uncivilized people, and unworthy a negociation and friendship with the more enlightened and humane Chinese. I have witnessed what the English magistrate calls a judicial whipping in various places, but I never witnessed any that equalled for severity, I might say barbarity, that which is practised in this gaol of Dorchester. Although I have never been present at a flogging in this gaol, yet the cries, the moans, the groans, and the resounding lash have reached my ears and tortured my feelings. I am told, that it is equally severe with military flogging, in fact, there is a worthless and brutal character hired for the purpose, who has been a drummer in the army, and accustomed to flog; and the surgeon is present just as it were a military flogging: and what is still worse is, that extent of flogging is discretionary; and where this is left to be the case, in my opinion, the magistrate or judge who imposes the sentence ought to execute it, and not leave the extent of it to the discretion of another. Such was the effect, of what I heard, on my mind after the April Sessions, that I really rejoiced at finding that there was to be no private whipping after the July Sessions. The customs of this gaol, I might say this county, are about a century behind any other parts of England, which I have witnessed; for the inhabitants by no means keep pace with the other parts of the country in intelligence, and are as indifferent to what is passing, as if it was an island like Guernsey and Jersey.

In the twenty-eighth chapter of this book, begins what is considered to be the prophetic language of Moses as to the future condition of the children of Israel: but to the close observer, there is sufficient internal evidence to shew, that it was actually written after the Jews had been subject to captivity, and after they had experienced the evils which are here menaced. This is the ground work of all their prophecies, and he, who can believe that it has ever been in the power of any human being to foretel the future, unless it be from past and existing causes, has a mind that deserves to be imposed on: for whilst there are such dupes in existence there will be always knaves to impose upon and to alarm them. There appears to be a general feeling in the human breast that delights in the idea of superiority over our fellows, and it too often happens that in our attempt to convince another of our knowledge and ability, we launch into extreme and improbable things, for no other purpose whatever, than the mere gratification of exciting surprise. The person surprised receives a very different impression from what he has heard, to what remains on the mind of

he who utters to create surprise. It is by such means that trifles insignificant in their origin have been worked up into miracles, into prophecies, and into every thing that is marvellous. All such wonderful stories are the result of falsehoods, or continued exaggeration: they have no foundation in truth.

If any Jew or Christian can shew me that the Pentateuch existed before the Babylonish captivity, then, and not until then, will I believe that it contains a word that deserves to be called prophecy: and even then it would be doubtful, as the interpolations have been so extensive, that it has become like an old stocking, darned all over, so that but a few threads of the original remain. It is very easy, and nothing more easy, than to prophecy what shall befall a nation subject to misrule or tyranny. I could venture to prophecy that this country will abolish monarchical government within a century, and this is speaking within compass, which the Jew or Christian has never done, whereas the priests of every age have made the supposed prophecies of the Old and New Testament apply to that age their fulfilment has been said to have been verified, or about to be verified immediately, and each age has predicted the immediate second coming of the Messiah. At the origin of Christianity, it was taught, and its progress might in some measure be accounted for by such doctrine, that the Messiah was to come among them immediately, even in that first age of Christianity, that the fulfilment of time had arrived, and that the earth was to pass away. It was this fanatical notion that produced the book of Revelations, which we find in the New Testament, and many other books of Revelation which were afloat and believed in, in the first age of Christianity, but which have since been rejected as apocryphal to support the orthodoxy of the present received copy. This idea of the second coming of the Messiah has been preached up ever since, only the oftener it is deferred, the greater distance it seems to be. Even in the present day, those seminaries of fanaticism, the Universities, and other holes of corruption and superstition, are sending forth printed papers announcing that the 66 signs of the present times" are verifications of the prophecies of the New Testament, and that the end of all things is at hand. The same ridiculous cry was raised in the progress of the French revolution, and antichrist had come indeed then. Buonaparte was incontestibly proved to be the great beast mentioned in the Revelations, even his name proved it by the old mode of putting it into figures, and the number of

the beast was the number of Napoleon Buonaparte. Old George Rose, John Bowles, John Reeves, and other famous anti-jacobins formed a society, and the card of their admittance or fellowship, represented the dragon with ten heads as the family of Buonaparte, against whom they had united to wage

war.

