bids defiance to reason. The spiritual world is, to the material world, what a dream is to real vision; a phantom that cannot be reasoned upon as a reality. The Swedenborgian and the BibleChristian may be denominated perpetual dreamers, persons who dream while awake as well as while asleep. This is, unhappily, the general character of religionists; but the sects mentioned are pre-eminent in the dreaming propensity. Insanity is not a disorder to be cured by argument. It so far differs from ignorance, that it has a visional system of its own, on which it dwells and acts, as if it were on a knowledge of realities. Such is the common insanity of religion. Let us try the merits of the foundation of the Christian Religion.

COURT OF DISCUSSION.

Question.-Did JESUS CHRIST, the received foundation of the present Christian Religion, appear among any portion of mankind in person.

The latest enquiries upon the subject have led to the assertion, that the words Jesus Christ do not express a person but a principle. That the person has not existed. The conclusion is drawn, not only from the general defects of the Christian system of religion, when contrasted with its pretensions, as found among all sects; but upon the absence of all historical proof. No writer, in the century in which the person is said to have lived, is known to have mentioned such a character. No record, of any date, has come from the country, in which the person is said to have lived, mentioning such a person. The admitted forgeries of the second and third centuries, relating to such a person, are evidences that there was no authenticated history of him at any period, and that all mention of such a person was fraudulent in its origin. The desolation of Judea, in the first century and before the name of Jesus Christ is known to have existed, warrants the forgery of the mention of such a character having existed in Judea. When the name of the person was first introduced, there was no agreement about it: there has never been any general agreement about it, and the amount lessens whereever enquiry extends.

The defenders of the personal existence of Jesus Christ refer to the books of the New Testament, as having been written in the first century. Lardner and others have given dates to them in the first century; but all those dates have no other authority than supposition. Supposing such a person to have existed, such cotemporaries must have written about such a time. This is the whole of their authority. But the facts of the case weigh against them; for there is no mention of the existence of any such books until late in the second century. Had any writer mentioned the existence of the books in the first century, they would have formed

a different kind of evidence; though they might not have proved all that is said about the person of Jesus Christ. Not having been known in the first century, and only having been known in the latter part of the second century, as part of a multitude of contradictory writings about the person of Jesus Christ, it follows, that such books, rather than a proof of the existence of such a person, are collateral proofs against it.

Subsequent articles, pro and con, will exhibit all that can be said on this, at present, very interesting subject, a subject, at least, very interesting to every Christian. We blush for those Christians, who can composedly sit themselves down to discuss their varied tenets, while such an important question to them as this remains open. The Catholic Association of Ireland talks of sending a mission to England, to enlighten its benighted people as to the merits of their religion! let that mission come, and throw some light upon this, the foundation of all their questions and pretensions. As sure as that mission makes an attempt. to enlighten the people of London, we will call its attention to this point. As sure as we meet it in any part of the country, we will do so. We are determined to push this sort of discussion into, at least, every part of England. We will do so in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, if possible.

REVIEW OF THE PAST YEAR.

THIS is meant to be nothing more than a review of the circumstances that are connected with the principles maintained by the writer, Richard Carlile, with a statement of the year's proceedings and of present prospects. Complaints have been received from all parts of the country, that, throughout this year, to a certain class of people, there has been a famine in the land. Such has been the figurative expression of many correspondents, in complaining of the absence of my weekly publication. My not keeping before the public weekly during the last year, has been the consequence of circumstances unforeseen and uncontrollable. Throughout the last half of the year 1826, I was making arrangements to spend the past year 1827 in moving through the country. I had fixed on Richard Hassell, as an editorial assistant for a weekly publication, and up to November of that year, every thing promised to go on well. In the beginning of November, Richard Hassell died; and knowing no one that I could put in his place, one point of my project was frustrated. In the latter part of November, I was laid down ill with a violent cold, asthma and rheumatic pains, from which neither medicine, exercise, diet, or country air could set me free,

until November of the past year. Throughout that year, I, with those who have seen me, have been calculating on my early death. This state of things not only disqualified me for the management of a weekly publication, but for all regular attention to business; added to which, Mrs. Carlile has passed through a more lengthy illness and a more alarming state of health than mine, from which she is not yet fully recovered. For my own part, since the beginning of November, I have fully recovered, and was never in better bodily or mental condition than at present.

All these untoward circumstances occurred at a moment when my whole energy was requisite to carry me well through the very expensive establishment for which I had contracted at midsummer 1826: so that, in addition to pain of body, I had to suffer pain of mind; the one aggravating the other, and every thing connected with my private circumstances running on cross purposes. Up to the last few weeks, I have despaired of supporting this establishment, not that a change would have affected my means of carrying on business; but the house having been twice offered for sale and no bidding made for it, my health fully established, my prospects consequently brightening, my persevering resolution as strong as ever, I am induced to try to keep my ground; and for this purpose, I not only have to solicit forbearance and a little more indulgence on the part of those friends to whom I have made myself a debtor, by money borrowed or credit for goods taken; but I have also to solicit the assistance of all and of each, to extend the circulation of this my new publication. I have also come to another resolution. Having suffered much mental anguish, and in some instances perhaps a loss of credit, by making myself a debtor to enter upon this establishment, and meeting with such untoward circumstances at the onset, I have determined, for the future, to confine my speculations to my own means, and never again to trespass by credit upon the means of any other person. I have been paying dearly, throughout the past year, for the want of this precaution, in the shape of thirty shillings to the pound, and in a great sacrifice of goods to make up that sort of payment. Therefore, should it so happen, that this publication be not immediately profitable, or do not at once cover expences, it will not be carried on as a speculation upon credit. It is rare, that any periodical publication pays its expences at starting; but I have a hope and assurance that this will. To start well, it ought to begin with the sale of a thousand weekly, and then to rise above that. I wait to see the effect of my extended tour through Lancashire, and shall speak at the end of a month on the prospects of the publication. By every lover of a free press, this publication should be encouraged, for while it will studiously avoid every kind of personality that can be considered an outrage upon good feeling, it

