* This idea of a travelling name seems to have been to save
unpleasant notoriety or attention.
"May 15th, 1838.
"I am sorry the Sheffield people do not like the Church, though I am looking for an entirely new class of readers. The first number converted a fine fellow of a clergyman here in town, who is quite in raptures over it. His name is Claiborne, and he writes over the name of 'The Curate of Swalacliffe'. Claiborne is American born, whose father was one of the strugglers for Independence, and intimate with Thomas Paine. I assure you I am very happy. The few friends I have are worth all the rest of the world."
"December 18th, 1838.
"My chief stand has been in Carlisle this autumn. I find that I kept at it too long, as I broke down altogether in health at Manchester. I must now keep by the fireside for two or three months and nurse myself carefully. The Tory, Lord Lonsdale's paper, fell foul of me, and went so far as to say that I undertook to lecture on teetotalism and got drunk and disappointed the audience. A vagabond by the name of Hawthorne had made a boast of doing this. He began to abuse me before an audience in Cockermouth. I mentioned his own statement to the audience, and the Tory paper made the answer apply to me. Mrs. Carlile joined me at Carlisle and lectured on Phrenology, also at Annan, and in the summer at Gravesend and in London. I was really triumphant in Carlisle. The people demanded that the preachers should meet me. Every one was asked and declined. In despair a messenger was sent to Annan to a Mr. Ward, who came boasting into the market-place that 'he was about to meet in the theatre and to silence one of the adversaries of the Lord'. I gave him such a discourse to deal with as he could not touch, but altogether complimented it, declaring in the theatre that he altogether approved of it. I reminded him that I had superseded his historical Christianity. That was a difficulty for which he needed time."
"Enfield, February 19th, 1839.
"You will find by this that I am neither dead, dying, nor asleep, but still in vigorous health and mind, after my six months of vegetable diet. I hope you will live to see me still beating down all opposition yet."
"Enfield, March 2nd, 1839.
"I see there is nothing in a reforming or a political public to be relied on. They may be cajoled, cheated, led by the nose or ears, but to reason with them offends them, while the multitude will follow where immediate interest or even excitement is imagined. O'Brien's (Bronterre) threats all ended in vapor. He is no politician, as shallow as any other Irishman; I never knew one that could reason on any subject except Roger, the father of Fergus O'Conner. Fergus is an empty, shallow creature, and will be found in a ludicrous position in the autumn of this year, from his having set a day for universal suffrage to be the law of the land. I like to see Owenian discussion in print, and this is where, and alone where, the Owenists are doing good. I sent you a Sunbeam, with something of mine in it. I shall write more articles for the different papers under the signature of 'Cadmus', which, being interpreted, is the same as Jesus Christ. We want him, but have never had him yet, either in body or spirit."
"Hull, May 13th, 1839.