prophets of old, who cried, Oh, Jerusalem! Jerusalem! thou who wast mighty amongst the nations, how art thou fallen! No doubt but this forms a part of the honourable gentleman's matins and vespers, Oh, Sinking Fund! Sinking Fund! who was mighty amongst the nations of the earth, how art thou fallen! Not one stone of all thy buildings is now left upon the other-thou art desolate, and a curse only to thy people and to me!

A more ridiculous notion than that of the sinking fund has never been conceived by man: its only tendency has been to add several millions to the debt of the government and the people's taxes. It was just as if a tradesman who felt himself on the decline in business, and having a friend who is willing to assist him on his own personal security, he stands in need of £400, but says, as I can have £500 I might as well borrow it, for if I pay 6 per cent for the £500, I shall be able to make 5 per cent of the £100, which I have no particular use for, and then I shall always have the £100 and its interest accumulating to place against my debt. This is the exact state and character of the sinking fund, and it is astonishing how such a bubble could have imposed upon any man of common sense for a moment. Mr. Pitt borrowed a certain sum of money to establish this sinking fund; the sum borrowed was put to the debt of the Government, at an interest of at least 6 per cent, taking all things into consideration, whilst the sum which was considered to form the sinking fund, never paid its own interest, but on the other hand, it created new expences in Commissioners and Clerks to manage this idle mockery of a fund. It has certainly had one effect in the favour of the government, and that is, to stop any alarm about the value of stock; for the commissioners who manage this fund, are always obliged to stand prepared to meet any shock that might arise, and that when there has been a strong disposition to remove property from the funds, they have been obliged to stand forward and purchase largely to allay the alarm which has been created. They might have occasionally profitted by this measure, by buying up when stocks have been low, but that day is gone by, and a very slight run now on the stocks would exhaust those commissioners, and only tend to increase the alarm. The moment there are sellers to be found without purchasers, then away goes the bubble at No earthly power can save it, and an Act of Parliament would not be sufficiently potent to protect it. Whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer has really those

once.

illusions on his mind, which he sometimes expresses, it is difficult to say, but thus much is evident, that in his whole career he has been an hypothetical calculator. His figures have never tallied with his real circumstances. As to his not requiring a loan next year, it is all a farce. We shall hear him making five hundred excuses. There will be a million to cover the expences of the Coronation, which will not happen again; there will be all these expences about the Royal wife and seraglio, which will not occur again, and such like promises of future good behaviour and prosperity. But whenever the bubble bursts, we consider it nothing but fair, that the Chancellor should be roasted with Exchequer Bills and Bank notes for having told so many pious lies to prop the system. By giving himself up as a victim for the sacrifice, he might the better make atonement for the thousands of victims which have been sacrificed to form a financial Golgotha.

A LETTER TO MR. BOLLAND, BARRISTER AT LAW, ON HIS MOTIONS IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, RELATIVE TO THE DISPOSAL OF THE STOLEN PROPERTY OF MR. CARLILE.

Dorchester Gaol, June 23rd 1820.

SIR, On Monday last, I read an account in a provincial paper (The Sherborne Mercury) of your having made a motion on the 13th inst. respecting the application of a certain ' sum of money, towards defraying certain expences incurred by the Sheriff (Rothwell) and his officer. (Hopwood) in removing (feloniously) my property from Fleet Street, and (feloniously) keeping possession of it. The report stated, that your application was granted by the Court. It was further stated that you should mention to the court, that you was instructed also by the Sheriff to move for a writ of venditioni exponas to enable the Sheriff to sell 120,000. of my publications, but, that if you moved for any species of writ for the disposal of such property, it should be a writ of igni exponas. As old women and barristers have an unlimited license to gabble, I shall not be offended with you, as I assure you that I read the observations with the same facetious complacency as you might be presumed to put on when you mentioned your

writ of igni exponas. I fancied that I saw and heard Mr. Justice Bailey say to himself" now I shall think you a better christian for that observation Mr. Bolland."-Chief Justice Abbott "I heartily wish it was in our power to grant your writ of igni exponas; for to sell publications so dangerously convincing of the abuses of the system we support, is not at all pleasing to me."-Mr. Justice Holroyd appeared indifferent about it, and Mr. Justice Best, give you a significant nod of approbation. Yes, yes, Mr. Bolland, you shall obtain the ear of the court in future for this good service. But what a fool you are to talk about burning my publications, when you know you cannot do it without first paying me for them. Pay me for them first and you may burn them as fast as you like. I shall have no objection to find you enough to keep your office heated next winter, if you would like the amusement of burning them after paying for them. Follow the example of the worshipful the Mayor of Exeter, (Thomas Flood) he bought the whole stock in trade of Mr. Tucker my agent for that town, and publicly burnt it in front of the Guildhall, but the misfortune of it was, that the following week Mr. Tucker had a fresh supply from London, and then the sapient Mayor discovered that there was no alternative but getting Tucker confined. And you would find that the "Temple of Reason" would be still open to its votaries, after you had burnt the 120,000 publications of mine, stolen by Mr. Sheriff Rothwell and his gang of associates. I believe the number to be much underrated, but this I can say that their value at a moderate computation, rather exceeded £1010. £55 was paid down by a friend of Mrs. Carlile's, for shop-fixtures, and a few articles of furniture; and I am certain, that if the publications, with the other articles carried off the premises, had been fairly, legally, and honestly sold on the premises, within a few weeks of the seizure, according to the usual custom on such occasions, they would have fetched a price that would have more than covered my fine. I know a gentleman that was determined at that time to bid £100 for the figure and pedestal of Paine, but that he would have kept it in the shop. As soon as that most Christian sheriff (Rothwell) thought proper to take upon himself the responsibility of removing the property from the premises, I became indifferent about it, and am now perfectly indifferent as to what becomes of it, as I shall never cease to look to him for the value of it, until I have obtained it; and I have no fear but that both he and I shall live to see different times from the present. Mr. Sheriff Roth

