keep up its cruel war against labour-let wealth accumulate at one end of society and misery at the other-let the producers of food and luxury starve and go naked themselves, while others enjoy the blessings they have not aided to create-let this desolating heart-sickening system proceed in its ruthless course; and then, indeed, neither family, property, life nor liberty, can ever rest on a secure and happy foundation. We care not what a Thiers or a Lamartine, or anybody else, may say about the "groundwork of society" being destroyed by Socialism; for, if the "groundwork" be wrong, we would gladly see it broken up, and a better one laid out.And that it is wrong we are firmly persuaded; nor will it be set right until the people are wise enough to establish the co-operative principles where the competitive now prevails. Association is the remedy-the Saviour to which the working-man in particular, and society in general, must look for redemption from the social evils that oppress mankind. F. G.

NOTES OF TRAVEL AND TALK.

COVENTRY.-Monday and Tuesday nights, May 27, and 28, I talked again in this old historic city. The use of the ancient St. Mary's Hall was granted, as before; and its coloured glass windows, curious tapestry, and grand oaken cieling, with the fragments of ancient armour hanging around, tended to raise interesting associations as powerfully as when I addressed an audience here, a year ago. On the Tuesday, a few intelligent young workingmen went with me to see the ruins of Kenilworth Castle. I was surprised at their extent: the pile in which the Earl of Leicester received Queen Elizabeth was, indeed, noble. Rooms are shewn among the ruins as Amy Robsart's; and one, in which, they say, she was confined before they murdered her. It may be a mere fiction; but it serves to shew the strength of feeling which there is among the people for her story. From Kenilworth we walked to Warwick,-talking all the way, how we were in Shakspere's land, and how he had doubtless walked along these paths and lanes. The fields were clothed in all their glory of verdure and gold-cups; and the Avon was beheld, at every turn of the road, with its stream of silver threading and winding among the beautiful meadows. At Warwick, another Coventry friend gave us the meeting, and we strolled through the interesting old town, and then visited the grand old church where the chivalrous Earls of Warwick repose, with their grand effigies of marble and brass over their bones: the sepulchral chapel is glorious with stained windows and gothic ornament. We completed our sightseeing by going over the stately Castle of Warwick-rich in pictures, cabinets, and armour, and almost unrivalled for picturesque situation by the side of the Avon and amidst embosoming sylvan scenery. As an aristocratic show-house I have only seen one interior superior to it—the Marquis of Exeter's, near Stamford, reared by the powerful Cecil, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's long headed minister; but in point of situation Burghley House can bear no comparison with Warwick Castle. It was pleasing to learn that the ribbon trade, the great staple of old Coventry, is now brisk; and that the watch-making which employs the next considerable number of hands there, is also in a state of revival. When I visited Coventry, last year, both trades were deeply depressed; and the men talked despondingly.

HULL.-Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, May 29, 30, and 31, I talked in the Freemasons's Hall, Mytongate. I had never delivered a public discourse in Hull before. Indeed, it seems that lecturers do not take Hull in their route so often as the size and importance of the place would seem to make it desirable. Ranking as the fourth port in England, and containing a population of more than 70,000, Hull should be more attractive than it is, one would think, to public teachers who occasionally itinerate. At present, religious sects hold an almost undisturbed possession of its mind; and the cholera, which was dreadfully severe here last year, added great numbers of the affrighted living to the religious societies. Workingmen do not join the Mechanics' Institute in any great numbers; nor could I learn that there are any decided symptoms here of that new spirit of enlightenment which is drawing young workingmen together, in many other large towns to form their Discussion Classes and Mutual Improvement Societies. Surely there must be some who have intellect and energy enough to originate a movement that might be successful. It must be confessed, however, that in all towns depending largely on shipping and visitors, the tendency to dissipation checks efforts to spread intelligence-though it seems that the sects can labour with success in spite of this seemingly adverse element: zeal-zeal-is the secret of their strength: a quality of which Progress-men' need a larger measure.

Workingmen spoke despondingly in Hull. The sailors have been suffering greatly ever since the check given to the Hamburgh trade by the paltry squabble between Prussia and Denmark about Sleswig-Holstein; the iron boat building, which was so prosperous here a very few years ago, has fallen off to almost nothing; and scarcely any of the general trades are prosperous. I was a little surprised to learn this-the reports in London of an almost universally flourishing condition of trade in the provinces being so common. It is, however, seriously true that Hull has been suffering for a considerable period. All classes of workmen complain of it. There is much about the fine old town and its associations that leads one to regret hearing this: it returned noble and incorruptible Andrew Marvel to Parliament: its name awakens the philanthropic memories of Wilberforce and Alderson; and its Greenland trade has served to train thousands of our hardiest sailors--who, poor fellows, have been but ill-served for their bravery and toil.