will maintain every principle of discussion that a free press should maintain; it will maintain every political or social right or privilege that is beneficial to man in society; it will endeavour to set an example, as to what a free press should be. The Editor may err as to his conclusions; but he will never err designedly, and for the purpose of getting a sale by truckling to prejudices. He will never say that which he does not mean, nor mean that which he does not say. To use the language of one of the greatest and most useful men that has lived, he will strive to be "bold enough to be honest, and honest enough to be bold." He will neither prevaricate when certain; nor conceal that which he knows to be useful.

Of the state of the property of the Joint-Stock Book Company, I will give an account in the course of a fortnight, after I can take stock and make up the accompts. It has been affected by the state of my own affairs this year. The new subscriptions have been but £35. The sale of the books has not been great, and consequently, though we have begun an edition of "Mirabaud's System of Nature," it has not been finished. The interest money of the subscriptions will be paid immediately, to the end of 1827: and an effort will be made to rally its progress in the present year.

I have two deaths to mention, which will be interesting to my old readers. The first is the death of Shebago, a favourite correspondent with many. He died in Greenwich Hospital, in a very calm manner, and evinced in dying, the fortitude of his mind and the soundness of the principles which he had adopted. His name was Thomas Hood. He had been at sea from his youth to his becoming a pensioner in Greenwich Hospital. I have heard that his prospects, when young, were good, and that he once filled the post of a master of a man-of-war; but I have not particulars enough to speak with accuracy. I have heard him say, that a man-of-war or a sea-faring life in any way was a hell to him, as he could never brook the tyranny of the officers. He was incessantly getting himself into trouble while at sea, by writing sketches of character, and satirical verses upon his officers, and frequently got himself put into irons. His ever active and powerful mind induced incessant writing on subjects, as they were presented to him in all parts of the world; and had he been fortunate enough to have found encouragement for his literary and poetical talent, in his youth, he would have made a bright man. He had genius, but it was of the wild and turbulent kind; and such as while it induces its owner to defy the customs and habits of his fellows, leaves him constantly poor and oppressed. Such was Shebago !

The second death is that of Mr. Morrison, a surgeon, of Chelsea, who has bequeathed me an annuity of fifty pounds a-year. I never saw this gentleman but once, and then but for a few

minutes, without knowing his name or address. He called on me in September, 1826, and solicited a private interview. He was then in a bad state of health and spake with some difficulty. His words were few: he said, "I have come to tell you, Mr. Carlile, that I have been attentive to your conduct since the time of your trial, that I am very much pleased with it, and that, in consideration of what you have gone through, I have made a provision for your family in my will." Having thanked him, he added:-" I shall not now give you my name and address; but I have some manuscripts which I wish you to see and to publish, and I will see you again." He did not see me again, nor did I see his manuscripts; for I afterwards learnt, that, on returning home, he did not leave the house again. Various reports reached me in the early part of last year, as to what this gentleman had done for me in his will. Some good-natured friends were kind enough to set me a traveling in a coach and six, upon the strength of it. Others made me residuary legatee of Mr. Morrison's property, and I was to come at once and take up my residence upon the estate at Chelsea; telling me also, it was singular, that Sir Henry Wilson, who had an adjoining estate, had acquired it in a similar way. Another, deeper in the secret, found that I was only to have two hundred pounds a-year. At last, it came down to the reality of fifty pounds a-year, which, by-the-bye, has not been yet realised. However, this affair has been one of the pleasing off-sets to the many pains that I have endured through the past year.

Mr. Morrison's will has some novelty in it, beyond my annuity. After many fruitless attempts to see it, I found it had gotten to Doctors' Commons toward the end of May, and there I obtained a copy and published it. It is a document worthy of being preserved in a volume, and for that purpose I copy it here. The first mention of it in the newspapers was in" The Englishman,” and “ Bell's Life in London," in a very proper manner; but other papers gave it a twist, and set a number of old men and women to cry out:-"Oh! what a villain! a fellow at Chelsea has cut off his wife with a shilling, and given Carlile fifty pounds a year." It will be seen that Mrs. M. is well provided for.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THOS. MORRISON, SURGEON,

Of Vale End, Chelsea, who died the 10th of February, 1827. Extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

THE CHURCH strongly inculcates the propriety and necessity of the last act of a man's life being an act of religion; I deem the last act of an