of doing justice, of showing mercy, of surceasing from your filching, cheating, lying, over-reaching, greedy and oppressive cruelties, and looking on your fellow men, whoever they be, or whatever opinions they may hold, as entitled to brotherly kindness and sympathy:-your notion of repentance involves no intentions of amendment,-your way of throwing off the guilt and power of sin, is no way of which a single individual of the human race shall ever find a benefit: no tears ye have caused to be shed, shall be dried up, no wounds ye have inflicted shall be healed, no wrongs that ye have done shall be repaired: Still will ye persist in your sanctified villainies, making your garb of piety the convenience of iniquity, making those on whose account you never parted with aught that was yours-your debtors-casting your debtors into prison, nor letting them go thence till they have paid the uttermost farthing. Your repentance towards God, like the priest's blessing, is to cost ye nothing! Ye will humble your souls in the dust before Him, who, unless he be the fool ye take him for, if he be at all, must know that ye would not give a shilling for his heaven; and you know so too. It does to talk of, as the talking of it does to chouse the brute unthinking mob into a notion that ye are honest men without putting you to the expense of being so.

O most economical dispensation of divine grace, in behalf of Quaker transgressors! that admits them to the advantage of repentance for nothing, that puts them into a state of salvation, without putting them to the trouble of a virtue. They who have thrown off all superstitious regard to forms and ceremonies, who have no faith in holy water, holy wine, holy smoke, white surplices, or powder pimperlimpimp, would, one would hope, make some step towards rational ground. They, one might think, would speak an intelligible language. Repentance, with them, should mean return to virtue. Virtue should mean something by which mankind are benefitted. Ah! millions of miles from the like of such a thing is the repentance or virtue of Quakers. Never the thought of such a way of serving God as that of serving his creatures, ever came into their calculation; never so much as the aim or wish to be good men, amalgamated with the sublimity of their spiritual speculation. All, all their notion of moral excellence consists in indulging themselves in insane and delirious reveries, and in all that may be of virtue in all the sense that rational man could bring his apprehension to lay old of in such blatherumskeile as "coming to a living stone," edifying of themselves in love," "looking availingly to him who taketh away the sins of the world," "taking care not to interfere with the right occupation of those gifts and graces which the Lord has bestowed upon them," "retiring" into their convenien places to wait for the visitations of heavenly love," "being concerned to know the will of God through the help of his

"to

a

transforming grace." Remembering that their creator is at all times present with them;" yet waiting for him, and seeking him; and all the rest on't; as an idiot might cut up the printed text of the New Testament, with a pair of scissars, and throw it together again with a spoon.

There is some advantage however to the Quaker conclave, in adopting this mystical phraseology, it keeps them while in the use of it, from the more gross and easily detected forms of mendacity. Falsehood cannot be said to be conveyed in sentences which convey no sense at all: and so far, the quaker saints make safe ground for themselves. But not a clause is there, throughout this whole trash, whose meaning is apparent, of which the untruth is not as apparent as the meaning. The first sentence consequently contains the first of these; and it is really so ridiculously egregious that one would wonder how the Quakers, unquestionably the best practised practitioners upon earth in their way, should have covered it no better. They offer this, their annual salutation, not as a customary act, that is to say, that though it is an annual custom, it is not customary." The accounts of the sufferings of their members, together with the charges incurred, amount (say they) to upwards of £14,800." The sufferings of their members, measureless falsehood! When their whole body is increasing in wealth and affluence every year; and is founded and held together as a money-getting compact, altogether; and if any of their members suffered any real loss, or fell by any concurrence of misfortunes into bankruptcy, poverty, or want, they themselves would read him out of their society, and cast him from them. I myself once saw a poor Quaker in circumstances of affliction, in which he could not be unknown. I saw his wealthy friend, come, apparently for no other purpose than to make him feel the contrast of their several situations. I saw the rich quaker look on the poor one, as if he would have looked him into the earth, and strut by him with all the scornful pomp, and cruel killing pride, as struts the vainest creature in nature, as looks the fiercest, the look that said friend! indeed, beggar avaunt! As looks the famished vulture on the poor dove, that dies under its talons, I should have said; but 'twould be a scandal upon nature, for in that vulture's look, bloody, and fierce, and savage as it is, there is no scorn, and no religion; its victim had not claim for better usage, and dies; but is not insulted. I saw the poor man turn and weep in the anguish of his soul; and though I hated him (as I do all quakers, and I can't help it) yet I was very, very sorry for him, and I turned-too,-and-and said my prayers. Thus 'tis these friends treat their own friends. Yet this fellow, who could not be ignorant that he was breaking the heart of a brother, even of his own creed, was hurrying away not to scenes of dissipation and amusement O God forbid we should think him capable of such abomination) but rather perhaps to hold communion with his

