George's, for a committee of the whole house on | after nibbling at the protective duties on West Inthe sugar duties act of 1846, in order to suspend dia produce, successively reduced them; until the

the further descent in the scale of differential duties; and there are other motions on the noticepaper collaterally bearing on the same question. We have no sanguine hope that Lord George Bentinck will take the best course for a feasible settlement; or that government will be compelled to render justice. When individuals commit wrong, they may be coerced to make reparation, either by force of conscience or of law; but governments laugh at tribunals, and the West Indian case shows how little conscience they have.

whigs, on their return to office, consummated the reduction by the present sliding-scale of sugar-duties, which is to end in perfect equality in 1851. But, with the usual disregard of justice, freedom of trade against the West Indies was not accompanied (it ought to have been preceded) by freedom of trade in their favor: the restriction of customs called the " imperial duties" was abolished afterwards; the pretence of equalizing the rum-duties, with the duties on British spirits, is not yet made good in fact; the prohibition to import labor was practically maintained long after the West Indies were exposed to foreign competition; and although it is now professedly abandoned by Lord Grey, the freedom is not real or complete.

Each one of the systems established in the West Indies for the purposes of England has been relinquished by England without consent of the colonists, without regard to the implied contract, without regard to preventing the mischiefs consequent on sweeping changes, without even correlative measures which mere logical necessity ought to have dictated. For her own purposes, England has successively established in the West Indies commercial restriction, slavery, freedom of labor, and free trade; but, at each stage of these gigantic caprices, has denied to the colonies the correlative benefits of the system for the time being enforced against them. Perversity, cruelty, and bad faith, are not terms too strong for this treatment when we know the actual coudition which the colonists are suffering.

England has virtually dictated a succession of contracts with the West Indian colonists, and has broken them one after another, as coolly as a great bankrupt in the linen-drapery trade or a repudiating state of the Model Republic forgets "to meet its engagements." For some time, England had the fancy to build up colonies, as markets for her produce, as nurseries for her navy-always with objects of her own, for her own benefit. If, while the fancy lasted, "protection" was afforded to the produce of the colonies, it was only as a countervailing privilege to be set off against all sorts of privative incapacities. The West Indies, for example, enjoyed protection for their sugar; but they were debarred from direct trade with foreign countries, or even with their neighbors the United States; nay, when "the ports were opened," under the pressure of some distress, the open ports, so called, only admitted foreign goods in British ships. The "protection" was purchased at a loss; the system to which it belonged was arbitrarily imposed. It was England that chose to make the West Indies slave colonies; it was she that supplied the slaves. At length, England was conscience-stricken on the score of slavery; then, reckless of arrangements made on the faith of a system which originated with herself, she began to tamper with slave labor, first curtailing it in working hours, next partially freeing it, and ultimately freeing it altogether. With a perverse despotism unprecedented in his-itics, with which the West Indies have no more to tory, England deprived the West Indian planters of the only labor which is consistent with numerical limitation-compulsory labor, and refused the proper accompaniment of free labor—an open market. However, in the anti-slavery sentiment as the new dominant principle of England the colonists put faith England, they thought, had done her worst; and, making the most of a bad bargain, they arranged their affairs so as to do the best they could under the difficulties of the anti-slavery sys

tem.

The actual position of the West Indies is this. They are deprived of slave labor, and denied free labor except in name; deprived of protection, and denied free trade; officially told to be energetic with improvements, while capital is frightened away by the official acts. What are the hopes of effecting a change of policy? Scanty in the extreme. Some fatal influence or other in home pol

do than they have with the succession to the throne of Japan, debars them in turn from the useful alliance of each political party in this country. The whigs have used the fanatic cry of “free trade!" even more than its practical application. They promised the English people "cheap" sugar, and threw the sweet in as a make-weight in their bargain for office; for Lord John Russell stood ready to "turn out Peel on the sugar question," if Sir Robert had not conveniently gone out on the Irish coercion bill. But again the contract was broken, without The independent liberals are not compact enough so much as a warning—except, we will be bold to to be called a party; and the majority of them, say, from pens employed in this journal, which did it is to be feared, are too bigoted to the literal inwarn the West Indians of their approaching doom. terpretation of "free trade," for a proper recollecThe West Indians were too trusting, perhaps too tion or construction of Mr. Deacon Hume's sound indolent, to believe us. The anti-slavery associ- maxim, that the West Indies were removed from ation went out of fashion, and the anti-corn-law the category of free trade by the complicated state league came in anti-slavery sentiment gave place of the slave and labor questions. The quondam to free-trade dogma. The falling whig ministers, tories, now the "country party," profess alliance in 1841, vainly propitiated the new humor as a with the West Indians; but it is a damaging almeans of staving off their downfall; and parliament,liance, based on the purpose to which that party

