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The Republican.

VOLUME XII.

FROM JULY 8, TO DECEMBER 30.

Perseverance in a righteous cause becomes the tyrant of tyranny-
turns tyranny into servility.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 135, FLEET

STREET. 1825.

N127-2

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SIR,

DEDICATION TO THE KING.

I DEDICATE this the twelfth Volume of "The Republican," to you; because it contains a complete exposure of the mummeries of the association of Freemasons, of which you are the self-styled Grand Patron. In doing this, my aim is not so much to insult, as to shame; not so much to wound any man who is a Mason, as to instruct those who are not, in what Masonry consists.

As a native and an inhabitant of this Island, whether in or out of a gaol, I have felt ashamed to think, that the magistracy and the legislature of the country, particularly the chief magistrate, should patronize such a social abomination. A social abomination it is; for masonry is the practice of idle ceremonies that instruct not, of a sectarianism that divides mankind without adding to their morality, and that is in itself a process of lying and deception, a pretension to teach an important matter that turns out a vacuity, a trick that engenders nothing but base tricks, a game that must unman all who are identified with it, and lessen that sense of dignity which the upright and honest man, the man free from such tricks, can alone feel.

In the pages of the present volume, Masonry stands exposed in a manner in which it was never before exposed. It stands convicted of the most gross ignorance of its own emblems, and cannot further impose upon the credulous, where this volume is read. But more than this must be done; the oaths of Masonry must be submitted to the Legislature, in its next session, and evidence offered as to the correctness of the whole exposure.

In Masonry, we have found nothing but frivolities, such as unwarlike kings, and courtiers and priests, are fond of, and the mummeries practised at its meetings, are disgraceful to the otherwise progressing intelligence of the age. We want to exchange such frivolities for mechanic and literary institutions: we want a further knowledge of matter, and not of what were the secrets of men gone by, nor of who were the greatest fools in past ages.

I have before advised you to patronize the mechanic institutions, as a substitute for your patronage of Masonry. Were you to do this, you would become a greater monarch than Alexander; than Frederic; than Bonaparte. Kings must come to this, and he will be the wisest, who does it first and voluntarily. But if you neglect this and continue your patronage to Freemasonry, you will but rank among the last of royal fools. I have no objection to kings, if they will be but the wisest of men; if they will but seek a wisdom corresponding with their influence in society; but if they will place themselves at the head of all the fools and rogues in the country, both man and office should be warred with.

The association of Masons is an association of fools, of which

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