never knew any of these -virtual recantations to be believed, or even respected by the world, who -forced them on. A real recantation I never knew beyond this, that -Atheists have acceded to Pantheism, or perhaps, relapsed into -Unitarianism. But they have always remained Rationalists. None that 1 -have known and watched--not even the weakest, have fallen into -Evangelism. Carlile, by his new course, exposed himself to be distrusted -by his less observing but warm friends, and he conciliated no foe among -the Christians. Carlile, however, was no hypocrite, nor did he take this -new course for venal ends. He was as in all things else conscientious. -Still his course was one of choice, not of necessity. He was free as -ever to expound science, as science, or to expound it in the language of -religion. He adopted the mystic course. This was his error of judgment, -not an alteration of conviction. If I may explain the paradox of his -conduct in a paradox of terms, this is the expression of it:--From being -a Material Atheist, he became a Christian Atheist. His definition of a -Christian at this stage, was 'a man purged from error.'(1) That this -course was no more than a mode of inculcation of his favourite Atheism -is evident, intrinsically, and also from the fact that he was so much a -realist, as to still avow his detestation of fiction; and so coherently -did he keep to this text, that he never ceased to make war on poetry, -theatres, and romance, from the commencement of his career down to the -last number of the _Christian Warrior_. - -But the condemnation I pass upon the philosophy of his latter days shall -not be exparte. I subjoin that passage in which he has most powerfully -stated his own case. - -'The first problem in human or social reform is _through what medium -must it be made_. In what is called a religious state of society, that -is, a state of idolatry and superstition, can reform be carried out -through any other medium than its religion! My experience, added to the -best advice I could find, is, that, with a religious people, religion is -the only medium of reform. If I were opposed in that problem, I could -successfully defend my side of it. The Charter shall change the -constituency of the House of Commons, without improving the House. -Socialism may create 20 Tytherlies, but it has still done nothing for -the nation. But science thrown into the church as a substitute for -superstition in the education of the people, begins at once to -regenerate the people, the parliament, the institutions, and the throne. -It is the substitution of the known for the unknown, the real for the -unreal, the certain for the uncertain. Religion is the erroneous mind's -chief direction. It must be corrected by and through the medium which it -most respects. It rejects all other opposing conditions, and increases -its tenacity for its errors. To reform religion by science, is to -regenerate fallen man, and to save a sinking country. - - 1. Cheltenham Free Press, Any. 1842. - 2. Christian Warrior, p. 31, - -There is great wisdom in this language. The question is, _how_ shall the -problem be solved? In this Carlile erred, as he did with the theory of -personalities, which he conceived with equal ability. I conceive that -Science is independent of Theology in its essence and its terms. -Religion may be brought to science by adroit interpretations, and -improved in character and significance; but Science can never be brought -to Religion without being 'paltered in a double sense,' and lowered in -dignity and intelligibility. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER - - -Carlile's death took place on this wise. He had come up from Enfield to -Bouvene Street, Fleet Street, to live on the old field of war, and edit -the _Christian Warrior._ While a van of goods were unpacking at the -door, one of his boys strayed out and went away. Carlile was fond of his -children, and he set out anxiously to seek his child. The excitement -ended in death. On Carlile's return he was seized with a fatal illness. -Bronchitus, which he was told by his medical advisers would soon destroy -him, if he came to live in the city, set in, and the power of speech -soon left him. Mr. Lawrence, the author of the famous 'Lectures on Man,' -whom Carlile always preferred in his illnesses, was sent for. He -promptly arrived, but pronounced recovery hopeless; and Richard Carlile -expired February 10,1843, in his fifty-third year. - -Wishing to be useful in death as in life, Carlile devoted his body to -dissection. Always above superstition, in practice as well as in theory, -his wish had long been--that his body, if he died first, should be given -to Mr. Lawrence. At that time the prejudice against dissection was -almost universal, and only superior persons rose above it. His wish was -complied with by his family, and the post mortem examination was -published in the _Lancet_ of that year. - -Carlile's burial took place at Kensal Green Cemetry. He was laid in the -consecrated part of the ground--nearly opposite the Mausoleum of the -Ducrow family. At the interment, a clergyman appeared, and with the -usual want of feeling and of delicacy, persisted in reading the Church -service over him. His eldest son Richard, who represented his sentiments -as well as his name, very properly protested against the proceeding, as -an outrage upon the principles of his father and the wishes of the -family. Of course the remonstrance was disregarded, and Richard, his -brothers, and their friends left the ground. The clergyman then -proceeded to call Carlile 'his dear departed brother,' and to declare -that he 'had died in the sure and certain hope of a glorious -resurrection.' - -Carlile left six children--Richard, Alfred, and Thomas Paine, by his -wife Mrs. Jane Carlile; and Julian, Theophila, and Hypatia, by 'Isis,' -the lady to whom he united himself after his separation from his wife. - -Mrs. Carlile survived him only four months. She died in the same house, -No. 1, Bouverie Street, and was buried in the same grave. It is hoped -that a suitable monument will soon mark the resting place of England's -stoutest champion of free discussion, political and religious. - -All stories about the recantation of Carlile, to which the pious have -given currency, are necessarily false, as he was never able to recant. -He lost his power of speaking long before death approached so near as to -suggest recanting to him. But death had no power to make his strong -spirit quail at ideal terror or to shake the firm convictions of his -understanding. His dying words, therefore, are the last which he -addressed to the public in his _Christian Warrior_, and they were -these--'The enemy with whom I have to grapple is one with whom _no peace -can be made. Idolatry will not parley. Superstition will not treat on -covenant. They must be uprooted for public and individual safety_.'