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No. 21. VOL. 1.] LONDON, Friday, May 23, 1828.

THE KING against "THE LION."

[PRICE 6d.

"THE LION" caged in the Court of Exchequer. "THE LION" herbivorous, browzing like an Ass, on Rose, Thistle and Shamrock. THE BISHOPS against " THE LION." THE DISSENTERS against "THE LION." "THE LION" against THE WORLD of human errors! MYSTERY! PROPHECY ! BABYLON has not quite fallen; but BABYLON IS FALLING. BABYLON MUST FALL! for the fulfilment of prophecy! HURRAH! my boys of the Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock, not forgetting the Leek! BABYLON IS FALLING! "GREAT IS THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS!"

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What is the emblematical meaning of the King's Coat of Arms, or the Royal Arms of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland?

By the crowned Lion, we are to understand, that the strength of the crown is emblematical and not real, that its strength is made up of the pride of human cunning triumphing over human ignorance, which, like human infancy, is pleased with toys, baubles and frippery, pictures and gilt, flattery and pompous ceremony that gratifies the unthinking sense of the ear and the eye, and that is never submitted to the critical judgment of thoughtful comprehension and understanding. This is the crowned, the corrupted, the tamed Lion, not the true British Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62. Fleet Street. No. 21.-VOL. I. 2 T

Lion, not the Lion of freedom. The Lion that is the true emblem of human freedom and improvement, will tear in pieces, and consume with fire, every existing European banner, will destroy the emblematical Eagles, and annihilate those badges of tyranny, slavery and folly which are called "COATS OF ARMS." It will wear no crown; it will be associated with no emblems; it will stand alone-one, not triune, indivisible and invincible.

By the chained Unicorn looking angrily at the crown on the cushion, we are to understand the chains which tie down the unity of mind in a people, partly by tyrannical and partly by parasitical, corrupting and enervating means; and the inference is plain, that if the people could really become Unicorn, of one head, with one mode of attack and defence, the chains would soon be broken, and the crown tottering on the edge of a shield, and with no defence but the swords of an aristocracy, and the prayers of a church, would soon be thrown down. The diversity of opinions and interests created by the unnatural, unsocial, and false state of things, which monarchy and religion have introduced, constitute the chains that bind down the energies of the people, and make them fit and passive recipients of slavery, mental and bodily, of degradation and misery.

Honi soit qui mal y pense. Evil be to him who evil thinks, is the motto of tyrannical monarchy. It is historically deduced from the dropping of a lady's garter, as an expression used on its being picked up by a king, and made the foundation of the knightly Order of the Garter. But its more literal, more plain and even more strictly allegorical meaning is: we'll pour out our evil, our vial of wrath upon him, who thinks us an evil, who will seek to remove our influence and to destroy our power. Death or pain to him, no peace, no happiness for him, who is not for us and our royal establishment.

Dieu et mon Droit. God and my right, is another expression of the tyrant. Superficially, it appears to express no more than a religious attachment to that which is right; but taken in the sense of historical experience, it means: I, the tyrant of the people, will reign by the influence of religion and the sword, by the priest and the soldier.

The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock indicate sterility, or vegetation oppressed by the cumbrous and arid soil of monarchical trappings, which are heaped upon it in England, Scotland and Ireland.

The emblazonments on the shield are all indicative of war, supported and encouraged by religion. The lions rampant, the fleet horse, the cross and the crown, all indicate war, frenzy and human misery, while poor Ireland's harp is unstrung, and captive to the protestant cross and its rampant lions.

The cushion, which supports the crown, indicates the ease which an aristocracy deduces from the hard labour of the people.

This allegorical explanation of the emblematical meaning of the Royal Arms of England, may not suit every taste. That it will suit the taste of the multitude, we know well; their experience will stamp it as the true inference; and taken without party or political feeling, we presume, that many a more farfetched inference has been heard from the pulpit. The explanation which we learn as to the Royal Arms in our boyhood is, that

The Lion and the Unicorn

Are fighting for the Crown,

But the Lion beats the Unicorn

All about the town.

The Devonshire paraphrase of which is of rather a more republican cast, and seems to have been handed down from the times of the civil wars :

The Lion and the Unicorn
Are fighting for the Crown,
Some give them black bread,
And some give them brown-
1 Some give a kick in the breech,
And send them out of town.

All this, reader, is an introduction to an Exchequer process against "THE LION," the existence of which you will be assured is enough of apology for our present terror and lightheadedness; for that vagrancy of the mind by which this subject is introduced to you.

