The Battle of The Press

"I consider David France has done wonders for me since he has been in town, and notwithstanding that I intend much alteration in the management of the shop-when I come out."

But now a little shadow has fallen between them, but it is a shadow. Isis is smarting at her exclusion from the gaol, while every other lady is admitted; she is evidently a little jealous, and has so expressed herself. One cannot but be impressed at the dignity and firmness of his reply. Yet how tenderly considerate of her he is. He will not let her have his reply till morning. He does not wish to spoil her night's rest or his own.

"I am as chaste towards you in mind and body and thoughts, as the infant at your breast. Toward you I have been honest and will be honest; but remember, I am not a man to be trifled with, to be jeered at, nor to be easily duped. You have seen my promptitude in resenting an insult from Mr. Taylor, and my resolution in carrying out the resentment. I shall deal with you precisely the same if you so deal with me. And I am sorry to say there is a much nearer resemblance between your temperament and Mr. Taylor's than between yours and mine. You have his weaknesses and waverings, and much of his impatient, suspicious irascibility, without his genius and study. Instead of growing in philosophical improvement you are diverging from it. You do not now act up to the promise of your Bolton letters. It is no sufficient apology to say you love me too well to be at ease; I should prefer the love that would allow you to be at ease. My soul burns with a steady and pure flame of desire to see and be with you; but I cannot degrade myself so far as to exhibit folly and madness about it, and to be food for the sport of my enemies; nor do I upbraid you on account of our separation. This letter has been all my evening's work, I shall not let it spoil my sleep, and I do not intend you to have it until the morning. After the apologised error of Saturday I did not expect another so soon. I feel nothing but love for your love, and pity for your weakness, and ill-health, and separation from me. The letter which I began about the husband was intended for a pretty letter, but the pie (the dinner) came unexpectedly, before I could finish."

In the Preface to the first volume of the Isis the Editor made the following statement in relation to the matter; it is her first statement to the public of their union: —

The Preface to the "Isis" (1st Vol.)

"When a gap was made in the philosophical business of the Rotunda by the imprisonment of Messrs. Carlile and Taylor, I volunteered the best assistance I could give to preserve the utility of that establishment. A stranger to all public business and public men, I came alone from Lancashire, fortified in my resolve by nothing more than the goodness of the principles I espoused, and the kind, generous encouragement and assistance given to me by Mr. Carlile, to whom and with whom, I rejoice to say, I have since allied myself in matrimonial engagement, and find no disappointment in the possession of happiness in the third year. I have seen Messrs. Carlile and Taylor restored to public business, and under every engagement I felt that my task was complete. If I have not done all that I might have wished, I have done my best, and should rejoice the more to see an Englishwoman doing more than I have done. I am proud in the conviction of having set a good example, somewhat proud of the success of my effort, but prouder still of the honorable and useful position which I still fill in the community in aid and assistance of the true spirit of reform for whatever is corrupt and wrong. There are those who reproach my marriage; they are scarcely worth notice, but this I have to say for myself, that nothing could have been more pure in moral, more free from venality. It was not only a marriage of two bodies, but a marriage of two congenial spirits, or two minds reasoned into the same knowledge of true principles, each seeking an object on which virtuous affection might rest, and grow, and strengthen; and though we passed over a legal obstacle, it was only because it could not be removed, and was not in the spirit of a violation of the law, nor of intended offence or injury to anyone. A marriage more pure and moral was never formed and continued in England. It is what marriage should be, though not perhaps altogether what marriage is in the majority of cases. They who are married equally morally will not find fault with mine; but where marriage is merely of the law, or for money, and not of the soul, there I look for abuse. My spirit was wedded to the spirit of my husband before I had spoken to him. My soul craved him on the love of good political principle, and for his endurance of its martyrdom through many years of imprisonment. I have not yet repented. We fairly won the bequeathed flitch of bacon to a year's happy marriage.18 And long may it continue. We remembered that we were human, and have not fallen into the error of pledging love for life, hoping in the absence of that pledge to make it last the longer.

