live in the house eighteen months after the marriage took place, when the master looked round for the old curtains and the old carpet again, and found them missing. The servant had sold those articles, at the time of substituting the new ones for them, to a farmer's wife in the neighbourhood, and protests that she understood her master meant to give them to her as perquisites, with a few odd articles of china that belonged to the first wife. All this had been disposed of to one woman, as before-mentioned, of the name of Gole or Gould. So many months having passed away, the servant had almost forgotten the matter, but an outcry was made that she had stolen those articles, and that they were seen in use at a neighbour's house. Both the women were arrested, the servant was sent to the Gaol, and the farmer's wife admitted to bail. The Summer Assize came on, both were pronounced guilty, and although the articles in question were mere rags, Mr. Justice Best sentenced the servant to seven years transportation; and after a long and severe harangue about the heinousness of the crime of receiving stolen goods, and after addressing the woman as if she had been a common receiver of stolen goods in such a place as London, on the necessity of making her and all such persons an example, and of dealing out the severity of the law, upon the principle, that if there were no receivers there would be no thieves, he sentenced the farmer's wife to fourteen years transportation! Every one who knew any thing of the case were astounded at the sentence, for the ,women had borne the best of characters in their respective situations, and it was deemed more a case of mishap than a designed robbery. The servant had been above three years in her place, half of it after the alleged robbery had occurred, and the character of the farmer's wife was considered unimpeachable. An outcry was immediately made, and all the influence of the Gentlemen and Magistrates of the neighbourhood was exerted to obtain a mitigation of this tremendous sentence, for it was seen, that if the robbery was actually intended, and the goods received as known stolen goods, the nature of the articles reduced the degree of crime to the lowest scale. In no instance was more influence used for a mitigation of a sentence by what may be called the Local Authorities, or the Aristocracy of the country, but all in vain; the Secretary of State would comply, but the Judge who tried them was inexorable, and would mitigate nothing of his sentence. At length, every means being tried

in vain, the Secretary of State making a point (not very justly or meritoriously) not to do any thing in opposition to the opinion and approbation of the Judge in those cases, could only promise that they should not be transported. The farmer's wife is in the Penitentiary at Millbank, and the young woman has been now for three years a true, though willing slave on what is called the washing side of this Prison, and the name of Best excites a horror among the prisoners, and is spoken with execration throughout the county. It carries just the same sound as, I recollect when a boy, the name of bloody Judge Heath did in Devonshire. The contrast is the case of two women who were tried at the last Assizes, of the name of Hurdle. A family of the name of Hurdle has been a complete pest and nuisance in the town of Poole for many years past. A widow with a family of several children has trained up her boys to theft, and her daughters to theft, and prostitution, too, almost before they reached the age of puberty. The mother planned a robbery upon an old woman who was a neighbour, and was supposed to have a little money by her. She was invited to tea with the Hurdles, and after tea she was to be taken out for a walk, whilst those who remained behind were to go and rob her apartments. The thing was done and the burglary brought home to this family almost instantly. Poole being a county town, or a county to itself, they were lodged in its Prison for some time, a mother, two sons, a daughter, and daughter-in-law; but prior to the Assizes were removed to Dorchester Gaol. The daughter, who was about twenty-two years of age, unmarried, but had borne two children, came to this Gaol in a dreadful state of disease, and has since died in the Gaol; which was the end of an elder sister at the same age. The two sons were acquitted, but the mother and daughter-in-law, who was an avowed prostitute also, were found guilty and sentenced for death. The capital part of the sentence was remitted by the Judge, and the whole town of Poole rejoiced at the idea that the old hag would be sent out of the country. The people of the Gaol and the women themselves expected the same, and the daughter-in-law was quite cheerful under the idea of getting into some good keeping abroad: but to the astonishment of every body, and to none more than the women themselves, an order has been received from the Home Department, that the daughter-in-law is to be let off with twelve months imprisonment, and the mother

with eighteen months, and the town of Poole is to be honoured again with as many of the family of the Hurdles as are living at the expiration of those periods!

Contrast the case of Shackell with that of Joseph Swann, and the case of the Hurdles with that of the women, Steel and Gould, and then who will dare to say that there is any thing like an equal administration of law in the country? Who will say the temper of the Judge is not the law? Who will speak of justice? Who will say our Judges are humane and spotless? It may be necessary to say that Mr. Justice Park and Mr. Justice Burrough were the Judges in the case of the Hurdles.

Dorchester Gaol, May 26, 1822.

R. CARLILE.

to Mr. R. Carlile, dorchester GAOL.

