On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
This ift not intended m criticism , it is sympathy with the spirit of Cobbett ; may it be near us , in its most terrible attitude , if erci % like tan , I have cause to speak the vengeance of a tnan . But shall it ever happen again that an Englishman at home shall suffer from systems of government adapted to the meridian rf Persia ?—if so , the English language must strain itself for expression of such injuries .
Untitled Article
546 The R * e ? m ** PrnnptUets .
Untitled Article
Larger and more rapid grow the daily strides which are making towards that desirable goal— -free and untaxed knowledge . The iniquitous laws which have so long impeded the free circulation o , opinion , without which human progression lies stagnant , are daily
becoming more powerless ; long have they been objects of hatred to the people , but that hatred is fast changing into contempt . The ruling Whigs , like the ruling Tories , are fond of such laws , are de * termined not to destroy them , and will only suffer them to become obsolete when they cannot maintain them longer ; when the majority of the nation mak ' e known their determination to resist them , to do
battle against knowledge taxes / even as Hampden resisted shipmoney / I am not an advocate of law-breaking in general ; I think it far better to alter a law by the force of opinion , than to break it by the force of will . But in this case a most barbarous and unbearable tyranny is exerted . The means of knowledge , the means of instruction , the means of understanding the very laws themselves ,
and the means of expressing opinion , all are alike denied , with stupidity equalled in nothing but wickedness . A man with a starving body , if he take food to appease the pangs of hunger , even though that food be the property of another , is not held criminal ; the laws against theft were not intended to apply to such cases , and if they had . been so intended , common sense would have negatived them ; and even thua the common sense of the nation negatives the
laws which tend to starve the human mind . Laws made expressly to prevent the dissemination of opinion are ever a blighting mischief , tending to defeat the progress of truth ; they are utterly untenable by any reasoning process , and the friends of freedom and improvement are justified in warring upon them as they would war on pirates . No quarter should be given to an enemy who denies his adversary the freedom of Hpeech , and cuts out his tongue for talking . The Inquisition coulu not exceed this atrocity . The unstamped pretm have fought the battle , an all battles of the kind are fought by the public , with untiring purpose . * Their name it legion , for they are many . * Tho puohc never tirei *— -ot any really good thing . The matter publinhed by the unit am peel pvtet hw * aMuredly not been distinguished to much by philosophical disquisition at by furiou * resi » tance ; but what then / It it not
Untitled Article
THE ROEBUCK PAMPHLETS .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1835, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2648/page/46/
-