mit to your consideration, with entire deference to the authority of your own judgment, upon your second thoughts, the following suggestions: 1st. How strongly convinced soever you may be, in your own mind, does it not become all minds liable to hallucination and insanity, to suspect such impressions as you describe, to be rather indications of some incipient disease of the brain, which is unfortunately very common; and in the course of nature; rather than any real communication from the Deity, which you know is uncommon, and out of the course of nature. 2nd. I, who amidst all the aspersions heaped upon me, do sincerely believe in God, the all-wise and benevolent father of us all, cannot, without a violence to my own conscience, consent to any thing manifestly unworthy of his benevolence and of his wisdom. 3rd. Such, to me it would seem to be, could I suffer any man to persuade me, that he had revealed himself in so enigmatical and barbarous a type as by " red hot iron," or made any communication whatever to a boy. 4th. I, who have studied medicine and the laws of the animal economy, do know the fact, that, precisely such impressions as you ascribe to a supernatural cause, would be the effect of a slight inflammation in any one of the cerebral sinuses. Of which any intelligent anatomist would certify you. 5th. Your communication happens to be not the first of the sort, which I have received since I have been in this prison: though I gratefully own, that while your communication shows the same state of the head, it shows a better state of heart, than any of theirs, whose pretended communications from the Deity have been chiefly aimed to offend and insult, rather than to win and conciliate his creatures. Lastly. I put it to that accuracy of method, which, in your avocation as a book-keeper you must every day be called to exercise, to observe,-That having credentials, consists not in a man's having impressions, that satisfy himself; but in his being able to produce something that will satisfy others. I hope I have not said anything unworthy of the kind and respectful feelings, which, the great trouble you have taken, on my account, merit from me; and commending you with all my heart to the gracious providence of my Father and your Father, and my God and your God, I I am, in the best sense of the word, Sir, your humble servant, His Majesty's House, Oakham, Sept. 14, 1828. ROBERT TAYLOR. Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet-street, where all Communications, post-paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left. The Lion. No. 14. VOL. 2.] LONDON, Friday, Oct. 3, 1828. [PRICE 6d. TO MISS BROWN, CASTLEGATE, NOTTINGHAM, MADAM, I have sundry apologetic reasons for thus addressing you, on a subject, which, I cannot for a moment suppose will be pleasant to you, and which, though I by no means wish it, I fear will give you some pain. But there is a great public good to be done, in my thus addressing you, and that I present as my first and chief apologetic reason. The minor reasons are: First:-that you, as a lady professing a regard for a certain kind of religion, without knowing any thing in particular of me, were very free in condemning and in heaping upon me every kind of reproach. I was informed of this, and found a means of an incognito introduction to the same tea table with you We had an hour's conversation, before a slip of the tongue on the part of our hostess introduced my name to you; and, during that conversation, I had made too much of a favourable impression upon you, to leave you in alarm at a stay in my company. In the course of the evening, you will well remember, that you made several rather awkward apologies for your previously ill-formed opinions of me, and did not scruple fairly to ask my pardon. I had nothing to pardon, for I had not taken offence, knowing how duly to estimate the weight and value of opinions formed in religious persons for religious purposes. We spent our evening with all the good will of good fellowship, and you, I can be so boastful as to say, received one very good lesson on the subject of religion, which, I flatter myself, put on what exterior you please, or may suit your conve Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street. No. 14.-VOL. 2. 2 E nience, will never be lost upon you. This is a secondary reason for my publicly addressing you; for, put on what hostility you please toward me, I shall beg leave to hold you fast as one of my pupils. I am an odd kind of teacher. I prefer those pupils who are most hostile to me, and most unwilling to be taught by me. Mr. Cecil may call and share with you his weak and sickly religious palaver; but it is I who am to call upon you in a way that is to make a new and lasting impression. Another reason for my publicly addressing you is, that after I had made a favourable impression upon you on the subject of religion, you reported it and fell into a renewal of your hostility toward me, on the ground, that some friend had described to you a publication of mine called "Every Woman's Book," as a very bad book. It is a defence of this publication that I am now about to make, and I make it in an address to you, Miss Brown, whom I have every reason to believe to be a most strictly chaste and modest woman, to show to you and to the public, that this little book of mine, will bear defence any where and every where, before any company, and in language that will not offend the present etiquette of what is called the best society in this or any other country. I am stimulated to-do this too in consequence of Mr. Gilbert's base, and foul, and lying attack upon me, in his misrepresentation of the general character of my publications, and in his failure to justify his vile, slanderous, and scandalous assertion on those publications. And touching this point, I will make this last appeal on it, to ask, if a man will thus brazen-facedly and publicly lie to suit a base purpose, whether he will not lie more where he can lie more conveniently and less exposed to detection, to suit the baser purpose of his preaching religion with effect to insane minds, to diseased dolts, and to social hypocrites, such as constitute the aggregate of every dissenting congregation in this dissenting and distracted country. Where a man submits himself to free and public discussion, there is something more than an appearance of honesty: but where a man preaches opinions or tenets that are impugned, and shrinks from discussion, there is no appearance of honesty. A fourth