The Battle of The Press Part 8

This letter, though rather lengthy, I have given entire as throwing a light upon the characters of the two men then heading the "glorious cause", as Carlile puts it. The truth of the "wife and children" matter is that Taylor never had been married at that time; this was one of those very foolish tricks of which his friends accused him. Carlile knew Taylor had neither wife nor child, but knowing that his letters were in danger of being read by the gaol authorities, would not give the lie to these foolish statements and so put a weapon in their hands; he trusted to the power of his reasonable arguments in the letter to have Taylor give up such silly stratagems. The Osgood spoken of was, we believe, one of the chaplains of Horsemonger Lane Gaol, and was both meddlesome and treacherous. The letter itself has never been printed, though most of the correspondence of Carlile and Taylor, while they were both in prison, was printed in the _Prompter_.

On hearing that Julian Hibbert was contemplating the release of one of the imprisoned men by the payment of his fine, Carlile wrote to Hibbert as follows:--

"I think that mischief will be done by any proposition to pay the King a fine in this struggle for the liberty of the press and of speech. I should count that man my enemy who would pay such a fine for me, and set me free against my will. We cannot have too much money, but we can all make a better use of it than to pay fines."

Lines written by Carlile.

(On the 4th month, 29th day, of imprisonment, 1831.)

"I, in this sweet retirement, find A joy unknown to Kings, For sceptres to a virtuous mind Seem vain and empty things.

Tumultous joys, and restless nights, Ambition ever knows, A stranger to the calm delights Of study and repose."

Response of Julian Hibbert.

"Well pleased, I read, and reading must commend Man's true and honest, persecuted friend. Nor you refuse the praise my muse bestows, Free from an uncorrupted heart it flows. Oh! would mankind but pause awhile and think, From persecution as from sin they'd shrink, Such simple reasoning must their souls awake, And from their thoughts blind superst.i.tion shake The empty dreams that filled their mind before, No more should fight them or disturb them more. Sweet heartfelt pleasure should their fears succeed, Sweet tranquil pleasure, sweet the thought indeed. Write always thus, Carlile. Oh! may your tyrants yet repent and save Man's truest friend from living in the grave."

In 1833 Carlile's prison doors were almost unexpectedly opened and he pa.s.sed out into the open air once more a free man--that is free corporally, he was always free as to mind and pen. He was not daunted or dismayed by threats, or the little matter of a year or two's imprisonment. As in the case of Dorchester Gaol, he had turned his room into a bookshop and warehouse, edited various papers from the prison, and carried on a large business by messengers and correspondence, and had acc.u.mulated such a ma.s.s of stuff in the way of letters, books and papers, etc., as to require a large van to remove them. The facts relating to his release were very amusing. His sentence required two years' imprisonment, two sureties in 250 each, and a heavy personal fine. In the first place a warrant was sent down to the governor of the prison to release Carlile, and remitting _one_ part of the sureties.

This Carlile would not accept. A month later a warrant came down for his release and remittal of the fine. Carlile sent word back that that would not do yet, as the fine was remitted on condition that he put in his personal recognizances of 500. He instantly wrote back to Lord Melbourne that "he would do nothing of the kind". Then a third warrant came down; nothing was left but the personal recognizances, and this third warrant removed that, so that Carlile had everything he stood out for at last, and left the Compter in triumph. As he said: "I came out with flying colors without yielding a single point". Carlile met a large congregation of 2,000 people on the following Sunday at the Rotunda, and was given a fine, hearty greeting. Here, too, the Rev. Robert Taylor made his reappearance, and met with great enthusiasm. This was Carlile's last appearance on the floor of the Rotunda, for the very next day it was leased to Mr. Davidge, an actor, who was to open it up once again for theatrical purposes. Mr. Davidge, in his announcement to the public of the change in its management, "hoped that they would congratulate themselves on the remarkable advantage a first-cla.s.s theatre would be to them over this sink of profligacy, etc., etc., which had been a focus for the concentration of the worst characters, from whence had emanated the most demoralising and destructive doctrine both in religion and politics, etc., etc., operating at once as a shock to the good sense, good feelings, and as a serious detriment to the interests and comforts of the entire neighborhood, etc., etc.," then, privately, penned the following note:--

"5, Charlotte Terrace,

"August 29th, 1833.

"To Mr. Carlile.

"Sir,--If you are disposed to purchase the lease of the City Theatre (once Mr. Fletcher's chapel) I will sell it to you for 600. The rent 200 a year--about sixteen years unexpired--with immediate possession.

"I am, sir,

"Your most obedient servant,

"C. B. Davidge."

Carlile printed both the announcement and the private letter in the _Gauntlet_, without comment. Davidge evidently was not afraid to lease any property of his to Carlile, for all of his high sounding charges in the public announcement. So it was in almost all the affairs of Carlile's life--publicly enemies, privately friends.