(1) - - 1. Christian Warrior, No. 4 p. 83. - -These words which he published thirteen days only before his death, are -those which he, doubtless, would have pronounced in his last hour, had -consciousness and strength remained with him. - -In the early portion of my imprisonment in Gloucester Gaol, the Rev. -Samuel Jones, in order to move me by fear to the retraction of my -convictions, told me before a class of prisoners that 'the notorious -Richard Carlile was dead, and had died horribly; but he had made what -amends he could by recanting his dreadful principles on his -death-bed--had denounced his infidel colleagues, and implored mercy of -God. You see, therefore,' added the Rev. libeller to me, 'what you have -to look forward to.' Great, however, was the Rev. Mr. Jones' -astonishment and confusion, when a short time after, Mr. Carlile himself -walked into my cell, alive and well, to offer me his generous sympathy -and advice to enable me the better to combat the old enemies of free -thought and free speech. The usual stories told of infidel recantations -are about as well founded as was this fabrication concerning Carlile, by -the Rev. Samuel Jones, visiting magistrate of Gloucester Gaol. - -But _why_ should Carlile recant! Why should the unbeliever fear to die! -There are four things on which Christians hang the terrors which usually -haunt their death-beds. Let us examine them. - - 1. The story of the Fall. - 2. The rejection of the offer of salvation. - 3. The sin of unbelief. - 4. The vengeance of God. - -1. If man fell in the garden of Eden--who placed him there! God! Who -placed the temptation there? God! Who gave him an imperfect nature--a -nature of which it was foreknown it would fall! God! To what does this -amount! - -If a parent placed his poor child near a fire at which he knew it would -be burnt to death, or near a well into which he knew it would fall and -be drowned, would any power of custom prevent our giving speech to the -indignation of the heart, and pronouncing such a parent a miscreant! And -can we pretend to believe God has so acted, and at the same time be able -_to trust_ him! If God has so acted, he may so act again. This creed can -afford no consolation in death. If he who disbelieves this dogma fears -to die, he who believes it should fear death more. - -2. Salvation, it is said, is offered to the fallen. But man is not -fallen, except on the revolting hypothesis just discussed. And before -man can be accepted by God, he must, according to Christians, own -himself a degraded sinner. Is salvation worth this humiliation! But man -is not degraded. No man can be degraded by the act of another. Dishonour -can come only by his own hands: and depravity has not come thus. Man, -therefore, needs not this salvation. And, if he needed it, he could not -accept it. Debarred from purchasing it himself, he must accept it as an -act of grace. But it is not well to go even to heaven on sufferance. We -despise the poet who is not above a patron; we despise the citizen who -crawls before the throne; and shall God be said to have less love of -self-respect than man! He who will consent to be saved after this -fashion hath most need to fear that he shall perish, for he deserves it. - -3. Then, in what way can there be a _sin_ of unbelief? Is not the -understanding the subject of evidence? A man, with evidence before him, -can no more help seeing it or feeling its weight, than a man with his -eyes or ears open can help seeing the house or tree before him, or -hearing the sounds made around him. If a man disbelieve, it is because -his conviction is true to his understanding. If I disbelieve a -proposition, it is through lack of evidence; and the act is as virtuous -(so far as virtue can belong to that which is inevitable), as the belief -of it, when the evidence is perfect. If it is meant that a man is to -believe, whether he sees evidence or not, it means that he is to believe -certain things, whether true or false; in fine, that he may qualify -himself for heaven by hypocrisy and lies. It is of no use that the -unbeliever is told that he will be damned if he does not believe; what -human frailty may do is another thing; but the judgment is clear, that a -man _ought_ not to believe, nor profess to believe, what seems to him to -be false, although he should be damned. The believer, who seeks to -propitiate heaven by this deceit, ought to fear its wrath, not the -unbeliever who rejects the dishonourable terms and throws himself on its -justice. - -4. There is the _vengeance_ of God. But is not the savage idea destroyed -as soon as you name it? Can God have that which man ought not to -have--_vengeance_. The jurisprudence of earth has reformed itself--we no -longer _punish_ absolutely; we seek the _reformation_ of the offender. -We leave retaliation to savages; and shall we cherish in heaven an idea -we have chased from earth? But _what_ has to be punished? Can the sins -of man disturb the peace of God? If so, as men exist in myriads and -action is incessant, then is God, as Jonathan Edwards has shown, the -most miserable of beings and the _victim_ of his meanest creatures. We, -see, therefore, that sin against God is _impossible_. All sin is finite -and relative--all sin is sin against man. Will God punish this, which -punishes itself? If man errs, the bitter consequences are ever with