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those poetical flourishes in which the Bible abounds; and in some places are but badly incorporated with the surrounding matter. There is a strange inconsistency between this chapter and the last, or this song and the last; for, although this is called a blessing, it has more the character of a national song than the former. The last was a picture of woe and distress, the present is the reverse, and represents Jehovah in a good humour, and the Israelites as the happiest and most favoured of nations. The Christians have been guilty of one of their little frauds in translating this chapter, for in the second verse the word, which they have translated, ten thousand of saints, is, in fact, no other than the name of a place which has been so often mentioned, Meribah Kadesh: the true translation makes the verse read quite as a different thing. Moses is here described as king in Jeshurun, but I should imagine the Hebrew word is improperly translated king instead of chief, at least, it does not correspond, in its present translation, with any other description of Moses. The word Jeshurun is found twice in the present chapter and once in the foregoing; it is intended as a figure for the children of Israel, but their whole character is depicted as such, as to make the word Jeshurun inappropriate. It signifies upright, so also does Jasher, and the book called the book of Jasher, is a mere figure, without any literal meaning. This is also the case with most of the names in the Bible, they are merely the words figurative of the character represented under them. I believe the greater part of it to be a romantic tale. The thirty-fourth chapter merely mentions that Moses went up to the top of Mount Pisgah, and having had a peep at the land of Canaan, Jehovah is represented as putting him to death, and burying him! What extent must the promised land be supposed to be, so that Moses could view it all from a mountain!

The following verse is an undoubted proof of the late date of the writing of Deuteronomy:

"And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."

As the book of Joshua is unquestionably a part of the romantic tale about the origin of the Israelitic nation, I shall attach it to the five foregoing books, which are denominated the books of Moses, before I make any general observations on the Pentateuch as a whole. It is impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion, where truth or falsehood begins

or ends in the Jewish history; therefore it is incumbent on us to receive the whole with suspicion, or, at least, to suffer nothing to enter our minds but what carries probability with it. A strong argument might be brought forward to support the reality of Joshua, if we can place confidence in Procopius, who flourished in the early part of the sixth century, he says, that a part of the Canaanites, who were driven out by Joshua, founded the city of Tangier on the coast of Africa, and that they erected two white columns with inscriptions in the Phonician language, which unquestionably was the language of the persons who inhabited the country attributed to the Canaanites, of which the translation is as follows;-" We are those who fled from the face of Joshua, the murderer, the son of Nave." This inscription would form a strong proof of the existence of such a person as Joshua is said to have been, but it is not related until the Christians had commenced the grossest forgeries to support the books on which their religion. was founded, and this in my opinion goes a great way to destroy the credit that might otherwise be due to it. One thing is certain that the Jews had an establishment in the land of Palestine, and whether it was Joshua, or any other of their heroes, that established them, is a matter of indifference: but I cannot help noticing that there is such a strange inconsistency in the condition of the Israelites as related in the book of Joshua and that in the book of Judges, that I am inclined to doubt the story of Joshua and give some credit to what is related in the book of Judges; for no nation of people has ever undervalued its ancestors, but in all ancient history exaggeration is the common fault: we wish to raise the fame of our ancestors and lessen their enemies, and this has been the characteristic of every nation which has preserved its history, either by tradition or letters.

(To be continued.)

Printed by JANE CARLILE, 55, Fleet Street.

The Republican.

No. 18, Vol. 3.] LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1820. [PRICE 6D.

MOCK TRIAL OF THE QUEEN.

That real trinity in unity-those prosecutors, judges, and jurors, which call themselves a House of Lords, a High Court of Parliament, and hereditary judges and legislators, have resolved by a large majority to proceed with the Divorce Bill against the Queen. Various attempts have been made by individual members of that House, to put a stop to the further progress of the Bill before the examination of witnesses had commenced, but all in vain. They are determined to support and pander to the will of him, whence all their imaginary honours flow. Their ribands, and pensions, and sinecures are not to be obtained by listening to any other dictates than those of the monarch, and whether he be a prude or a profligate, a lawful magistrate or an imbecile despot, it matters nothing to them, they are the creatures of his breath and him they must and will support.

There is nothing new in the evidence brought forward to support the charges against the Queen: it by no means comes up to the tale of slander which has been long and previously propagated throughout the country, and most diligently throughout the metropolis. Such evidence would not be listened to by an honest and incorrupt judge and twelve honest jurymen. Beyond attachment and familiarity in the Queen towards her servant, Bergami, there is nothing proved, and the then situation of the Princess of Wales in a foreign country, would fully justify her making a confidant of some individual, on whose fidelity she might rely, and to whom she might open her mind, without a fear of its being promulgated to her injury. The dangerous influence of monarchy might justly make her prefer a foreigner to a native of these isles. It should be recollected that an inhabitant of the continent, or VOL III. No. 18.