On Tuesday, at noon, the Editor received the following document, with a very civil intimation, that, if he would call on Mr. Sykes, the Solicitor to the Stamp-Office, the particulars of the process would be explained-which, of course, meant, come and make your peace with us, and we'll proceed no farther.An Exchequer process may be considered as conferring upon one a sort of poor and pensionless knighthood, or the ROYAL ORDER OF BEGGARY. Mrs. Carlile, having experienced so much of Royal mercy and Royal clemency, sees, in a twinkling, an empty house, with a struggle whether the King or the stripped tenant shall keep the key of the door; given up, only, by the King, with the sly intimation, that, if you put any thing into the house, but your body and those of your children, we can take it out again. This is the comfort that attends the wife and family of a sturdy reformer. Let us exhibit the Royal mandate :

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George the Fourth, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith.-To Richard Carlile (not our cousin) greeting:-We command and strictly enjoin you, that (all excuses apart) you appear before the Barons of our Exchequer at Westminster, on

the sixth day of June next, to answer us concerning certain articles then and there on our behalf to be objected against you.And this in no wise omit, under the penalty of One Hundred Pounds, which we shall cause to be levied to our use, upon your goods and chattels, lands and tenements, if you neglect this our present command *-Witness Sir William Alexander, Knt., at Westminster, the nineteenth day of May, in the ninth year of our reign. By the Barons,

" VINCENT.

"L. S.-Mr. Richard Carlile, you are served with this process, to the intent that you may, BY YOUR ATTORNEY, according to the practice of the Court, appear in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, at the return thereof, in order to your defence in this prosecution.

(Endorsed)" At the suit of his Majesty's Attorney-General, by information.Godfrey Sykes-Stamp-Office-Davis.”

I (must come to the I and drop the we) should have danced with joy, the server of the process would have thought me mad, had Mr. Attorney-General sent me a notice, that he had filed an information against me, on a charge of blasphemy, in the Court of King's Bench; but an information in the Court of Exchequer! the Devil! Hell! are very commonly and very properly associated ideas. What is to be done now? Nil Desperandum! The cause of Free Discussion cannot fail! Babylon must fall before it! So I wrapped myself in my much-worn philosophical temperament, and walked to Somerset-house, to see my new friend, Godfrey Sykes; for, though he has honoured me with several letters, he never gave me an invitation to call on him before; and even now he forgot to ask me to dine, though he made himself otherwise very pleasant. I cannot conceive a more comfortable state of mind, than that of a man, who is about to pick your pocket, according to law, without any danger or fear of gallows, transportation, imprisonment, or whipping; and, I presume, that if his Majesty and his Parliament would extend the same sort of protection to the pick-pockets of the street, that is extended to those in the Royal Public Offices, the former, as well as the lat ter, would do their business in the most polite and most civil manner; there would be no acts of violence committed on the person, nor an unpleasant word offered, beyond, "stand or take this" (meaning the contents of a pistol), which is also the Royal mode of doing the business.

Mr. Sykes began, by informing me, that the Commissioners of Stamps had instituted proceedings against me, on the ground, that I had infringed the statute 60 Geo. III., Cap. 9, and the first clause of that statute, in not putting a stamp upon "THE LION," which was a pamphlet not exceeding two sheets of paper. I was * God defend me from another Royal greeting.-R. C.

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well aware, that both THE LION," and "THE REPUBLICAN," as to the quantity of paper, was a hair-breadth evasion of an infringement of the statute; but I have always given the officers of government, or of the revenue, credit for a generosity, or a sense of shame, that would not allow them to institute proceedings, about an inch of paper more or less, that did not cause an injury to the revenue.

There was another gentleman belonging to the Stamp Office, present at my interview with Mr. Sykes. My first point was to ascertain if the complaint against me corresponded with that against Mr. Cobbett in the introduction of news without a stamp. Mr. Sykes distinctly stated, that there was no similarity between the two cases, that there was no complaint about my pamphlet containing news; but that it rested solely on the quantity of paper. But when I explained that the process would do them no credit: that the point contended for resolved itself into an inch of paper, they turned round and said, "You have published the proceedings of parliament. There is a protest entered on the journals of the House of Lords by Lords Redesdale and Kenyon, which you have published: and that we deem a matter of news." It was hinted, that there was an abundance of penalties on which they could sue: and that I had better do the best I could with the Board of Commissioners. I was fully alive to the fearful nature of an Exchequer Process, and so expressed myself; but I had scarcely reached home, than, after a little more thought, and a view of the subject in all its bearings, I resolved to defend myself against whatever accusation any officer of the government may bring against me. It was half hinted, that the object of the prosecution was to suppress "THE LION," as Mr. Sykes plainly stated that he thought it a bad publication, and spoke of public morals: and 1 that I thought it a good one. IT SHALL NOT BE SUPPRESSED. I will defend and maintain it so long as copies enough are sold to pay the cost of printing it. Having come to this resolution, the next morning I wrote the following letter, and sent it to Mr. Sykes:

TO GODFREY SYKES, Esq.,

SOLICITOR TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE BOARD OF STAMPS,

Stamp-Office, Somerset-House.

62, Fleet-street, May 21, 1828. SIR,-Having duly considered the information which you were so kind as to impart to me yesterday, as to the grounds and reasons upon which the Honourable the Commissioners of the Board of Stamps have thought it their duty to institute proceedings against me, to recover penalties to the amount of 5201., in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, for an alleged infringement on my part, of the statute 60th Geo. 3, cap, 9, in publishing a weekly

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