him. -Why should he err! Does he choose the ignorance, incapacity, passion, -and blindness, through which he errs? Why is he precipitated, -imperfectly natured into a chaos of crime! Is not his destiny made for -him; and shall God punish that sin which is his misfortune rather than -his fault? shall man be condemned to misery in eternity _because_ he has -been made wretched, and weak, and erring, in time. - -But if man _has_ fallen at his conscious peril--_has_ thoughtlessly -spurned salvation--_has_ offended God--will God therefore take -vengeance? Is God without dignity or magnanimity? If I do wrong to him, -who does wrong to me, I come down (has not the ancient sage warned me) -to the level of my enemy? Will God thus descend to the level of -vindictive man! Who has not thrilled at the lofty question of Volumnia -to Coriolanus:-- - - 'Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man - - Still to remember wrongs.' - -Shall God be less honourable and remember the wrong done against him, -not by his equals, but by his own frail creatures! To be unable to trust -God is to degrade him. Those passages in the New Testament which give -the narratives most interest and dignity, are the parables in which a -servant is told to forgive a debt to one who had forgiven him; in which -a brother is to be forgiven until seventy times seven (that is -unlimitedly); and the prayer where men claim forgiveness as they have -themselves forgiven others their trespasses. What was this but erecting -a high moral argument against the relentlessness of future punishment of -erring man? If, therefore, man is to forgive, shall God do less? Shall -man be more just than God? Is there anything so grand in the life of -Christ as his forgiving his enemies, as he expired on the cross? Was it -God the Sufferer behaving more nobly than will God the Judge? Was this -the magnificent teaching of fraternity to vengeful man, or is it to be -regarded but as a sublime libel on the hereafter judgments of heaven? -The Infidel is Infidel to error, but he believes in truth and humanity, -and when he believes in God, he will prefer to believe that which is -noble of him. He will be able to trust him. Holding by no conscious -error, doing no dishonour in thought and offering, his homage to love -and truth, why should the unbeliever fear to die! Carlile saw not less -clearly than this, nor felt less strongly, and he knew that only those -fear death who have never thought about it at all, or thought about it -wrongly. - -Carlile's early career gave evidence of that iron hauteur which -characterised him. In dedicating from Dorchester Gaol, his second volume -of the _Republican_, to Sir Robert Gifford, the Attorney General of that -day, (1820) he wrote, 'Gratitude being one of the noblest traits in the -character of animals, both rational and irrational, _to which ever you -may deem me allied_, I feel that I owe it to you.' Carlile taunted the -Society for the Suppression of Vice, or as he most correctly styled it -the Vice Society, saying that, 'next to their secretary, Pritchard, the -lawyer, he had gained most by their existence,(1) and had sold more -Deistical volumes in one year through their exertions than he should in -seven, in the ordinary course of business.'(2) Carlile's cheerful -disposition resisted the sombre influence of the dungeon, and he -declared when Wedderbum arrived at Dorchester Gaol that he would -'endeavour to get him chaplain, as the officiating one was so extremely -fat that he could hardly get up to the pulpit, and when there, he was so -long in recovering from the exertion, that he could not read the prayers -with sufficient solemnity.(3) - - 1. Repub. vol. ii. p. 183. - 2. Repub. vol. ii. p. 185. - 3. Repub. vol. iii. p. 112. - -The fourth volume of the _Republican_ Carlile also dedicated to Gifford, -the Attorney General, beginning, 'My constant and learned friend, -between you and the Vice Society I am at loss how to pay my courtesies, -so as to avoid jealousy. You acted nobly with my first volume. My second -you neglected; and I had resolved to stop when I heard of your renewed -prosecutions. I am sorry we did not understand each other better -before.' A paragraph in the Dedication of his sixth volume to George IV. -was in these words, 'You are not only the head of the State but of the -Church too, and as I am an intermeddler with the matters of both, I, -your Banishment Act notwithstanding, dedicate my volume to both heads at -once, with the most profound hope and prayer that neither of them may -ache after reading it.' When Carlile took notice of Mease, he thus -addressed him--'To Mr. Thomas Mease, grocer, draper, and methodist.' The -letter to Mease, was dated 'Dorchester Gaol, December 18, year 1822; of -the God that was born of a woman, who was his own father, and who was -killed to please himself. The _immortal_ god that died.' The letter -commenced thus,--'Sir Saint and Savage.' To Mr. Dronsfield he wrote--'I -am not humble; civility to all; servility to none is the becoming -characteristic of manhood.'(1) Alluding to the extensive sale of Wat -Tyler, which had such an influence on his early fortunes, Carlile -exclaimed, 'Glory to thee, O Southey! Happy mayst thou be in singing -hexameters to thy old Royal Master, when thou hast passed the _reality_ -as well as the _vision_ of judgment! Yes, my patron! to that best of thy -productions, "Wat Tyler," do I owe the encouragement I first found to -persevere.(2) - -Of his own Every Woman's Book, Carlile said, 'It had sustained Mr. -Cobbett's malignity--one of the most powerful venoms which the animal -world had produced.'(3) Carlile characterised the weak point in his own -character with severe felicity, when speaking of others. 'Conceit,' said -he, 'is a malady of humanity, of which some people die.'(4) These words -might stand as the epitaph of his own public influence. The following -passage occurred in that letter to me, alluded to in the preface. 'You, -Southwell and others,' said he, 'are now where I once was, resting upon -the mere flippant vulgarisms of what you and the world consent to call -Atheistic infidelity, regulating your amount of wisdom by a critical -contrast with other people's folly.