CHAPTER XV. SCATTERED THREADS

ON WOMAN.

"An amiable woman is one of Nature's perfect works, unspoiled and uncorrupted by man. Any number of men brought together without women could not be kept together in any other character than as slaves or under military discipline. Therefore, as women form the groundwork of society and civilisation, their presence and influence must be beneficial in the same ratio as the civilised is preferable to the savage state. All history gives us proof that the degree of virtue and amiableness in women is in proportion to the freedom they enjoy or the degree in which they can move and act independently and uncontrolled.

The freedom and independence of woman is the best proof and guarantee for the freedom and independency of man. A despotism never exists in one degree alone, it is expansive and dangerous. If it exists in the head of a family, every member of it will be despotic according to the degree of power of some other member or members. With women there is no medium; they are neuter in nothing. It is, then, the duty of man to make virtuous the soil where woman treads, and she will be found to blossom in purity and Nature's most splendid and perfect work--a radiant and unclouded constellation, illuminating all within her sphere.

Philosophers in general have not paid that deference which is due to the female in society; in speaking or writing for the improvement of society they have pa.s.sed by woman as a secondary or insignificant object, whereas she forms the most important channel through which virtue can be propagated and the social state be rendered peaceable, prosperous, and happy. Every impression that is attempted to be made on the female mind that she is an inferior being, every step that is taken to degrade her, is a bar to virtue, an inlet to vice. It interesteth the welfare of society to raise the female character to the highest possible pitch in the scale of intellect, even to a compet.i.tion with the male in all the fine arts, science, and general literature. A free and unlimited discussion on all the merits of this and all subjects is the sure harbinger of improvement. When we reach this climax the age of virtue as well as the age of reason will approach. Let them make themselves acquainted with the science of government upon the simple basis of republicanism or the representative system of government, and particularly to examine and weigh well the dogmas and pretensions of all priests.

"If I have read history correctly the best of women have been most virtuously bold and have been seen as public teachers. All public reforms are moral proceedings. All useful public teachings are moral proceedings, and in all such proceedings women, while their manners are mild and becoming, can never be wrong. The propriety of the thing will rest upon the way of doing it. The great fault I find in woman is that inanity in character which places them below the line of equality with men. Alive to female influence in the propagation and maintenance of opinion, I find my reason in paying them every proper compliment and attention, and I hold in contempt that contracted mind that would so narrow their sphere of usefulness as to represent them as criminals in publicity, or make it a crime to appear in public with them. This state of things has partly arisen from the circ.u.mstance that past politics have consisted of an advocacy of men rather than of principles, that there has not been in reality any code of morals existing, and that religion hitherto has been a prevailing and epidemic disease among the human race. It is impossible to describe what the high state of man and woman will be without religion, with a good code of morals, with good laws, with good and cheap government; and when party contentions are swallowed up in the advocacy of good principles. Female efforts can never be more usefully applied than toward the improvement of the human race. And nothing can be effectually done in the way of moral and physical improvement without the a.s.sistance of women.* I feel the necessity of a constant appeal on this point, and am not for treating women as the mere breeding machines for the human race, and men as the directing lords of the aggregate machinery. There is no kind of equality more deniably advantageous for the welfare of the human race than the equality of the s.e.xes. The present (1828) general character of woman is that of a gaudily dressed doll, a toy made up as a plaything rather than as a companion for man. In the aggregate there exists no such a quality as female mind. There are men who think this is the most fit state for the female race to be kept. I think differently, knowing that woman is the mother, the nurse, the general instructress of the man, knowing that the mind of the man is in a great measure formed by that of the woman.

I would have the woman most perfect as an essential preliminary to the greater perfection of man. I know no proper regulation with relation to the principle of knowledge, but that of the most unlimited acquirement that is possible to the acquisition of either s.e.x. To say that this and the other point of knowledge is improper for the attention of woman, is to a.s.sume a tyrannical judgment and to put her below the pale of human equality. For a woman to be content under that pale of equality is to exhibit mental degradation."

* This is pretty nearly the state of America at the present day.--Ed.

FREEDOM AND FRANCHISE OF WOMEN.

"Will the new Reform Bill allow women who are householders to vote for members of the House of Commons? I have just thought of this matter. If no express exception be made, female householders will be ent.i.tled to vote. And what existing law is there to reject a woman if she were returned to Parliament? I have no such high opinion of men as to think them intellectually superior to women. There are not a hundred men in England to be matched with Frances Wright;* and I know none superior.

That woman is qualified to be a member of the House of Commons. We shall not make this leap at once, but I am sure we shall come to this: women will claim and exercise the elective franchise and sit in Parliament. In ancient times such was the case in this country. I can see no evil in a Parliament of women or in the mixing of men and women in public affairs and offices; I would have them put on a perfect equality with men.