The grand old It is a very renewed in the

Of course, I saw something of the 'lions' of Hull. cathedral-looking High Church' ranks first of these. noble structure, aud-in spite of bad times-has been interior, so as to restore it to the more ancient form as well as to the modern Puseyite taste. The Zoological Gardens, though small, are tasteful: the tiger, brown bear, and pelican, were the largest I had ever seen. Above the sight of all 'lions,' tigers or bears, however, to myself who had calculated on the restoring effects of this journey, the walks on the fine pier, while I inhaled the Humber breeze, were most pleasing.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.-I reached here on the Saturday evening; and and addressed audiences on Sunday morning and evening, June 2-a double task on which I shall not venture again, in a hurry-it being I regret to say, too much for my strength. It was delightful to find that enquiry and intelligence have been growing here, among the workingclasses, very rapidly of late. Large, and often crowded, Sunday lectures

have been kept up ever since my visit during last year. The succession of Progress-men-such as Walter Cooper, Samuel M. Kydd, Dr. Lees, and G. J. Holyoake, with the talented and stirring addresses of Mr. Larkin, a resident, have stimulated free-thought, whether on religious, Social, or political subjects; and the outcry among the sects is, now, "Beware of Infidelity-and, especially, of Infidelity in the disguise of Christianity!" Attempts have been made to get the lecture-room into Sectarian hands; but, as yet, without success.

SUNDERLAND.-Monday and Tuesday nights, June 3 and 4, I talked in the Athenæum here. Having desired my old friend, Mr. Williams, to make arrangements for me, he had used his influence with the committee of the Literary and Philosophical Society,' and they had agreed to take the responsibility of the lectures. To my own amazement, and that of the audience, a Mr. White, a member of the committee, rose at the close of the first discourse, (which was on Milton) and complained that, in describing the peaceful death of the great model Englishman, I had attributed it to his virtuous life. The term did not square with his convictions. I had not used the word religion; and, morever, he had seen certain placards in Newcastle which led him to regret that, as a member of that committee, he had given his consent for my appearing in that room!' Mr. White is said to belong to the New Connexion Methodists, and as a Protestant, he ought to have been ashamed to object to the placards in question on which the subjects announced were 'Our Right and Duty to judge of the Books of the Old Testament, as we judge of any other Ancient Books,' and 'The real character of Moses, and the design of his Institutions! I told him that I would not talk in that or any other room by sufferance ;-but all the other members of committee present, forthwith arose and expressing their strong dissent from Mr. White, complained that I was dealing illiberally with them to judge of them by one man, and said I was bound to deliver the other discourse (on Burns) according to agreement. I remained for some time-telling them that I should feel tongue-tied, in consequence of what had passed; and turning to the workingmen present, I desired them procure another room wherein I could talk-or, otherwise, I would talk in the street. At length, however, the Committee put it to the vote, and every hand was held up for me to deliver the next discourse according to agreement. Of course, I was bound to comply; and our next night passed over very agreeably. I have promised, however, to go over again and address workingmen in another room before I leave the North.

to

I cannot omit to mention that I had some prolonged and very pleasing conversations with Spencer Hall the Mesmerist, while here; and on the Tuesday forenoon enjoyed two delightful sunny hours in walking on the sea-beach, and conversing with an intelligent young Unitarian Missionary. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.-Again, on Thursday night, June 6, I talked to a still, attentive audience of young men, on the life of Sir Wm. Jones; and endeavoured to excite them to solid self-culture. On Sunday night, June 9, again at Newcastle, and the subject-" The transcendent excellence of the character and teachings of Christ, when his history is divested of legends."

NORTH SHIELDS.-On Monday and Tuesday nights, June 10 and 11, I talked in the Temperance Hall, here. The majority of the audience were composed of young men, from both North and South Shields,-among whom a spirit of chivalrous endeavour to spread education is very plea

singly apparent. On the Monday evening, I had a delightful hour in viewing the ruins of Tynemouth Priory and in looking at the German Ocean, from the elevated rock on which these fine ruins stand; and nearly the whole of Tuesday was passed in a journey along the sea-beach to Marsden rock, near which is a curious place of entertainment formed of rooms cut in the rock, and inhabited. I have seen few places of pleasure better worth a visit. My kind host, Mr. Black, accompanied me from Shields, and another intelligent young man completed the party: I shall not soon forget the exhilirating treat of that day: the feeling of health and strength one derives from the sea-breeze almost makes one think, for the time, that it will be possible to defy the worms for fifty years to come: how unlike the debilitating influences of London!

I write this just before setting off for Seaton Delaval, where I am to be surrounded by hardy colliers, among whom intelligence is making rapid strides. I shall not be able to quit the North, for Yorkshire, so soon as I had intended.

THOMAS COOPER.

P.S.-Correspondents will please address me, until Sunday, June 30th, "at Mr. Barlow's, bookseller, 2, Nelson Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne." On Monday morning, the 1st of July, I certainly must proceed towards Yorkshire.