(5) I hope we were never amenable to -the censure with which this sentence opens: the concluding words are -shrewd and instructive, which I repeat for the sake of those young -gentlemen who take up infidelity as a pastime, instead as a principle. - - 1. Repub. vol. vii. p. 868. - 2. Repub. vol. vii. p. 674. - 3. Lion, vol. ii. p. 450. - 4. Oracle of Reason, vol. i. p. 366. - 5. Oracle of Reason, vol. i. p. 366. - -It is due to Carlile to observe that the annoyance he marshalled against -authority was chiefly retaliative. He disowned a placard put in his -window, which said, 'This is the Mart for Sedition and Blasphemy,' as he -deemed it an admission that he did vend something of the kind. 'I sell,' -said he, 'only truth and right reason.'(1) (In parenthesis it maybe -observed, that he denied that any human tribunal was competent to -declare what was blasphemy.) How much farther Carlile was impartial than -are Christians, is evidenced by the fact that he published Bishop -Watson's Apology for the Bible, in conjunction with Paine's Age of -Reason.(2) In another respect he behaved as Christians never behave, he -never questioned the youths he employed, nor any of his dependents as to -their opinions, nor did he use any means to induce them to comprehend or -adopt his.(3) He held his opinions too proudly to intrigue or supplicate -others to accept them. - -In candour, in independency of judgment, in perfect moral fearlessness -of character, I believe Carlile cannot be paralleled among the public -men of his time. Lovel writes: - - He is a slave who dare not be, - - In the right with two or three. - -Carlile was no slave. He was able to stand in the right by himself -against the world. One forgives his errors, his vanity, and his egotism, -for the bravery of his bearing and his speech. Though Paine was his -great prototype, he was prompt, both in his early enthusiasm and in his -latter days, to acknowledge Paine's defects as a theologian. 'About -"God" Paine,' said he, 'was not altogether wise, but less unwise than -the world at large.(4) In his earliest attachments, Carlile -discriminated, 'I neither look,' wrote he 'on Mr. Gibbon nor Mr. Hume, -as standards of infidelity to the Christian religion.'(5) He hesitated -at Shelley's views of marriage, deeming them crude.(6) Carlile was able -to take anything up or put anything down at the bidding of his judgment. -He said to Mr. Searlett, 'At present I am not a tinman, but I should -never feel ashamed to return to it to earn an honest livelihood, if -circumstances should render it necessary in this or any other -country,'(7) - - 1. Repub. vol. v.r. 12. - 2. Repub. vol. v. p. 89 - 3. Repub. vi. p. 778. - 4. Scourge, p. 110. - 5. Repub. vol. ii. p. 168. - 6. Repub. vol. v. p. 148. - 7. Repub. vol. ii. p. 403. - -He began a periodical or ended it at will. No taunt deterred him, no -threat intimidated him, no smile seduced him. Carlile was perfectly able -to stand alone. He avowed himself an Atheist when no one else did. When -he understood that arbitrary checks to population were necessary he said -so and distinguishing the particular kinds of checks, disguisedly hinted -at by Political Economists, or anonymously broached in handbills, he -specified them and added these words, 'I think these plans tor the -prevention of conception good, and publicly say it.'(1) Although that -saying involved his own reputation and that of his cause. If Carlile had -the querulousness, which condemned others, he had also the rarer courage -which condemned himself. If he called others fools he called himself -one, when his judgment convinced him that he had been in error. To those -whom he found he had wronged, he made no dubious acknowledgment. -Disdaining deceit always he openly made the amplest apology frank words -could express. 'I ask Mr. Cobbett's pardon, and make the due apology,' -said he, on finding that he had made an erroneous attribution to him.(2) -To Dr. Olinthus Gregory he was more emphatic still.(3) Carlile -proclaimed the excellence of Cobbett's Grammar, and the superiority of -Hunt's Roasted Corn,(4) at the same time that he roasted the authors of -both. Major Cartwright's 'English Constitution Produced and -Illustrated,' he praised in some parts, while he mercilessly assailed it -in others.(5) He acknowledged the kindness of his prosecutors, where -they were kind, with the same fullness with which he execrated them when -brutal.(6) To his bitterest enemy he was constantly thus just, and his -own faults he confessed with as little reserve as he pointed out those -or his enemies. His intellect was rude, but most robust. He had a -passion for truth and did not care whether it went against him or for -him; he told it with equal zest. He not only as many do, professed to -love free speaking; he could _bear it_ of himself. He held, as a public -man should do, his reputation in his hand, and he would toss it up as -one would a ball. - - 1. Repub. No. 18, vol. ii. pp. 566-6. 1825. - 2. Repub. vol. xii. p. 29. - 3. Repub. vol. xii. p. 727. - 4. Repub. vol. vi. p. 12. - 5. Repub. vol. viii. p. 18. - 6. Repub. vol. x. pp. 63-4. - -Carlile had a just notion of the relation of personalities to -principles. 'Human nature,' said he, 'through whatever improved -modifications it may pass, will still have its frailties, and those -frailties have no relation to the social principles that may be -advocated, nor do they emanate from newly advocated social principles, -but from the frailty of that nature,... and any exhibition of such -frailty belongs to the individual, and not to the principles -constituting the public cause.'