I have no scruple to risk another prophecy, and that is, that Christianity will expire in Europe within another century. Passing events are sufficient indications, that what I have predicted will be verified, it needs no inspiration to foretel as much: common observation is sufficient. It should be observed, that prophecy was by no means confined to the Jews, but has prevailed in every society whose customs and manners have been recorded. Every country has had its oracles, who answered all questions, as to the future, that were put to them: but as the oracles died with the pagan religion, so shall the Jewish and Christian prophecies with the books of the Old and New Testament. All prophecy is priestcraft. In the twenty-eighth chapter we have a proof, in the following words, that they were written after a king of the Jews had been carried into captivity:

"The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. Aud thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee.'

Now it is unquestionable, that there was a king in Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity, and that he was carried captive with his subjects to Babylon, and it is also unquestionable, that no king was established among the Jews after their return from Babylon. If we admit that this supposed prophecy was written at Babylon, we then can see that the writer antedated his writing, and spoke of that which had passed, although, he represented it as future, whereas it cannot be made to apply to the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans, as there was no king in Jerusalem at that time.

This proof which we have, that there was no king in Jerusalem after the return from the Babylonish captivity, is a strong argument to shew, that the Pentateuch must have been compiled during that captivity; for as the fundamental part of the Jewish code is evidently anti-monarchical, so also did the Jews observe it as such, after their re-establishment. I consider that the book of Deuteronomy should be kept distinct from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, for it has all

the appearance of being the production of a different author: and, undoubtedly, was originally attached to the book of Joshua. Neither of those books, Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers, once mention a king; nor do the books of Kings and Chronicles say any thing about Moses or his law. It is probable, that many of the laws which are attributed to Moses, were in practice under the Jewish kings, and were known to the captives at Babylon, both from observation and tradition; but it is impossible that so complete a code could be in existence, as the law of Moses believed to be delivered to him direct by Jehovah, during the reign of the various kings, and not meet the slightest mention. The finding of the book of the law of Moses by Hilkiah, is such a farcical affair, that it cannot fairly be said to stand in the way of my observation. Eli and Samuel had direct communications with Jehovah, according to the Bible tale, yet they knew nothing of the books of Moses and his law, at least, they are represented as ignorant of them, for it is not to be supposed, that if they knew any thing of the kind, but what some mention would be made of it. For my own part, I do not perceive a word of historical probability in the Bible, until we come to the first book of Samuel; I mean as national history. The story of Ruth, may or may not be true, and is a matter of indifference. It appears to be introduced into the Bible, merely to shew the genealogy of David.

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The fifth verse of the twenty-ninth chapter is a verification my former assertion, in contradiction to Dr. Adam Clarke, that in different parts of this book it is asserted, that the wearing apparel and shoes of the Israelites, were rendered imperishable in the wilderness: it is thus: And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen 'old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot." This assertion is too plain to admit of a quibble.

The thirtieth chapter commences with one of those supposed prophecies, which relates to the ultimate restoration of the Jews. The words are as follows:

"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have com

passion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. And thou shall return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord thy God will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul."

It is evident from all the Jewish writings, that they had no idea of captivity and dispersion, after they were allowed to return from Babylon, by Cyrus, and his successors, Darius and Artaxerxes. All their supposed prophecies were then considered as accomplished; and their having obtained the favour of those Persian kings whose empire was then considered universal, they were elated with the idea, that those writings, which had been artfully fabricated during that captivity, were authentic, and that they were a people, the especial favourites of a powerful deity. To me it appears, that Cyrus was a dupe to the craft of some of the Jews, who fabricated some documents relating to him, and assured him that they were the prophecies of one of their countrymen. Isaiah is made to call Cyrus by name before he was born, and to promise him great success for what he should do unto the Jews. I consider this to be a trap into which the Jews drew Cyrus; and after they had filled him with surprise as to their writings, and had represented him as an instrument of their restoration from captivity, they excited his admiration with the idea, that those writings were ancient, and had existed among their countrymen before they were brought into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. In those times, the ears of mankind were ever open to listen to miraculous stories, and such a flattering unction could not fail to be agreeable to the bosom of Cyrus, where his birth seemed to have been predicted, and where a