LAND PROPRIETORS.-The proprietors of large estates have it in their power to facilitate the maintenance, and thereby to encourage the establishment of families (which is one of the noblest purposes to which the rich and great can convert their endeavours), by building cottages, splitting farms, erecting manufactories, cultivating wastes, embanking the sea, draining marshes, and other expedients which the situation of each estate points out. If the profits of these undertakings do not repay the expense, let the authors of them place the difference to the account of charity. It is true of almost all such projects, that the public is a gainer by them, whatever the owner be. And where the loss can be spared, this consideration is sufficient.-Paley.

HABITS.-There are habits, not only of drinking, swearing, and lying, and of some other things, which are commonly acknowledged to be habits, and called so but every modification of action, speech, and thought of man is a bundle of habits. There are habits of industry, attention, vigilance, advertency; of a prompt obedience to the judgment occurring, or of yielding to the first impulse of passion; of extending our views to the future, or of resting upon the present; of apprehending, methodizing, reasoning; of indolence and dilatoriness; of vanity, self-conceit, melancholy, partiality; of fretfulness, suspicion, captiousness, censoriousness; of pride, ambition, covetousness; of overreaching, intriguing, projecting; in a word, there is not a quality or function, either of body or mind, which does not feel the influence of this great law of animated nature.-Paley.

Lectures, in London, for the ensuing Week.

SUNDAY, June 23, at half-past 7, Hall of Science, (near Finsbury Square,) City Road. "Working-Men's Associations"-Walter Cooper. MONDAY, June 24, at half-past 8, Mechanics' Institute, Gould Square, Crutched Friars. "Elocution with illustrations'-Henry Tyrrell. At half-past 8, Finsbury Hall, 66, Bunhill Row.-Quarterly Meeting of Members. At half-past 8, Pentonville Athenæum, 23, Henry Street.-Quarterly Meeting of the Members. At half-past 8, Soho Mutual Instruction Society. "What is Virtue ?"-J. Smith. TUESDAY, June 25, at 8, British Coffee Rooms, Edgeware Road.-Weekly Meeting of the Free Enquirers' Society.

PROSE THINKINGS FROM THE POET MILTON.

THE PEOPLE'S RIGHT.-Since the king or magistrate holds his authority of the people, both originally and naturally for their good, in the first place, and not his own, then may the people, as oft as they shall judge it for the best, either choose him or reject him, retain him or depose, though no tyrant, merely by the liberty and right of free-born men to be governed as seems to them best.

KINGS. The power of kings and magistrates is nothing else but what is only derivative, transferred, and committed to them in trust from the people for the common good of them all, in whom the power yet remains fundamentally, and cannot be taken from them, without a violation of their natural birth-right.

THE LOVE OF FREEDOM.-None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence, which never hath more scope, or more indulgence than under tyrants. Hence it is, that tyrants are not oft offended by, nor stand much in doubt of, bad men, as being all naturally servile; but in whom virtue and true worth most is eminent, them they fear in earnest, as by right their masters; against them lies all their hatred and suspicion.

WICKEDNESS OF BISHOPS.-Most certain it is (as all our stories bear witness) that ever since their (the prelates) coming to the see of Canterbury, for near twelve hundred years-to speak of them in general, they have been in England, to our souls-a sad and doleful succession of illiterate and blind guides, to our purses and goods, a wasteful band of robbers-a perpetual havoc and rapine, to our state-a continual hydra of mischief and molestation-the forge of discord and rebellion this is the trophy of their antiquity and boasted succession through so many ages and for those prelatemartyrs they glory of, they are to be judged what they were by the gospel, and not the gospel by them.

CUSTOM AND ERROR.-If it were seriously asked, (and it would be no untimely question,) Who of all teachers and masters, that have ever taught, hath drawn the most disciples after him, both in religion and in manners? it might not be untruly answered, CUSTOM. Though Virtue be commended for the most persuasive in her (theory, and Conscience in the plain demonstration of the spirit finds most evincing; yet so it happens for the most part, that Custom still is silently received for the best instructer; filling each estate of life and profession with abject and servile principles, depressing the high and heaven born spirit of man, far beneath the condition wherein either God created him, or sin hath sunk him. To pursue the allegory, Custom being but a mere face, as echo is a mere voice, rests not in her unaccomplishment, until by secret inclination she accorporate herself with Error, who being a blind and serpentine body without a head, willingly accepts what he wants, and supplies what her incompleteness went seeking. Hence it is that Error supports Custom, Custom countenances Error; and these two between them would persecute and chase away all truth and solid wisdom out of human life, were it not that God, rather than man, once in many ages calls together the prudent and religious councils of men deputed to repress the encroachments, and to work off the inveterate blots and obscurities wrought upon our minds by the subtile insinuation of Error and Custom, who with the numerous and vulgar train of their followers make it their chief design to envy and cry down the industry of free reasoning under the terms of humour and innovation; as if the womb of teeming Truth were to be closed up, if she presume to bring forth aught that sorts not with their unchewed notions and suppositions.

ON THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES.-Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother dialect only. Hence appear the many mistakes which have made learning generally so unpleasing and so unsuccessful and we do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year.