... But it is one thing to perceive the -tenor of personalties, and another and very different thing to be able -to conduct them. Mr. Carlile was utterly unable to conduct them -usefully. They must be entered upon, not on personal, but upon public -grounds; or they lose all moral effect. If undertaken from spleen, or -vanity, they belong to the class of 'quarrels,' and damage both the -writer and nis cause. If entered upon to preserve the integrity of a -public question, such intention must be made very evident and the -_improvement_ alone, and not the mortification of the party criticised, -must be steadily kept in view. This Mr. Carlile never understood: he -wounded, he disparaged, he recriminated. He did not weigh character -through its entire extent. He mistook a part for the whole. It was in -this erroneous way, that he condemned Cobbett and Hunt, was querulous to -his friends in Parliament, and most unjust to his most important and -devoted allies. Ricardo, Hume, Brougham, Burdett, who presented -petitions for him, seem to me to have treated him much better than he -treated them. - -Richard Carlile's reputation was founded on the joint profession of -Republicanism, and ultimately of Deism and Atheism. He owed much to the -_time_ when he made these professions, and not a little to the talent -with which he maintained them. But did his services rest exclusively on -the conditions under which they were rendered, their value would still -stand high in the opinion of those capable of estimating the steps of -public progress. He had to incur an obnoxious singularity, and brave -imminent danger in order to purchase a field of action for others. This -is a work which the world does not applaud like the manifestation of -genius and talent, but it is a work which requires a courage and a -sentiment of self-sacrifice, which the world's favourites rarely -display. The work of the pioneer of thought is a work done for men of -genius and talent; a work they are seldom able to do for themselves--for -talent is prudent, and genius is timid; it is a work, however, which -must be done by some one, or freedom languishes, invention is dumb, -talent is misdirected, and philosophy creeps stealthily along starting -at the sound of its own footsteps. - - 1. Sherwin*s Republican, No. 2, p. 21. - -No adequate estimate or the merits of Carlile, and no tolerant judgment -of his faults can be formed without taking into account the aspects of -the times when he struggled, and the unscrupulous and powerful enemies -against which he contended. _Then_ the most hateful types of Toryism and -Christianity were rampant--_Then_ Castlereagh declared in Parliament -that it was necessary that 'the last spark of the spirit of the French -Revolution should be extinguished.'(1) Malignant and servile -Attorney-Generals and vindictive Judges left no man's liberty or life -safe if he professed liberal opinions. The press was intimidated, and -public meetings, who complained, butchered. It was under these -formidable circumstances that Carlile undertook to free the press, and -to make the famous works of the 'rebellious needleman' household books -in England, and to oppose himself singly to crown and mitre, ana brave -whatever political and priestly vengeance could inflict, when political -and priestly power were unchecked by public opinion. - - 1. The apparent offensiveness of some of his addresses was - created by Christians themselves, an Instance occurs in his - letter to 'Old William Wilberforce,' to whom he said 'sinner,' - instead of 'sir,' but this was because Wilberforce was a - self-styled sinner.--Repub. vol. ii. p. 388 - -It is in reference to the same public circumstances that Carlile's -faults are to be judged. - -Those who in these days shall peruse the pages of Carlile's periodicals -will be startled at the fierce invective and measureless denunciation -which abound there. But let those who affect to pass over his name on -this account, call to recollection the deadly arena of antagonism in -which he had to fight the battle of freedom. The course he took is -indeed not to be imitated now. We exist in better times, when the -conflict of reason has succeeded to the strife of passion. We have -better arts, because we have a fairer field, and we owe that fairer -field to such men as Carlile. Let us not impose our modes of warfare on -men who fought with savages, and demand of the actors of other times -that virtue which belongs exclusively to our opportunities. Men who are -patriotic in easy chairs and by the fire-side only, who never incur -damped feet in the public cause, and essay the reform of society in kid -gloves and white waistcoats, know nothing, and can allow nothing for -that strife of spirit in which men live, who take up the dice box of -oppression to play for liberty, and whose stakes are their lives. Let -the Christian whose altar is protected by law, whose arrogance over -infidels is part and parcel of the statutes, and is applauded by public -opinion; let the sleek and unruffled saint beware how he judges one on -whose head was every day poured out the phials of holy malignity, whom -the highest authorities stooped to defame, whose name was sacked at the -instigation of every miserable deacon or venal informer, whose household -gods were strewn in the streets by policemen selected for their -ferocity--whose wife was consigned to a gaol, and himself doomed to -spend nine years and a half in the endurance of the unceasing indignity -of vindictive imprisonment. Where the Christian in ermine has been -brutal, vituperative, and malignant, let him not exact a perennial -delicacy of sentiment from his victim, writhing under his provocations. -Taking these circumstances into account he is little acquainted with -human nature, who will wonder that Carlile, in the sixth year of an -imprisonment caused by Lords Castlereagh, Liverpool, Sidmouth, and -Eldon, should from Dorchester Gaol, dedicate the volume of the Trials of -his Wife, Sister, and Shopmen in these words--'To the Memory of Robert -Stewart, Marquis of Londonderry, Viscount Castlereagh, etc., who -eventually did that for himself which millions wished some noble mind -would do for him--_Cut his throat_.' - -The strait-laced moralist of this generation may turn to the volumes of -the Carlile's Trials, and find that Mrs. Carlile was indicted for -publishing a paragraph justifying assassination of tyrants. I have no -sympathy with this doctrine. I deem it far nobler and more useful to -society, to submit to be the victim than to victimize others. But -Carlile acted on a resolute sense of self-defence. He was a believer in -Brutus and Colonel Titus, and he lived in darker times when the policy -of moral resistance was less clear and less practicable than now. - -The Society for the Suppression of Vice distinguished him in 1820, as -'that most audacious offender, Carlile.'