reason, for my selecting you as the object of this address is, your single and unconnected situation in life, not as an advantage taken of that situation; but as an opportunity of selecting a lady, and a lady was necessary for my purpose, so situated, who has shown me direct hostility for the publication, and thus must stand free from all insinuation of having given it any kind of countenance or encouragement. It is the most bitter of my enemies, or those who show me most hostility, with whom I wish to come in contact. I shrink not, like Mr. Gilbert or your other preachers, from discussion. I embrace it any where and every where; and on any terms that are not personally degrading. Spending a Sunday evening at a house called the Royal Children, in Nottingham, I was quite unexpectedly and unpreparedly, otherwise than being always prepared to defend all my tenets, called upon to defend this publication. I did it, I believe, to the unexpected satisfaction of the company; it made a very good Sunday evening's sermon, and I now hope to do it to your satisfaction. The characteristic of the book in question is, that while it encourages the indulgence of the principle or passion of love, in every necessary, pleasant, honourable, healthy and socially convenient way, it seeks an abatement of the evil which naturally, inevitably and so largely arises from conception and pregnancy in the female, from children that are not desired, that cannot be well brought forth or reared, and that are born for nothing but to increase the sum of individual, domestic and social misery. Such is the true and sole characteristic of the book here to be defended. Let us observe, as we go, that the objection or precaution is not to be applied to all children, or all conceptions; but only to those, or such, as all persons, and more particularly the parents, will admit to be an evil. Here, then, I am safe, and offer no violence to the feelings of those who may wish to have children. I offer no compulsory means. I merely state a means or point of knowledge, that may be taken and used by those who think it useful; that may be neglected by those who desire or need it not. There are four grounds on which this book and its recommendations can be defended, and each of them in itself sufficient to justify the publication, and to make it meritorious. First-the political or national ground; which refers to the strength and wealth of the nation, and the greatest happiness of the greatest number of the people. Second-the local or commercial ground, or the ground of the wages of labour, and its supply, in the several trades and districts. Third-the domestic or family ground, where the parents may think they have already children enough, and that more will be an injury. Fourth-the individual ground, where the state of health in the female, or her situation in life, will not justify a pregnancy; but where the abstinence from love becomes as great an evil. These four grounds, though they will be shown to be distinctly important, do not clash with each other, but are in unison, the one with the other, and are but as the many ingredients that are to make up individually, domestically and socially, the one political compound of national welfare and happiness. There has never before been a political, social, domestic or individual project, that promised so much good, with so little, if any, evil. It must work well at all points, and cannot by any possibility be productive of a political or social evil; nor can I see, though many express fears on this head, how it will or can produce domestic or individual evil, even as an exception to the general rule. A first sight or thought of such a project is not sufficient to form a correct judgment. A year or two of ramified observation and thought is necessary to embrace its operations in all their bearings. I have now observed and thought elaborately on the subject for six years, and I grow more deeply confirmed in its great importance. The first point proposed for our consideration here, is, the political or national ground, on which this book can be defended, which refers to the strength and wealth of the nation, and to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of the people. It has been a sort of common but ill-judged maxim, that the strength and wealth of a nation consist in the number, the greater number, of its people. The error in the judgment of the maxim is, in not taking into consideration, whether that number be well or ill employed, well or ill fed, clothed and housed. If the number be well employed, well fed, well clothed, well housed, then the greatness of the number is in reality the wealth and strength of the nation. But, if, on the other hand, the greatness of the number lessens the means of good employment, of good living, clothing, and housing, then, as in England and Ireland, at this moment, under the present arrangements of government, aristocracy, religion, &c., the greatness of the number constitutes the weakness of the nation; and England, and Ireland, are both weak at this moment; weak, too, evidently weak, from ill employed or unemployed numbers of the people. The question of strength and wealth in a nation is, not, then, so much as to the number of the people; but as to the manner in which that number is employed, fed, clothed, and housed; to which may be added, the means of education. I do not assume, that the present arrangements of society are all good, and that, therefore, the whole of the evil centers in the number of the people. Far is such a thought from me. I rather think the present arrangements of society are all bad, and that under other arrangements, the present number of people might be well provided for, and would constitute a powerful and splendid nation. I see England, as well as Ireland, to remain, to be, in a state of conquest, and that the Brunswicker, instead of being the choice of the people, is no more than the successor of the Norman. I do not, like your little hypocritical, adulatory, narrow minded, political townsman, Thomas Bailey, praise George, because George is living and in power, and condemn Charles, because Charles is dead and powerless. On the contrary, I think Charles the First was as good a king as George the Fourth, and that, if there be fault in either, the fault has been in the system which, as individuals, they have inherited, and not in the men, as men. And if the present King be not pleased with my compliment, and I hope he will be pleased, I shall not think that |