make others subserve-the impracticable project | newly create that odious institution. The fatal inof restoring commercial protection. What Sir jury to the anti-slavery cause-a cause ill-conducted Robert Peel might do, is concealed in impenetrable by its professed advocates—will be effected thus. obscurity, and he has made no sign of encourage-The supply of sugar can only be made good by a ment. He disapproved of the whig scheme of new extension of culture in Cuba and Brazil; but sugar duties in 1846; but sacrificed his own opin- even in those countries, production cannot be inion, and the West Indian consideration, to political creased without an increased supply of the labor reasons connected with the expediency of avoiding used in those countries-slave labor; and that must a change of ministry. Were he to take a different be furnished by an exactly proportionate increase of course now, Sir Robert would be liable to quota- the African slave-trade. Of course, our governtions from Hansard. Not that he has shown any ment cannot be so idiotic as to make this country absolute submission to that sort of attack in other dependent for a necessary of life on Brazil and affairs; but the motives that influenced him in 1846 Cuba, and still keep up a squadron on the coast of probably hold their sway still. Everybody knows Africa to cut off the supply of the labor which Sir Robert's power, his insight into practical af- produces that necessary of life. No; a corollary fairs, his general disposition to do the best for all to the continuance of the present system of treating interests; but his faculty of waiving any too trouble- the West Indies must be the abandonment of that some consideration, not germane to the paramount squadron-not in favor of more enlightened influquestion of the time in home politics, is also well ences for the discouragement of slavery by fosterknown. The West Indian question might turn on ing free labor in tropical products and the growth the thought of Sir Robert Peel's mind; but who of opinion through unrestricted commerce, but in knows whether he will have anything to do with favor of a recognized, sanctioned, and encouraged it as a matter of active statesmanship? The sur- extension of that identical slave-trade, in the effort vey of parties in the legislature, therefore, is not to suppress which we have, for so many years, infavorable. curred so much cost of blood and treasure, so much toil, so much odium, just and unjust, so much detriment to our international relations.

Such are the direct, inevitable, and imminent consequences of persevering in the present policy towards the West Indies; the ruin of those colonies; that ruin followed by a long period of dear sugar for the people of this country; which in its

slave-trade. It would be a very dull and foolish burlesque on shrewdness if the monstrous nature of these consequences should induce legislators to presume exaggeration or deception; the consequences can be discerned in the data; and if they be suffered to ensue, the responsibility will rest on the deliberate choice and act of the British parliament.

OCHSENBEIN, GUIZOT, AND METTERNICH.

But statesmen will very grossly misconceive the case if they suppose that by abstaining from change of policy they are merely passive. In this case the policy of laisser aller is not a negative policy. It behoves legislators who are prepared to negative the claims of the West Indians, and to sanction a continuance of the present system, also to ask themselves whether they are not about to do ad-turn will result in a vast extension of the African ditional mischief-not only leaving the colonies to their downward fate, but inflicting new and active injuries on the people of this country, and even on the prospect of emancipating the negro race, which has been the pretext for sacrificing the West Indies. The supply of sugar produced by all countries is annually consumed, or nearly so. If the production be contracted in the West Indies, the total supply must either be deficient, or the deficiency must be made good from other quarters. It will not be made good in Mauritius; because that area is too small to supply the place of the great West Indian colonies; because there the labor is capricious, and the planters have not managed well; and because special causes of a commerical nature have precipitated the ruin of the chief capitalists; insomuch that next year, and for some time to come afterwards, the supply of sugar from Mauritius will be short. The East Indies find difficulty in competing with the slave grower, and the differential duty which sustains them yearly diminishes. The only countries from which the supply can be made good, if from any, are Cuba, Porto Rico, and Brazil. But if the complement is to be sought in that quarter, the consequences will be very startling-very discreditable to the country. Meanwhile, prices will rise enormously; "cheap sugar" will prove to be the brief dream of the past.