(1) The _Age_ called him 'a -miscreant tinker.'(2) The _Sunday Times_ described him as 'a wretched -man in the very kennel of contempt, from whom his proselytes fled as if -he were emerged from a pest-house, and advised that he should rot in -oblivion.'? And in this way papers and pulpits rang fascinating changes -on such adjectives as fiend, monster, wretch, execrable, hideous, -obscene, abandoned, infamous, etc., etc., till when he took a tour -through the country in 1828, the idea of Carlile current among the pious -was that of a black griffin with red glaring eyes--a tail with forked -end, talons instead of fingers, and hoofs instead of toes.'(3) - - 1. Repub. vol. ii. p. 182. - 2. Repub. vol. xii. p. 121 - 3. Repub. vol. xii. p. 151. - -Yet this man whom the Government, the Pulpit, and the Press co-operated -thus to describe, was human, and not devoid of generous filial -affection. When in Dorchester Gaol, in 1820, a letter came sealed with -black wax, which, Carlile suspecting to announce the death of his -mother, he threw it aside for four hours--not finding resolution to open -it. 'I had hoped,' said he, 'that her life would have been extended a -few years, that she might have witnessed the result of my present -career. But it affords me pleasure to think that she sunk calmly to -sleep, neither tortured by priests nor superstitious notions. It affords -me pleasure,' cried he, exultingly, 'that in spite of the efforts of the -Society for the Suppression of vice, the Priests, and the -Attorney-General of a wicked administration, I have still retained a -roof to shelter her, and under which she died.'(1) The department of -progress in which Carlile worked has not yet received recognition by -society. Society only remembers the genius which is creative, not that -which is practical--though it profits in its ulterior stages more by the -practical than the creative. The world has been rich in theory ages ago, -and would have realised universal happiness by this time had it -encouraged those who reduce its theories to practice. When a great truth -is proclaimed, it produces no fruit till society is ploughed and sown -with it. The pioneer, the orator, and the journalist, are they who -practicalise truth: and he who re-asserts it, who insists upon it, and -re-echoes it by all the arts of repetition--he it is who really advances -society. He is the worker; yet society accords him no distinction, no -posthumous memory. Hence it requires more generosity of sentiment to be -useful than to be great. He who seeks distinction may advance society as -he achieves distinction: but the advancement of society is secondary -with him--the advancement of himself is the primary consideration, and -he is often careless whether society advances or retrogrades provided he -lays hold of its renown and keeps it. Hence he who seeks fame is -selfish--he who seeks utility is generous, because he is certain that -society will neglect him, as it pays its honours to those who serve it -least. The theorist provides for the future, but it is the worker who -makes the future by realising the fulness of the present. It was in this -department that Carlile laboured. He left no distinct book, he -bequeathed no invention, he is the author of no famous theory; but his -life was a poem of heroic and voluntary sacrifice, by which new freedom -was won and secured to posterity; and men are now benefited through his -exertions who remember him not, who know him not, and who would disown -him or revile him if they did. Attorney-Generals delight to prate about -the danger to society of dissemminating new opinions--the danger is to -him alone who undertakes the task. Let him who thinks that mankind are -to be set on change too rapidly, read the Life of Carlile. The deadly -opposition by which he was assailed is the answer to their fears. -Society loves its opinions, and clings to them, whether they be error or -truth. It hates him who teaches it to alter its course, however the -change may be for its benefit. It is the destiny of the Reformer to -serve mankind, and to be cursed by them for his pains. He who is not -prepared for this has no business to be a Reformer. Then has he no -reward? His proud reward is the satisfaction of contemplating the -benefit he confers upon men who are not to be conciliated by good -intentions, nor penetrated by favours bestowed. To give happiness to a -friend is but a common place delight, but the pride of conferring -pleasure upon an enemy is a noble passion, of which only exalted natures -are susceptible. This is the passion of the true Reformer, and this is -his reward. - - 1. Repub vol. ii. pp. 376-7. - -Of Carlile's errors it may be said that they were fostered, if not -developed by the position in which he was placed. In the autumn of his -career, he grew to think better of himself than of other men, but it was -in a great measure because he had done more and dared more. He was -impatient of a rival, because his rivals as political or anti-religious -leaders wanted the proper qualification. Carlile had suffered so much, -and so long, that he not unnaturally became convinced that suffering was -the sole qualification of a public teacher. He confounded endurance with -ability, and doubted the integrity or the courage of those who had dared -nothing. He was tolerant of rivals in proportion as they had suffered -any thing. His great imprisonments were so many wounds which he had -received in the service of freedom, and he was proud of them as a -Spartan hero of scars. He graduated, as _a patriot_, in dungeons, and he -suspected the qualifications of every man who had not taken out a -diploma from the Attorney-General. Carlile was one of those men who are -tattooed by the enemy into whose hands they fall, and who are dyed by -the