evidence. When we speak of the writings of the New Testament generally, and especially when we refer to the New Testament revelation, we are understood to refer mainly to the Four Gospels. Those four Gospels, as being that part of the book with which surely no other part can be put on equal footing, may be spoken of in general terms, as Scriptures, which were not written by the persons whose names they bear; without excluding the maintainer of such a proposition from his right of arguing on the admission, that other parts of those writings were, or might have been written by their alleged authors; and thus showing internal evidence of their mutual destruction of each other's pretensions; as a councellor may be allowed to sift out and elicit unintended truth, from evidence which he himself has shown to be unworthy of credit.

"I HOLD Says your correspondent, that Jesus was taken down from the cross, and settled in Arabia." After this, I hold he may very well hold his peace: for it is to save such an hypothesis as this, that he has quarrelled with the demonstrations of my Syntagma, I am but throwing away my time and pains, in caring to set him right. Why should he reject any miracle who can, not merely believe, but has the honour of being the inventer of such a right royal absurdity; I was in hopes that believers had kept the patent for fabrics of this sort to themselves.*

I confess I cannot help suspecting from the entire style of this anonymous quibbler, the lurking Unitarian Christian, who under the veil of pretended unbelief, is endeavouring to father our cause with such ridiculous and contemptible propositions, as may supply to his own party a fair excuse for the contempt with which they affect to treat us. He will by and bye, go and quote what he has said, that I have said, as what I have said; and the Monthly Repository will have its nuts, in being able to quote from the pages of the LION, speculations as wild as Swedenborg's, in language as coarse as Scapin's.

For from what better ground of advantage, could our Christian opponents pour down their volleys of scorn upon us, than the being able to take up such a paper as this, and saying, ecce signum-"See snarling envy, transcendant ignorance, and measureless impudence conjoined in dread array against the faith that has found philosophers, scholars, the wisest and the worthiest of mankind in all ages, and in all civilized nations on its side.-See with truly ludicrous arrogance how one will complain of our deplorable orthography,' while himself is coining the unheard of barbarism, against all orthoepy, of Jesuan preachers and Jesuism (I suppose for the preachers and the religion of Christ Jesus.)

I have been pestered this week by a poor-fellow whose crack is on the other side, with a clear explanation of the vials, and trumpets, and seals, of the Revelation of St. John, which he says divine wisdom has revealed to him; a shoe-maker be sure on't!

See with what exquisite logic, it is held to be an a fortiori argument, that if the ancient Roman geographers were ignorant of a country which they had never visited, much more so must be an intelligent English gentleman who had spent the greater part of life, as a resident in that country, and devoted his life's studies to the investigation of every circumstance connected with its history, politics, and religion.-See the great Sir William Jones, whose mind whether by friend or foe, has hitherto been admitted to have compassed the greatest extent of acquired erudition ever achieved by man, modestly numbered as an ignorant professor of Jesuism, by the accurate historian who confounds Encratites and Ebionites; -the learned linguist, who adduces the English Greek out of a translation of Voltaire's Dictionary, as matters of his own research; and the deep-read antiquary, who affects to have discovered from some real history of a really existing Jesus, that he acted and suffered, as neither believers nor unbelievers, before himself, ever dreamed of charging him withal." Surely a life of such profitless, driftless, aimless imposture, ending only in a public execution, after which the supposed criminal was to retire, none the worse for it, and settle in Arabia with sufficient reputation, to be resorted to there as a teacher, by one so much better skilled and more successful iu practices of imposture than himself, as St. Paul, such a conceit is only short in wildness of the belief of his resurrection itself, and all unfounded, and unsupported as it is, even by so much as the decency of a single document of history, that could lead our thoughts to dream in that latitude; the bringing it forward as array of proof against so obvious, so simple, and so completely authenticated a solution of all the difficulties of the problem, as that supplied by the Syntagma, betrays the snarling perversity of contradiction, for contradiction's sake, the pitiful ambition of saying anything that can be said, and the envious cacoethes that would rather put out its own eyes than see by the light of another man's candle.