"The ladies may be a.s.sured that whenever they will stir to a.s.sert the rights of women I will a.s.sist them; and be a.s.sured that the rights of man will be best secured in the maintenance of the rights of women."**

* Madame D'Arusmont, who was then lecturing in America.

** The Prompter, April 9th, 1831.

Prejudice. "Like all others I am most interested about myself, but as I am made up altogether of public politics, in some cases myself is the public. Here is a note to correspondents from the editor of the _Times_ about which I shall have a few words to say of myself in the only s.p.a.ce left to me in this week's issue of the _Gauntlet_: 'To Correspondents.--As the letter of Richard Carlile would do him injury we decline to publish it. His stupidity and ignorance cannot fail to make him an object of contempt with all reasoning people, but we have too much generosity to turn the man's folly against him. He is what Mr. c.o.ke called Mr. Joseph Hume--'a muddle-headed fellow.'"*

* The Gauntlet, London, April 21,1833.

In answer, Carlile said he had borne injuries enough of this kind, and the _Times_ had shouted--"'At him, give it to him, spare him not, kill him, crucify him, away with him, he is a pestilent fellow'; but I sometimes steal a march upon the editor of the _Times_ by getting a friend to copy an article, and then it pa.s.ses, and brings me the compliment of being a talented correspondent. No correspondent that it has had, has been more complimented for talent by this editor than I have been when unknown to him; but if he discovers the writer's name is Carlile, then he condemns, rants, swears and curses." We have abundant evidence that this was true in other cases besides that of the _Times_.

A most prolific writer, Carlile contributed many leading articles and editorials to the Press of the country, and was for many months a regularly paid contributor to the _Durham Chronicle_ and other papers.

Over the _nom de plume_ of "Theophilus Clay" or the "Hermit of Enfield", he did a vast amount of miscellaneous writing, and towards the end of his life supported his family almost entirely in this way. But it was the name--Carlile.

"The name, the name's the thing, To catch their venom and their sting."

If we may take the liberty of paraphrasing the lines of the immortal bard.

SECRET ORDERS.

Carlile, with his const.i.tutional dislike to everything secret, exposed all secret societies and orders from Freemasonry down. The members of the various orders who had outgrown or grown tired of the ceremonies of these different a.s.sociations, furnished all the information to Carlile.

These books were on sale for many years and attracted widespread attention. As usual Carlile was inundated with both praise and abuse, as the feelings of his critics leaned to one side or the other.

The Rev. Richard Carlile

The fact of Carlile's adding the t.i.tle of Reverend to his name came from the efforts made by the authorities to prevent him speaking to the people on Sundays in the open air, claiming that none but licensed clergymen were ent.i.tled to that privilege; Carlile met with this objection throughout England. This led him to the examination of the necessary qualifications for this privilege, and he found that a belief in G.o.d and an English half-crown (about sixty-two cents, of American money) would purchase the t.i.tle of Reverend and give him the right to address the people on Sunday in the parks as well as everywhere else.

This cheap honor was easily procured, and stopped all opposition on that head. So, as the _Reverend Richard Carlile_ he could speak anywhere and at any time, and, as he said, "With the Bible in my hand I can go anywhere and preach without the slightest diminution of my former principles". The transaction was simply a _ruse de guerre_ to gain an advantage over the enemy, which he did; yet it took a long time and many explanations to make people see why this was done, and to convince them that he had not gone over to the enemy.

"PUFFENDORF."

In the course of one of his lecturing trips he tells the following story of himself:--

"My visit to Buxton was one of retirement. The only great man whom I met there, or rather took with me, was 'Puffendorf'. Having read much of the House of Commons debates in which there has been copious mentionings of Grotius, Vattel, and Puffendorf, I bought the great man for a couple of s.h.i.+llings in Manchester, and intended to study him in Buxton. To my surprise, I tried but could not read him; I tried again and again, but my perseverance failed me here, and I threw the book aside resolved to take no more books upon the recommendation of the House of Commons members. By reading 'Puffendorf' I thought I might qualify myself to be a member of the great council of the nation; but if nothing but Puffendorf will do I shall never get among them. I found this author, like Dugald Stewart since, deducing his theory of morals from the theory of the superst.i.tion of the age in which he lived, and exacting some most outrageous observances as moral and national law. It is but fair to say that my copy was translated by an English priest and was a professed abridgement, so that it is possible that the real original Puffendorf might still be as Macintosh, Burdett and others would have him to be."

Carlile went to Buxton at the solicitation of Miss Burnett, the writer, who was an invalid, and wished to see and converse with him. She was greatly interested in his work, and had for him personally the highest respect and esteem. Her letters to him are still preserved, in one of which she writes of his "fine, expressive face", and declared it would have been a great privilege to have been present at his trial in the Recorder's Court and listen to his n.o.ble defence.