The endeavor to abolish negro slavery must be abandoned, in favor of a policy which will give it so great an encouragement that it will in effect

THE lowest-born, the most popular, and most peasant statesman in Europe, M. Ochsenbein, of Berne, has resisted, out-manœuvred, and defeated the most shrewd, most experienced, most unserupulous politicians and ministers in Europe, supported too by the most unbounded resources and most unrivalled talents in diplomacy. A more flagrant succession of blunders and miscalculations, groundless fears and equally groundless hopes, a more complete ignorance of the country and the people they were dealing with, more cowardly and more empty bullying, more contemptible sophistry and disgraceful calumny, never marked public conduct, than all these qualities distinguished the behavior and policy of Metternich and Guizot towards Switzerland. Yet all these means have failed, and all this boasted sagacity has been at fault. These powerful, unscrupulous, and insidious foes have been worsted and put to the rout by no more learned a person than Farmer Ochsenbein

If this triumph had been the result of sudden outburst, rough play, of headlong determination

THE CHOLERA.

and peasant courage, it might cause less wonder. I then force the Swiss to harbor them, as not only But it has been achieved, on the contrary, by slow innocent, but wholesome, is as monstrous a piece and measured steps, by a management of the can- of political jesuitry as ever Pascal exposed.-Extonal constituencies, by appeals to the Swiss peo-aminer. ple, and by conquering a majority of the diet. Whilst the champions of the Jesuits were relying upon force and physical resistance, the peasant of Berne was employing the arts of persuasion, and of gaining adherents by legitimate acts of popular influence in a free country. Whilst Metternich was backing his monks, and Guizot was smuggling muskets to them, M. Ochsenbein was forming and procuring his majority in the diet. And it was only when he felt his success as a parliamentary leader, that he began to make use of his military preparations.

THE statement of the Sanitary Commission that cholera may be about to revisit us, is the very last thing that should suggest a cholera panic. Panic is the lot of the thoughtless, who suffer danger and death to take them by surprise; and to guard against it was the object of the sanitary commissioners, in their timely and salutary warning.

We will not take upon ourselves to say that the cholera is not coming; but as yet it seems to us doubtful. It is to be borne in mind that every thing connected with its progress fifteen years ago appeared to indicate that it was not contagious or infectious, but the result of some generally prevalent predisposition of men's bodies, or of some predominant state of atmospheric influences, or of both. Hence it by no means follows that on every occasion of the reäppearance of the disease in any quarter, it must necessarily spread from land to land, as it did on that occasion.

The case at present stands thus: cholera has reäppeared in several countries (in a milder form than at first, we suspect) which it formerly visited immediately before its appearance here. The excessive moisture of the autumn, and its remarkable variations in temperature, have at the same time been accompanied by an immense increase on the average mortality of Great Britain. Thus, it being very possible that we may again be subjected to the disease, there is good reason for the exercise of foresight and precaution; but none for panic. The most fatal diseases at present prevailing are breast complaints and bronchitis. It may be true that they affect the tissues, in which cholera seems to have its seat; but we are not thence to infer that the one type of malady must of necessity be a precursor to the other.