I could point out several other absurdities in this anonymous bit of scribbling; but as to convey either instruction or amusement to your readers, was so manifestly no part of its author's object; so to convey anything else shall be no part of mine, and he may expect my further attentions after he shall have had the pleasure of feeling conscious of having offered something worthy of attention; which untasted happiness, is the worst I wish him. The end of answer to an anonymous &c.

I perceive with inexpressible chagrin that Mr. Hume has presented my Petition to the House of Commons, after its having lain upwards of three months unnoticed in his hands. The only effect of which, has been to put it into the power of Mr. Peel to insult me; and to brand me with the reproach of a violation of public decorum and morals, which is what no man who had any

regard to truth or morality himself, would say, I have been an enemy to what I held to be imposture and hypocrisy, but there never breathed on earth the man who more conscientiously, and honourably respected and upheld decorum and morals, than I have done. I have sent the letter of which the annexed is a copy, in acknowledgment of the presentation of my Petition, but shall rather choose through all my life to come to suffer wrong in silent sorrow! than ever again to build a hope on remonstrance with fanatics, or complaint to tyrants.

pays

I am in correspondence with a Clergyman who holds high distinction in the church, and two or three valuable livings; his sentiments are entirely in unison with mine, like me, he has seen what Christianity is, and like me he hates it with a perfect hatred. He has consulted me, on the important question how he ought to act. Could a more difficult one be proposed to the honesty of man? I could only say," Act not as I have acted, till you can make up your mind to suffer as I have suffered." Alas I should be sick at heart, with so much over-feasting of my appetite for revenge, as to have even those who have put me here, here in my place, even for half the time; how can I therefore, or dare I recommend to one who loves the truth, and whom therefore I am bound to love, to expose himself to Well, well! he his Curates handsomely, and dearly earns his revenues, by the labour of a perpetual dissimulation. There are sentiments contained in the article on which I have commented, which if it were just to consider them as the sentiments of more than an individual, would indicate, that there are some who have thrown off their Christian prejudices, who for any moral advantages they have gained thereby, might as well have continued to be Christians still. However, we should have too much the advantage of our adversaries, if we as well as they, had not to meet the worst hazards of the war, from the treason of our own errors, and the anfractuosities of our own party. The strength and mettle of real virtue is only to be proved by its superiority to all opposition. I remain, truly your's,

(Copy)

TO JOSEPH HUME, ESQ.

ROBERT TAYLOR.

Mr. Robert Taylor acknowledges to Mr. Hume, the presentation of his hopeless Petition on Tuesday evening last, with no feelings but of thankfulness to Mr. Hume, and of regret and chagrin to himself, for having suffered the protracted horrors of a most unjust captivity, so far to subdue his fortitude, as to betray him to grasp at so forlorn a hope as that of Justice and redress of wrongs from the House of Commons, thus enabling such men as Peel and Foster, to heap insult upon injury, and to justify oppression by their avowed scorn of its victim.

If "the extreme folly of the opinions which Mr. Taylor holds,

in common with Mr. Hume's illustrious namesake, with Volney, Voltaire and Gibbon, was such as to carry with their dissemination, an antidote against any evil that they could do." How then does Mr. Peel evade the question which was put in the case of a sufferer for blasphemy, whom he would be understood to respect-what evil hath he done? Why is so cruel and extreme a punishment inflicted on conduct that not only did no harm, but in the judgment of its punishers themselves, was not capable of doing any?

The scorn that Mr. Peel has expressed for the prisoner, should itself be argument for his release. By Mr. Peel's own declaration, Mr. Taylor is imprisoned without a cause. Sure 'tis the very wantonness of cruelty, that locks up impotence in bars of iron, and keeps its foot upon the worm that did not annoy, and could not injure.

Oakham Gaol,

11th of the 6th Month.

OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON THE POOR LAWS.