"The contents of this volume, in conjunction with my life's career, I submit to the judgment of all charitable beings. I court not the judgment of those who have no charity; but I can boldly say I brave and defy it. I live to please myself, and to serve the cause of virtue and honesty. Rail who may, I am not to be dismayed or discouraged; praise who may, my career must still be guided by its principles, rather than by that praise, though I am neither alien to gratitude, nor do I boast of being insensible to just approbation. I have intended well, and I am satisfied, conscientiously satisfied, that whatever I have publicly done has been well and usefully done, and will not license complaint until some Englishwoman does better.

"Eliza Sharples Carlile.

"62, Fleet Street, May 29, 1834."

On another occasion Carlile said, in reply to an attack on his marriage with Isis: —

"On the subject of marriage I have ever been the advocate and the consistent practicer of monogamy, of the honorable and happy and mutual attachment of the one man to one woman, the basis of which must not, cannot be human law, but the divine law of love and affectionate attachment. Chastity is found in obedience to the divine law, and not to the human law. I am now living up to this law in the highest sense in which it can be interpreted, openly, honorably, and with injury to no one, against which reproach has no power, for which the insect has no sting nor has venom poison. I have paid the penalty of perpetual unhappiness, and have still to pay a financial penalty for an error arising from the ignorance of my youth, and for supposing that the priest and the law could unite two hearts. Alas! I found that there was no charm in either the priest or the law to that end, and the experiment was to me the penalty of seventeen years of misery, hopeless and irremediable as to law, and which I have only remedied by the force of moral courage and the sacrifice of whatever property I had accumulated beyond the brain. As far as means were available, I have honorably filled out the character of a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a neighbor, a tradesman, and a citizen. I shrink from no enquiry. All is now better, all is now settled in my family, and I am not aware that a single human being regrets the arrangement. The wife of my bosom, the willing participator in my toils and troubles, is wedded to me in mind, body, and estate; she strong in her confidence in my honor, I strong in the confidence of her virtue, and this promises to be a happy marriage through life. It is so in the third year. It is sufficiently respected in the metropolis and elsewhere. It is pure in spirit, and is pure. It conceals neither motive nor purpose. It is open, fair, and honorable, not intruding itself upon the world's attention, but not shrinking from the world's scrutiny."

CHAPTER IV. IN PRISON AGAIN!

A very few weeks after Carlile's liberation from the Compter he was again under sentence. This time it was for refusing to pay the Church rates, which were unusually burdensome and excessive, owing to extra assessments which had been made. These assessments bore very hard on people of limited means, and many were the cases of consequent suffering which were endured. A seizure was made of 1,200 almanacs to satisfy the claim. In retaliation, Carlile had made three effigies: a bishop and the devil arm in arm, which he placed in one of the windows over 62 Fleet Street; these were designated the "spiritual" brokers, and in another window the figure of a man in ordinary clothes as a "temporal" broker. This drew immense crowds of people to the house, so large as to interfere seriously with business in the street. He was threatened with all kinds of "actions", and several attempts were made by the police and others to drag them from the windows, but he finally "compromised" the matter with the authorities, "for the sake of his neighbors"; he would only put them up on Sunday, that being, as he said, "the bishop's day". He hoisted these effigies to-attract the people and call their attention to one of the greatest burdens they had to endure in the way of taxation. The next week another seizure was made for Church rates, and 800 general book almanacs were taken for a tax of £6 ($30). There were three distraints made in one year amounting to £30 ($150). There were many persons who encouraged Carlile to make this stand, and many offers of assistance were received by him (privately) in carrying on this war. Many people were heartily sick of these burdensome Church taxes and special assessments.

It is a singular fact that the collector of such rates paid two of them out of his own pocket rather than make the levy on the goods. Carlile on discovering this paid one of the sums back, but warned him never to do that again.