Bu

well has lent himself to assist the government in their motives and wishes, to stop my progress in business, as a publisher and bookseller; and I hope he is prepared to meet the consequences of what he has done. In the first place, he shut up the house for six weeks, the rent, rates, and taxes of which were 51. per week, that is to say, from November 16, to the 24th of December; he then ordered the officer (Hopwood) to move out the goods in the dead of the night, because they were afraid to do it by day; and if they had waited another day, they would have had a quarter's rent to pay, and those "honest thieves" actually advised Mrs. Carlile to quit the house on the 24th of December, and leave the landlord to get his rent where he could. As a proof of their caprice and motive, they took down the letters over the window, which formed the words PUBLISHER AND Bookseller, and left the name, jeeringly telling Mrs. Carlile, she might use them for another business. In the interior of the shop were the words OFFICE FOR THE DEIST AND TEMPLE OF REASON. They took the first part of those words and left the TEMPLE OF REASON, saying, that if any thing different to what had been sold there were continued, it might deserve that name. the beauty of the whole business was, with respect to the board and letters in the front of the house, which form the words OFFICE OF THE REPUBLICAN AND DEIST, they made an ineffectual attempt in the evening to remove this board, but deferred it for the next morning, that they might obtain the necessary implements. The next morning the men came with ladders, and hammers, and chissels, and wrenches, of all sorts, but unfortunately, the blockheads had given up their possession of the house, and Mrs. Carlile was prompt enough to threaten them with an indictment for house-breaking, if they attempted to touch the board: the fellows slunk off, as sheepish as could be; and by what I understand, the board and letters still remain in statu quo, no doubt, a dreadful eyesore to priests, hypocrites, and the boroughmongers. Your friends, Sir, had no idea that the shop was about to be opened again, but they have made a foolish miscalculation for themselves; for if they had kept possession of the house and shop, I would have had another open within gun-shot of it in the same business. They cannot stop me, for whether I am in a prison or out, I have so far sown the seeds of a profitable business, as a publisher and bookseller, that I am satisfied, that I can carry it on profitably, in any street of the metropolis, VOL. III.-No. 10.

without being myself within a hundred miles of it. Every kick they aim at me, only tends to increase my profits, therefore, I say, kick away, for if you are quiet, I shall dwindle for want of opposition. The imprisonment of Mrs. Carlile shall not stop me: I will continue to sell publicly after that, and even if it were possible to prevent my having a shop, I could make just as extensive a circulation by my agency, and general knowledge of the town and country, in a private manner. Tell your friends, the Vice Society, and the priests generally, that they are combating nature itself, and every ef fort they make to put down the truth, in the present state of the press in this country, will only plunge themselves into deeper disgrace and defeat.

I have this day seen in the "Times" newspaper, a report of another motion made by you on the 21st iust., but they differ only in this, that the Court granted it the first time and refused it the second. There must be some error in this last report. I guess at the purport of the motion. Mr. Sheriff Rothwell has taken this extensive mass of my publications into his possession, in a most unwarrantable manner, and now he wishes himself well rid of them. I shall not move either way. I now stand more than 2001. the worse for issuing the writ of levari fucius for my fine. The whole business is without precedent in a case of Libel. The case of Mosely Wolfe for a conspiracy, which precceded mine, was very different, there the property was actually on ship-board and about to be removed to the continent, and they were found guilty of a gross system of fraud, and my case was an exposure of fraud. If notice had been given to me that my fine must be had in three months or the property seized on, I could have got the cash ready, but how few are the tradesmen who can command 15001. in cash at a moments notice, and how moral was the act on the part of Sheriff Rothwell and the government to stop my business after so heavy a fine! I verily believe at that moment, they would have reluctantly taken the money to leave the stock, the motive was to crush ne in that line of business; and be it remembered that Mr. Sheriff Rothwell went to Westminster, and was in the Court of King's Bench on my receiving sentence, and immediately brought off the writ with him and put the officer in possession. This same Mr. Sheriff Rothwell has had the impudence to call on Mrs. Carlile since she has opened the shop for herself and to threaten her with prosecution. Whether he is a member of the Vice Society I am not aware, but it is more than probable,

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