Every move of the great European diplomatists was successfully met by the Bernese statesman. And when at last they had come to the determination of a military occupation of the country, Ochsenbein withdrew a veil, like Ximenes, and showed them a Swiss army of 100,000 men. No sooner did this army announce its effectiveness, than the Austrian and French cabinets, however puissant, shrunk back from threats of intervention to demands of a congress, resolving, now that military batteries had proved ineffective, to open diplomatic ones. Here, too, the genius of Ochsenbein discomfited the great politicians; for, when the Swiss army was put in motion, every power of resistance fell before it, each like a castle of sand. Friburg was subdued without a shot; the carrying of one wooden bridge over the Reuss put the grim tyrants of Lucerne to an ignominious flight; and even the old mountain cantons that had defied Gessler and defeated Austria, at once lowered their bigotry and pride before Ochsenbein. And now, whilst Sir Stratford Canning has gone on the useless mission of preaching moderation to the diet and its generals, who have shown all along the utmost moderation, Messrs. Metternich and Guizot pretend to be still able to dictate laws and counsels to the Swiss. The first of their demands is, that the Swiss shall consult the pope The great safeguard, it cannot too often be in their arrangement of inter-religious differences. repeated, is sanitary regulation; and we are glad Ochsenbein will probably inform them that his to see indications of a general movement throughintentions are to consult the decision of the best of out the country in furtherance of this great object. popes, of Clement XIV., who exiled the Jesuits, a While a meeting is announced in London to be decree quite as orthodox and infallible as that more presided over by Lord Normanby, (one of the earli recently issued for their restoration. M. Ochsen- est and most powerful leaders in this direction of bein probably says, that the Catholic institutions reform,) we receive the details of an excellent and of Switzerland are under the keeping of Swiss well-attended meeting in Plymouth, where the best Catholics, the majority of whom are religious as sense was spoken, and embodied in admirable reswell as enlightened men. The great difference is, olutions. What has been so distinctly announced whether lay property in the Catholic cantons shall in the sanitary report should in all these meetings remain governed by monastic orders, who are not be steadily kept in view. The cholera is governed only opposed to education and liberal projects, but by nearly the same circumstances as typhus. Those who plotted against the government, and whose circumstances are generally removable by proper property was justly confiscated. M. Guizot main-sanitary arrangements, and typhus is to a great tains France to be a right Catholic country, but it extent preventible. We have every reason does not tolerate monastic establishments. All believe that the spread of cholera is preventible by that Switzerland asks is to aim at the same degree the like means, and hence the cry throughout the of liberalism which M. Guizot and Louis Philippe country should be universal and unceasing, for are obliged to allow to France. For the latter to combined and efficacious sanitary regulation.— expel the Jesuits from Paris as dangerous, and | Examiner, 11 Dec.

to

SUMMARY.

KEEPING up their character as a Jacquerie leagued against the best men in the land, the Irish assassins have picked out an esteemed Protestant clergyman -the Reverend John Lloyd, vicar of Aughrim-as their principal victim for the week. The time selected was the sacred seventh day, when the vicar was returning from the performance of his holy functions. The assassins, two in number, met him in open day, and shot him dead.

cally, that the Mexican war was begun by his own country, and not, as Mr. Polk pretended, by Mexico; that it is impolitic; and that the annexation of Mexico would be injurious to the United States, since the military power necessary to subjugate and keep down an alien people would be inimical to the institutions of the Union itself. These are views which both Washington and Jefferson would have shared; and it is satisfactory to see them vindicated by so distinguished a citizen as Henry Clay. Expectation of his being able to carry them out in office, indeed, A characteristic incident in this case was the is checked by the frequent disappointment of his flight of a man-servant who accompanied Mr. Lloyd. hopes as a candidate for the presidency. Nor do The frequent recurrence of this trait suggests a very we feel warranted in placing a very implicit trust painful alternative-a general prevalence of the in the calculations of whig progress. The whig blackest domestic treachery; or the more fatal fault party may comprise the natural aristocracy of the (because it is an inherent weakness, not a misguided United States-the intellectual as well as the monenergy) of cowardice. There were two assassins eyed aristocracy; but it is a minority, and enjoys -two to two. In England, that a man-servant little sympathy from the sovereign people.-Ib. should thus suffer his master to be murdered in broad

day, without a manful resistance, is nearly inconceivable. Doubtless there are cowards in England, as in every other country; but flight would be the rare exception-in Ireland resistance is so. A journal, that once took serious offence at our calling it an Irish journal in London, roundly asserts that the neglect to enforce the law in Ireland is caused by cowardice. It must be confessed that English observers are not in a position to contradict the avowal. In this country, if a man expected to meet assassins, he would carry arms-and use them. In default, he would use any weapon at hand; and the butt-end of a riding-whip, manfully wielded, has before now served to master a pistol. He would resist at all events, armed or not. The tameness with which men in Ireland submit to a slaughter that is not unforeseen, creates no small surprise on this side of the channel. Among a comparatively timid people, he who has the first start in the contest is likely to win. The difficulty, however, in accept ing this construction of the Irish custom of submission and flight, lies in the known gallantry of Irishmen in our armies. Is it that the Irishman acquires courage as well as industry only when he is expatriated. Spectator, 4 Dec.

felt to a great distance; the most grievous lamenTHE influenza, now raging in the metropolis, is tations coming from Scotland, Russia, and Marseilles. In Scotland, whole schools and colleges have suspended their labors; and the churches have been deserted; at Glasgow 70 policemen were laid up with fever and influenza out of 480. In Russia the malady is very fatal. At Marseilles precautionary measures of unusual severity are taken; the influenza being regarded there as the immediate forerunner of the cholera.-Ib.