Joseph Harris19 was fined £1 and locked up one night for being in the shop at the time of the seizure! Carlile was brought up on an indictment before the Court and again sentenced to three years' imprisonment, to pay a fine of forty shillings, and to give sureties of £200 ($1,000) for good behaviour for three years. The spirit of this sentence was to keep him silent out of prison for three years. To this he would not submit, saying that "he would rather be free in prison than shackled outside".

He therefore wrote a note to the Governor of the compter asking that his old room be made ready for him, the one he had occupied so long; and once more he took up his abode in a gaol. However, he was not required to fill out his term, and after being in the compter four months he was released quietly, the authorities themselves becoming ashamed of the affair.

This was the last of his imprisonments, having now completed nine years and seven months on the various charges.

Shortly after the liberation of Carlile from the compter, he and Isis made a short tour in the country, where he lectured at many places. Unfortunately, in some way their infant boy, then about six months old, contracted the small-pox. The mother and babe had to be isolated in a little cottage outside the town, the fear of the inhabitants of the town being so great as to be almost wild in their alarm. Things the patient needed were brought and left at the door; but not one could be had to wait upon them. To make matters worse poor Isis, probably from using the same handkerchief on the baby which she had used to wipe away her own tears, was attacked with a serious affection of the eyes, which made her almost blind. In this situation she remained several days, as Carlile had been travelling from place to place filling engagements, and she was not able to reach him till the end of the week. We will not dwell on this most terrible experience, which ended in the death of their beautiful boy and the illness of its mother. Their grief, and Carlile's mention of it in the Gauntlet, was very touching. He was only able to stay with her one week, and then he went to fill up his belated engagements. A public man has not much time to give to private griefs. Neither did Carlile force his sorrows upon the public notice. We get this meagre account of the sad affair from private sources, though his boy's death was published and commented on in the Gauntlet. After the death of their beloved son, and birth of another, Carlile leased a pretty little place in Enfield. It was a pleasant home, and Carlile and his little family were very happy. The place, though not large, had a nice garden and many fruit trees, with a fine spreading yew tree on the front lawn, under which tea was often served in fine weather. Here they lived for several years, and here their two daughters, Hypatia and Theophila, were born, Julian having been born at 62, Fleet Street. The many years of imprisonment had seriously affected Carlile's lungs, and had developed a family tendency to asthma. This, with the fogs and dampness of the usual London winter, made it almost impossible for him to breathe in the city's atmosphere. He was almost well at Enfield, but whenever he was called to London to lecture, or on any other business, he would suffer agonies until he got back to the country again. Unfortunately, these calls were frequent, and often required forty-eight hours in bed to overcome their effects, and Isis had frequently to take his place on the rostrum. But he was not idle by any means. In the summer months he made extended trips to the leading towns of the island, and in the winter he wrote much, always with a good grate-fire in his room, for he could not live without a good fire, being so very sensitive to changes of temperature.

In a letter to Thomas Turton, dated Enfield Highway, December 1st, 1840, Carlile writes: —

"I have this afternoon been delighting myself with me correspondence with Mrs. C. (Isis) while I was in the Compter, separating the wheat from the chaff. It will make an interesting volume some future day. Mrs. C. is heartily sick of the poverty of philosophy. You may be sure of that. She has had her martyrdom that way, as often without money as with it."

"Battle of the Church Rates.20

"A country gentleman came into my shop on Tuesday evening, and said he had heard that the Jury at the Old Bailey had just returned a bill against me for the exhibition of the effigies; that the bench had issued a warrant, and that the trial was fixed for Monday next. The Wednesday morning papers have taken no notice of the matter; in the afternoon I sent my son to the office of the Clerk of the Arraigns, whose clerk demanded a shilling for the precise information, and as I have determined not to spend a shilling about it, he came off without satisfaction, though the clerk more than once mentioned that no such a bill had yet been returned to that office, where it must necessarily be lodged. So that up to this moment, Wednesday evening, I know nothing about the matter in fact, and may have to go to press with this number before I know anything, even if there be an indictment. I am quite prepared for it, and shall have nothing to regret, unless I am interrupted in doing what I wish to do for the family of the departed Rowland Detrosier. The moment I am certain of an indictment, I shall prepare the effigy of a lawyer, as one of the temporal brokers and props of the Church. If the Duke of Wellington shall say that he intends to propose the sinking of the Church rates, I will take his word for it, and remove the effigies; but I will not take the word of a Whig for anything.