Printed and Published by J. CARLILE, 55, Ficct Street.

rather a native, would not be viewed as a foreigner by the Queen, as he might be by a native of Great Britain or Ireland. She herself is but a foreigner naturalized, and as her naturalization in this country has brought upon her five and twenty years of misery, she at least, could respect nothing in the country, but that portion of the people who have lifted their voice in her behalf as an injured and persecuted woman. The Queen has by no means been the cause of her own suffering and persecution, it has been brought upon her by a brutal and worthless husband: she has been enticed from that circle which was most dear to her, for the basest of purposes, to enable a man who had involved himself in debt and disgrace by his profligate career, to impose upon the people of England a pretence to reformation by taking a wife and abandoning his former course of life, merely to get his debts paid, that he might be enabled to commence a fresh carousal of profligacy and dissoluteness. It is now placed beyond doubt, that this was the only motive that induced the present king to marry, for he no sooner found a parliament of easy virtue to pay his debts and give him a greater income, than he returned to his former vicious course with a vigour proportionate to his replenished and increased means.

There is one thing which the Queen is indebted, both to herself and to the nation at large, namely, to write the memoirs of her wedded life, and narrate every particular that has transpired between her and her husband, and between her and other branches of the Royal Family, or any of their adherents. This is due to the nation that has so decidedly taken her part, and it is fitting that it should know, and be well acquainted with, the real characters of those who are so splendidly supported amidst the general want of its inhabitants. In the publication of her memoirs, the Queen would take the most effectual mode of recrimination, and she has given us a brief sketch of what it would be, in her dignified and truly noble letter to the King. Her persecutor sticks at nothing whereby he might the better deprive her of her legal rights and title. It is evident that the whole of his conduct towards her is that of individual caprice, the motive is that of self gratification, for he cannot endure the sight and copartnership of the woman he has so brutally used.

The vices of monarchy are beginning to dispaly themselves in the most striking colours, never was circumstance so important to the cause of republicanism as the present attempt to crush an injured Queen. A mere statement of facts is now

become the only duty of the advocate of republicanism, his cause even needs no argument to make proselytes; all he has to say is, look about you, and see what is going on.

The Queen has now set all factions against her: Whig and Tory complain of her conduct, she has expressed her opinion of both, and avowed her determination to assist in reforming the present system. Her answers to the several addresses which have been sent her have been truly important. They are adapted to the real state of the country, and must warm the hearts of the advocates of reform, and add thousands, perhaps millions, to their number. If the Queen be the author of the answers given to the several addresses that have been presented to her, and the letter addressed to the King in her name, she must be a woman of first rate literary talent, and such as few women can equal. All the late answers, or alt save those to the addresses from Preston and Nottingham, have been simple, elegant, and most forcibly striking. They are the pure dictates of a feeling, generous, and brave heart: and whether they be in reality the sole composition of the Queen, or of her friends, they display an ability that has never entered a British cabinet. The following is the Queen's most important letter to the King:

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SIR, After the unparalleled and unprovoked persecution which, during a series of years, has been carried on against me under the name, and authority of your Majesty-and which persecution, instead of being molJified by time, time has rendered only more and more malignant aud unrelenting-it is not without a great sacrifice of private feeling that I now, even in the way of remonstrance, bring myself to address this letter to your Majesty. But, bearing in mind that royalty rests on the basis of public good that to this paramount consideration all others ought to submit; and aware of the consequences that may result from the present unconstitutional, illegal, and hitherto unheard-of proceedings-with a miad thus impressed, I cannot refrain from laying my grievous wrongs once more before your Majesty, in the hope that the justice which your Majesty may, by evil minded counsellors, be still disposed to refuse to the claims of a dutiful, faithful, and injured wife, you may be induced to yield to considerations connected with the honour and dignity of your crown, the stability of your throne, the tranquility of your dominions, the happiness and safety of your just and lawful peo ple, whose generous hearts revolt at oppression and cruelty, and especially when perpetrated by a perversion and a mockery of the laws.

A sense of what is due to my character and sex, forbids me to refer minutely to the real causes of our domestic separation, or to the numerous unmerited insults offered me previously to that period; but, leaving to your Majesty to reconcile with the marriage vow the act of driving, by such means, a wife from beneath your roof, with an infant in her arms, your Majesty will permit me to remind you, that that act was entirely your own; that the separation, so far from being sought for by me, was a sentence pronounced upon me, without any cause assigned, other

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