influences against which they struggle. He was like a man who fights -all day in the front rank; who is discoloured by the powder expended in -the battle, and never after wears the hue of peace. Cobbett and -O'Connell manifested the same peculiarity. They outlived their day. They -were living memorials of themselves and of the times which _they_ had -changed. He who judges any of these men impartially, will recognize -their virtues as arising in the greatness of their natures and their -faults, but as the accidents of their local positions. So posterity will -judge Richard Carlile. - - - - -ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL - - -Examination of the body of Mr. Richard Carlile. - -The well-known Mr. Richard Carlile, bookseller, late of Fleet Street, -bequeathed his body for the purpose of anatomical dissection. By -permission of the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, his remains were -removed from his residence in Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, to that -Institution; and, on Tuesday last, there was a numerous assemblage of -the friends of the deceased and members of the medical profession, to -witness his post mortem examination. The chest and abdomen only were -opened, and the necessity that existed for the knowledge of anatomy, not -only to the surgeon, but to the physician, was shown. Mr. Grainger -delivered a short address on the occasion, thinking that the object of -the deceased would be obtained by this proceeding in public, and by a -statement of the motives which, had actuated him in giving his remains -for dissection. - -The illustrious Bentham, actuated by the same benevolent feeling, had at -the close of the last century, left his body for dissection, and that at -a time when the prejudice against anatomical examinations was so great -that bodies were procured with the utmost difficulty. That prejudice was -perhaps less at the present time, but still sufficiently strong to -interfere very materially with that due supply of subjects, so essential -to the proper education of the medical student, and of such vital -importance to the community at large. Such difficulties existed that no -lecturer in this country had ever yet been able to complete a course of -operative surgery, properly so called. Mr. Carlile deserved the -approbation of all the friends of humanity for attempting to remove this -prejudice by leaving his remains for anatomical purposes. - -Mr. Grainger vindicated medical men from the charge of irreligion, and -contended that medical and anatomical studies, if _properly_ pursued, -served to demonstrate the truth, not only of natural, but of revealed -religion. _The Lancet,_ No. 1,016, p. 774, February 18, 1843. - - J. Watson, Printer, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. - - ---- - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD -CARLILE *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39123 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a -registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, -unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything -for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may -use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative -works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and -printed and given away - you may do practically _anything_ with public -domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, -especially commercial redistribution. - - - -The Full Project Gutenberg License - - -_Please read this before you distribute or use this work._ - -To protect the Project Gutenberg(tm) mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or -any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg(tm) License available with this file or online at -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use & Redistributing Project Gutenberg(tm) -electronic works - - -*1.A.* By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg(tm) -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the -terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all -copies of Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works in your possession. If -you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg(tm) electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -*1.B.* "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things -that you can do with most Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works even -without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph -1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg(tm) electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -*1.C.* The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of -Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works. Nearly all the individual works -in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you -from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating -derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project -Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the -Project Gutenberg(tm) mission of promoting free access to electronic -works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg(tm) works in compliance with -the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg(tm) name -associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this -agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full -Project Gutenberg(tm) License when you share it without charge with -others. - -*1.D.* The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg(tm) work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -*1.E.* Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -*1.E.1.* The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg(tm) License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg(tm) work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with - almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away - or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License - included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org - -*1.E.2.