FRIEND CARlile, London, May 4, 1822. THE friends of free discussion-enemies to that novel system of discretionary power, so constantly exerted for the destruction of those independent minds, which have the virtuous courage to expose the bigotry, and illuminate the darkness with which they are surrounded; offer this tribute to you, for your meritorious exertions in the cause of freedom.

The terrible effects of irregular and tyrannical power, were never more fully displayed than in its attack upon your person and property; nor were zeal and perseverance in the vindication of truth and free discussion, by means of the press, ever more boldly manifested, than by the unrelenting persecutions to which your manly and undeviating firmness has, in this reign of vengeance and terror, exposed both your family and yourself.

I likewise enclose for you a sovereign, the second one from Mr. Radicals' in St. James. The other subscriptions are from the very center and focus of corruption in the city of London, viz., the neighbourhood of the Exchange; which, foul as it is, is not without some regenerating sparks, whose brilliant scintillations of reason, are continually playing upon the virulent mass by which they are surrounded.

I remain your sincere admirer,

HOWARD FISH..

P. S. Many persons are desirous of knowing by what right the management of this large Work House, England, still continues in the hands of the squandering firm of Castlereagh Canning & Co. ? and many marvel much, that what is the busines of the whole, should be so long in the superintendence of any one part of that whole;

seeing that the said superintendence is so lucrative. They state, that it is nothing more than fair, that themselves or their acquaintances should take a turn as foreman in the SHOP, (commonly called the State) for the purpose of aggrandizing their own families and connections, or of having a lark as well as other people, with the millions of fools, now the most subservient slaves of the present occupants. Oh, the varlets!

CITIZEN,

Dorchester Gaol, May 27, 1822. I CAN clearly perceive that you are among those friends who are determined by a preparatory support to encourage me to all that may be in my power to do in the cause of free discussion, in spite of the power of persecution and the persecution of the things in power: so that now I can only offer you my thanks, and promise you my best exertions.

The reason why Castlereagh, Canning, and Co., continue to be the Overseers of this great State Workhouse is, that there are not Paupers enough of your and my disposition to go and take the power, or the right to rule, out of their hands. It is because so many of the things called men in this country are as willing to be Slaves as they are to be Paupers, and are far much too slothful, both mentally and corporeally, to manage and look well after their own affairs. The best thing we can do for the moment is, to remove as much of our burthens as possible upon the shoulders of those who are willing to carry without whip or spur, and who feel honoured in the notion of being even the PackHorses of Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Priestcraft.

Eager as I know you have ever been to see the things called men act as men, you must feel some pleasure, as I do, in the progress of change even about the Exchange: and, for my part, I am very apt to think that this part of the Paupers could not have been under the tuition and guardianship of better Overseers than Castlereagh, Canning, and Liverpool, or men who starve all their inmates

because there is a lamentable superabundance of food in the store!

With a hope that enough of the Paupers may speedily throw off their chains and badges, and resolve to make the most of the produce of their own labour, by managing their own affairs, I remain, ready not only to cheer them on, but to lend a hand, yours, &c.

R. CARLILE.

TO MR. R. CARLILE, DORCHESTER GAOL.

FELLOW CITIZEN,

London, May 20, in the Era of the Carpenter's Wife's Son.

I HAVE to thank your correspondent Mr. Smithson, for the proposition he has submitted for the payment of the enormous fines imposed on yourself and Sister; and although circumstances prevent my complying fully with the plan, I beg to do myself the honour of handing you the sum of one pound, being half the proposed amount; trusting at the same time, you will take the will for the deed.

In looking back to the commencement of our career, and at the determined opposition our principles have met with, I cannot but congratulate you, and the Republicans and Deists generally, upon the extraordinary progress they have made. We have not only had to encounter the persecution of the ruling despots and their agents, but we have had also nearly the whole press of the country, libelling, misrepresenting and holding us up to the detestation of a prejudiced people. Yet still, notwithstanding the efforts and artifices of the whole host of our opponents, Republicanism and Deism advances, while Superstition and Tyranny shrinks at its approach.

Among the numerous denominations of priests with which this country is infested, I know of none so mean, so contemptible, and detestable, as the popular or dissenting preachers of the day. It is the practice of these men to be continually crying out against persecution, they tell us Christianity does not want the aid of the law to support it--but mark their consistency, they make a great fuss and bother about men being persecuted for their opinions. Yet not one of these men, no, not even the Unitarians or Freethinking Chistians have yet subscribed a single penny towards the payment of your fines. Surely, they do not mean to suffer you and your family to remain in dungeons during the remainder of your lives, for the want of their assistance, is this Christian charity,-is this doing unto others as they would be done by? What! is it possible that these men who were so sensibly alive to their duties as Christians, who so loudly and boldly declaimed against your persecutors, can suffer this. No, Sir, do not believe it; they cannot, they will not be silent spectators while