"Thursday Noon, – I have been to the City Solicitor's Office, and have learned that an indictment was to be presented against me this morning. I have since learnt, on returning home, that it has been returned a true bill, and that the Court has been moved, and has granted a warrant for my arrest. All this is mere sport to me. The indictment charges me with having committed a nuisance by the exhibition of effigies in Fleet Street The foreman of the Grand Jury, which has returned this a true bill, is that selfsame notorious Robert Hedger, who is Chairman of the Surrey Sessions, who was born in a nuisance, brought up in a nuisance, and who has turned out a nuisance to society as a profligate drunkard. His father begat him, and made the fortune he inherits in a common brothel and highwayman's house, that was called the Dog and Duck, in St. George's Field's. If the man's character were now good, I would not reproach him for the scene of his birth; but it is notoriously bad and hypocritical. Though I have quarrelled with Mr. Taylor, I have not pardoned Hedger for his conduct toward him. I will go through with this indictment as I have gone through with others, and defy any indictment to put or take them down.

"The trial is fixed for Monday, Dec. 1, in the Old Court of the Old Bailey, before the Judges of the Central Criminal Court. May God overthrow the Bishop and the Devil.

"R. C."

"Oppressive Taxation.

"William Davis, a chimney sweeper of King Street, St. Ann's, Westminster, was called on for king's taxes to the amount of four pounds twelve shillings, on the 23rd of October, by Sharp the collector. Davis asked for three days to make up the money. Sharp refused. Davis then sent out to the pawnshop his best hat, coat, and trousers; his wife's cloak, gown, and shawl, and raised £2 4s., which was all he could raise, and Samuel George Blake, of John Street, Tottenham Court Road, a fellow sweep, had to raise the remainder by paying interest for the loan of the money. David offered to pay the money by a sovereign per week, which was refused by Sharp and the sheriff's officer. He is now threatened with distraint for poor rates, church rates, and land-tax. What is a government that is supported by scenes of distress of this kind? What is protection for liberty and property, where the law swallows up both liberty and property, without cognisance of any other offence than the poverty of the housekeeper? It will be well to publish as many cases of this kind as possible, to teach Our Lords who have not the fear of The Lord before their eyes, what is the real state of things; and moreover, that an endurance of such a state of things may be exhausted.

"R. C."

CHAPTER V. LETTERS TO TURTON

The correspondence of Carlile with Thomas Turton commenced with business, but ended in the truest and strongest friendship that Carlile ever had: and this is saying a great deal, for his life was enriched with the friendship and esteem of many noble men and women. But we have only glimpses of the correspondence of some of these, so that we cannot judge so well of the length and depth of their mutual esteem as we can of that of Carlile and Turton. It is to Mr. Turton that the gratitude of the editor is due for having so laboriously yet lovingly procured and preserved the very complete collection of his friend's and her father's works and manuscripts. Like that of W. V. Holmes, this correspondence commenced in 1822, and was kept up through a period of twenty-one years. The first one was written March 21st, 1822, the last January 24th, 1843, just two weeks before his death. We will extract part from that dated June 23rd, 1822: —

"Mr. Thomas Turton,

"Sir, – I thank you for the subscription, and would by no means wish you to press it further. The same amount spent in my publications would have done me nearly as much good, and I rather think the idea of subscription is calculated to keep many aloof who would otherwise purchase the publications. I am in hopes I shall get on well now, without any further subscription, and I shall write to check it in all the principal towns where it has been kept up. Any new converts who may like to publish their names this way, well and good. I will send a man to Sheffield as soon as I hear of a volunteer who will keep out of the public house. No laboring man is worthy of being trusted who has not this resolution."