God, and to wait in reverence and in fear upon the most high. Dear Mr. Carlile, if any thing be insanity is not this such? Can we possibly live to a more generous end, or suffer in a more glorious cause, than in laying out all our energies, to recover our fellow creatures from so direful, so mischievous, so cruel a. madness, and to reclaim them to those amiable feelings, and that love of truth and honesty which appertain to man's nature till christianity unmans him, and which constitute the health of reason and the strength of virtue. I remain, truly your's,

Oakham Christian Evidence,
July 26, 1828.

To Mr. Carlile.

ROBERT TAYLOR.

Goose Green, near Wigan, July 5th, 1828. SIR,-Having heard you say that people must be moralised, ere they can accomplish any useful reform, induces us, (as a corroboration of your aphorism) to send you the following statement:

The weavers in this part of the country are almost in a starving condition, (surrounded by plenty) owing to the depression of wages. To redress their grievances, they have formed a union against their masters, and made what they call a strike for more wages; but in our opinion, the state of trade will not allow the advance of one quarter, which is what they demand. To accomplish their ends, they have made a weekly contribution; with this and the aid of others, they pay three shillings and eight-pence a week to those that have given up their work. We joined this union, and regularly paid our weekly quota till within this week or two, but being great losers, we were determined to have work, convinced, in our minds, that their demands will not be obtained. They have stood out more than a quarter of a year, without the least probability of success; so, on Monday, June 23, my wife took an ass to carry her work and went to Wigan, to fetch a warp, and though we never received one farthing from them, they told her upon the road she was fetching work, but if she did, neither her nor her ass would return home alive. She persevered and got work, but though the master sent four stout men to protect her, they could not proceed. She was assailed by two or three hundred men and women, some throwing missiles, such as brickbats, stones, dirt, and dung; those behind her sticking pins in her back. She made several attempts to go on, but was always repulsed. Therefore, she took her work back. Nevertheless, they would not let her go home. Two stout young men attacked her, took her ass from her, rode away with it, and we were two days in obtaining it again. Although they had robbed her of her ass, they would not let her proceed, but set on her as before, until her life was almost in danger. After receiving bruises on nearly every part of her body, she at last got home; but we have had nothing but virulence of one kind or other from them ever since. Many of these are enthusiastically attached to religion. The very Sunday morning following, several of them were seen going to their devotion as demure as

haints.

The insertion of this in your most useful LION, will greatly oblige the well-wishers to you and your infidelity.

WILLIAM AND MARY BAKER.

NOTE ON THE FOREGOING LETTER.

The very low state of wages for weaving, in all parts of Lancashire, justifies every moral effort that can be made to raise them; but it is well to consider, whether the project be practicable, under the present number of weavers, or, in relation of the supply to the demand for weaving. If practicable, upon a permanent scale, I should hold Mr. and Mrs. Baker to have been guilty of a moral wrong, in weakening the effort of others; but, if the attempt to raise the wages of the weaver be hopeless, by such means then, they have done a duty, in bidding defiance to a wild and mischievous combination. A little time will decide the question; but from all that I saw and heard in Lancashire last year, I cannot but conclude, that every effort permanently to raise the prices for labour in the various departments of the cotton manufactory, is hopeless, until one of two things can be accomplished-that a better form and state of government shall so far increase the demand for cottons, as to make the present number of labourers insufficient; or, that a domestic regulation of the number of children be observed, so as to reduce the number of labourers below the present demand. I fear the day is far distant, which will see either of these states accomplished, but it is a fault in every man and woman interested, if they do not strive to better their condition on both grounds, for the one will aid in the accomplishment of the other. R. C.

