DEDICATION. TO WILLIAM COBBETT, Author of the "Political Register," &c. &c. My dedications are matters of amusement and convenience, and as such I bestow this upon you. This volume of "The Republican" is peculiarly entitled to your perusal and protection; since it cannot fail to teach you that a man unsound in moral reputation is not qualified to become the advocate of any public principles, and can never be a successful advocate of good principles in a struggle with power and pre-existing interests. I rejoice not in your failure at Preston. I am not far from sorrowful at my own triumphs over you; because, with such pretensions as yours, I wish to see better moral reputation allied. You have passed the zenith of your consequence as a public man, and your future public career must necessarily be to you a series of failures and disappointments. In vain do you talk of petitioning Parliament against the late Preston Election-you will petition in vain-it is clear that you had not enough of popular approbation and support to carry your election; or why did Mr. Hunt in 1820 poll so many hundreds more than you have polled? At that time, there was much more of political asperity afloat than now. Indeed; I have marked none during the late Preston Election, but that which you have created. One of the most striking features of this volume of "The Republican" is, that part of it which records my war with you, and a warfare commenced in the most unwise and most unmanly manner by you. That warfare, though not so intended by me, has done something toward keeping you from being elected at Preston. The memoir of you which I have published revived the examination of the Book of Wonders and of other things which had been formerly published, but which had in some measure been so far forgotten, that they were not likely of themselves to be brought forward on this occasion. No sooner did "The Times" newspaper mention the publication of my memoir of you, than I had orders for Preston, and with them orders for the Book of Wonders, and such other compiled specimens of your varied character and writings as could be obtained. This led to the publication of the eleven Numbers of "The Political Mountebank," which turned your career at Preston into a mountebank exhibition, and brought derision upon you from almost all parties and all persons. The moral inference of this affair is, that a man of your unstable character can never stand firmly before the public on any occasion. The " Every Woman's Book," which you so virulently and so vilely attacked, notwithstanding the most extensive and most delicate prejudices which it has to encounter, stands fairly and firmly before the public; because a large portion of that public can see that it is a work published from the best of motives, and bottomed on sound and good principles. This work will stand and wear away the prejudices which oppose it. Your abuse of it has produced an effect quite counter to that which you desired. Upon the whole, I dedicate this volume to you as a specimen of that freeness, fairness, and candour, in all sorts of discussion, which you have never observed during your long career as a public writer, with a hope that you may so far improve as to make yourself more publicly useful than you have hitherto done. R. CARLILE. CONTENTS. No. 1.-Prospectus of the Joint Stock Book Company. Ex- tracts from the Reverend Robert Taylor's 44th Oration. W. W. R. to R. C. on the Correspondence with Mr. Beard. Letter from Thomas Turton, of Sheffield, on the subject of Necessity. From a Lover of Good Distinctions. Address from Manchester to R. Carlile. Notice of the Persecution of Mr. Macartney, the Sur- geon, of Dublin. Of the Christian Evidence Society. Address from the Edinburgh Zetetic Society to R. Carlile on his Libera- tion. Sadi and the Hermit, a dialogue. Notice of Thomas Paine's Birth-Day. Correspondence between Mr. Pritchard, the Secretary to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and R. Car- lile. James Hall not Mr. Cobbett. Notice to the Readers of "The Republican." Christ is the Devil. No. 2.-On Thomas Paine; his Writings contrasted with the Catechism of the Continental Despots. Lines on the New Year, No. 3.-To Mr. J. R. Beard by R. Carlile. Notice of the No. 4.-Thomas Paine's Views of Matrimony and Regard for Mayor; of the Editor of "The Age" Newspaper; of Mr. Mur- ray's "Representative;" of Paine's Birth-Day Dinner. No. 5.-Celebration of the Birth-Day of Thomas Paine, at the City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street. Where or what is No. 6. Thomas Paine and William Cobbett, a Contrast. Motion in the Court of King's Bench in the Case of the Seized Property of R. Carlile. Reverend Robert Taylor's Fifty-Sixth Oration. A Free Translation from the French of De Beranger, by G. W. Graddons. Toasts at the Sheffield Paine Club. Cor- No. 7.-Free Trade versus William Cobbett. Cobbett's Igno- No. 8.-Letter from Mr. John Fellows, of New York, on some Erroneous Statements made by Mr. Cobbett concerning Thomas Paine and the Republican Government of the United States of North America. Original Letter from Thomas Paine to Elihu Palmer. Fragment of a Discourse delivered to the Deistical Congregation of the City of New York, by Elihu Palmer. Ob- servations on Mr. Fellows' Letter. Letter from Fidelitas. Re- port of the Bolton Proceedings on the Birth-Day of Thomas Paine. Do. from Bath. Notice of the Christian Evidence So- ciety. Letter to the Reverend Dr. Styles, by the Reverend Ro- bert Taylor. How to meet Death, or the Case of Edward Cock- erill. "Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble" of the present Govern- ment. Letter from J. H. Simson. Moral Blasphemy Triumph- ant. The Philosophy of a Newspaper. No. 9.-Letter from Mr. J. R. Beard to the Reverend Robert No. 10.-Letter from the same to Mr. Carlile, with Notes by No. 11.-Philosophical and persecuted Ministers, or England's Political World turned topsy turvy. Petition to the House of Commons by the Honourable House of Moral Blasphemers. A Note to the Reverend Thomas Bowdler. Letter from Shebago in Answer to R. T. C. E. S. A Short Way of settling with Mr. Beard. Abel Bywater refuted, and his Doctrine destroyed by |