John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

OX THE RICHARD CARLILE PROSECUTIONS. 33
in the Review; the denunciation of the pandering to our
national egotism all these were his father redivivus ; yet, we
may see the beginnings of his own independent start, more
especially in the opinions with regard to women, and the
morality of sex.
The first article in the third number (July, 1824), is on the
Carlile Prosecutions, and, I have no doubt,
is his. It is said
of the famous Scotchman, Thomas Chalmers, that, on the
memorable occasion when four hundred of the clergy of the
Church of Scotland met to resolve upon throwing up their
places in the Establishment, he addressed them in his most
fervid style, and, in so doing, reproduced a passage on the
heroism of the early Christians, composed when he was only
eighteen. In like manner, there are passages in this article that
could have been transferred without change to the
Take for e :ample, a part of the peroration.
"
".
Liberty
"
That Christians, the Author of whose religion was tried and
executed for blasphemy, his own words during the trial being
pronounced sufficient evidence against him by his sacerdotal
judge ; Christians, whose prophetic books are full of the most
biting sarcasms on the gods and worship of the mightiest em
pires; Christians, who boast a noble army of martyrs, whose
lives were the penalty of their avowed departure from the reli
gion of their country ; Christians, whose missionaries are
striving in every region of the earth to bring other religions
into disbelief and contempt ; Christians, Protestant Chris
tians, whose reformers perished in the dungeon or at the stake
as heretics, apostates, and blasphemers ; Christians, whose
religion breathes charity, liberty, and mercy, in every line ;
that they, having gained the power to which so long they were
victims, should employ it in the self-same way, and strive to
crush the opposition of opinion, or of passion even, by vindic
tive persecution, is most monstrous."
In the same number, he has an article on War Expenditure,
the review of a pamphlet by William Blake on the recent fluc-
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