that which he was now about to lay before them. Dilating again very forcibly on the great misery and suffering which existed, he said that there were three things which, beyond all others, were the principal causes of those evils, viz., Religion, Private Property, and Marriage! Here the lecturer paused. He had made a bold step: hitherto he had crept on stealthily, like a tiger, feeling his way as he went ; but now he made a spring forward, and appeared before his astonished audience in his full dimensions. A great many of the company laughed heartily at the announcement, thinking it was a good joke, and that the lecturer intended them to laugh. Others, however, did not view it in that light. One worthy gentleman rose from his seat, and raising his voice above the rest, exclaimed, "Mr. Mayor, if these are the doctrines which this gentleman has to teach us, I think the less we hear of them the better." Unfortunately the speaker was a Churchman and a Conservative, and a party-feeling immediately rose against him. The Mayor said that he hoped gentlemen would allow Mr. Suttle to explain his views, and then they might judge of them, and answer them if they pleased; but it was irregular to interrupt the lecturer. Thus, by the interference of the Mayor, backed by the party-feeling of the assembly, the true moment for turning the lecturer out of the hall was lost; and, instead of that, the gentleman who had appealed to the Mayor, with two or three others, left the meeting.

Mr. Suttle now felt his advantage. Having been allowed to vent such monstrous doctrines without rebuke, nothing which he could afterwards say was likely to shock the ears of his audience. He went on in the usual course which such persons adopt, speaking of Christianity as only one form of religion, amongst Mahometanism, Buddhism, and others, omitting to state that the Christian religion alone rested on incontrovertible proof, that it was a revelation from God himself-venting the most atrocious blasphemies, yet clothing them with such subtle language, that they appeared most liberal and reasonable: thus filling his unfortunate hearers with doubts and scruples which had never entered into their heads before, and would leave a sting behind perhaps till their dying day. He concluded this day's lecture by announcing that on the following evening he should have the honour of addressing them on the delicate subject of marriage; yet he trusted that he should be able to explain the whole to them in such terms as need not raise a blush on the face of the most modest female.

On the third day the hall was crowded to suffocation, though it is fair to say that several of the most respectable amongst the Whig ladies kept away with their families. I shall not repeat the evening's lecture: suffice it to say, that the Socialist denounced the pure and holy union of Christian marriage as a source of multiplied evil-declared that nature and inclination ought to be the sole arbitrators of the

connexion between the sexes:- and all these impurities and blasphemies were listened to by a large portion of the Laxington community, females as well as men, under the sanction and authority of the worshipful the Mayor!

CHAPTER XIII.

The Socialist rebuffed.

Avaunt all specious pliancy of mind

In men of low degree;

and be then joined

Patience and temperance with high reserve;
Honour that knows the path, and will not swerve;
Affections which, if put to proof, are kind;

And piety towards God. Such men of old
Were England's native growth.

WORDSWORTH.

Ir was not likely that Mr. Gapes and his liberal friends-those at least amongst them who were well to do in the world-should attend very seriously to the doctrines of the Socialist. People who live comfortably, and have enough and to spare, however liberal they may be, do not much like the notion of community of goods, or equality with those below. them. Their fault was in listening to the lectures at all. They went to hear them partly from spite to the Tories and Churchmen, partly from very blameable curiosity, partly from want of principle. And having been disaffected, low-principled, and lax in their notions before, they remained much the same afterwards. They talked about the lectures as they would have talked about an exhibition of the improved solar microscope, as conveying to them ideas

which had not entered into their heads before. I do not mean that some even of the better sort of liberals may not have received serious injury from the lectures. If any of them had pious and reverential feelings with regard to God and His revealed religion, it could not fail but that cold sarcasms and impudent cavils, patiently listened to, must have had an evil effect upon their minds.

But it was chiefly to the poor uninstructed members of the Laxington community that the Socialist's addresses were most prejudicial. In fact, it was for them mainly that the lectures were intended. The anxiety of the lecturer to obtain a respectable audience was principally on account of the éclat which their presence would give, without great expectation of making any converts among them. But he well knew that in a town like Laxington, not yet entirely demoralised, the poorer classes take their tone very much from their betters, and are not apt to listen to any thing which they see despised by those above them. Therefore, while the better kind of liberals who had been foolish enough to attend the lectures were rather amused than convinced, and were quite unconscious of having been influenced by them; many of the poor took it all for serious truth, and were easily induced by Mr. Suttle to form a branch-association for the promotion of social principles.

In this affair Mr. Suttle occupied himself for some time, and had no reason to complain of his