MR. OWEN.

(From the New York Correspondent.)

IT is already known by the public papers, that Mr. Robert Owen, was delivering lectures on the Social System, in the American Theatre, New Orleans. Previous to the lectures, Mr. Owen published the following Address, which we lay with pleasure before our readers:

To those who desire to improve the condition of the Population in all Nations upon rational principles.

In what manner shall I address you upon matters entirely new to the public, yet of the highest importance to every human being? My wish is, to benefit you and your posterity to a greater extent than I can yet venture to explain to you. hope, indeed, to assist you to remove ultimately all the evils which men have hitherto endured.

To effect this change, beneficially for the present generation, I must offend against the strongest prejudices of all nations. I must at once openly and most decidedly oppose notions and opinions heretofore deemed by each of them sacred truths, and must set myself in opposition to almost all their present practices. To benefit my fellow men and to secure to

them the most lasting services, it is unavoidable that I must for a time arouse against me the popular prejudices of all people. It will be however greatly for the benefit of every individual, in all countries, that these feelings should now be called forth, that the errors which produce them may be made manifest, overcome, and removed.

I would avoid this course and not create this temporary excitement if I could, and yet effect the object. I would greatly prefer during the whole of my life to reciprocate kindness with all my fellow men, rather than to imitate their feelings by opposing their old established notions and habits; the one course would produce a life of ease, comfort, and pleasure, while the other is likely to lead to a long contention, and to every thing that can be personally hazardous.

But to decline this task with the impressions which have been made almost from childhood on my mind, I feel would be a derelection of the highest duty which any individual has ever yet had to perform. I commence it, therefore, and whatever I may say or do, in the performance of this great work, I now once for all simply state, that my intention is to benefit my fellow men without any other motive than the discharge of a duty which appears to me beyond all comparison paramount to every other consideration.

I have been prepared for this task by an early study of human nature, under all the various circumstances in which it has yet existed according to the history of all nations; by personal intercourse with the leading minds of modern times, and by long continued varied and extensive prac tical experiments in some of the most civilized countries in both hemispheres. I have prepared a course of lectures by which to make the result of these proceedings known to the world. These lectures I intend to deliver in the chief cities and towns in the United States, and in Great Britain and Ireland, that the principles which they advocate may be generally known, severely scrutinized, and fairly discussed, in order that, if they shall be found true, they may be adopted, in practice, without delay, thus giving to those who now live some of their benefits; or if they should not be found to be in strict accordance with every fact which man knows, that they may be thus proved, and in the most public manner acknowledged to be an error. This will be at once to do justice to the principles and to mankind. For if they are as beneficial as to me they appear to be, the good which they will effect will soon commence; while if there be evil in them, that evil will be as speedily brought to a termination.

It may be proper here to state my conviction that man was born ignorant of his nature; that he has continued in ignorance of it, and that he has erred in all his conduct. That he has continually acted in opposition to the fixed laws of his nature, and thereby created evil. That he has been incompetent to distinguish vice from virtue, and to discover the causes which produce both. That in consequences of this ignorance, every kind of confusion has been introduced into human society, until it has become so complex, contradictory, and irrational that it can no longer proceed without "something being done," to remedy its daily increasing evils, or in other words, without an entire reorganization over the world, founded on a correct knowledge of our nature and of its fixed laws, which laws can alone determine real virtue and vice.

I propose then that the governments, and the most enlightened, scientific and practical men of all countries, shall be invited to put an end for ever to war and to all individual and national rivalry, and to reorganize society in every country, upon the principle for forming arrangements in strict accordance with our nature.