In the early ages of all nations, mankind had equal rights, and exercised them; because, not being at first allured by the temptations of ambition or avarice, they must, of course, have associated as the members of one family. Their wants and inclinations were circumscribed to very narrow limits, and the food and other commodities they acquired, being sufficient for their support, it prevented them, in a great measure, from inventing projects to gain more. There must have existed a great portion of individual happiness and universal concord among them, as the vices and bad passions of the human mind, not having that full scope for action as they have in a more enlarged and unsettled sphere of life, it must have chiefly tended to check their developement. If any quarrels arose, or any, man rendered himself obnoxious to the peace of the community, it must have been soon suppressed, or else there would have frequently occurred a scene of anarchy and confusion. If any person did, either by artifice or other means, appropriate more to himself than was considered safe to the general welfare, there is no doubt, that, on detection, he was compelled by remonstrance or persuasion, to give it up to the general stock. Their manners and habits, though simple and unaffected, were more compatible with the prominent attitude of man in the creation; for luxury and what is called modern refinement, rather tend to debase than to elevate our character. The agricultural and pastoral life were evidently the first pursuits; because, having no remote connection with any other community of people (from a want of the knowledge of the principles of navigation) they depended entirely on their own resources. In fact, whatever cynical or sedate philosophers may assert to the contrary, their life and pursuits, and the picturesque appearance of their country, must have been similar to some of those sylvan scenes, the delineation of which has produced such glowing and sublime images by the poets, particularly in the description of the gardens of Alcinous, by Homer, and in that of the Island of Bliss, by Camoens, in his beautiful epic poem, the Lusiad.

Such is a faint sketch of the state of society in its rude condition, as

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some maudlin politicians are apt to call it. But I rather think, that on examination, we shall find that we are more rude and uncultivated, more unjust and inhuman towards each other, and more unhappy and discontented than mankind were in the most early stage of society, at the remotest period of time. It requires but a slight exercise of the faculties to discern this, for it is as clear as the sun at noon-day; and we need only cast our eyes around us, and we shall find ample testimony of facts to prove it beyond the possibility or shadow of a doubt. We may find it verified more or less in all classes of society, from that most exalted personage with a sceptre in his hand, down to the most insignificant upstart of a churchwarden. In course of time, as commerce between individuals and nations was more widely extended, owing to the increasing wants of mankind, and also to their ambition and avarice, they became more relaxed and unsettled; consequently, not being capable of exercising their relative duties as members of society, they were compelled to delegate the privilege to others, which was, properly, the dawn of the representative system of government. Afterwards, from an abuse of the rights and privileges conferred by this system on the delegates, anarchy, pride, avarice, and a love of power, but principally caused by the apathy and carelessness of the people themselves, they gradually declined, step by step, as a free people, until they merged into that baneful system of government called monarchy. For under no other system of government has such oppressive laws been promulgated, such enormous taxes exacted from the people, such a scandalous waste of the public money taken place, nor such ruinous and horrid wars waged, as under a monarchial system. These systems of government are generally established by usurpations and bloodshed: look at the history of Rome for several instances in proof of this, where it is related that 15,000 men were slain on the plains of Pharsalia, in the battle between Cæsar and Pompey, for the purpose of gratifying the childish ambition of these madmen for unlimited power, by obtaining the dictatorship: an anxiety for the situation induced Antony and Octavius to contend at the sea-fight of Actium, where Antony was defeated through the desertion of Cleopatra, with the Egyptian fleet. And last, though not least, that between William the Conqueror and King Harold, at Hastings, when the former, not glutted sufficiently with the blood that was shed in this battle, carried fire and sword wherever he met with any resistance, and depopulated whole towns and villages.

It was under a monarchy that the Poor Laws originated, for we do not meet with any account of them in history before the reign of King Henry VIII. from which period the amount of the money collected by them has progressively increased with the amount of taxes. The grand object of these laws appears to be, to keep up the number of the poor, as a separate class, in order that kings, lords, and the gentry may wallow in all manner of sensual gratifications and shameful extravagancies. Another motive for the enacting of these vindictive laws, is, that as mankind became more wealthy and prosperous by an extension of trade and commerce, they, unfortunately, got more proud and inconsiderate in the same ratio, hence the rich, to keep all to themselves, devised and enforced these infamous laws, to confine and degrade the poor as much as possible, in order that they might look more splendid and conspicuous by the contrast: for Goldsmith says,

"Have we not seen fam'd Britain's peopled shore,

Her useful sons exchanged for useless ore?

Seen Opulence her grandeur to maintain,

Lead stern Depopulation in her train,