* If an individual Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic work is -derived from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating -that it is posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can -be copied and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying -any fees or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a -work with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on -the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs -1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg(tm) trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -*1.E.3.* If an individual Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic work is -posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and -distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and -any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg(tm) License for all works posted -with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of -this work. - -*1.E.4.* Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project -Gutenberg(tm) License terms from this work, or any files containing a -part of this work or any other work associated with Project -Gutenberg(tm). - -*1.E.5.* Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg(tm) License. - -*1.E.6.* You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg(tm) work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg(tm) web site -(http://www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or -expense to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a -means of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include -the full Project Gutenberg(tm) License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -*1.E.7.* Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg(tm) works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -*1.E.8.* You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works -provided that - - - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg(tm) works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg(tm) trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - - - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg(tm) - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg(tm) - works. - - - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - - - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg(tm) works. - - -*1.E.9.* If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg(tm) electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg(tm) trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3. below. - -*1.F.* - -*1.F.1.* Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg(tm) collection. -Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works, and the -medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but -not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription -errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a -defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer -codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. - -*1.F.2.* LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg(tm) trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg(tm) electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. -YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, -BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN -PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND -ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR -ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES -EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. - -*1.F.3.* LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -*1.F.4.* Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -*1.F.5.* Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -*1.F.6.* INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg(tm) -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg(tm) work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg(tm) - - -Project Gutenberg(tm) is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg(tm)'s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg(tm) collection will remain -freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and -permanent future for Project Gutenberg(tm) and future generations. To -learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and -how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the -Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org . - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state -of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue -Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is -64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf . Contributions to the -Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the -full extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. -S. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page -at http://www.pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - - -Project Gutenberg(tm) depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where -we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state -visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any -statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside -the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways -including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, -please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic -works. - - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg(tm) -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg(tm) eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg(tm) eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless -a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks -in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's eBook -number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, -compressed (zipped), HTML and others. - -Corrected _editions_ of our eBooks replace the old file and take over -the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. -_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving -new filenames and etext numbers. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg(tm), -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |