LIBERATION OF MARY ANN CARLILE! MR. PEEL has, at length, settled the amount of the five hundred pounds worth of imprisonment on my sister: and that when he was told by the Magistrates, that the unwholesome place to which they had removed her, and the state of her health, would not admit any further amount of suffering to be extracted from the victim, if her life was to be spared. She left the Gaol on Saturday the 15th instant, being the completion of two years imprisonment for having published a pamphlet which said the Christian Religion had no foundation in truth. The following is the copy of her discharge warrant. TO MISS MARY ANN CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL. MADAM, Court of King's Bench, Nov. 14, 1823. His Majesty having been pleased to remit the fine imposed upon you by the Court of King's Bench. I have to inform you that upon delivering the enclosed* to the Gaoler he will Discharge you as to your Commitment under the sentence of the Court. I remain, your obedient Servant, PERE DEALTRY. * FRIDAY NEXT AFTER THE MORROW OF SAINT MARTIN, IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF KING GEORGE THE FOURTH. LONDON: THE KING AGAINST MARY ANN CARLILE. UPON reading the entry of satisfaction upon the Record of the judgement in this prosecution, it is ordered, that the Defendant Mary Ann Carlile be discharged out of custody as to her commitment by virtue of the rule of this Court made in this Prosecution, on Thursday next after the morrow of Saint Martin in the second year of his present Majesty's Reign. Side Barr, BY THE COURT. THE FOLLOWING IS THE ANSWER TO MR. CARLILE'S AFFIDAVIT PUBLISHED IN THE LAST NUMBER OF "THE REPUBLICAN." TO MR. R. CARLILE DORCHESTER GAOL. SIR, Court of King's Bench, Nov. 15, 1823. I HAVE laid your affidavit (forwarded to me) before all the Judges of the Court of King's Bench, and they have desired me to intimate to you that they are of opinion that it does not furnish sufficient ground for granting the Writ of Habeas Corpus you require. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, PERE DEALTRY. The following Chapters are from the pen of an Edinburgh Friend, who has lately published his " Critical Remarks on the Truth and Harmony of the Four Gospels," to which he purposes to add another part, under the following head: OBSERVATIONS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS CHAP. I. Remarks on Christ's employment in his youth, and on his abilities as a Mechanic in comparison with others, with reflections. THE worshippers of Jesus Christ have taught, that he executed the offices of a prophet, a priest, and a king; but this is false in every respect, he executed none of these offices whatever: it is clear that he never possessed any kingly power, he entirely disowned it; and instead of being a priest, he would have no connexion with them; the whole of his instructions tended to undermine their authority, and abolish their office; and he was equally as unfortunate in his character of a prophet, for none of his predictions were correctly fulfilled. Instead of executing these offices, he rather attempted to perform the duties of a mechanic, a reformer, and a teacher; and since these are the characters he assumed, we may examine what he has done for mankind in these professions, and compare him with others who have been engaged in the same undertaking. It is plain to every impartial observer, that the time he spent working as a carpenter was completely lost; it has been of no benefit for the improvement of the human race; if he was the Son of God and came to the world to reform mankind, and lead them to salvation, he ought not to have spent so many years of precious time after he was come, before commencing his labour, he ought not to have allowed them to go on in vice and crime for so many years, without giving them any public instruction; the younger he was when he began to teach in public, he would have been the greater prodigy, his followers would have admired him the more on that account; and he himself was afterwards fond of working wonders. The time that he wrought as a carpenter, has been of no benefit for the improvement of man in any of the mechanical arts; we know not of any good that has ever been produced by that work more than by the labour of any other common workman. It does not appear that he discovered any new invention in carpentry, nor did he explain any new principle in mechanics, to point out the way to future improvement. He did not discover or explain the mechanical powers of the lever, the pulley, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, the screw, the wedge, and the funicular machine. He did not discover the printing press, that best of human inventions for spreading instruction and knowledge throughout the world, he did not discover the steam engine, which has been, and is likely to be, of such extensive benefit in the arts, nor the crane so useful in masonry. He did not discover clocks and watches, nor yet the mariner's compass, which were so necessary, and have been of so much utility: he did not perfect ship-building, wind and water mills, threshing mills, spinning mills, nor the weaver's loom: neither did he perfect the more simple, but equally useful, implements of the cart and the plough, it is not to him that we owe any of the numerous inventions of ancient or modern times, which have abridged the labour, improved the condition, and promoted the civilization of man; we know not of any one discovery or improvement that he made in the mechanical arts, and may well conclude that the time was but ill spent, when we can discover no benefit arising from the labour. Since he pretended to be the Son of God and wrought so long as a carpenter, he ought even in that trade to have done something to benefit mankind worthy of his character or pretensions something