EXPERIMENTS with chloroform, both in cases of surgical operations and obstetrics, have been tried in the hospitals of London and Paris, with complete success. In Paris it has been tried in a case of tetanus, and had a decided influence, the muscles convulsive rigor returned after each dose, and there losing their rigor and becoming supple; but the was no prospect of a final cure. Even this partial success, however, has created much interest.—1b.

INTELLIGENCE has been received from the enter

prising travellers the brothers D' Abbadie, who have been for so many years exploring in Abyssinia and the adjacent countries. Their last letter is dated from Gondar, on the 10th of May last. Amongst other discoveries, the Messieurs D'Abbadie have The principal source lies in 7 degrees 40′ 50′′ north correctly ascertained the sources of the White Mill. latitude. The brothers intended to return to Egypt, but were detained by the disordered state of the

country.—Ib.

IN Switzerland, the combined movements of the federal forces, commanded by General Dufour, have been of the most decisive kind; the Separate League has been conquered; Lucerne, the head and front of the rebellion, has surrendered, and is governed at present by its own liberal and Anti-Jesuit party, in alliance with the Anti-Jesuit and liberal majority of the confederation. In this rapid issue of the civil THE American colony of Monrovia, consisting war, two facts have been strongly exhibited the chiefly of free negroes placed on the coast of Africa federal majority has more of heart and unanimity by the Colonization Society of the United States, than was ascribed to it; the adherents of the Son- has declared itself a free and independent republic! derbund are either weaker or less zealous than they-Ib. were supposed to be.

Lord Palmerston has been unusually explicit in his avowals about the contemplated Swiss intervention. In joining the four great continental powers, England stipulates that the mediation shall only take effect with the joint consent of both parties in Switzerland. As it has been so long delayed, and the federalists are victorious, and therefore not likely to accept a mere offer of mediation, it looks as if the project would come to nothing.-Ib.

THE apparent advance of the whig party in the United States enhances the intrinsic interest in a speech just delivered by Mr. Henry Clay. The eloquent statesman declares, boldly and unequivo

A FEW days before the mail left Philadelphia, Mr. J. Kelley, a young man, was wantonly shot through the head and killed, by one or more of the members of a ruffian society in that city, called the Skinners. There are several other such societies in the lower part of Philadelphia.-lb.

IT is stated as a scientific fact not yet accounted for, that the electric telegraph will not work in the summit tunnel of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway. This tunnel was one of the severest pieces of boring that has been executed, and is the longest of English tunnels, not excepting that of Box on the Great Western.-Ib.

From the U. S. [Roman] Catholic Magazine.
DEATH-BED OF TOM PAINE-1809.

A SHORT time before Paine died, I was sent for by him. He was prompted to this by a poor [R.] Catholic woman, who went to see him in his sickness; and who told him, among other things, that, in his wretched condition, if anybody could do him any good, it would be a Roman Catholic priest. This woman was an American convert, (formerly a shaking quakeress,) whom I had received into the church but a few weeks before. She was the bearer of this message to me from Paine. I stated this circumstance to F. Kohlmann, at breakfast, and requested him to accompany me. After some solicitation on my part, he agreed to do so, at which I was greatly rejoiced, because I was at the time quite young and inexperienced in the ministry, and was glad to have his assistance, as I knew, from the great reputation of Paine, that I should have to do with one of the most impious as well as infamous

of men.

We shortly after set out for the house, at Greenwich, where Paine lodged, and on the way agreed on a mode of proceeding with him.

