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    of love and joy . The experienced and the old acquired the dogmas of treachery and tyranny . Even from them the gleams of a better nature would at times break forth , clinging fondly to kindness , till the harsh feelings of self-preservation again "froze the genial current of the soul . " Long an , d deeply have I pondered on these things , and ardently have I longed to free my species from the shackles of ignorance , the

    source of all the evils which they mutually inflict and suffer . I have returned to my * ' father-land , " and deeply do I grieve to behold in the descendants of the free Saxon race , brutality—coarse , cold-blooded brutality—such as a red Indian would scorn to descend to , whatever he might do when the lashing of his injuries urged him to the mad cry of havoc and revenge . Loathing the trade of war and bloodshed ,

    which ignorance thus helps to perpetuate , I would fain contribute my mite towards the suppression of it , and shall rejoice if any more capable teacher shall cause my lesson to be forgotten , in the greater utility and eloquence of his own . I have learned the lesson of love , and am a believer in the perfectability of man . Would the majority of the species but believe the same thing , the creed would be realized . '—p . 4—6 .

    Starting from what , scriptural as it is , we may call the generallydenied principle , that all men are heirs in common of the grant of the earth , which Providence conferred upon our first progenitor , the author takes a rapid survey of the condition of the people of . this country . His soul is in his subject ; and if many of his positions be questionable , the freedom of his intellect and the warmth of his patriotism are indisputable . He animadverts with peculiar , but not undeserved severity ,

    on the revenue laws . * The indirect taxes of England are most abhorrent and mischievous . Fifty times their amount might be paid directly , and the people might still be gainers , even in a pecuniary point of view . But how infinitely greater would be their gain in their estrangement from their present demoralization V We give the passage in which his comment upon this topic concludes with a denunciation against the taxes upon knowledge .

    • To think on the bare physical injury inflicted , makes the blood of a freeman boil . The virtual privation of the light of day . The virtual privation of the means of cleansing the person and clothing . The virtual privation of artificial light . The virtual privation of the food and luxuries which are superfluities in other countries . The virtual privation of sale for the productions of art . And last , and most abhorrent of all , the virtual privation of knowledge gained by reading .

    Light , air , cleanliness , food , and knowledge are most essential things to human existence . Whoever attempts to lessen their supply is a vampyre to his species . Annually are thrown away whole streams of the light wines of France . We might drink them , but there interferes —the duty . We might be cleanly even to prolixity , but there interferes—the duty . And we might be the most intelligent people in

    the whole world , but the accursed , blighting duty again interferes , to check the civilization to which every citizen would otherwise aspire . The sale of gin is encouraged , and the sale of knowledge is half prohibited . A philosopher could scarcely require any other comment on a government . Londonderries , Eldons , Wynfords , and Wharncliffes are , after that , superfluous as examples . * The first thing that is done after laying out a new town in the

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    146 Critical fitotices—Political Economy and Legislation .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/68/