to prove that he was a superior being and come for their good. So exalted a being should have shewn himself superior to all other men in mechanical genius, yet it does not appear that he was superior to any ordinary mechanic of his time, and he was immeasurably inferior to many. He cannot stand a comparison with Archimedes, Vitruvius, and others among the ancients; with Arkwright, Smeaton, Watt, and Rennie; with Lagrange, Prony, or Brunelle; with Meikle Tulton or even with Thomas Paine; he cannot be compared with these, besides many other engineers and mechanics of modern times, if he could not equal any of these great men in mechanical inventions, if he could not in so many years make some discoveries for the improvement of the arts, this proves that his genius was inferior to theirs, and that he had no claim to the exalted character which his worshippers have given him. Since we can find nothing that Jesus did to improve mankind in any of the useful arts, we may next consider what he has done for them as a reformer and a teacher, his fame being raised upon this character we ought to consider both the doctrines which he taught, and the instructions which he gave, with great attention. The character which he claimed and which his followers have given him, may suggest the reflection, that if he came to the earth to reform the human race, to deliver them from a state of sin and misery, and lead them to salvation, he ought to have commenced his labour without delay; and performed it in the most effectual manner; instead of working as a mechanic, or spending his time for no useful propose he ought rather by his almighty power to have reformed the vicious habits and corrected the imperfect organization of the human frame, or if this was more than he could perform, if he could only employ ordinary means for reforming the world, he might have been much better employed in writing and promulgating a code of mild, just, and perfect laws, for the regulation of mens conduct in society, such laws as would have been a guide to both rulers and people, such as would have prescribed the just punishment due to crimes of every kind, and the rewards due to merit or virtue, if these are necessary. His labours would have been of more benefit if he had written and promulgated clear and practicable instruction for the prevention of crime, and the direction of the moral conduct of mankind, suited to their various conditions in the world, defining correctly the duties of the different members or classes of society to one another; and since a religion is so necessary to guide men throughthis chequered life, he might have been well employed in forming a perfect system of theology, defining clearly the articles of faith most necessary for them to believe, describing plainly the form of worship most pleasing to God, since worship is so necessary to please him. A work of this kind, written in a clear and perspicuous manner, embracing all our duties public and private, moral and religious, would have been of more benefit than his labours as a carpenter, or his strolling about the country working wonders, a perfect work of this description would have been of much value, and might have corrected many of the evils arising out of our imperfect nature, and also the unjust and imperfect laws and barbarous customs, which have been introduced into the world, and with which mankind have been afflicted in all ages, such a work might have been of inestimable value in checking evil at the root, and preventing much that has followed; but he seems to have thought practicable moral instruction unworthy of attention, he appears to have come to the earth in displeasure, and pettishly, in a pet, to have withheld instructions which would have been of benefit to the world, and given other directions which are either impracticable or would be ruinous. (To be Continued.) ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAIN-DEALING AND SINCERITY. PLAIN-DEALING is a virtue, without which no well regulated society can exist; this all men will allow; indeed, it is so necessary, so desirable, and withal so estimable a quality, that the man can scarcely be found, who would be thought to be deficient in this noble trait of the human character. Every man tells us he likes to speak his mind; but how few speak the truth. Since, then, plain-dealing is allowed on all hands to be so indispensible, why should it not be in more general use? Why should not every man speak what he really thinks? Why should not every man be what he appears to be? It certainly must argue a deficiency of right in some part of the community, when the state of that community is such, that no one speaks his mind to his fellowcreature, but dissimulation and gross hypocrisy appear to be the order of the day. All men too seem to be desirous of hiding their faults; and appearing to others to be what they really are not; how mortifying must this be to an ingenuous mind, to live in a society where to acknowledge the genuine sentiments of his mind, to speak his opinion on all subjects unreservedly, and to appear what he really is; would be considered a species of mental incapacity, and the subject of it not fit to mix in polite society. The Spectator expresses himself beautifully and justly on this subject, where he says, "The candid mind, by acknowledging and discarding its faults, has reason and truth for the foundation of all its passions and desires, and consequently is happy and simple; the disingenuous person by indulgence of one unacknowledged error, is entangled with an after-life of guilt, sorrow and perplexity." In another part, speaking of sincerity, he says, "Truth and reality have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. If the show of any thing be good, the possession is better: for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pre |