66

Such was the conversation of the woman who had received us, and who probably had been employed to nurse and take care of him during his illness. She was a Protestant, yet seemed very desirous that we should afford him some relief in his state of abandonment, bordering on complete despair. Having remained thus some time in the parlor, we at length heard a noise in the adjoining passage-way, which induced us to believe that Mr. Paine, who was sick in that room, had awoke. We accordingly proposed to proceed thither, which was assented to by the woman; and she opened the door for us. On entering, we found him just getting out of his slumber. A more wretched being in appearance I never before beheld. He was lying in a bed sufficiently decent of itself, but at present besmeared with filth: his look was that of a man greatly tortured in mind; his eyes haggard, his countenance forbidding, and his whole appearance that of one whose better days have been but one continued scene of debauch. His only nourishment at this time, as we were informed, was nothing more than milk punch, in which he indulged to the full extent of his weak state. had partaken, undoubtedly, but very recently of it, as the sides and corners of his mouth exhibited very unequivocal traces of it, as well as of blood, which had also followed in the track, and left its mark on the pillow. His face to a certain extent had also been besmeared with it. The head of his bed was against the side of the room through which the door opened. F. Kohlmann, having entered first, took a seat on the side, near the foot, of the bed. I took my seat on the same side, nearer the head. Thus, in the posture which Paine lay, his eyes could easily bear on F. Kohlmaun, but not on me easily, without turning his head.

He

As soon as we had seated ourselves, F. Kohlmann, in a very mild tone of voice, informed him that we were [R.] Catholic priests, and were come, on his invitation, to see him. Paine made no reply. After a short pause, F. Kohlmann proceeded thus, addressing himself to Paine, in the French language, thinking that as Paine had been to France, he was probably acquainted with that language, (which was not the fact,) and might understand better what he said, as he had at that time a greater facility, and could express his thoughts better in it than

We arrived at the house; a decent-looking elderly woman (probably his house-keeper) came to the door, and inquired whether we were the [R.] Catholic priests; for," said she, "Mr. Paine has been so much annoyed of late by other denominations calling upon him, that he has left express orders with me to admit no one to-day but the clergymen of the [R.] Catholic_church. Upon assuring her that we were [R.] Catholic clergymen, she opened the door and showed us into the parlor. She then left the room, and shortly after returned to inform us that Paine was asleep, and at the same time expressed a wish that we would not disturb him, "for," said she, "he is always in a bad humor when roused out of his sleep; 't is better we wait a little till he be awake." We accordingly sat down, and resolved to await a more favorable moment. Gentlemen," said the lady, after having taken her seat also, "I really wish you may succeed with Mr. Paine, for he is laboring under great distress of mind ever since he was informed by his physicians that he cannot possibly live, and must die shortly. He sent for you to-day, because he was told that if any one could do him good, you might.in the English. Possibly he may think you know of some remedy "Mons. Paine, j'ai lu votre livre intitutle, L'age which his physicians are ignorant of. He is truly to be pitied. His cries, when he is left alone, are heart-rending. O Lord help me!' he will exclaim, during his paroxysms of distress; 'God help me!-Jesus Christ help me!' repeating the same expressions without the least variation, in a tone of voice that would alarm the house. Sometimes he will say, 'Oh God! what have I done to suffer so much? Then shortly after, ‘But there is no God!' And again, a little after-Yet if there should be, what would become of me hereafter?' Thus he will continue for some time, when on a sudden he will scream as if in terror and agony, and call out for me by name. On one of these occasions, which are very frequent, I went to him and inquired what he wanted. Stay with me,' he replied, for God's sake, for I cannot bear to be left alone.' I then observed that I could not always be with him, as I had much to attend to in the house. 6 Then,' said he, send even a child to stay with me, for it is a hell to be alone.' I never saw," she concluded, "a more unhappy, a more forsaken man: it seems he cannot reconcile himself to die."

de la Raicon, ou vous avez attaque l'ecriture sainte avec une violence, sans bornes, et d'autres de vos ecrits publies en France, et je suis persuade que-" Paine here interrupted him abruptly, and in a sharp tone of voice, ordering him to speak English, thus:

Speak English, man, speak English." F. Kohlmann, without showing the least embarrassment, resumed his discourse, and expressed himself heartily as follows, after his interruption, in English: "I have read your book entitled the Age of Reason, as well as your other writings against the Christian religion, and am at a loss to imagine how a man of your good sense could have employed his talents in attempting to undermine what, to say nothing of its divine establishment, the wisdom of ages has deemed most conducive to the happiness of man. The Christian religion, sir

“That's enough, sir, that's enough," said Paine, again interrupting him; "I see what you would be about; I wish to hear no more from you, sir. My mind is made up on that subject. I look upon the whole of the Christian scheme to be a tissue of absurdities and lies, and Jesus Christ to