From this there is a jump to 1833, when Carlile was in Giltspur Street Compter, for a paragraph in the Prompter relating to the agricultural riots which were then in progress.

"London, March 8th, 1833.

"Dear Sir, – I trouble you with a couple of dozen of the Gauntlet. I do not invoice them as I wish them to go to the cost of the carriage for the parcel; what I want is to introduce them to Sheffield and to have an agent for them there, if you can find me an honest one there. Every one there, excepting yourself, has failed me in something. The Gauntlet is well received. It will be a political paper, now and then making a hit at superstition. I have sent of them this week 1,250 to Lancashire and a hundred to each of the other principal towns. The fourth number will be interesting to Sheffield for the extract from Buckingham's Parliamentary Review; indeed, I am sure the whole will give 'high political satisfaction'. You see I am not out of prison yet. You would have waited a long time in town to see me out. But I am in good health and the Gauntlet will tell you I am in high spirits. I know you well enough to know that you will do what you can for me."

"London, September 19th, 1833.

"I like your suggestion of reviewing Allen's discourses on Atheism. I will do so. Allen was at Liverpool when we were there meeting Thom in 1829, and I heard he offered to meet us if some one in the Methodist connection would join him. You will see that I have fixed on being at Sheffield on Monday, the 30th inst. Mr. Taylor (the Rev. Robert) does not like the country. I wished him to go to Manchester and challenge the Methodist Conference, immediately on his liberation, but he declined it. My taste is to excite Sheffield in the best possible way. I shall do it better alone than with Mr. Taylor, for his peculiar astronomical interpretation of the Bible leaves no room for discussion, and he does not like discussion. He is brilliant as a scientific lecturer on this ground. I could master Allen in good style now, it is just the thing. I thank you for the suggestion. I can do it so as not to offend any one."

"October 24th, 1833.

"I will leave you and other Sheffield friends to do what you will with Allen. I shall write to him from Manchester on all the points I have heard, and reiterate my challenge so that if he print anything as correspondence with me, he may have something efficient, and I, of course, shall print the letter."

"London, November 28th, 1833.

"Between you and me there is no question but Allen, like every other priest, when pressed to discussion, is a shuffling scoundrel appealing to calumny for a justification. I have paid and have to pay dearly for appealing to law against them, so, some day, I will horsewhip one of these rascals for meeting me with calumny. But if you take my advice you will notice nothing that is published on the subject unless it be an attempt at argument. I have received the knife from Mr. Holmes and every thing your good nature had intended for me. I send you the books I borrowed and a Prompter; you shall have a volume of the Isis when ready, which I shall never drop, as I pride myself on that work."

"January 14th, 1835.

"It is true, as you say, that I have a formidable conspiracy against me, and the worst part of it is my own family do-their utmost to assist my enemies. I shall beat them all! I am as young and vigorous as ever in this sort of resistance." By this time he was in prison again, for refusing to pay Church rates. He says: "I bear imprisonment as well as ever, but I do not intend to stop after the church rate question is settled. I shall have out a good letter to Peel by the first of February – a goodly pamphlet."

"February 5th, 1835.

"I trouble you with a little parcel and beg your acceptance of my letter to Peel and portrait of Julian Hibbert. I still remember that I owe you a large portrait of Paine when I can get one. Peel has written to me to acknowledge the receipt of my pamphlet. I sent it on Friday evening. He acknowledged it on Monday, and on Wednesday I see a commission announced.

"I am about to memorialise the Court in my case: you will see it in print next week. I bear imprisonment as well as ever; though things go on ill at Fleet Street."

"May 7th, 1835.

"I am simplifying my allegorical interpretation of the Bible to the plainest understanding. Could I get the Sheffield Theatre again? I would improve on the last use I made of it. Robert Owen has announced his intended retirement from public life on account of age. The truth is, he projected in-vain. Nobody understands him, and he does not understand himself as to the practical measures. The philosophy of beating down existing evils is the only practical philosophy. We are all in good health save that I suffer atmospherical injury on the lungs and want more exercise in good air."