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النشر الإلكتروني

VOLUME VIII.

FROM JULY 11, TO DECEMBER 26, 1823.

To restrain the freedom of writing and speaking, is to make those who
are subject to such restraint, less than men, less than any kind of
animals; for all other animals have the liberty of speech.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 84, FLEET

STREET.

1823.

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DEDICATION.

TO SPANIARDS IN EXILE.

To you, this eighth volume of "The Republican" is dedicated, as a specimen of that FREE DISCUSSION, the absence of which, in Spain, more than any thing else, has caused your late defeat. Every one of you must be ready to acknowledge, that the religious orders in your country were the most bitter enemies to your constitutional government, and that before you can hope to recover your lost position, and to retain it in tranquillity, you must so instruct the mass of the Spanish people, as to divest them of all that influence which the Priest, the Friar, and the monk exercise over them.

In your late struggle with tyranny on the one hand and ignorance on the other, you found that, tyranny rather than liberty can best influence ignorance, and use it for any and for all its purposes. A little gold and a few high sounding words rouse the passions of the ignorant, and they may be led on to their own and to the destruction of others, like a dog or any other beast of prey. There is no remedy for this, but in equalizing the knowledge of mankind: there is no means to that end, but the most free discussion.

It behoves you then, whilst in exile, to examine the foundation of the Christian, and of every other religion, that you may be prepared with the means to shake the power of the Spanish Priesthood, and to rescue the ignorant of your country from its direful influence. Know from this volume that the Christian Religion has no good foundation-that it is not useful, but that it is mischievous, of which Spain is a melancholy instance.

Who were they to raise a shout, when Riego ceased to live?-The Priests.

Who were they to foment the insurrection against the Constitution, and to call in the aid of the French slaves? The Priests, with your hateful Ferdinand at their head.

Have you not found many of these pretended preachers of peace in arms against you? And those, who have not resorted to arms, have they not abetted the ignorant and weak minded peasantry to that object? Depend on it, that such a code as your Constitution can never exist, long at a time, with an established priesthood.

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